Toto Wolff says Kimi Antonelli’s rapid development over the past few months has surprised him, calling it the best growth he has seen from any young driver. Wolff said: "The whole thing is a surprise. That someone can grow so much over a few months. His capability of taking information in, processing it, and executing it is outstanding. It's the best I've seen from any young driver in terms of the growing process going so quickly."

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella says the team paid a "heavy price" at the start of this season after pushing development of its 2025 car right to the end of that campaign as it fought to secure the drivers' and constructors' titles. Stella said: "Not only because the rule changes were probably the most significant ever in the history of this sport, but above all because we realised just how heavy a price we had paid for the effort we put in during 2025 to secure the world double. We tried to understand the technical and strategic reasons, and we focused our efforts."

Isack Hadjar said moving from Red Bull’s sister team to the main Red Bull squad this year was a “culture shock”, as he adjusted from what he described as an Italian “family team” environment to a British one. Hadjar said: "That was definitely a culture shock. You go from more of a family team, Italian team to [a] British [one]. It's definitely different. But VCARB, they helped me massively in my first year. They're used to having young drivers to prepare for the main seat."

McLaren technical director for engineering Neil Houldey says the team is not stopping development of its 2026 car because it believes the learning will still carry over into 2027, even with changes planned to its concept. Houldey said: "We're certainly not stopping development on '26 because we know that whatever we take from 2026 into 2027, that learning will carry over. Even if our car might get a little bit longer, even if conceptually the suspension might change, everything that we're learning this year is very much relevant for next year. So, we're very keen to keep developing the car for as long as we possibly can."



Sergio Perez says he is not “overdelivering” at Cadillac and insisted he was unable to show his “true potential” during the last six months of his time at Red Bull because of “very different circumstances”. Perez said: "People think that I'm overdelivering at the moment, but I was driving already at a very high level earlier, given the circumstances I was in. And there's no difference with this new generation of cars. I'm really happy with the level at the moment, with my pace, I'm really happy and I seem to be getting better and better. I just have to keep performing. That's the only thing that matters to me at the moment."

Liam Lawson says Racing Bulls have been able to bring upgrades this season without the sort of complications that can force teams to take “three steps back” under Formula 1’s new technical regulations. Lawson said: "You bring something to a race and it doesn't work like you think it does. You have to go three steps back to almost find your way again. That's something that we haven't had to do this year. Everything we've done has been working very well."

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