Fahrerstimmen – Tag 1

“Today everything felt OK and things ran pretty smoothly,” said Kimi. “In the first session we checked many things and made some changes; in the second one everything seemed to work . It was a normal Friday, but obviously this track is different to many others and the second session is held in different conditions from the first one. The tires behaved pretty much as we expected. The Hypersoft is the one that provides the best grip for sure, so it is very useful here, at least for the short runs. Obviously they are not going to last as long as the other compounds, but we are aware of that. I tried two different floors; there’s not a night and day difference between them, but we wouldn’t use something if we didn’t think it is better. Now we‘ll keep on doing our job and see what it brings tomorrow. For sure it will be close”.

Das erste Training war gut, obwohl sich das vielleicht nicht in den Ergebnislisten niedergeschlagen hat, da wir nicht mit den HyperSoft-Reifen gefahren sind. Wir haben unser Programm absolviert, verschiedene Optionen ausgetestet und einige gute Ergebnisse erzielt. Wir waren nah an Ferrari dran, aber wir werden erst morgen herausfinden, wie schnell sie wirklich sind. Die Jungs haben hier an der Strecke und in der Fabrik sehr hart gearbeitet, um unser Auto zu verbessern, und es fühlt sich definitiv besser an als in der Vergangenheit. Die Strecke ist unglaublich. Wir sind hier viel schneller als im Vorjahr, aber dadurch ist eine Runde auch sehr viel schwieriger geworden, da die G-Kräfte höher ausfallen und wir schneller reagieren müssen. Außerdem ist es im Cockpit wahnsinnig heiß. Man schwitzt schon, bevor man ins Auto einsteigt. Ich glaube, dass ich im zweiten Training beinahe zwei Kilo verloren habe. Am Sonntag werden es also noch viel mehr sein. Warten wir ab, wie es morgen läuft, aber es sieht so aus, als ob es vielleicht zu einem Dreikampf zwischen Ferrari, Red Bull und uns kommen könnte.

“It wasn’t the perfect day for me, we still have plenty of room to improve ahead of Qualifying tomorrow. This mornings practice felt good but I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the second session. This afternoon we could have been a bit quicker over the short runs as we suffered a bit from understeer. I don’t think we have the pace to fight for pole so we will just try to optimise the package. Once we have, short runs and race pace should improve. It definitely wasn’t a bad day, some hard work tonight should put us in a good position with ability to attack. The Hypersoft struggled over the long runs, it dropped off quickly. The other compounds were not so bad which could make the race interesting.”

“It’s going to be close at the top and all three teams can be fast around here. The morning session was better for us and surprisingly we were a bit more comfortable with the hotter track. Once it cooled down this evening, we didn’t feel we were able to optimise everything. I’m not concerned, we have tonight to analyse everything and I believe we will bring it all together tomorrow. I like that they brought a Soft tyre which is a few steps harder than the Ultra and the Hyper which opens up more options for the race. Each tyre seems to be a good step faster than the other, so for Qualifying I think it will push everyone to use the Hypersoft. It was fun out there. It’s the toughest circuit both mentally and physically but I love it and it’s a good challenge. I’m sweating a lot but it’s worth it. I’ve prepared well and the team has brought a very good car here, so let’s hope the gap is close tomorrow.”

Heute war es sehr heiß, aber alles in allem war es ein ziemlich positiver Tag. Gegen Ende des ersten Trainings sind wir mit den Soft-Reifen gefahren, als die anderen die HyperSoft- oder UltraSoft-Mischungen verwendet haben. Wir wissen jedoch genau, wie sehr wir uns auf den anderen Mischungen verbessert haben. Im ersten Training sah es bereits etwas besser aus als im Vorjahr. Im zweiten Training sahen sowohl Ferrari als auch Red Bull sehr schnell aus, aber wir waren nicht weit von ihnen entfernt. Das Auto ist mit viel Abtrieb stark verbessert. Es ist viel schneller, selbst im Vergleich zum Saisonbeginn. Die schnelleren Autos stellen hier auch eine größere Herausforderung dar. Je schneller du bist, desto höher fallen die G-Kräfte aus, die auf dich einwirken. Das ist auf dieser Strecke besonders hart, weil es hier so heiß ist. Es ist fast so, als ob man bei 60 Grad im Cockpit Fitnessübungen macht. Wir haben zwischen den beiden Trainings große Veränderungen vorgenommen, von denen nicht alle positiv waren. Daran müssen wir heute Abend noch arbeiten. Auf dieser Strecke ist es extrem schwierig, die Balance perfekt zu treffen. Es gibt sehr viele verschiedene Kurventypen und wir haben noch viel Arbeit vor uns. Ich denke, dass wir gute Chancen auf ein gutes Ergebnis an diesem Wochenende haben, aber wir müssen das Auto perfekt hinbekommen, um Ferrari und Red Bull zu fordern. Ich habe heute keine richtig gute Runde zusammenbekommen, aber die Pace schien da zu sein. Hoffen wir also, dass es morgen im Qualifying richtig eng zugehen wird.

