Fahrerstimmen – Tag 1

“Today was very positive and the car worked really well on both tyres. We followed our own programme, tried quite a few things set-up wise and got a good balance, especially in the last sector but even the first sector with the long straight looked competitive. When you have a good feeling with the car it comes alive in the last sector which is really nice after the strange weekend we had in Singapore. It looks like it may rain tomorrow so that will also mix things up but hopefully the car will also work well in those conditions. We will of course try and do our best in qualifying as the five place grid penalty will be applied after the session, so it is still very important to be quick but at least you can overtake around here and if you are fast you can get to the front. It's only Friday and too early to make any predictions as everyone will improve but it is a very positive start.”

“It was quite a good day. Although we have some work to do when it comes to our qualifying pace, our race pace was very positive. The track layout can be deceptive, as it has many similar corners. But it is tricky to set up the car, because the first and second sectors are quick and once you arrive in the third sector, the tyres are not in the best shape anymore. There is quite a difference in balance from the beginning to the end of the lap. You have to find a good compromise in the set-up, which will allow you to post the best lap time without sacrificing your race pace. We tested a bit in both directions today and I think we found our way. Our competitors are strong, and we have to keep working as hard as we possibly can to keep our momentum from the past few race weekends.”

Diese Strecke macht immer viel Spaß, aber leider waren die anderen für uns heute einen Tick zu schnell. Die Fahrzeugbalance fühlte sich gut an, aber ich hatte Schwierigkeiten, Grip zu finden. Alles andere schien okay zu sein. Aber natürlich müssen wir uns noch verbessern, wenn wir morgen um die Pole kämpfen möchten. Wir werden die Daten heute Abend studieren und sehen, was wir morgen besser machen können. Auf dieser Strecke sind die Reifen der Schlüssel zu einer guten Performance. Deshalb müssen wir versuchen, auf einer Runde mehr aus den Soft-Reifen herauszuholen. Auf den Medium- und Hard-Reifen sah unsere Performance schon recht ordentlich aus. Ich hoffe, dass es morgen regnet, denn ich glaube, dass wir in einem Regen-Qualifying eine bessere Chance haben könnten.

Der heutige Tag war eine kleine Entdeckungsreise. Er hat nicht allzu schlecht begonnen, aber obwohl wir uns gesteigert haben, erzielten die anderen größere Fortschritte und verbesserten sich viel schneller als wir. Im zweiten Training war unsere Pace ein bisschen besser, aber wir sind immer noch nicht dort, wo wir gerne sein möchten. Entsprechend werden die Lichter heute Abend lange an sein, um zu verstehen, was wir besser machen können, um uns morgen weiter zu steigern. Es ist schön, dass sich unsere Konkurrenten gut schlagen, aber natürlich möchten wir in dem Kampf mitmischen. Darauf arbeiten wir hin. Morgen erwartet uns ein harter Tag, aber ich hoffe, dass es regnen wird. Ich glaube nicht, dass wir hier schon einmal im Regen gefahren sind. Somit wäre das richtig interessant.

“My day was not perfect, as in the afternoon I struggled a bit to find the right balance and therefore I never got into a rhythm. I think we can do better tomorrow as we tried different things and now we need to decide what to keep and what to get rid of. I think we need to work more on the car and then we’ll see if we are competitive. It’s too early to tell what the pecking order is and we will get a better idea of where we are tomorrow. I don’t know what the weather is doing, but the closer we can be to the front the better it is. Anyway, we have the tyres for whatever the situation might be. To summarise I think we can improve, in particular in terms of balance. I hope tomorrow we are on the good side of things.”

“It was a really good Friday. I’m happy with the progress we made between FP1 and FP2 as it seems to have gone in the right direction. We finished the day with the sixth-fastest time, which is always positive, but I think looking at our situation with the penalty on Sunday, we really need to make sure we have a strong race car and prioritize our car for Sunday compared to Saturday. There’s a lot to analyse tonight, but it was a positive day overall.”

A promising day. I think it’s been our best Friday of the season in terms of understanding and progress. We did a lot of aero work and I’m very pleased with the day. I’m massively looking forward to tomorrow and Sunday. The conditions could change at any time so we have to be ready to react to the weather, try to find a couple of tenths and we should be fighting for a strong position.”

“Friday was okay for us today. I like the track, it’s got a nice flow to it and it was good to be back driving here. Generally, it wasn’t a bad day. The car seemed in a reasonable place from the get go and I felt confident in the car straight away. I wasn’t as happy in the afternoon, we changed a couple of things on set-up, which we’ll review and look to improve. But, overall, it wasn’t bad and I’m feeling positive.”

“I’m happy with today and the car is feeling good. There are still some things to work on in terms of the balance, but we seem quite competitive at the moment. Anything can happen tomorrow and there may be a bit of rain in the mix too. Singapore was the first race with the new package and sometimes it takes more than a weekend to find a good balance. We still have to work on a few things but we’re not in bad shape.”

