Fahrerstimmen – Tag 1

Dieser Austragungsort ist wundervoll, hier ist es absolut atemberaubend. Eine neue Strecke stellt immer eine Herausforderung dar, aber du lernst ständig neue Dinge und ich liebe die Herausforderung, vor allen anderen in Schwung zu kommen. Man kann hier viele verschiedene Linien fahren und es ist schwierig, Referenzpunkte an der Strecke zu finden. Abgesehen von den bunten Linien ist es schwer zu sagen, wo man sich gerade befindet. Es gibt einige Stellen, zum Beispiel auf der Gegengerade, an denen man die Kurve richtiggehend suchen muss - sie ist richtig schwer zu erkennen. Der neue Motor fühlt sich gut und frisch an, aber wir werden sein volles Potenzial nicht vor morgen sehen, wenn alle ihre Motoren hochdrehen. Ich bin allen meinen Teamkollegen in Brixworth für die ganze harte Arbeit sehr dankbar. Sie haben alles gegeben, damit wir diesen Motor hier haben und einsetzen können - ein großes Dankeschön dafür an alle in der Fabrik. Hoffentlich können wir damit großartige Ergebnisse einfahren! Alles in allem war es ein guter Trainingstag. Jetzt müssen wir diese Leistung am Rest des Wochenendes fortsetzen.

“This track is quite fun, normally when you come to such an open circuit it loses some character but actually the layout here is fun and fast so I’m enjoying it more than I thought. It is always going to feel different coming here from tracks like Monaco and Canada where the walls are so close, but I’ve enjoyed it. Turn 1 and 2 are good, it’s the start of the lap so obviously important to get right but I enjoyed those especially. We were relatively fast today, in the long runs we looked a bit up and down so definitely a bit of work to do tonight, but not a bad Friday. We got a lot of information today, the downforce is a question mark so maybe we can change that and hopefully we can keep improving and be strong all weekend. Between the two cars we went in different directions today which I think is really good to help learn how the car will work and get the best possible setup direction for tomorrow.”

“The first practice was a bit compromised because after a few laps I sustained some damage to my wheel. As it is a new track you want to be out there as much as possible so missing so much time wasn’t ideal. After a tricky first session we changed a lot on the car and it felt good. We still have a lot to improve setup wise but I would say it has been a good start to the weekend. I enjoyed my first experience of the track, I wouldn’t say it is my favourite track but it’s definitely not my worst. I do not know yet how this circuit will be for overtaking, in practice you obviously try to give yourself as much room as possible, so I haven’t followed anyone yet so we will wait to find that out during the race but there are a lot of long corners which means it will be hard to follow. The tyres are very sensitive to the heat, with it being so warm here it is going to be important to get them switched on before Qualifying to extract the most out of the car. Tonight I’ll go away and look into the lines a bit more and think about the tyres and hopefully comeback with some improvements for tomorrow.”

“It was a good day” commented Kimi “and it’s fun to be in a new place, I enjoyed it as it’s something different. In the afternoon session, the weather conditions made it quite tricky. It was not the easiest situation on track, but overall it was ok. From the tyre point of view I think it was also pretty ok. Obviously we cannot compare what we saw today with the past, as this is a new track for everyone, but I think that we had no particular issues.”

“The long-runs felt pretty OK, quite consistent, although I haven’t seen much of what the other teams did. I think the car has more potential here, especially on the fast laps, which we need to unlock for tomorrow and then we’ll be fine. The wind was quite an issue at the beginning of the session, but then it calmed down and it all started to come together. In the end I was reasonably happy with today’s run”.

“It was a very positive day. I’ve seen a lot of French flags, and it’s been a very special feeling driving at home. The car’s been very fast, so I’m super happy with that. We’ve been doing some good laps. We’ve got a few things we can improve on the car, but it’s been a good start for the whole team. We’ll try to keep it as it is today, hopefully get some good performance tomorrow, and be fighting just behind the top-three teams.”