“Overall, it was a pretty straightforward Friday for us, which is always good in Singapore. We had no issues and completed our run plan. I’m happy with today, especially the performance of the car over one lap. We have areas to work on, particularly our long runs to see what we can do better for the race. We have some things to learn on tyre degradation, but in general it was a good day for us.”

“It was alright this evening. We were better than we were in the afternoon, which is always a good sign. There are a lot of things we can still improve on the car, as always on a street circuit. I think it’s difficult for everyone getting the tires to work. Hypersofts to softs is quite a big difference. We just need to make sure we’re good on every compound. The car felt ok, but there are a few more things we can do to get a bit faster. That said, I’m happy where we are.”

“It was a positive Friday. It’s always amazing to be around these streets at these speeds. We tried some interesting stuff, also comparing different configurations on the two cars. We gathered good information about the tyres and about the set-up changes that we were managing in both free practice sessions, and we will go through them tonight. “I managed to get quite a good amount of laps under my belt, which on a street circuit is very important as the more running you get, the more confident you are. “It’s going to be a close battle to make it into Q3 tomorrow, but qualifying position is very important here so we are giving priority to our Saturdays performance. Track evolution we know is huge in Singapore, so you try to follow the track conditions as well, and I think our preparation for tomorrow’s qualifying is okay.”

“After hitting the wall”, said Seb “we took some precautions and decided to stop running. We lost some time, which is not ideal, but nevertheless I got a good feeling with the car. Luckily, I’ve been here before and I know the track so I can make up for lost time. Tomorrow I’ll be keen on finding the right balance to feel the car a little better than I did this evening. Then, I think it should be fine. On the other hand, Kimi’s data is very important too and it’s good to know he had a smooth session. I lost a bit of time today, but it can happen. In the evening we tried something on our car which didn’t work very well, but the car is good and has potential. I believe we can improve and tomorrow it will be better. Also, I think on Sunday tires will be an important factor, so we’ll see”.

“It’s always great to drive this track. We started the day well, but then I didn’t think we were able to make as much progress in the second session as I’d have hoped. In particular, I think we have to look a bit closer at controlling the rear end, but that does mean that we have a clear area for focus ahead of FP3 and qualifying tomorrow. Overall, a positive day, but you always want more.”

“Singapore isn’t the easiest place to introduce aero updates to the car, but we did what we could and tested all the new parts. There was quite a big change to the characteristics of the car and it’s going to take more time before we fully understand how we can maximise the set-up. The balance still needs improving and there are some decisions to take tonight to make sure we get the best from the car tomorrow. Apart from testing the new items, we did all the usual work and collected the data for the race so it feels as though we are in good shape so far.”

“Es war ein guter Tag. Wir haben alle drei Reifenmischungen getestet, was für uns einen positiven Start ins Wochenende bedeutet. Es ist ein kniffliger Kurs mit verschiedenen Kurvenkombinationen und hohen Temperaturen, die es schwierig machen hier zu fahren. Wir haben heute viel gelernt und das Auto hat sich gut angefühlt. Wir sind recht konkurrenzfähig und haben noch einiges an Arbeit vor uns, um im sehr engen Mittelfeld noch weiter voranzukommen. Ich kann es kaum erwarten, morgen um ein gutes Resultat zu kämpfen.”

“It wasn’t a bad start to our weekend. I think the pace of the car is quite good and we can be in the mix for the top ten tomorrow. The middle of the pack is very tight once again, so getting each sector just right is going to be especially important during qualifying. A small mistake will be very costly in terms of grid position. The work we did today was very valuable, including the first experience of the updated car. First impressions are positive, but it’s still too early to know how much performance we have found from the new parts.”

