Fahrerstimmen – Tag 1

Das war ein gemischter Tag für uns, an dem das zweite Training viel besser als die erste Session verlaufen ist. Der Vormittag war recht schwierig und man konnte leicht Fehler machen. Ich habe mich ein paarmal verbremst und musste deshalb meine Runden abbrechen. Dadurch war es schwierig, einen guten Rhythmus zu finden. Bis zum Nachmittag haben wir das Auto aber stark verbessert und ich fand auch meinen Rhythmus. Die Pace schien gut zu sein, aber es ist eine kurze Strecke, weshalb die Abstände sehr gering ausfallen. Die Reifen haben heute nicht viel abgebaut, aber wir erwarten noch wärmere Temperaturen. Also müssen wir abwarten, ob diese Schwierigkeiten mit sich bringen. Morgen könnte es regnen, aber wir hatten schon das gesamte Jahr über ein gutes Paket im Regen. Deshalb glaube ich nicht, dass es ein großes Problem für uns wäre. Zwischen den drei Top-Teams geht es sehr eng zu und wir dürfen uns auf dem heutigen Ergebnis nicht ausruhen. Wir wissen, dass alle heute Abend an ihrer Performance arbeiten werden und deshalb müssen auch wir weiter pushen.

Heute war ein relativ normaler Tag, an dem wir alles Notwendige abgearbeitet haben. Das Auto fühlt sich besser an als in Mexiko, aber wir arbeiten uns noch durch einige Punkte. Die Pace scheint nicht allzu schlecht zu sein, aber wir müssen immer noch daran arbeiten und uns weiter steigern. Im zweiten Training war es recht windig mit starken Böen in den Kurven. Dadurch war das Auto ziemlich schwierig zu fahren. Für morgen wird Regen vorhergesagt, aber ich liebe es, im Regen zu fahren. Für mich wäre es also kein Problem. Wir müssen nur sicherstellen, dass wir im Trockenen schnell genug sind. An der Spitze geht es zwischen allen sehr eng zu, aber ich glaube, dass noch mehr Potenzial in unserem Auto steckt, das wir noch ausschöpfen müssen.

“Today was a good Friday and I think we had decent runs; the biggest worry we had today was a little screw that had ended up between my feet, but we found it in the end, so apart from that, I think it was ok. Tyre management was also ok, but Sunday is going to be more challenging. However, we still need to improve the car as it is does not feel perfect yet. There’s still some work to do, but I think that if we can get the balance in the window, it can be fine. It is supposed to be hotter over the next days, so that could make it tricky for the tire management, but we’ll see”.

“It was a pretty good afternoon and we made a good step forward between FP1 and FP2. It’s always a tricky track to get the car set-up perfectly as it’s quite demanding on the tyres. We struggled a bit with that this morning but we found a sweeter spot in FP2. This afternoon we had a decent car but we are still three tenths off, so pole is probably a bit of a stretch in these conditions. The others haven’t turned it up yet either but our race pace seems solid and that will be our main focus due to the grid penalty. I’ve known about the penalty since last week as the turbo was unfortunately damaged when a marshal used a fire extinguisher on the car in Mexico. I’ve come to terms with that and I’m ready to try and qualify well, race hard and make the best of the weekend.”

“I was pretty happy with the car as soon as I jumped in it this morning, which isn’t usually the case around here and showed in the first session. The car felt good but I had a bit of traffic on my quick lap, so I feel the time can still improve a little bit. As this circuit generally doesn’t suit us I don’t have any major expectations for qualifying, our focus is on the race. My long run pace looked OK, the second session was compromised a little bit so I couldn’t do everything I wanted but it felt alright. With only a few tweaks tomorrow I’m confident we can get the set-up where I want it. I was delayed getting out on track this afternoon due to a small oil leak and we wanted to make sure that was fixed and therefore shouldn’t cause any further issues. Looking at the weather, I think today was supposed to be the worst and it didn’t rain, so I’m not sure we will get any help in that respect.”

“It was not the easiest day today, quite tricky in many ways, but it’s Friday and that’s how it goes sometimes. Very often, on the first day of practice, we struggle a bit here and there; there are some sections of the track which are good for us, and some others which are not that good, but that’s part of the game. Regarding the tires, the harder compound felt a bit slippery, but it’s more or less what we expected. For sure we have some work to do; we’ll make some changes and then we’ll see where we get to”.

