British GP | Ericsson: "Points could have been possible"
Marcus Ericsson discusses his race, claiming that a point-paying result would have been possible to achieve. However, the Alfa Romeo-Sauber driver is proud of the progress the team has made, as Silverstone proved how strong the chassis is.
Marcus Ericsson caused the first Safety Car to be deployed earlier today during the race. The main cause behind the Swede's crash is the DRS open at the exit of Turn 1, which had caused some drama earlier on this weekend.
"I was behind Checo and I had the DRS on. When you are racing you want to switch it off as late as possible and then to switch it on as early as possible, I wasn't sure if it was a failure or not after the incident. We looked at the data and it seems like I pressed the button behind my steering wheel and I got on the kerb and hit it, since it's quite bumpy over there."
The disappointment is tangible, as Ericsson feels he could have reached out to the top 10 if he had been able to continue. "The points were on the cars, I was just behind Checo, Pierre was just ahead and I felt very strong, I had fresher tyres than both of them. It is difficult to overtake there, I know, but I could've fought them at least. It's a bit disappointing, up until then I managed to do a good race, I looked after the tyres and was fast when needed. I pushed really hard before the pit stop and also on the outlap and we managed to make the undercut work on Grosjean. It was a great team effort against him."
"I think this track shows we have a great car, we are making progress all the time. It's really encouraging to see how much progress we've made since the start of the season so we need to keep that going. We will continue to bring new bits every time."
"My race pace is as strong as anyone's with the car we have I feel very confident. I'm very strong at managing tyres, as I showed in Austria. I will be very strong on Sundays, if I get into or around the top 10 and improve in qualifying. I will work on it with the team, seeing what we can improve...set up, driving, tyres. That is what I will be doing for the next two weeks"
With three races in a row, it is difficult to focus and to bring new components in to improve effectively. Therefore, the triple header might have thwarted the efforts of Ericsson and his team, which will make the most of the time left to Germany to improve. "Now that the triple header is over, we will have more time to sit back and think of it, come up with some ideas we can try."