Fahrerstimmen – Tag 1

Heute war ein sehr positiver Tag für uns. Es macht immer Spaß, mit diesen Autos auf dieser Strecke zu fahren. Alles in allem bin ich mit dem Auto sehr zufrieden, es fühlte sich auf Anhieb gut an. Ich glaube, dass wir noch ein paar kleinere Verbesserungen an der Fahrzeugbalance vornehmen können, aber insgesamt fühlte sich das Auto sowohl auf kürzeren als auch auf längeren Runs gut an. Wir haben heute einige der Reifen verwendet, die für den Samstag gedacht waren, und das Wetter blieb schön, sodass wir viel fahren konnten. Das ist klasse. Am Sonntag erwarten wir, dass es im Qualifying und im Rennen eng zugehen wird. Deshalb müssen wir weiter alles geben. Morgen haben wir einen unerwarteten freien Tag, aber ich bin mir sicher, dass das Team mich gut beschäftigen wird. Wir werden die Daten analysieren und versuchen, das Beste herauszuholen.

Es ist fantastisch, auf dieser Strecke zu fahren. Wir hatten im ersten Sektor Gegenwind in den Esses, wodurch es ganz besonders toll war. Alles in allem war es ein guter Tag und wir konnten unser geplantes Programm absolvieren. Aber die Arbeit ist noch nicht getan - auf dieser Strecke kann man immer noch etwas Zeit finden und es gibt immer Bereiche, in denen man sich noch verbessern kann. Valtteri hatte eine gute Pace und es scheint, als ob wir uns zu diesem Zeitpunkt des Wochenendes in einer guten Ausgangslage befinden. Ich mag diese Strecke sehr und kann es kaum erwarten, wieder ins Auto zu steigen. Heute Abend und morgen werden wir die Daten studieren und versuchen, uns in eine gute Position für den Sonntag zu bringen.

“I wasn’t totally happy with the balance initially today but we improved a lot from FP1 to FP2 which you can see from the lap times this afternoon. There are still improvements to be made and Mercedes are looking very strong, which is no surprise on this track, but we made a good recovery from this morning. The new Esso fuel also seems to be a good step forward in terms of power which is really positive. It’s only Friday so you can’t really tell where everyone is but we were all pushing a little harder in FP2 in case qualifying doesn’t happen on Sunday and these times set our grid positions. Because of the typhoon we won’t be on track tomorrow but we have a full day to look at the data and I will probably set up a FIFA tournament with some of the other drivers. I’m not worried about doing qualifying and the race on Sunday as it won’t affect my approach. We can’t change the weather and it’s out of our control, so now we just have to see what happens on Sunday.”

“We made the most of our day. Knowing that qualifying has been postponed to Sunday due to the weather conditions, everyone approached free practice a bit differently to usual, especially for the second session. There will be no FP3 this weekend and if we can’t drive on Sunday morning for any reason, the results from FP2 will count for the starting grid. Our competitors were very strong today and we are not yet where we would like to be. I am not entirely sure where we are lacking in terms of our pace, but I know that some of the improvements will come from me working on my driving. Sunday will be busy, but in the end you always have the same routine before you get into the car, the same mindset. So we will go ahead as usual, working hard on improving in all areas and doing the best job possible to bring home a strong result.”

“Today, was not too bad, at least it was better than it looked. We are in reasonable shape, but maybe we are lacking a bit of pace overall. Our rivals looked very comfortable right from the start of practice and they confirmed that pace in FP2. I think we have a bit of room for improvement as it wasn’t an ideal session, in terms of how we made use of our tyres. I’m not sure what I’ll do tomorrow: relax and maybe do some indoor sports. On Sunday there will be a big question mark over the state of the track as tomorrow’s wind and rain will have an effect.”

