Fahrerstimmen – Tag 1

“After a day like today, it’s difficult to get a clear picture of where we all stand, especially in terms of long run pace, when I think traffic was a factor. In qualifying trim, I felt comfortable, but also in this aspect, we will have to wait until tomorrow to get a clearer picture. However, we still have quite a bit of work to do to get the maximum out of the SF90 and that’s what we will concentrate on in the final free practice session. If we manage that, then we can be competitive.”

“It was a rather complicated Friday, because we weren’t able to do much running and the track was slippery and dusty. But it was fun all the same. So it took a while to get into a rhythm but overall I feel comfortable with the car. Maybe tomorrow we should be able to get a better idea of where we stand, because while I felt good in the car, there’s definitely still room for improvement. Tomorrow, we will continue working as it’s vital to get into a rhythm and have a good feel for the car and be totally confident about the track. I think qualifying will be very close, because I imagine our rivals will be very fast tomorrow.”

Heute war ein etwas komischer Tag, aber es hat mir trotzdem Spaß gemacht. Das zweite Training verlief richtig gut. Ich fühlte mich gut auf der Strecke und viel wohler im Auto als vor einem Jahr. Aber Ferrari ist hier sehr schnell und es sieht so aus, als ob sie uns ein ganzes Stück voraus sind. Jetzt müssen wir analysieren, wo wir die Zeit im Vergleich zu ihnen verlieren. Es ist unwahrscheinlich, dass wir über Nacht sieben Zehntel finden werden, aber wir werden unser Bestes geben, um das Auto in die richtige Richtung zu entwickeln. Unsere Pace auf Long Runs sah etwas stärker aus als auf den kürzeren Versuchen. Nun müssen wir herausfinden, woran das liegt. Morgen steht uns ein guter Kampf ins Haus und das gefällt mir. Ich glaube, dass die Fans genau das sehen möchten. Deshalb freue ich mich auf den morgigen Tag.

“The lack of running this morning didn’t really hurt us as it was the same for everyone and FP2 is always the most important session on a Friday. The track is very slippery and as you could see it was very easy to lock up or run wide, so it was important to complete as many laps as possible and get used to the track conditions. You have to drive to the limit of the car with the grip you have and you build up lap by lap, especially on a low grip street track like this, and you have to be ready to adapt. I’m satisfied with what we achieved today and now we will look into the data as there are always areas to improve, but it is mostly fine tuning. We don’t really have expectations for tomorrow yet and with only one practice session everyone can still improve a lot, but the initial balance seems fine and we completed a good number of laps on both tyre compounds.”

Der Freitag sah viele Unterbrechungen, wodurch das zweite Training wichtiger als sonst war. Entsprechend haben wir versucht, das beste aus unserer Zeit auf der Strecke zu machen. Nach dem Abbruch des ersten Trainings sind wir am Nachmittag mehr Runden gefahren als ursprünglich geplant waren. Ich bin mit meinen Runden nicht ganz zufrieden, aber in Baku ist es immer etwas knifflig, den richtigen Rhythmus zu finden. Das dauert ein wenig. Heute war es nicht einfach, den Medium-Reifen auf Temperatur zu bringen. Aber die Kurvengeschwindigkeiten werden im Laufe des Wochenendes steigen, wenn sich die Strecke immer weiter verbessert. Dann sollten wir morgen etwas mehr Energie in die Reifen bekommen. Unsere Long Runs fühlten sich gut an und die Pace sah ebenfalls nicht schlecht aus. Aber auf einer Runde liegen wir noch etwas zurück. Ferrari sieht richtig stark aus, besonders auf kürzeren Versuchen. Uns erwartet morgen also ein harter Kampf.

“It was quite a strange day, there was no running in FP1 besides an installation lap, then in FP2 something happened with the steering wheel, so we had to take a break to fix it. This meant we lost some important running and, consequently, I had to find the limits of the track very quickly on my next run. Unfortunately, I locked up and had an oversteer moment which led to some contact with the wall. On the positive side, the feeling of the car was very good before the accident, so we’ll keep pushing to improve even further tomorrow.”

“It was a bit of a hectic session – as we all expected after missing FP1. I think everyone wanted to be out there for as much time as possible, including us. We tried to do as many laps as we could even though there were quite a lot of yellow flags, as always in Baku, and it was difficult to warm up the tyres.” “A challenging session but we didn’t come out of it too disappointed. Still a lot of work to do tomorrow, I think. I’m far away from being comfortable here with the car, so we need to see what we can do.

“There was only one practice session today, but I think it was the right choice considering the safety risks. The car was quick straight away going into FP2. We did a good job preparing the car and we managed to put in some fast laps before moving to the high-fuel run, so it’s all looking good at the moment. We just need to fine-tune the car and I feel I’ve got more time to gain once I get to know the track better in a Formula 1 car.”