“It was a good day. I think the car worked pretty well here, especially after Mexico where we struggled a little bit. It was good to be best-of-the-rest in both sessions. I’m happy with that. There’s some more work to be done. We’re exploring a few different things on the setup to see which direction to go. We’ll put it all together to be ready for FP3 and qualifying tomorrow, and then for the race on Sunday.”

“Es war im Allgemeinen ein positiver Tag. Unsere Performance in der Qualifying-Simulation war recht stark und wir sind zuversichtlich, dass wir gutes Potential für die morgigen Einheiten haben. Es liegt noch einige Arbeit vor uns herauszufinden, wo wir hinsichtlich des Renntempos im Vergleich mit den anderen Teams stehen, aber es sieht gut aus. Das Wetter war besser als wir erwartet haben, darum konnten wir für trockene Bedingungen reichlich Daten sammeln. Das ist positiv. Ich freue mich darauf zu sehen, was wir morgen leisten können.”

“It wasn’t too bad today. It was a good start for us. The car felt good from the get-go. It was fast, as well. The pace looked good. As always, we have a few things to work on and get right, but we’re in a good place, I believe. I think we’re more or less in the window balance-wise. There are always things you can do better and improve, but we’ll try and be best-of-the-rest here.”

“I am pleased with today. Both sessions were straightforward for me – no issues on my side of the garage and we did a lot of laps. It’s not an easy circuit to get everything right and there is still some work to do before qualifying. It’s those small details we need to work on to make me feel more comfortable. The target is definitely to reach Q3 tomorrow. In terms of the weather, I don’t mind if it’s wet or dry.”

“It was not the best day because I lost quite a lot of running at the start of second practice. There was a hydraulic issue with the steering assistance and we had to make some changes during the session. So I’ve only done 23 laps today which isn’t ideal on such a technical track. Also, because it’s a short lap, every tenth of a second is even more important. We made the best of the session after making the changes, but I still feel we need to make some good steps overnight to be ready for qualifying.”

“I like coming to this circuit and it was great to drive here again for the second time. It was a productive day of testing and we made some improvements from FP1 to FP2. Overall, I think we made some effective changes to the setup, but we still need to work overnight to find more balance for tomorrow. I think we are getting closer to the top 10 and hopefully with some good work tonight we can close the gap tomorrow. I think we have a chance to do well here but we just need to put everything together, that will be the main target tonight.”

“Die Einheit heute Morgen war gut. Das Programm war ähnlich zu dem in den letzten freien Trainingseinheiten, die ich gefahren bin, und mein Ziel war es, dem Team so viel Feedback wie möglich zu geben. Ich habe es genossen, hier in Sao Paolo zu fahren, und freue mich nun auf meinen nächsten Einsatz in Abu Dhabi.”

“It was a positive Friday. I missed FP1 and testing one tyre compound, but we still managed to get all the information we needed and do all the tests we wanted anyway, as we had a clean second session, only slightly disrupted by the red flag. We now need to analyse everything and we’ll hopefully be more competitive tomorrow. “As always on this track, one or two tenths can mean five or six positions, so we need to find the right tuning on the set-up tonight and meet perfection on our lap tomorrow. “There is a lot of work to do, but I am quite confident.”

“Today wasn’t as straightforward as I wanted and we have some work to do to find a better balance with the car as it’s a difficult place to get the car working as you want at every corner. However, it’s a great circuit to drive and we have a good idea of the areas we need to improve for tomorrow.”

“Es war ein relativ guter Tag für mich, wenn man bedenkt, dass ich die erste freie Trainingseinheit ausgelassen habe. Das zweite Training lief glatt und ich konnte recht viele Runden fahren. Die Balance des Autos hat sich gut angefühlt und wir werden heute Abend daran arbeiten, unsere Daten zu analysieren und unser Programm für morgen zu definieren. Wir wissen, dass die Rundenzeiten hier sehr eng beisammen sind, also werden wir uns darauf konzentrieren, im Qualifying alles zu geben. Generell war es ein positiver Freitag und wir haben eine gute Basis, auf der wir das restliche Wochenende aufbauen können.”

