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I have my little entourage of who I travel with, some friends and people who help me more technically on the track. Obviously, my engineers who I work closely with, we are all in the ship together.
If the car is capable of finishing eighth, then I want to get the most out of the car and put it eighth. If the car is only capable of finishing 13th to start the year, then that has to be our goal.
There are people who are hating you more because of where you are coming from. People like the 'he comes from nothing and made it to F1' story. I know that, but I just do my thing; I focus on my job.
Don't get me wrong: I've had a lot of fortune, to come where I've come from, to be able to move to Europe, to go racing. But I had that fortune behind me. I grabbed it with both hands, and I made the best of it.
I've really just had to learn and adapt more than ever before, because there's so much to do in F1. There's so much to be on top of as a driver. It really requires perfection just to walk out of a weekend with a decent result.
Of course we go to Montreal to work as hard as we can and do the best we can, the same way we go everything, but I think if we always think we need to score points, we start forgetting about the stuff we have to do to get there.
Around 16 years old, when I was in Formula 3 and looking at potential options for the future, that's when I realized that Formula One was in the picture. But to be honest, I really just took it year by year throughout my karting years and stuff.
At the end of the day, you drive your car, and that is what you focus on with yourself and your side of the garage, but of course it is always good to have a good relationship. You never want to have a negative battle or the team splitting up in any way.
I never really looked at Formula One like that was the long-term goal. I obviously dreamed, and my aspirations were to get to Formula One, but I really started thinking about it in Formula 3 at 16, 17 years old, and I saw that it was right in front of me.
I have had this opportunity to go on a journey and experience the ride of racing cars, of different championships around the world, go-karts, F3, F4, and now F1. It's been so amazing to be able to experience that. There have been bad days, good days, and it's been a great ride.
I don't want to think results, I don't want to think positions. I just want to come in, do my job, and we'll see where we end up. I think that's the best way to look at it, because then you start focusing on the outcome rather than focusing on the work that it takes to get to that outcome.