“Heute war ein interessanter Tag für mich. Ich bin zum ersten Mal auf dem Marina Bay Street Circuit gefahren, was sehr aufregend war. Die Strecke wird ihrem Ruf gerecht und stellt für mich als Fahrer eine tolle Herausforderung dar, insbesondere in Bezug auf das Reifenmanagement. FP1 lief gut. Ich habe am Ende der Einheit einen kleinen Fahrfehler gemacht und die Barrieren berührt. Zu diesem Zeitpunkt hatten wir das geplante Programm schon abgearbeitet und haben daher keine Zeit verloren. Das Team hat tolle Arbeit geleistet, um das Auto rechtzeitig für FP2 zu reparieren. Die zweite Trainingseinheit fand während der Nacht statt. Die Bedingungen waren daher repräsentativer in Vorbereitung auf das Qualifying und Rennen. Wir sind konkurrenzfähig und werden hart dafür arbeiten, um morgen um gute Startpositionen zu kämpfen. Ich freue mich darauf, wieder im Auto zu sein.“

“We didn’t really have any problems, but on my side, we just didn’t really hook it up to get any kind of competitive lap time. Romain showed that the car is there. I just kind of have to put my stuff together and get it out tomorrow. It gives me confidence to see that the car can do it. We’ll work hard tonight and try and put it together on Saturday. It’s going to be a close fight in the midfield. It’ll be difficult to make Q3 in qualifying, but I’m positive that we can improve for tomorrow, at least.”

“It was definitely not the easiest of Fridays, especially in FP1. We missed a lot of track time with a couple of problems on the car. Around a circuit like Singapore it’s definitely not ideal because the track keeps evolving so much, and you need laps to find your rhythm and build up during the weekend. “We started a bit on the back foot, but I think we recovered pretty well in FP2, finding my feet in the first run and having a reasonable run at the end. By the time we ran high fuel I think the pace was pretty competitive. We did a lot of laps in FP2 and I’m looking forward to hopefully having a clean day tomorrow. “We learned a lot today, especially about the Hypersoft tyre. We’ve done a lot of tests across both cars so now it’s going to be super important to put all the pieces together tomorrow. This race is massively favoured towards qualifying because the higher you can start, the better it will be for the race. “It’s a bit too early to talk about tomorrow. We’re probably a little bit more competitive around this circuit because the power sensitivity is lower, so I think we should hopefully be a little bit higher, but we know that tomorrow the others will improve as well.”

"It was nice to experience Singapore for the first time. I had a pretty smooth day with no dramas on the car and made no mistakes, although there's some more time to find on both cars as we're still aiming to move up higher on the grid for Qualifying. I got up to speed very quickly with the track, and the tyre management on the long run looked very good, but there's still quite a bit of work to do overnight before final practice tomorrow."

"It was a pretty difficult day for us. In terms of performance we are not as competitive as we had hoped, and at the moment we are struggling a bit with the balance. We're lacking pure performance so we need to take some time tonight to work out why, and analyse all of the data to find what's wrong so we can improve the car for tomorrow. The Singapore track is mega, especially in the night! It has so much rhythm, it's technical which challenges the driver in these hot conditions, and there's such a great atmosphere. It's really enjoyable, but at the moment I'm not feeling too great with the car, so we will work hard and try to come with some changes tomorrow to better our performance."

We got some good running in and covered a good number of laps, so we learnt a lot. We are struggling with grip and just outright pace this weekend. It is the nature of the track, as high downforce doesn't suit our car. At the end I had a small fire in the right rear brake due to a tear off. I am not sure if it was my tear off or someone else’s, but it was unlucky. We will see what happens tomorrow, as it’s another day. Last year I started 18th and finished eighth, so who knows what will happen - maybe a bit of rain!

It has been a difficult Friday, in FP1 we looked very reasonable with the tyre compound and we had a lot of margin. But, that wasn’t the case in FP2, with the sun going down and with lower track temperatures we were expecting to see improvements from FP1.The outcome of both sessions wasn’t what we expected today, so we have a lot of work to do tonight to make sure we maximise everything ahead of tomorrow.