Fahrerstimmen – Tag 1

Als ich in Schanghai angekommen bin, war das Wetter richtig gut, aber seitdem ging es bergab. Jetzt regnet es und ist kalt. Aber es war ein guter Tag für mich. Wir haben alle unsere Runden absolviert und gutes Feedback über das Auto erhalten. Mit Blick auf die Pace sind die Reifen hier alle recht ähnlich. Es gibt keinen großen Unterschied zwischen ihnen, obwohl wir ja den doppelten Schritt von Soft zu UltraSoft haben. Die Fahrzeugbalance ist gut, aber wir müssen es über Nacht noch etwas feintunen. Ferrari war schnell und Red Bull sah auf dem Long Runs ebenfalls richtig schnell aus. Es ist gut, dass die Zeiten alle so eng zusammenliegen. Das bedeutet aber auch, dass wir in Bestform sein müssen. Jeder im Team muss das gesamte Wochenende über Bestleistung bringen, denn es ist eine Mannschaftsleistung.

“It was a pretty good Friday”, said Kimi “and I’m quite happy with the feeling of the car. I think we have a pretty good base line to start from, it looks pretty good. The car has been quite straightforward since the beginning, so it easy to fine tune things. On one lap we had some traffic, I’m sure we could have gone faster. In the long run we never really got a proper idea due to the conditions: it started to rain and we had limited running, so it’s a bit tricky to know where we are. Today it was close, but then tomorrow who knows what the weather will be; things can change a lot from one day to the next”.

Da für das Rennen trockene Bedingungen vorhergesagt sind, war es gut, dass es erst gegen Ende des Trainings angefangen hat zu regnen. Die Strecke hat sich im Verlauf des Tages stark verbessert, selbst während der Trainings. Man konnte von Runde zu Runde mehr Grip spüren, aber das ist auf dieser Strecke relativ normal. Nach dem Regen erwarten wir, dass es morgen Vormittag etwas kniffliger sein wird. Hoffentlich verbessern sich die Bedingungen bis zum Qualifying. Wir hatten am Vormittag ein paar Schwierigkeiten mit der Balance. Das Auto war schnell, aber es war nicht einfach zu fahren. Deshalb veränderten wir das Setup für das zweite Training und danach fielen die Rundenzeiten besser aus. Ich hoffe, dass wir bis morgen noch einen weiteren Schritt machen können. Alles in allem konnten wir viele Runden absolvieren und jede Menge Informationen sammeln. Entsprechend habe ich das Gefühl, dass alles für morgen bereit ist. Es sieht so aus, als ob es gegen Ferrari wieder extrem eng zugeht - sowohl morgen im Qualifying als auch im Rennen am Sonntag.

“I think at this track it is very important to find the right feeling with the car and its setup. The track is long and the tires struggle here. But, overall, I think we are quite close. However, the car is not yet where I want it to be. So, we are still looking at how we can improve. I think the SF71H has the pace, but you need to make sure it works. Today it’s been a mixed day and I think in the afternoon it was a bit better and I was a little bit happier. Hopefully tomorrow I’m going to be very happy!”

“We spent a bit of time during the first session today working on the setup of the car in order to understand it better. By the end of the day the pace was looking good and I think we can be happy with the car’s performance, it’s always good to finish a day’s running with no major problems and we don’t look too far off. We just managed to fit in a longer stint before the rain came towards the end of the second session so we didn’t feel the need to stay out. The long runs were once again very positive and I felt pretty comfortable. A little bit of fine tuning on the short runs to get the balance better and we should be alright. This track is good for overtaking anyway so I think we can have a good race judging by our pace.”

“It was pretty windy in the morning session then we did see some rain at the end of the afternoon session otherwise it’s been pretty straightforward. We’ve got a good starting point with the car here so it’s a case of seeing what we can do to get the most out of qualifying tomorrow then the race on Sunday.”

“It was a good day for us – another good Friday. I’m happy with what we’ve seen. We need to work a bit on tire management, especially for the first stint on the ultrasoft, but then I think everyone’s struggling a little bit. Let’s see what happens. The team’s doing a good job. The car’s behaving well. It’s performing at a good level. I’m happy. I had a good feeling in the car.”

“It was a clean Friday and I’m feeling more comfortable with the car. The balance is better than it was in Bahrain. We still need to look at the long-runs and make a step forward in that area but it’s certainly an encouraging Friday for us. It’s a lot trickier this weekend in terms of tyres and there’s a big gap between the compounds and a lot of tyre degradation. We’ll analyse that area and then assess the strategic options we have for Sunday.”

“Half of the morning and half of the afternoon were good. Generally with the harder compounds I was more comfortable, but once we put the ultrasoft on we didn’t have as much speed so we need to find a bit of time there and understand where we are losing. I obviously know what doesn’t feel right in the car, but now we need to find the answers and change that for tomorrow. The long runs were much better and I’m confident we can find the speed. Overall, we aren’t looking too bad and I hope we can be in the fight with Ferrari and Mercedes.”

“The first session today was primarily spent testing some new parts we have on the car, while in the second session we focussed on the tyres. Since the degradation here is quite high, especially on the front tyres, it was important for Stoffel and me to test both compounds. “We also managed to check the car in wet conditions, on Inter tyres, even though it was only for a few minutes at the end of the session. It’s always good to have an idea of engine mapping and everything else, which is different in the wet. “We’re expecting good weather for the race – dry, sunny and wind blowing in a different direction – therefore not very similar conditions to today, so on Sunday we’ll need to improvise. “We completed all the items on our programme and now we need to go through all the data and find performance for tomorrow.”

