Fahrerstimmen – Tag 1

Der Tag war ziemlich gut, aber es war sehr knifflig, weil es so windig war. Alle Fahrer hatten mit der sich ändernden Windrichtung zu kämpfen. In jeder Kurve war die Windrichtung anders und deshalb sind viele Fahrer ausgeritten. Bei diesen Bedingungen ist es sehr schwierig, das richtige Setup zu finden. Wir haben unser gesamtes Programm absolviert und waren im Vergleich zu den Vorjahren recht schnell. Wir haben über Nacht noch Arbeit vor uns und ich hoffe, dass es morgen kühler und weniger windig ist. Ich glaube, dass es zwischen den drei Top-Teams sehr eng zugehen wird, aber ich kann im Moment noch nicht genau sagen, wer am schnellsten sein wird.

“It was a day of two halves. The car felt pretty different this afternoon and I think that showed. The mistake in to Turn 4 this morning was a costly one and I missed the final hour of the session because of it. Tail winds are a big thing in F1 and in any corners with a tail wind you lose a lot of rear grip. Turn 4 is a bad corner to have a tail wind and it caught me and a few others out. Of course you don’t want to crash but if I’m trying to find a silver lining, then FP1 is probably the best time to do it. FP2 is the one where you do your Race and Qualifying simulations. We got our heads down and put the laps in this afternoon, which was important with the updates to the car, there are quite a few aerodynamicists here today so we needed the laps to give them as much feedback as possible. On the soft tyre we were quite fast, we didn’t really get the supersoft working which I don’t think many people did and it looks like it will be a tricky tyre this weekend. At the end with high fuel I think we were ok but I’m sure we can still be better. We have found some pace, there is still a bit more to find, but overall a pretty good end to a Friday.”

“You always want to improve but I think the car has been handling pretty well today. We didn’t experience too many issues and it looked competitive in the long runs. FP2 and FP3 looks good for us on paper but it is only Friday so we’ll keep pushing tonight to make some steps forward for tomorrow. The updates we brought here seem to be working so we will have to wait and see how much of an impact they have on Qualifying. The supersoft tyre doesn’t seem to be particularly quick and is hard to get working, that might change tomorrow but the soft seemed a better compound today. The new surface created a few moments for a lot of drivers, myself included. A few corners are now flat out which means we lose a bit more time as it effectively makes the straights longer, but we looked competitive in the last sector so we can make up for it a bit there and play to our strengths. Short runs were decent and long runs looked good so come Sunday I feel we can perform well and have good pace. It is tricky to overtake here so hopefully we can put ourselves in a good position for Qualifying tomorrow.”

“Everything we put on the car seems to work and that’s important,” said Seb. “I think the biggest change that has been made is on the tires, which seem to be quite different. I don’t think they are better than before. As for the changes you saw with the rearview mirrors, it is no big deal. Before, it was quite difficult for us to look at the cars behind. Now they are in a better position and I can see a little bit better below the rear wing. If you trust your car, there is no reason to try to push over the limit at this stage. Let’s hope we have the same trust as in Baku where I could get everything out of the car when I had to. Today it was quite slippery and gusty and it was a mixed day. We can still work on the car and I think we should be stronger tomorrow”.

Alles in allem war es ein guter Tag. Das erste Training war besonders vielversprechend, da sich das Auto von Anfang an gut anfühlte. Für das zweite Training haben wir einige Änderungen vorgenommen, die das Auto nicht verbessert haben. Entsprechend sind wir zum ursprünglichen Setup zurückgegangen. Insgesamt war es ein guter Auftakt in das Wochenende, aber die Dinge können sich von Freitag auf Samstag schnell ändern, besonders da Ferrari und Red Bull heute schnell ausgesehen haben. Ich habe auf den superweichen Reifen keinen zusätzlichen Grip im Vergleich zu den anderen Mischungen gespürt. Daran müssen wir bis morgen noch arbeiten.

“Today the session was a bit messy” Kimi commented “but overall I think it was not too bad. The wind made it a bit tricky, but we know that, at this time of year, it can be like that. The tarmac was the same as we had in testing, but obviously the weather conditions are different. We all know this track very well but every time we come here it’s like starting from zero. We tried different things and learned from them and it was pretty ok most of the times. Maybe it was not the most straightforward Friday, but I think that more or less we know what we should do. At one point we had some issues and I was told by the team to stop the car. We still don’t know what happened, but we’ll figure it out. In the evening we’ll have some work to do; we’ll go through everything and understand. Tomorrow morning we might get a better idea and know where everybody is. I’m sure it is going to be close”.

“It was an okay day. It was pretty good in terms of performance and classification. It was tricky with the wind, but we’ve been working with different setups – some are more positive, others a bit trickier. Generally, the car feels pretty good. I’m hopeful we’re going to make it even better for tomorrow and be able to go a bit faster. We’re looking into what we can do, and we’ve got some ideas. We tried some things that we’ve never tried before – they worked in some aspects, but not in others. We’ll change those and make sure the car’s a bit easier on the entry into the corners to be able to push a bit more.”

“Good day today. Happy about the car performance. A few things to improve tomorrow but, generally, I think we are looking quite strong.”