“I’m quite happy with how today went and I’m loving the track so I can’t wait to get back out there. Sector one is really impressive and I’m enjoying myself. I got into a rhythm quite quickly and I’m feeling a lot more comfortable than I was in Sochi, but I still have some work to do. It’s my first time driving here and not running tomorrow means less time for me to learn the track which isn’t ideal. It will hurt us a bit but it’s the same for everyone and we’ll get on with it. Mercedes are very quick and they look good in the corners but our car is getting a lot better and I don’t think the balance is too far away. We’re making good progress and there’s still a bit more to come, so now it’s just about fine tuning things to find a couple more tenths. Let’s see if qualifying goes ahead on Sunday as P6 is maybe not quite what we wanted. If it’s dry I hope to be in the mix of things but this track looks tricky in the wet so if it rains it will be a bit more difficult. At the moment I’ve got nothing planned for tomorrow but I’ve heard there’s a bowling alley in our hotel so maybe we’ll do that!”

“I think it’s been a positive Friday – after a little heart attack at the start of FP1! We managed to get the car back to the garage, the mechanics did a great job to get everything ready and we went back out to complete our run programme. FP2 was also intense but I’m happy with how both sessions went. The car feels good and we looked competitive. “However, not running tomorrow means there were different run plans today, so we can’t tell for sure where our competitors are. There is a bit of uncertainty but I’m confident we’ll be ready for Sunday.”

“I think we can be quite happy with the performance today – certainly compared to the teams we expect to be racing on Sunday. With the rain due to arrive later tonight, and qualifying cancelled tomorrow, there’s still a chance that qualifying might not take place on Sunday morning. If this happens, then today’s practice results will make up the grid. If that is the case, then eighth place is not a bad place to start the race. It’s close in the middle of the grid – with half a second covering about ten cars – so it’s going to be a close battle whatever happens on Sunday.”

“It was quite a chilled morning on my side watching FP1. It’s really great to drive around Suzuka, one of my favourite tracks, and even though I only had one session, it was very enjoyable and I’m really excited for Sunday. We knew FP2 would be really important as Saturday is cancelled, so we tried to do as many runs as we could. We did a combination of Qualifying and race preparation and we managed to do many laps and end up with the ninth fastest lap. However, the car was a bit tricky so we need to study everything we trialled today, as it’s OK but we can still find some more performance. We’ve got more time than usual to work and find the best solutions for quite a busy Sunday.”

“A good day. Everything we planned to do, we got through. We did the testing we needed to accomplish: high fuel, low fuel and got good readings and data from everything we did. “I’ve only previously done FP1 here last year, so in terms of driving, I’ve got a bit to work on. I’m not quite as confident as I would want to be, so we’ll make some changes before Sunday for qualifying – if it happens. By improving my driving and the set-up, we can take a step forward.”

„Für mich war es ein ziemlich einfacher Freitag. Wir drehten einige Runden mehr als ursprünglich geplant, um den Ausfall des morgigen dritten freien Trainings zu kompensieren. Aber unterm Strich berührten uns die Planänderungen nicht sonderlich. Wir liegen knapp außerhalb der Top 10, und die Abstände sind sehr gering. Gemeinsam mit den Ingenieuren werden wir versuchen, die Performance zu verbessern, da es nach dem Training grundsätzlich möglich ist, Leistungsverbesserungen zu erzielen. Es ist allerdings unmöglich vorherzusagen, wie wir im Qualifying abschneiden werden. Wir müssen uns gedulden und abwarten, was am Sonntag geschieht – es wird eng.“

“It was a good session, we had a productive FP2 as we knew tomorrow is cancelled so we had an intense programme which was a bit different to usual, it was very busy and we completed many laps. In FP1 we were not where we wanted to be with the car, but in FP2 we made a good step and the car felt better, which was good progress. Overall, we were quite happy with the car and what we managed to do in FP2, we will see if there’s room for improvement for Sunday but going straight into Qualifying will be interesting! The conditions may be different to today, it could be windier, so it takes a bit of time to adapt and it will come down to how fast you will be able to find your rhythm.”

“I actually think it was a super exciting Friday. I think it would be cool to have Saturdays like this, with FP1 in the morning and then FP2 in the afternoon, where you have extra tires and the result is your qualifying. You can work on the car, and at the same time push hard, I was trying different things. I thought it was quite a cool day. There’s obviously a little bit more pressure on that as free practice. This morning the car was good, but in the afternoon I was expecting a little bit more to be fair, I wanted to have three-four more tenths. We just didn’t have it, it’s a bit of a shame in that aspect. We’ll keep working and we’ll see if we actually do have qualifying on Sunday morning or not.”