Es ist schön, wieder ein Rennen in Frankreich zu haben. Bislang bin ich hier nur in den Nachwuchsklassen gefahren. Deshalb ist es cool, jetzt zu einem Grand Prix hierher zu kommen. Ich mag die Strecke, aber sie ist schwierig und technisch sehr anspruchsvoll, besonders eingangs der Gegengerade in den Kurven sechs und sieben. Das erste Training verlief für uns ordentlich, aber das zweite war dann knifflig. Ich konnte nur ein paar Runden fahren, bevor mein Auto ein Wasserleck hatte, das wir gerade untersuchen. Leider konnte ich dadurch nicht wirklich viele Long Runs absolvieren. Wir haben heute die neue Motoren-Spezifikation eingesetzt, die sich frisch und gut angefühlt hat. Aber wir haben noch nicht die volle Leistung abgerufen, es gibt also noch mehr zu entdecken. Jetzt müssen wir erst einmal die Ursache für das Wasserleck entdecken, aber wir sind zuversichtlich, dass wir den neuen Motor weiterhin einsetzen können. Wir haben heute in beiden Trainings konkurrenzfähig ausgesehen, aber wir wissen, dass Ferrari am Freitag immer noch etwas Performance in der Hinterhand hat. Warten wir ab, wie es morgen und am Sonntag aussieht.

“Conditions were a bit tricky today – the wind played a big role in FP1, then changed direction this afternoon. The track is close to the seas, so we’ll get changeable winds all the time. “It was a fairly regular Friday, spent trying to understand and learn the circuit and develop a good base set-up. “The track is good; very smooth, the new asphalt is very grippy, which is always a help for a driver. I quite like the last sector, Turns 11 and 12 are quite challenging, so we may well see some action there on Sunday. There might also be a possibility to alter your racing line to follow the car ahead a little bit more closely. Let’s see if that results in some overtaking during the race. “Due to the VSC at the end of FP2, we’re still missing a little bit of long-run info about the tyres – but we’ll try to recover that in tomorrow’s practice. There are a couple of set-up possibilities still to explore tomorrow, so hopefully we’ll be a bit more competitive.”

“It’s been okay today. The car looks competitive here, so we’re positive, but we have a bit to learn on tires. It’s always the main thing to focus on – getting those tires in the window. That’s what we’ll be looking at overnight. It’s a cool track – lots of a high-speed stuff and good braking zones. It’s actually quite a fun track. We’ll have to wait and see for tomorrow, see how things evolve. People improve – you never quite know where you are – but we want to score points this weekend, so we need a good qualifying for that. We’ll take it as it comes.”

"It feels amazing to be driving in France for my home race, especially in my first full Formula 1 season! It's been a really positive start to the weekend, finishing eighth in the first practice session and 10th in the second one, so we are looking reasonably fast. I think we still have some performance in our pocket, we need to work well and try to keep up the pace for tomorrow. The conditions were quite difficult early today, with strong winds changing between sessions, it was challenging to find the right setup. I think we've found the right balance and hopefully we can get a good result in qualifying, which would be great for my home race."

“That was a productive day for us and it was enjoyable to be out there pounding in the laps in the sun. We made good progress with the car even if we had to deal with some indecisive wind which changed its direction between sessions. The track is good to drive and we saw a few people running over the limits on occasion. We learnt a lot and there’s more to come from us tomorrow.”

“It was great to get out there in a Formula 1 car at this circuit where I’ve raced in the past. There seemed to be a lot of traffic out there at times, but we were able to run through a good programme and make steps forward through the day. I’m quite happy with the car but we know we can further improve it for tomorrow. It was great to see all the yellow in the crowd and I’m looking forward to seeing more of this over the next couple of days.”

“To be honest, the first day back at Ricard was a bit of a mixed bag for us. “The winds made it tricky for everyone – we saw a lot of cars spinning off – but we also weren’t very competitive in FP1. Then I had a much better feeling with the car this afternoon – the wind direction changed, and everything came together a little bit more for us. “Our tyre degradation also looked okay; there was a lot of track evolution during FP2, which was probably related to the temperatures and the cars being able to put a bit of rubber down on the track. That’s something I think we’ll see continue to develop across the weekend. “More than anything this weekend, we want to make some progress with the car. The last few races have been a bit tricky for us, so hopefully we can show something this weekend.”

