Fahrerstimmen – Tag 1

“That was our first day of practice after the break; we did our pretty usual job to get a feeling for the car once again. I enjoy driving on this track, it has a good flow and this generation of cars are pretty nice to drive here. I think Spa is a great circuit, but obviously this doesn’t make you faster or slower! We always say that Friday is Friday and times don’t really matter today; it was ok, but for sure we still have some work ahead of us. Tomorrow we’ll try to do our best and see where we end up. We expected some rain today but it did not come. But the weather can still be a key point this weekend, as it changes very quickly here”.

“That was our first day of practice after the break; we did our pretty usual job to get a feeling for the car once again. I enjoy driving on this track, it has a good flow and this generation of cars are pretty nice to drive here. I think Spa is a great circuit, but obviously this doesn’t make you faster or slower! We always say that Friday is Friday and times don’t really matter today; it was ok, but for sure we still have some work ahead of us. Tomorrow we’ll try to do our best and see where we end up. We expected some rain today but it did not come. But the weather can still be a key point this weekend, as it changes very quickly here”.

Es ist schön, wieder da zu sein. Die Pause ist eigentlich nie lange genug, aber irgendwann vermisst man einfach das Fahren. Deshalb freue ich mich, wieder im Auto zu sitzen. Dies sind die schnellsten F1-Autos, die wir jemals hatten, und das kannst du auf dieser Strecke richtig spüren. Wir fahren beinahe voll durch Pouhon - das ist verrückt. Wir haben heute einen neuen Motor dabei und alles funktionierte einwandfrei. Es geht richtig eng zu zwischen Ferrari und uns. Wir scheinen beide im gleichen Rhythmus neue Updates gebracht zu haben. Im Mittelsektor wünscht man sich viel Abtrieb, aber in den anderen Sektoren möchtest du so viel Geschwindigkeit wie möglich auf den Geraden erzielen. Die Herausforderung ist es, die richtige Balance zu finden und glücklicherweise habe ich ein großartiges Team, das daran arbeitet. Vor dem Wochenende habe ich gehört, dass es durchgängig regnen würde. Im ersten Training hat es in einigen Streckenabschnitten leicht genieselt, aber im zweiten Training war es schön und trocken. Hoffentlich bleibt es so, denn diese Strecke ist im Trockenen absolut fantastisch.

Das fühlte sich heute alles in allem ziemlich gut an. Die Balance war zu Beginn des Tages noch nicht ganz perfekt, aber das konnten wir korrigieren, sodass sich das Auto beinahe überall gut anfühlte. Die langsameren Stellen waren für uns etwas fordernder, da wir ausgangs der Kurven etwas mit der Traktion zu kämpfen hatten. Ferrari sah in einigen Kurvenkombinationen wie Kurve 5 bis 7 etwas schneller aus, aber ich glaube nicht, dass wir weit entfernt sind. Am Freitag ist es aber ohnehin schwierig, genaue Vorhersagen für das Wochenende zu machen, da es im Qualifying normalerweise richtig eng zugeht. Mit Blick auf das Setup ist es normalerweise ein Kompromiss zwischen dem Qualifying und Rennen. Aber angesichts meiner Zurückversetzung an diesem Wochenende liegt mein Fokus natürlich auf dem Rennen. Zum Glück fühlte sich die Pace auf Long Runs gut an und ich bin zuversichtlich, dass ich mich hier in Spa durch das Feld nach vorne arbeiten kann. Der neue Motor fühlte sich heute ebenfalls gut an. Deshalb freue ich mich auf das Rennen. Das sollte viel Spaß machen.

“It is always difficult to judge how you compare after day one as not everyone is pushing 100%. Today we mostly concentrated on setting up the car with very low downforce. Of course we know this won’t be our strongest track so we are focusing on getting as close as we can on the short runs. Our long run pace doesn’t look bad at the moment either so I’m quite happy with that, with a bit more grip it should be even better. We have to be realistic, fifth and sixth is about where we expect to be around here due to our power deficit but we are trying to optimise everything on the car to be as close as we can. Over the last few days the chance of rain has decreased which is a bit of a shame as this helps us close the gap. Already the orange flares have been lit which is great to see, it’s nice to see so many fans out here supporting me on a Friday.”

“Overall, I think it’s going the right way. Today it was a bit difficult to figure out where we are and I think we’ll have to wait for tomorrow to have a better idea. The new engine has done what it was supposed to do. Today everything was working well. Now we’ll see about tomorrow: rain shouldn’t give us any more problems and, should we have wet conditions, it would be quite nice to have confirmation that we found the right things to do. On this track everything seems to happen faster, so it should be a lot of fun and if we have dry conditions tomorrow for qualifying, we should be ok. There are still some special tracks on the calendar and for sure this one in Spa is very exciting in terms of cornering speeds. We still need to do some work, but we have time to do it”.