“In the short runs, the laps were a bit messy but I think we have good potential if we manage to put everything together. With the high fuel, I’m feeling better and I’m pretty happy with the long runs. Of course we would have liked to run in FP1 but I think we managed to do everything we wanted to in FP2. We ran quite a lot of tests and we have a good direction for tomorrow. We know we have some performance so I’m pretty positive. With the braking, it was a bit tricky and I had to take the escape road a couple of times because I was finding the limit. The car is getting better all the time and I’m happy with the feeling I’m getting from it. Ferrari seemed quite a lot faster today but we’ll see what we can do in qualifying tomorrow and like I say, we have a good race car so this is positive.”

“Overall it wasn’t as long a day, or as action-packed, as I was hoping but we still made the most of it. There was a lot of track development through the second session because it was pretty much FP1. Although the F2 cars had been running, the track was improving a lot – but still very dusty, very slippery and quite difficult to drive. “Given the lost time, we made good choices when prioritising the things we needed to test and it was a very busy session in terms of the amount of laps we fitted in. I think it was still a positive day for us, but tomorrow’s another day.”

“Lots of yellow and red flags – as usual here in Baku, but we didn’t cause any of them. For us it was as smooth as it could get, it wasn’t too bad of a Friday. Unfortunately our long run was not so long, but we got a feeling for what was happening on the soft tires. There was lots of graining on that tire, so that won’t be easy for the race. I’m sure the graining will get better once the grip on-track increases, but by how much is the big question. I didn’t really get a feeling for the medium tires. We need to see how it’ll go on Sunday I guess. Maybe we can try something tomorrow in FP3. The overall car balance wasn’t too bad, it felt okay, but we’ll see if we can find some more for Saturday.”

“Again I could only drive one session today. For me it is becoming quite normal as I also missed FP1 in China – at the next race I’ll only show up on Saturday. Joking aside, FP2 was not too bad and I got quite a few laps in. I’m happy with the car and even if I’ve been given a 10-place grid penalty I think something is possible here.”

“It has been a difficult day after losing valuable track time in FP1. I had a big lockup in FP2 with my tyres which also hurt me a bit, but other than that I am pleased with the progress we made through the session. Hopefully tonight we can find a couple of tenths that will put us in the fight tomorrow. We put a good amount of laps on the board, which is important around this circuit: you need as much mileage as possible to build your confidence as the weekend progresses. I was not as confident straight away as in other years around here, but I think we can improve a lot tomorrow. The key for qualifying will be to keep building up your feeling with the car and to improve our balance. We’ve got a bit of that confidence on the long runs already but we need that on a single lap too. Other cars are very competitive around here, but we will try our best.”

“Obviously it was far from ideal for everybody and we looked like amateurs here today. It should not be like this. It’s up to the FIA to make sure that the track is like it’s supposed to be. It seems to be that every year some drainage hole comes loose, or something slides up. Luckily nobody got hurt, but it obviously destroyed everybody’s day.”

“Today was a little bit stop-start. In the second session, I had one clean lap which wasn’t too bad at the time. We had two brake lock-ups on two sets of tyres which resulted in two big flat spots. We couldn’t continue after that. We have a few things to sort out ahead of tomorrow, especially trying to get the car happier on the brakes.”

“It’s always challenging in Baku. I didn’t quite get the confidence in the car that I wanted, so there’s work to be done for tomorrow. The track was quite dirty as well, so all-in-all it’s quite complicated. It’s a good challenge, but it would have been nice to get a two-hour session and an extra set of tires for this afternoon, it would have helped us get a bit more running and more understanding. I’m looking forward to tomorrow, especially qualifying, and then as always the race on Sunday. We’re working in the right direction.”

“It was a shame we didn’t get as much running in as planned today, but that’s the same for all teams with the circuit damage in FP1 and a couple of red flags in FP2. The second session didn’t go well for us, and we were struggling with things like tyre warm-up, downforce level and braking stability. That made it challenging, but we’ll put our heads together overnight and find some fixes for tomorrow.”

“It’s been a tough start to the weekend, we lost track time this morning but it was the same for everybody. FP2 had started better: I felt a good rhythm with the car in the laps I did this afternoon, but I had a snap on entry coming into turn two, the rear came out on me and that was that, I ended up in the wall. It’s frustrating, but it is what it is. The team did their best to get the car back out on track for the end of the session, but we just missed out by the smallest of margins. We will look at the data we have overnight and focus on getting as many laps as we can tomorrow and take it from there.”

It was not an ideal day losing FP1, I think everybody would have liked more track time, especially on a street circuit and for me this isn’t one I’ve raced on before. The track is very tricky. I spent time discovering it in FP2 but I don’t have much confidence, we are struggling overall with the grip and we cannot push the car as the tyres are not able to remain in the operating window. Additional time was lost during FP2 due to the red flags and it’s a shame we couldn’t drive both cars on the circuit.

It has been a tough day, it’s a shame for the guys to spend yesterday preparing the car to only do a couple of laps. I was going down the straight and I felt a big bang through the chassis and everything turned off; it’s just unfortunate. The plan right now is to go into debrief, listen to Robert’s comments and see what the guys have planned for tomorrow. Overall, today has been a bit of a frustration, but we must make the most of the situation and I will remain positive for the weekend ahead.