“Es war ein interessanter Tag für uns hier auf dem Circuit Paul Ricard. Die Rückkehr dieses ikonischen Standortes in die Formel 1 stellt für alle Teams eine spannende Herausforderung dar. Die heutigen freien Trainingseinheiten verliefen gut für mich. Der Wind hat eine entscheidende Rolle gespielt, indem er die Balance des Autos beeinflusst hat. Es war schwierig eine gleichmässige Leistung zu erbringen. Wir werden uns nun die erhobenen Daten ansehen, und daran arbeiten für das restliche Wochenende das Maximum aus unserer Performance herauszuholen. Es wird wichtig sein, dass morgen in der dritten freien Trainingseinheit alles gut verläuft, und wir ein gutes Resultat im Qualifying haben. Ich mag Herausforderungen, und freue mich darauf, wieder im Auto zu sein.”

"It was a disappointing end of the first practice day for me here in Le Castellet, as something happened with the PU in the final minutes of FP2. I don't have the exact details yet, but we had to cut the session short. Now the team needs to investigate and try to find out what exactly the problem was. However, I think it was a relatively smooth day before that. The pace has been pretty good across the two cars and Pierre has done competitive laps on the softer compounds in FP2. We definitely have potential in the car and we will work hard overnight to maximise everything for tomorrow."

“Driving a Formula One car at home felt very special. I have been looking forward to this moment for a long time and I really enjoyed those first few laps. Unfortunately it wasn’t the smoothest day for us. I lost about 20 minutes of track time in first practice because I flat-spotted my tyres. Then, in second practice, we had to understand what happened to Sergio’s car before I could go back out. There is quite a lot of work to be done before I can say I am happy with the car. On a new track you need as many laps as possible and we suffered a bit today. We need to try and make up for the lost time and find a good direction for tomorrow.”

That was just another Friday, but the track conditions certainly changed a lot from FP1 to FP2. We will have a briefing now, go through everything and try and sort out a few issues and see what we can do for tomorrow. We have the usual stuff to do to try and find more lap time, but the car's performance was more or less as expected. We are where we are, and I will just drive as fast as I can. Anything can happen, and maybe a bit of rain will come up.

It was a long, difficult day. I had predicted it would be tough. We still managed to go through some interesting things and we collected some reasonable data. Putting it all together, we would expect some progress for tomorrow, but at the same time we need to be realistic that what we put together isn’t going to deliver an impressive step in performance. It’s going to be hard tomorrow, but it is what it is.

“It was not the easiest Friday for us. Unfortunately we lost a lot of time this afternoon with the issue I had on my car. We lost a bit of track time in the morning so we are missing some information ahead of the race, especially on the tyres. However, we still have some practice tomorrow so we will see what we can do. Despite these problems, I like the new circuit. I wasn’t very positive about it until today, but now that I drove it for the first time I quite like it. The wind is a big issue: it changed between the two sessions and it took a lot of time to get used to it. I had a couple of moments on my soft runs, but I wasn’t the only one. It’s hard to tell where we stand but our target for tomorrow is definitely to be up there fighting to be best of the rest.”

“Es ist ein enttäuschendes Resultat für mich, da ich leider an der zweiten freien Trainingseinheit nicht teilnehmen konnte. FP1 verlief recht positiv. Wir hatten einige neue Teile am Auto, und haben weitere Fortschritte erzielt. Ich fühlte mich auf der Strecke wohl – dann fing der Wind an die Balance des Autos zu beeinflussen. Das Heck brach aus und lies mich in die Barrieren fahren. Wir sehen uns nun die Daten an um zu verstehen, was genau passiert ist. Leider hat dieser Zwischenfall den Rest des Tages beeinflusst. Wir haben Zeit verloren, und unsere Mechaniker haben viel Arbeit vor sich um das Auto zu reparieren. Ich freue mich nun darauf morgen einen positiveren Tag zu haben.“