“This morning I had some issues and the mechanics had to take the back off the car, which was time consuming, so I only completed one timed lap. Maybe they thought I needed an extended summer break (laughs) but I was definitely ready to drive. This afternoon we made lots of changes and went back and forth on set-up. We learnt quite a lot but I felt that maybe as we improved one thing we created a problem with something else. With the limited running we haven’t found the optimum balance yet and need to improve on both short and long runs. We will do a bit of homework tonight to find the best compromise and some more pace.”

“I love this track and I’ve really enjoyed getting back in the car today. When you spend a few weeks off, there is nowhere better than Spa to return to action. The car felt very good today and I’m happy with the balance. It’s probably the best balance we have had all year. So there is the potential for a strong weekend, regardless of what the weather does.”

“It’s great to get back into the car relaxed and refreshed. It was an uncomplicated day and we managed to follow our program quite well. The team brought some new parts that seem to work as expected, especially the new floor, which I tested in FP2. Good progress was made through the day. Spa-Francorchamps is a superb circuit so it’s great to get any laps around here and I have good feelings for the weekend ahead. Now it’s time to analyse both sessions and look for more performance with my engineers."

“It’s great to get back into the car relaxed and refreshed. It was an uncomplicated day and we managed to follow our program quite well. The team brought some new parts that seem to work as expected, especially the new floor, which I tested in FP2. Good progress was made through the day. Spa-Francorchamps is a superb circuit so it’s great to get any laps around here and I have good feelings for the weekend ahead. Now it’s time to analyse both sessions and look for more performance with my engineers."

„Es ist schön nach der Sommerpause wieder im Auto zu sitzen – besonders auf einer so tollen Rennstrecke. Der Tag verlief reibungslos. Wir konnten das geplante Programm abschliessen, und das Auto fühlte sich gut an. Wir haben verschiedene Fahrzeugeinstellungen getestet, und sehen uns nun die Daten an um zu entscheiden wie wir das Wochenende fortsetzen. Wir sind konkurrenzfähig und zuversichtlich, dass wir morgen und am Sonntag im Mittelfeld kämpfen werden.“

“Wir hatten einen positiven ersten Tag. Das Auto fühlt sich gut an, und ich bin zufrieden, dass wir die freien Trainingseinheiten im Mittelfeld beendet haben. Wir haben noch einiges an Arbeit vor uns, um bis morgen einen Schritt nach vorne zu machen. Es ist toll nach der Pause wieder Rennen zu fahren, und ich freue mich schon darauf wieder im Auto zu sitzen.“

“I think the new floor does make a positive difference and we were able to work through our programme without interruption, which is always nice. It’s pretty much a standard Friday story – we have a direction with the car and we can make it better. That’s the plan for tomorrow.”

“We were consistent, but not as fast as we wanted, so there’s a lot of work to be done. We’ll look to get a better performance for qualifying. The race looks a bit better, which is always encouraging. Being here at Spa is always amazing. Driving this circuit, it’s very special. We got away with no rain today, so from that side, it’s been a happy day. It was good to have a break and have some time with the family, but it’s good to be back in the car. I missed it.”

“It’s great to be racing again. The car is performing well and I felt very comfortable in the first session. We tried a different direction in the afternoon, which didn’t really work and I also had a puncture which meant I had to do most of the session on one set of supersoft tyres. Even so, we have made some good progress today and I think we can fight for a place in Q3 tomorrow.”

“It’s been nice to get back in the car again, especially around here at this track in Belgium. It’s great fun to drive. It wasn’t as good a day as we’d hoped for. I think we have some work to do, but I don’t think it’s too bad. I think we can make up for some of it tomorrow. I’m confident we can make steps forward, so we’ll see how much we can progress. We have a few new parts here, and I think we can get more out of it. Let’s see how we go tomorrow.”

“It’s been nice to get back in the car again, especially around here at this track in Belgium. It’s great fun to drive. It wasn’t as good a day as we’d hoped for. I think we have some work to do, but I don’t think it’s too bad. I think we can make up for some of it tomorrow. I’m confident we can make steps forward, so we’ll see how much we can progress. We have a few new parts here, and I think we can get more out of it. Let’s see how we go tomorrow.”

"Overall, I would say it was a clean day for us. We knew we would struggle at this track because the characteristics of this circuit don't really work in our favour, so we tried to make the best out of our package. The car feels pretty good at the moment, but some of our main competitors were quite fast today so we need to work and improve to have a stronger day tomorrow. Hopefully we might see some rain, which could definitely make it more exciting!"