“Today was definitely a more productive day than my last visit to Interlagos! It’s a new track again for me and I was trying to get into the rhythm of the circuit. I got up to pace pretty quickly. I did the tests I needed to do for both my side and the team’s side, and I did some practice starts, so it was a good session. “During FP2 I try to learn as much as I can in the garage. It’s not just about watching and listening to what the engineers and drivers are saying and going through the data, there are a lot of interesting things that go on in the background that people don’t hear. “I like going through the data to see what’s good and what’s bad, and comparing some things to my run this morning. Even though the conditions changed slightly and we were on different tyres, there are still things that I like to compare. Whatever I can learn is a good thing. “You can learn a lot from just one session on track, even if by the end of FP1 I didn’t manage to try everything I wanted – different lines or braking points, for example – because of the amount of time I had. But by already doing what I did, I can come back next year knowing a lot more and can try those things straight away. “I can watch Fernando and Stoffel and see what they do, but by doing FP1 on a weekend like I am now and then going into FP1 next season is a big help and I think it prepares you a lot more. I can go straight into knowing what’s good and what’s bad next year, without it taking me a whole session to build up to things. “Interlagos is quite tricky and it’s easy to lock the tyres in Turns Eight, Nine and Ten. It’s quite tough and I don’t think it’ll be the easiest track to overtake on. But it’s a good track and pretty fun and enjoyable to drive.”

It was a busy day today, we had some interesting bits on the car for next year’s development. We managed to collect a lot of data and went right back to the baseline. We then had to switch back to race weekend preparations and car set-up which went fine. In these conditions I think we are reasonably good. There are a few bits I could have done better on my lap but I think pace looks good, particularly long pace, which was surprisingly good. Overall busy, but a good day.

“It’s not been the ideal Friday for us. We had a couple of issues in FP1 and FP2 which cut our day a little bit short, so we’ve not had quite the running we wanted. We did a lot of testing and preparation for next year in FP1, so it’s not the kind of preparation you want to go into the weekend, but that’s the way it is sometimes. “Hopefully tomorrow everything will be sorted out and we can start to build on a proper weekend. The field here is always super tight, so it’s important to really extract every tenth you have in the car. We’ll aim to do that tomorrow in qualifying to try and get the maximum there. “The weather looks a bit unsettled for Sunday as well – hopefully that can play to our advantage. If the conditions are difficult and tyre degradation is hard, then I think there’s always a good opportunity for us. “Hopefully tomorrow will be better and we can go into qualifying with a bit more preparation, and then we’ll see where we end up.”

It was the usual Friday, just learning as we are running. It is great to be back in Brazil on this track. I think we made some good steps with the car today and it felt ok. We will see what tomorrow brings and where we are compared to the rest of the field. Perhaps we can get into Q2, and I hope that will be the case, but we will see after FP3 when we will have a much better idea. In qualifying it is a short lap here, so it is about piecing it together and getting the most out of it. it is going to be very tight in that midfield, so it is about every hundredth and every thousandth, which means it should be exciting.

“It’s good to be back in Interlagos! I wouldn’t say we were as competitive as we would have liked to be, but we have been fighting with the balance of the car a bit today. There’s some work to do with the engineers overnight to hopefully find some more time for tomorrow.”

“It was a bit difficult in the car today, definitely harder than I hoped. We struggled to find the right balance with the car and as a result it was not where I needed it to be to maximise the performance of the tyres. It is similar to how I felt in Sochi, earlier in the year. I wish I had been quicker today but I am still satisfied with my work. In the end, when you jump in the car you don’t want to make any silly mistakes and you focus on helping the team prepare the car for the race drivers, which is what I did today, so from this perspective it was a positive day.”

“We weren’t able to get on top of the car today and losing so much track time in FP2 obviously didn’t help the cause. I ran wide and went over the kerb, making the car bottom-out which caught me out. I wasn’t able to avoid the barriers so that’s a shame and I’ve given my crew some work to do. On the plus side, Carlos was able to have a productive day so we’ll be looking at the data and we’re hoping to hit the ground running tomorrow.”