Fahrerstimmen – Tag 1

“This morning I was the gardener of Turn 1, in terms of going through the grass. I like mowing the lawn and I did it this morning a couple of times but didn’t need to do it again in the afternoon, since I was able to find the rhythm and everything went smoothly from then on. Charles and I split the work today. I did most of the work on the Medium tyre, which was ok. We don’t look that bad, but I don’t have the full picture yet. I did only two laps on new Softs so it’s difficult to say, but I don’t think I had the worst tyre today for the long runs. However there are still some areas where we can improve tomorrow in terms of the general balance and the feeling I have with the car. Max (Verstappen) looks strong, but all the three top teams are very close, so let’s see what tomorrow brings.”

“Today was a pretty positive day. We tested quite a few bits on the car, improved throughout the day and in the end I was quite pleased with the balance. There are of course things still to be improved but you can’t complain when you are purple in sectors two and three. I don’t think we can realistically fight Ferrari for pole as they are just too quick on the straights and there are not enough corners to make up the difference but we seem to be in the same speed range on the long runs. Now we just have to focus on the race where our pace looks more competitive and if we can keep our tyres under control then I think it will be a close race.”

“It was a positive Friday for us as a team. Our qualifying performance was good and the car looks quite competitive here. For me, FP1 was good while FP2 turned out to be more tricky. I struggled a bit with the car balance and there are still some improvements I want to make in my driving. In general, the grip is rather poor on this track because we find ourselves at such a high altitude and the downforce is not as efficient as it is at other tracks. To win this race, you have to get a good start and keep the lead well into turn 1. Being behind someone is a disadvantage here because of the cooling issues everyone faces, so having a strong qualifying result will be a key factor. Our competitors are strong and we will see where we really stand tomorrow, but we are confident of our potential and ready to give it our all once again.”

Heute war nicht gerade der einfachste Tag für uns. Die Strecke fühlte sich sehr rutschig an und ich hatte im ersten Training mit der Fahrzeugbalance zu kämpfen. Vor dem zweiten Training nahmen wir einige Veränderungen am Auto vor. Danach fühlte sich die Balance deutlich besser an. Uns fehlt jedoch immer noch ein wenig Grip. Sowohl Ferrari als auch Red Bull scheinen auf dieser Strecke stark zu sein, aber wir können noch viele Dinge an diesem Wochenende verbessern. Die weicheren Reifenmischungen leiden auf diesem Asphalt recht stark. Im vergangenen Jahr war das ganz besonders schlimm, aber wir haben uns dieses Jahr in diesem Bereich verbessert und ich konnte sogar ein paar Runden auf den Soft-Reifen fahren. Die harten Reifen, die ich am Ende gefahren bin, waren jedoch sehr solide und konstanter. Das macht es ziemlich spannend, da wir deswegen am Sonntag verschiedene Strategien sehen könnten.

Heute war kein toller Tag, aber das sind wir in Mexiko fast schon gewohnt. Wir hatten keine besonders großen Probleme. Stattdessen ging es darum, die Reifen zu verstehen - von den kürzeren Runs bis zu den längeren Versuchen und das bei unterschiedlichen Streckentemperaturen. Es ist schwer zu sagen, wie man die Reifen hier am besten zum Arbeiten bekommt. Das ist die Herausforderung. Das Auto fühlte sich im ersten Training gut an. Danach haben wir vor der zweiten Session einige Änderungen vorgenommen, gleichzeitig hat sich aber die Strecke mit Blick auf das Gripniveau und die Temperaturen ein wenig verändert. Deshalb haben wir das Setup nicht perfekt getroffen, mir ist aber auch keine perfekte Runde gelungen. Wir können also noch nachlegen. Das werden wir heute Abend analysieren, um zu sehen, in welchen Bereichen wir uns morgen und am Sonntag noch steigern können.

“It was a positive Friday. We completed our programme for both the sessions so now we have plenty of data to analyse to be ready for Qualifying and the Race. Today the feeling with the car was good but we need to keep on working to understand the track better and maximize our performance for the rest of the weekend.”

“It was a really good Friday! From the very beginning I felt pretty comfortable in the car and I think we made quite a step from FP1 to FP2, especially on the Medium tyres where we were fast throughout the whole session. Unfortunately, we were not able to improve on the Softs because of small driveability issues, but we know that the pace is there and I’m confident we still have margin for improvement. Overall, it looks really promising here and we’ll work hard tonight to keep the pace and show an even better performance tomorrow.”

“I think it’s been another solid Friday, not finishing off in the best way with a scrappy lap on the Soft tyre in FP2 but, overall, I felt comfortable with the car and comfortable with the set-up. "We haven’t made massive changes throughout the day and we completed our run plan, so that’s good news. Still, it looks like the big thing this weekend is going to be tyre graining and how to manage it. We’ll analyse the data gathered and get ready for tomorrow.”

“Today was quite reasonable for us. The sessions felt a little short with the red flags and our programme of running slightly later, but we got through what we needed to do and the car felt good from the get go this morning. The Soft is a challenging tyre and it’s quite similar to last year with graining an obvious problem. It’s quite difficult to manage but you do what you can out there. I felt comfortable in the car so, overall, a decent Friday and a solid start to the weekend.”