“It was a positive day. We worked our way through all the different tyre compounds and we’ve collected lots of information, which is always the focus of a Friday. It’s been pretty cold and wet today so let’s see what the weather does tomorrow. At least we have done a few laps on the intermediate tyres to be ready just in case we get some more rain over the weekend. Based on my feeling today, the goal tomorrow is to reach Q3.”

"Today was my first time driving around Shanghai and it was a good day overall. It was nice to discover the track and drive on the real thing rather than the simulator or PlayStation! I think it was positive overall, the midfield is super tight and we are kind of in the middle at the moment. There are a couple of teams who seem to be quite fast here so we need to work hard tonight to improve for tomorrow, also for myself because I think I can improve a bit. I will work hard and study the data tonight, hopefully we can find some extra pace tomorrow to be more in the fight with the other midfield teams."

“A good day overall and a very busy one. We worked through the test items and ran all the tyres we needed to, and even did some laps on the intermediates when the rain arrived. The long runs went to plan and I tried the ultra-soft tyre for the first time, which has given us a good idea of the direction we need to take for qualifying. We’ve worked hard to find more performance too and I would say it’s been a more solid Friday compared to Bahrain. We will keep working hard tonight and see where we stand tomorrow.”

“It’s not been the smoothest Friday for us. We had a few problems in FP1, and FP2 wasn’t perfect either with the issue with the pit-stop, but I did feel a lot more confident in the car this afternoon. In general, we’ve learned a lot again and FP2 was a much better session. The most positive thing from today, as we’ve learned over the last couple of weekends, is that our race pace looks promising and there’s a lot of effort going into our race preparation. Our qualifying performance we still need to work on a bit and understand a few things, but generally I feel okay. “There’s plenty to play with here – the weather might look a bit tricky tomorrow and we’ll have a few different possibilities in terms of allocating tyres, but I think we have everything we need. There is quite a big difference between the Prime and the Option tyres as they behave quite differently so it will make things pretty interesting. We’re prepared and we know what we want for the race, so we should be in a strong position. It was also quite windy today and I think everyone was affected by it, but generally we had no major issues. “After the pit-stop I left the box and I didn’t feel that there was anything wrong straight away. It was only as I turned left into Turn Three that I felt something happen, and when I looked in the mirror I could see that the right rear wheel was wobbly, so I immediately parked the car as a safety precaution. At the moment we’re still investigating, so it’s a bit too early to say what caused it. Pit-stops are part of Formula 1 and I think they always will be in some way. Of course, we don’t like to see incidents like we saw in Bahrain – we’ve seen a couple of cars having to park up and it’s definitely not what we want – but it happens every now and then.”

"It was a reasonable clean day, we had a broken floor this morning so we lost some time in the first practice session which is never ideal, but other than that it was quite clean. Like the previous races we are in a very tight midfield battle, so getting everything 100% together will be key tomorrow to move as high up the grid as possible because it is extremely tight, so we have some work to do overnight. Although we missed a little bit of track time this morning, I'm feeling quite comfortable in the car, the balance feels good so if we can improve on certain areas overnight we could be fighting at the sharp end of the midfield battle again."

It’s tough, but we didn’t expect it to be easy. We know where we are and we know there’s a lot of work to be done. So far, it’s looking quite good. We are not the fastest car, but the way we work is good. We tried a couple of interesting things in the morning and in FP2. The long runs were a bit messy with traffic and rain, so it was not the most productive afternoon. Personally, I’m quite happy. I can point out the progress. Tomorrow and the race can be different, but I’m happy with my progress and with the team.

“Es war ein produktiver Tag für uns. Wir konnten das geplante Programm absolvieren, und haben dabei alle drei Reifenmischungen getestet. Ausserdem haben wir an der Fahrzeugeinstellung gearbeitet. Die Charakteristiken des Shanghai International Circuit unterscheiden sich sehr von den Strecken in Melbourne und Bahrain. Darum haben wir daran gearbeitet zu verstehen, wie sich unser neues Auto auf dieser Strecke verhält, um die bestmögliche Fahrzeugeinstellung für das Rennen zu finden. Wir haben interessante Daten erhoben, und werden heute Abend daran arbeiten, dass das im morgige Qualifying so konkurrenzfähig wir möglich zu sein.“

“Es war ein produktiver Tag für uns. Ich bin zum ersten Mal auf dieser Strecke gefahren – das ist immer eine spannende Erfahrung. Eine neue Strecke kennenzulernen ist eine tolle Gelegenheit, sich als Fahrer weiterzuentwickeln, und sich mit verschiedenen Herausforderungen vertraut machen. Hier in Shanghai sind das beispielsweise die langen Geraden und die interessanten Kurvenkombinationen. Auf den weichen und medium Reifenmischungen waren wir heute Vormittag recht konkurrenzfähig. Nachmittags haben wir die ultraweichen Reifen getestet. Nun werden wir uns die erhobenen Daten ansehen, um zu verstehen wie wir unsere Performance im morgigen Qualifying maximieren können. Ich freue mich darauf, morgen wieder im Auto zu sein.“

“Well, we’ve done quite a bit today. We’ve tried different things on the car – some worked, some didn’t. We didn’t quite get the qualifying simulation lap right, which is a bit of a shame. The longer run felt better, which is always encouraging and what you want for the race. We know Shanghai is a difficult circuit, so we’re studying all the options. The time sheet for today is not really representative of where we are.”

We had a tough FP2. In FP1 we were on the medium tyres for the session, but in FP2 I made a mistake on my first run and ran off the track. I was on a good lap on my second run and lost the car, and that was it as I never really set a laptime. Then we went into the race simulation which seemed half decent. The car seems a little bit better on ultrasofts, like in Australia, but we are still towards the back. I think it is going to be difficult again to get out of Q1.