Are you excited to be in Monaco?: "Absolutely. I'm really looking forward to it. For me, it's a truly special weekend. We no longer have a French Grand Prix, so it's a bit like a home Grand Prix. We get more support from the French, from all the fans. It's a really unique moment. It's my favourite track for qualifying. It's unusual. You have to approach it differently from other races. The sensations are unique. Everything is different, and I really enjoy that."
Do you have any idea what it will be like with the new cars?: "We've done some preparation. I think it's important to prepare as much as possible. But there's only one Monaco. I'm coming in with a very open mind about what we'll discover. It might be much harder than before. We'll see in FP1 how things go."
Will you focus more on qualifying or the race?: "No, here it's 95% about qualifying. There's a lot at stake, so it's important to be well prepared for Saturday. There will still be opportunities on Sunday. We'll see how it goes. Qualifying is the most important. It's still Monaco, and we know that's what you mainly have to focus on."
In recent weekends, you've struggled a bit with the car. Are the problems fixed?: "We've worked a lot. We can clearly see what's not working. We've compared what's wrong with Franco's (Colapinto) car. I'd like to say it's fixed, we'll have to wait to be sure. My feeling is confirmed by the data. Now, it's not easy to understand where it's coming from."
But you already had the issue in Montreal... "Yes, I was compensating. That wasn't the reason for the problem in Miami. Some things were improved in Canada. But with the rear end, there's something that's not right. We've spent a lot of time on it to get 100% out of the car."
Could the race be more spectacular?: "It's possible. The cars are narrower. There's the engine side with the battery. I think with the changes, we shouldn't expect any clipping. We'll have more energy than we need per lap. We'll see. I don't have an answer. There are a lot of unknowns. We'll be able to prepare."
Could there be a lot of overtaking?: "On paper, yes, but if we go from 3 to 4, that's a 33% increase in overtakes."
So we won't see 20 overtakes?: "It's physics, the cars are very wide, the track is very narrow, it's not really made for overtaking. I don't expect a huge change in that regard."
Where could overtaking be possible?: "Anywhere you want. Anywhere you can, but there are places where you just can't. Sometimes people try. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. There's no real secret, I think it really depends - you have to push someone into a mistake, there can be a tyre difference, a grip difference, a car difference, the strengths of one versus another, there's not really a specific place, it's pretty unpredictable."
Is it an advantage to have a Mercedes engine this weekend?: "With what they've done on the battery, we won't have any more clipping, we won't really have to optimise as much. I think it's a track where - we haven't done it yet - there's such a slow corner at the hairpin that with these turbos, it could cause quite a few issues. And for now, those are things we can't simulate. So we'll use first gear a lot, which we almost never do. These are things you have to take into account because, depending on the engine and the size of the turbo, turbo lag can affect performance. Today, I couldn't say for sure if one engine would be better than another."
They say Ferrari's small turbo could be an advantage. Is that true? "Typically, at that hairpin, we know today that they'll have the least problems with turbo issues. The fact that you're at such a low speed, at such low revs, the turbo is much easier to operate when you have one like Ferrari. But I know that Mercedes is prepared, and they'll have things in place to try to optimise as much as possible. But as long as we haven't actually done it on track, it's still a bit complicated to say."