“It was an okay kind of a day. I struggled with locking into Turn One and we’ve had a few niggles with the car. Things were better in FP2 and especially near the end of the session. “The main thing is that there are clear points for the team and I to work on. There’s plenty of work for us to do overnight but I’m sure we’ll come back stronger tomorrow.”

“We had a solid day today. I was looking for the limits in the first session and just went over them. I thought I was going to be stuck in the barrier, but I managed to get out and get the car back. Well done to the team for fixing it so quickly because we even managed to get out again for a long run at the end of the morning session. I feel pretty positive overall and I think we can have a competitive weekend. Tyre management is going to be very important and tyre graining could be an issue in the race. That could open up some different strategy options on Sunday.”

“It wasn’t the easiest first session for me and we had a few small issues, but things improved in the afternoon and we made some progress. I still think there is more to come and that we can find a few tenths this evening to help us over a single lap. All the teams in the middle of the grid are very close so it’s going to be a very tight grid. We looked pretty strong during the race simulations and we have tried all the tyre compounds. I think we are in good shape and have all the information to help us make the right decisions tonight.”

“We struggled a bit today for balance on the car. I wasn’t that comfortable this morning, we did make some small improvements and some progress this afternoon, but there’s still a lot more to do. It’s not where we want to be at this stage. We still have a bit to gain, so we’ll see what else we have in the pocket overnight and into tomorrow.”

„Es war nicht ganz einfach, auf der Piste Grip zu finden, aber so war es hier in Mexiko immer schon. Offensichtlich beeinflusst die Höhenlage das Fahrverhalten des Autos. Zudem ist der Belag der Rennstrecke zu Beginn des Wochenendes ziemlich verschmutzt. Meiner Meinung nach liegt das wohl daran, dass der Circuit abgesehen von uns von kaum jemandem genutzt wird. Wir hatten einen arbeitsreichen Freitag. Wir konzentrierten uns auf unser Programm, und jetzt müssen wir dafür sorgen, morgen das bestmögliche Auto zu haben.“

“It’s not been an easy day, but we always know Mexico is a challenging track, the high altitude makes everything more on the edge. We’ve worked as hard as we could, but I guess we’re facing the same issues as everyone else in terms of trying to keep the tires alive. It’s been very hard. We were ready for a tough weekend, we won’t give up, we’ll be trying everything we can through to the checkered flag.”

„Es war ein schwieriger Freitag. Die Strecke machte es uns nicht einfach – speziell während des ersten Trainings, als das Grip-Niveau sehr niedrig war. Im zweiten Training hatten wir ein wenig zu kämpfen, und meine schnellste Runde war nicht gerade die beste. Entsprechend sind die Zeiten nicht wirklich repräsentativ. Um Erkenntnisse über den Reifenverschleiß zu sammeln, fuhren wir viele Runden mit viel Benzin an Bord. Aber erst morgen werden wir ein klares Bild davon bekommen, wo wir stehen. Ein guter Startplatz ist hier wichtig, also werden wir uns ab jetzt darauf konzentrieren. Dann werden wir sehen, was geschieht.“

“It’s a unique track with the low downforce and thin air. Our tires haven’t been working and it’s been cold. It’s pretty difficult, but it’s difficult for everyone. We haven’t looked quick today but the midfield’s very tight. It wouldn’t take much to put us back somewhere in the middle. There’s more emphasis on the race this time because it’s high-wear on the tires. There’s more strategy things to look at, it’s not just a clear one-stop. That’s going to be interesting and we’ll look a bit more towards that.”

With 25 percent less downforce than every other circuit because of the altitude, there was a lot of sliding around but it was definitely a cool experience driving in front of the baseball stadium. There were a few positives to take away from today; our high fuel pace seemed relatively good and we gathered some more data this morning back-to-backing the front wings, so that was encouraging.

It wasn’t an easy afternoon, as the conditions plus the high altitude mean that we lose quite a lot of downforce. It is the same for everyone as we cannot change the altitude, so there is a lot of sliding. We hope to find some improvements in order to slide less, which will make life easier for the tyres and hopefully we will pick up a bit of pace.

“This is my first time driving at this circuit and I’m enjoying it. I think it’s a good track and the stadium section is cool, but obviously today has not been the best day. FP1 was ok. The car felt good straightaway and I was happy with the balance, but in FP2 I just went a bit wide on the kerbs and lost the rear. Once these cars snap, they snap quickly and that was that. It was a silly mistake and I paid the price. We missed a good chunk of running so we’ll need to make that back up tomorrow but we’ll be ready for FP3 and that’s the main thing. Max showed the car is quick in the long runs and now it’s just about fine tuning for qualifying where we expect the Ferraris to be very strong. FP3 will be about rebuilding confidence and getting back into a rhythm but the conditions might be different with rain which could make things interesting.”

It was nice to be back behind the wheel, after my last outing at Spa as it feels like a long time. After my experience driving here last year, I knew that the track has very low grip due to the high altitude. It was a very busy session, I ran a completely different programme to George, we got a lot done and the team was happy with the data that we gathered. My goal for the FP1 sessions remains the same; to get as much information for the team going into FP2. It is never to get the fastest lap time, however, as a driver you try and do that to show the team what you can do. It was a good experience driving the car again with no big mistakes, everything was clean, so I am pleased with the session.