“It’s been a pretty good Friday for us. We had a very busy schedule in both sessions, with a lot of things to figure out across both cars, so it was pretty intense for the team but everything was very well-managed. “The first feeling was positive today – it’s still too early to read anything as the midfield still looks really tight, but I think tomorrow will be the day that counts. The tyre compound selection also won’t be an easy decision to make. “The conditions were very tricky out there and we saw a lot of mistakes on track, but we all had to deal with the same things and I felt okay in the car. Tomorrow, every tenth and every little bit of performance we can squeeze out of the car will be important for qualifying. It will be up to us to put everything together. “The results today looked quite promising, but until we’ve pushed everything to the limit we won’t know exactly where we are. We need to understand everything we’ve learned today, put the car in the best specification possible and see what result it brings. I hope this is the start of continuous progression, and that we can build our season from here.”

“I think we’ve made a lot of progress throughout the day. We have some good information and we have learned about the new parts on the car; we have made a step forward. The balance is still not ideal so there is the potential to find more performance tomorrow. The track was very green this morning, but it improved this afternoon even though it was very windy.”

“It was a solid day and a big effort by the team to try so many different things on the car in the first session. We managed to complete most of the big jobs and now we need to do more homework to understand everything. I think there is still a lot more to come because we are not exactly where we want to be with the car. Track conditions were not easy for anybody because it was very windy and difficult to put together a clean lap and stay on the track.”

“Seen from the inside, the upgrades we brought here are a step forward. There is more performance in the car – it felt better and there was more grip. Conditions were tricky today with the hot temperatures and especially the wind; we saw a lot of people going off track and I think it’s going to be the same tomorrow. “It has been a positive Friday and we’ve tested everything we brought here. There’s still some debate about some of the parts, but we seem to be a little bit more competitive here than any of the other Fridays this season. “We’ll have a clear reference tomorrow about how much we have really improved compared to everyone else. It’s going to be cooler and there’s even a threat of rain forecast for Sunday. “We possibly have a chance to make it into Q3 tomorrow, so let’s try and maximise that.”

“It was a difficult quest towards balance and harmony with the car today but we definitely made progress by the end of FP2. Track conditions weren’t too favourable, especially with quite a bit of wind out there. The competition is pretty tough here so we need to find a bit more pace from the car looking to qualifying and the race.”

"Today was quite an interesting first day in Barcelona. I think this morning was a really good beginning in FP1 as we had the 10th fastest time. In the afternoon session we struggled with the car - it's really hot and windy and it looks like we suffer a bit in these kinds of conditions. It's still very tight between everyone, so we need to find some more performance for tomorrow when it's going to be even closer between the midfield. I think that If we find a few tenths we can be in the fight around P10, so we'll work hard tonight to try and get there."

“Es war ein positiver Tag für uns. Wir haben neue Aero-Teile getestet, und sind auf verschiedenen Reifenmischungen gefahren. Auf den weichen Reifen waren wir recht konkurrenzfähig und sind dabei im vorderen Mittelfeld gefahren. Nachdem wir auf weicheren Reifen gewechselt sind, war es etwas schwieriger unsere Rundenzeiten zu verbessern. Wir müssen noch an dem Reifenmanagement arbeiten. Wenn wir einen Weg finden, wie wir auf den weicheren Reifen gute Fortschritte erzielen können, sollte das restliche Wochenende positiv verlaufen.“

“Es war allgemein ein guter Tag. Wir haben verschiedene Dinge getestet, und das Auto so eingestellt, dass es den Anforderungen des Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya entspricht. Unsere Performance ist besser als wir sie auf einer solchen Strecke erwartet haben. Das zeigt uns, dass wir seit den Tests im Winter gute Fortschritte erzielt haben. Wir müssen nun gut weiterarbeiten, und uns das restliche Wochenende weiterhin verbessern. Ich freue mich auf morgen.“

“It was definitely a challenging day, but we knew this could happen as in winter testing we weren’t particularly comfortable in the car here. We know it’s a track which requires a bit of extra work from us as a team. We have a big margin of improvement for tomorrow, especially as my FP2 fast run on the Supersoft tyres was affected by a mechanical issue, so we have some things to analyse tonight.”

"It was a pretty clean day, even if I lost some time in the first session after I had a trip to the gravel. For the second session we made some big changes which didn't really work, but sometimes you just have to try different thigs to figure out the right direction. We weren't very quick in the afternoon but let's keep positive, I'm sure we can pick up the pace tomorrow."

I didn't really run this morning, as I went off on my second push lap so it was not the morning I was hoping for. It was very difficult to understand the balance as it’s definitely not the balance a racing driver wants to feel. This afternoon we tried to sort out a few things and the car improved a little bit, but still there is so much to understand and figure out. There is a lot of work to be done tonight and we have got to understand what to do so we can be better.

It is a good feeling – not so much from being in the car but from before that, because I’m back driving in an official session, even if it’s only FP1. It’s the first time since the end of 2010 so there’s some emotion, but this disappeared very soon as we have quite a difficult car to drive. The balance was quite off, but somehow we have to stick to what we’ve got to complete our aero tests and evaluations. It wasn’t an easy session, but we managed in difficult conditions and I was able to give some good feedback. When you’re struggling so much it’s difficult to enjoy it, but still I’m happy because I think the most difficult car we’ve had was in this session and I managed to stay cool, and somehow extract what I thought was a reasonable level of performance. I think I can be happy as I did what I was asked to do.

The car is difficult to drive, and mentally it makes you concentrate 200% on everything because it’s so tricky. You saw this morning how difficult it was with cars going off. It takes a lot of energy from you just to drive. We didn’t expect it to be easy and I’m waiting for the chance to test most of the new bits on our car. Yes, that was a bad session, but we have a long-term plan with a lot of effort from all of us, so I don’t want one bad session or event to affect it. Everyone is working flat out and it will take time, but we will get there.