“FP1 went well this morning but this afternoon in FP2, I got a bit of floor damage after running wide out of Turn 4 which meant we lost some running which was a shame. That delayed things and then when we got back out it was a never-ending traffic jam with everyone on long runs so I didn’t get any clean laps in. I tried to stay out of trouble as best I could and I heard Bottas was just behind me but I didn’t know Lewis was right behind him and so it was my mistake to get in his way. It was just one of those things, but I wouldn’t say it was a waste of a session as there’s definitely things I learned out there. It’s encouraging to see where Max is and to see the car is back to being competitive again. I think the car is quick and the pace is good. I just need to work on it my side and get a cleaner run tomorrow. I’m building confidence with the car and this takes time, but compared to Singapore, I think we’re looking good.”

“Not a bad day. I’m struggling with the car, as it’s a little unpredictable at times, making it easy to make mistakes. I’m not yet as comfortable with the car compared to Singapore, for example. “We definitely made progress between the sessions and we’ll now work hard overnight to make more improvements.”

“It wasn’t an ideal start to the day in FP1, so in FP2 we had to catch up with the mileage we lost and try a few things we couldn’t try in FP1. I needed to get reacquainted with the track and find my references again, which I did, and we ended up having a productive session in FP2. We covered everything we planned to do, so we are prepared for tomorrow. In the end, we completed a decent number of laps for our long run analysis and hopefully we have enough data to understand what we need for the race. There are always chances, so we’ll do our best to take them. We knew our weekend was going to be compromised already with the penalty we are taking. However, we will do our job and see how far we can get up the grid on Sunday.”

“Not too bad, not too good. I think we’re kind of where we expected, I guess. We looked okay on the long run, at least on the first stint, we didn’t really do too much on the second stint. We extended the first run to try and learn more about the soft tire. It looks okay, but it could be better. We need to keep learning all these upgrades and analyze all our data, but I’m hoping we can get to where we can just concentrate from a performance point of view.”

“It started pretty well today, but having the incident at the end of FP1 meant we lost a little bit of time in the afternoon. The mechanics did a really good job to fix the car so quickly. We have work to do but we’re not in a bad place with just a few things to clean up. I think I can improve in some areas so there’s more to come. The rears have a hard time here and we’re figuring out the right balance. I’m not too concerned, Nico had decent pace and I think we’ll be alright tomorrow.”

„Das war ein ziemlich normaler Freitag, und das Auto fühlte sich recht gut an. Die Rundenzeiten spielten heute keine Rolle. Den Abend werden wir mit allen üblichen Meetings und Analysen verbringen und sehen, was wir morgen schaffen können. Das Qualifying droht zu verregnen, aber das beeinflusste unsere heutige Arbeit nicht. Wir werden das Auto vorbereiten und es den Bedingungen nach Bedarf anpassen.“

“It was actually pretty good today. I was P10 in FP1, then in FP2 I didn’t get a lap in on the soft tires – I had a few issues, I pushed the rear of the ride height as low as I could but that created some locking. I think though it was a pretty good day. The long run pace didn’t look too bad and the car felt okay. We did a bit of aero testing today also, changing the front-wing and stuff like that. We’re working on a few things we can do for tomorrow, but we’re quite happily surprised.”

“Challenging Friday during both sessions today. We attempted to try different set-ups which didn’t work and traffic ruined our best attempts. We aren’t where we want and we have work ahead of us this evening. “However, we’re ready for the challenge, even if the weekend looks difficult today. Conditions will be different tomorrow with a high possibility of rain – so let’s see what we can do.”

„Es war ein guter Freitag, auch wenn die Rundenzeiten das nicht widerspiegeln. Während meiner letzten Runde auf den weichen Reifen unterlief mir ein Fehler, weshalb wir ein wenig weiter hinten stehen, als es hätte sein sollen. Der Fokus liegt jetzt darauf, am heutigen Abend die beste Abstimmung auszutüfteln und morgen im Qualifying gut abzuschneiden. Morgen kann es regnen, entsprechend können völlig andere Bedingungen herrschen. Wenn dies so kommen sollte, hoffe ich auf ein nasses drittes Training, damit wir sehen können, was uns im Qualifying erwartet. Letztlich aber ist es ohnehin für alle gleich. Mal sehen, was wir erreichen können: Wie immer, wollen wir Q3 erreichen. Wir müssen unverändert hart arbeiten und das Beste aus dem Auto herausholen.“

It was a bit slippery out there, but I think it’s like that for everyone. I’m not the greatest fan of this circuit. It’s low grip and with all the run off areas it’s not quite as daunting as some other circuits, but it was ok and as we expected. We weren’t quite as good on the new tyres as we should have been. We did our fastest lap on our third lap, rather than the first one, so there is room for improvement. We’re quite slow on the straights and this track has a mighty one to start with, so that’s not helping us at all. Our performance today wasn’t as good as it could have been, and we should be closer than the laptimes suggest.

Sochi is a new track for me, so it is always nice to experience new challenges with different layouts. However, today was one of hardest days behind the wheel, in terms of the balance and overall grip. This is the kind of track that you must carry a lot of speed and the corners are short. You need good stability on entry and confidence in the car, which we do not have yet. We must check the data and hopefully we can improve for tomorrow.