“It was a good day. I think the car is working well, but we need to see what happens with the weather on Sunday. There are question marks about whether qualifying will even happen – because we don’t know if the storm will have cleared by Sunday morning. It certainly made things a little bit more interesting in FP2 and we had to think more about qualifying today. With everything cancelled tomorrow, it’s quite a strange feeling. There are not a massive amount of things to do in the hotel and we won’t be going outside. So I guess we will hang out and watch some movies until the weather improves.”

„Wegen eines Hydrauliklecks verpassten wir den größten Teil des ersten freien Trainings, was nicht gerade der beste Start in ein Wochenende ist. Suzuka ist für mich eine neue Rennstrecke und zusätzlich auch eine ziemlich herausfordernde Strecke. Deshalb wäre es für mich wichtig gewesen, möglichst viele Runden zu fahren. Zumindest versuchten wir, die verlorengegangene Zeit nachmittags gutzumachen, und tatsächlich legten wir im zweiten Training eine Menge Kilometer zurück. Schon nach nur zwei Trainingssitzungen kann ich sagen: Suzuka ist die beste Rennstrecke, auf der ich bisher in der F1 fuhr. Leider müssen wir morgen wegen des Wetters pausieren und verpassen dadurch das dritte Training. Das macht dieses Wochenende für mich nicht gerade einfacher. In jedem Fall werden wir am heutigen Abend versuchen, die optimale Abstimmung zu finden, um am Sonntag im Qualifying und im Rennen gut abschneiden zu können.“

“It was a bit of a strange one, considering we now have a cancelled day tomorrow. We had to go for it a little bit in FP2 in case that sets our starting position – who knows if Sunday morning will be ready for action. I hope we get another shot as we didn’t really get much out of it. It was interesting having more tires and using those in FP2, but we weren’t so quick, our pace wasn’t great. Let’s see what the weather does on Sunday and go from there.”

“We focused on getting in as much running as possible today knowing tomorrow is off. We improved the car in the afternoon after a difficult morning and found some decent progress. We decided to complete some long runs and then short runs towards the end of the afternoon. Unfortunately, both low fuel laps were compromised with traffic - we’re better than what the timesheets say - and I don’t think we’re too far off from where we want to be. Hopefully we can have a good qualifying and then be in a better position to race on Sunday.”

“I spent the session getting used to the car; the power is amazing! I was very surprised, I have never felt such power before, so that was the biggest difference between Super Formula and Formula 1. I learnt a few things about the car and the balance, and I gave as much feedback as possible to the team. This is my home Grand Prix and there are a lot of fans coming to Suzuka, even for FP1 on a Friday! I was really surprised and I would like to say thank you very much to all of the Honda and Toro Rosso fans. For sure I wanted to have a better result than 17th, but the most important thing is that I didn’t crash and I provided good information for the engineers. I wish the team a great result this weekend, especially Pierre as he gave me his car - I am grateful to him.”

“It was a tough Friday for us. We made some changes between sessions that seemed to help. We had some balance problems with a lack of grip, especially in Sector One, but worked through it to end the day happier. The times aren’t strictly representative as we ran out of sync with the others. It’s a day off tomorrow with the typhoon coming in but we will look at everything in detail and be ready to go straight away on Sunday.”

Today was a busy day as qualifying is postponed until Sunday because of the weather risk. We had to fit in more runs and use more tyres, like everyone else, so it was busier and more varied than usual. We do not know what the weather will do on Sunday, so we adapted our Friday programme, adding short runs with low fuel to get a good lap time in case qualifying is cancelled. Sunday will be a compact day with lots of action, and let’s hope that the weather clears up.

It was great experiencing Suzuka for the first time. It’s an incredible circuit, one of the best I’ve ever driven. I was pretty pleased with my laps, although the pace was probably not as strong as I was expecting. We did a lot of aero running; in FP1, we back-to-backed the front-wings across both cars to gather more info, as we had different sensors on each. We’re still yet to have the full analysis as there is a lot of data to gather, but the guys have got all day tomorrow to look at it to see what is what! We did everything that we wanted to today so that was spot on.