“I missed FP1 today but it was not a big loss, as straight away I felt comfortable with the car and the circuit, which I know pretty well, so it was fine on that side. “I’m happy that we tried both tyres and did some interesting tests, especially on Stoffel’s car, so let’s see what we can do to improve for tomorrow. “It seems like it was difficult to find the right rhythm in the first session. We’re lacking a little bit of performance so far this weekend so we definitely need to work out where we can find a couple of tenths for tomorrow if we want to be in the fight. “We don’t seem to be lacking in one sector or one area in particular, as all of them seem to be quite similar. It’s not just on one part of the circuit, which makes it even more difficult, but we have a couple of ideas to improve for tomorrow and Sunday. “The target remains to be in the points on Sunday, and for that we know how important tomorrow’s qualifying is.”

"It was nice to take my first laps around Spa in a Formula 1 car after the summer break. It definitely woke me up going through Eau Rouge flat out the first and second lap! The day went pretty smooth without any technical issues with the car. There's plenty of data to look into, but unfortunately it seems both cars were a bit off the pace. We definitely have some work to do overnight, but it's once again quite tight from where we are to the top 10."

"It was nice to take my first laps around Spa in a Formula 1 car after the summer break. It definitely woke me up going through Eau Rouge flat out the first and second lap! The day went pretty smooth without any technical issues with the car. There's plenty of data to look into, but unfortunately it seems both cars were a bit off the pace. We definitely have some work to do overnight, but it's once again quite tight from where we are to the top 10."

“It was a very busy day today, juggling between F2 and F1. I had to get on my bike to get up to the F1 paddock in time for FP1. It was a bit stressful but it was worth it! “It’s been a good day, anyway. I was a bit nervous this morning as it’s obviously very exciting to be back in the car, especially in Spa, which is probably one of my favourite tracks. We got through our programme nicely and I got in a good amount of laps. “I’ve driven here in the past in F4, Formula Renault, Formula 3, Formula 2 and F1 now, so I know how every car goes around here! “We did some aero tests and none of my runs was a proper performance run, which was a nice thing to do, so it was not about speed but more about consistency and feedback. “It’s very different to drive in Formula 1, mainly because of the pressure. There are a lot more people here. I think it’s a good thing that I get to see first-hand what it’s like to drive on a race weekend, and to have a rough idea of where I stand compared to Stoffel and Fernando. “After doing the Budapest test I feel pretty ready for any opportunity to jump in the car, and I’m getting more and more comfortable with everything I do, so it doesn’t take me a while to build up. “With so few opportunities in F1 in general to be in the car, I think you need to make the most of any chance to drive, to learn and to prove yourself, be consistent, be fast, be reliable and give good feedback, which I feel like I did today.”

It was a usual Friday for us. It was busy, and we went through some interesting things. We don’t see it from the point of view of the timing results, as they probably don’t seem that positive, but I think we’re finding a more stable base. The weather helped us and the track isn’t the worst for our car. We still have the same balance limitations that have always been there, but the car is becoming more predictable and we’re finding a better base than we’ve had previously. These are small steps, but they are in the right direction. It won’t change our story massively, which we all know, but we’re trying to squeeze the very best from what we have. I think we’re in a good way.

We had some consistent running and were getting back into it after the break. We were working on set-up and the usual, but we’ll see what tomorrow brings as you never know what everyone else is doing, so it is just best to wait for qualifying and surprise yourself or disappoint yourself! We still need another step in general grip and balance. The circuit is cool, especially sector two with the high-speed stuff, as it is always fun when you hook it up. The atmosphere around the track on a Friday is great and you can see some real proper racing fans enjoying the cars, which is always nice.

“I had a day full of problems again today and it’s not been the best start to the weekend. I had some brake problems at the start of FP1 and then some engine-related problems, so I didn’t really manage to get any proper laps in and it didn’t really feel like I’ve been working today. “I started off with some problems again in FP2, so I had maybe one run that was more or less representative. It’s been a very frustrating day for me, especially in front of my home crowd. I came here very optimistic, looking forward to racing here, with a lot of positive energy and a lot of support from the fans, and to start off the weekend like this was definitely not ideal. It feels like we’ve had so many problems lately and I’m really hoping to get some normal running. It’s obviously very frustrating. “The performance today was definitely not there. We’re still lacking a lot of pace and competitiveness and there’s still a lot of work to be done. I think we need a bit of a miracle this weekend to be able to extract some kind of good result. The only thing that could maybe push us up a bit higher is some rain or some tricky conditions. Maybe the rain will come – we’ll see – but there’s still a long way to go and it’s hard to see us progress a lot this weekend. “I think the team is definitely expecting me to perform and I think I’ve performed quite well over the last couple of races. We’ve had our issues, but we’ve showed some very good performance in Hungary. Obviously they want to see how we compare, but I think first of all the team should give me a car that is able to run on track before we can be compared.”