Fahrerstimmen – Tag 1

Es ist klasse, wieder zurück zu sein. Darauf haben wir lange gewartet. Das neue Auto fühlt sich natürlich anders an als das 2018er Fahrzeug, das wir vor ein paar Wochen in Silverstone getestet haben. Aber ich glaube, dass wir unseren Wagen im Vergleich zum Vorjahr weiter verbessern konnten. Das ist ein großer Pluspunkt. Die Strecke war etwas rutschig und obwohl der Grip besser werden wird, hatte ich das Gefühl, dass sich die Strecke bislang nur ganz wenig verbessert hat. Alles in allem sah es gut aus, aber man darf nie zu viel ins Training hineininterpretieren. Man weiß nie, was die anderen Teams mit Blick auf die Leistung und die Spritmenge gemacht haben. Entsprechend müssen wir das heutige Ergebnis mit Vorsicht genießen und werden versuchen, das Auto über Nacht zu verbessern, um morgen für den Kampf gerüstet zu sein.

Es war fantastisch, wieder im Auto zu sitzen. Ich habe jeden Versuch und jede einzelne Runde genossen. Wir haben im Laufe des Tages gute Fortschritte erzielt - Schritt für Schritt, wie man es nach einer so langen Pause erwarten darf. Insgesamt war es ein ordentlicher Tag, obwohl wir gegen Ende ein kleines Problem an meinem Auto hatten. Das Grip-Niveau war heute relativ niedrig, aber ich bin mir sicher, dass sich die Strecke im Verlauf des Wochenendes verbessern wird. Die größte Herausforderung wird es sein, die richtige Balance für die schnellen und langsamen Kurven zu finden und das Auto auf eine schnelle Runde am Samstag abzustimmen – dabei aber immer die Rennpace im Hinterkopf zu behalten. Heute ist erst Freitag und die Rundenzeiten werden morgen noch weiter sinken, wenn die Strecke immer besser wird. Dann werden die Teams noch zusätzliche Performance finden und die Fahrer alles geben. Umso interessanter wird es sein, herauszufinden, wo wir im Vergleich zu den anderen stehen.

“It's been an interesting day. Everything is really close out there, especially on such a short track. The car feels good and I’m happy. In the factory, the team has done a tremendous job and we have a car underneath us that is working well. There's still a lot of work to do – tonight and tomorrow morning – but we are in decent shape. The margins are extremely close, so it’s going to be really important to put together some really tidy laps in qualifying tomorrow.”

“I think we had a decent day. We didn’t have any trouble with the cars. It was good for us all to be back at the track and it was good to see that the team got up to speed fairly quickly and had no problems running through all the procedures. In terms of speed and competitiveness, it was an interesting day. I think we’ve seen that we are not at the top, that we are not the favourites. And then there is a lot of stuff going on behind that, and it’s very tight. So, we will see, I think tomorrow will be a big day. I don’t think we will be fighting for pole, but we must try to be the best of those behind that battle. We didn’t take much notice of the teams around us to be honest, as it’s always difficult to predict what sort of fuel loads people are running. I think we will see tomorrow, because we haven’t got a clear picture today. It’s up to us to develop and work so that the car gets faster. We’re lacking grip and downforce compared to others. So it’s a mix of all these things.”

“Firstly, it’s really nice to get back into it. After Australia, I think we were all a bit nervous if we were going to be here, so it’s great to be out there again. The car felt good straight away and we carried some good momentum through the day. Our long run pace gives us something to work on, while the low fuel pace looked decent, so I’m pretty happy with that. Taking the timing board out of it, the car feels like it’s progressed, so it’s positive feelings and I’m looking forward to qualifying.”

“It’s so good to be back in the car, getting up to speed, getting used to driving a Formula 1 car again. The first few laps are a bit of a shock to the body, because there’s nothing like driving an F1 car, but it’s great to be back. We got through our run plan, we did a good number of laps and I’m pretty happy with the car. There’s always things to improve on from my side and with the car but on the whole it’s a good way to start, so I’m happy. It’s just good to be back and getting in shape again, I’m looking forward to getting back out tomorrow and trying to improve.”

“It was very exciting to be driving again and it was a solid day for the team. We got a taste for the car in Barcelona during winter testing, but it’s good to see where we are relative to everybody else. We looked competitive and after so many months out of the car it was nice to get back in the groove. It’s definitely been one of the better Fridays I can remember for a long time – so that's a good sign. Today, it looked like we had the pace. So we'll see what tomorrow brings.”

"The lap times don’t really say anything because I broke my front wing on the push lap, so we had to fit a different wing. I think we were a little too aggressive for that and I had a spin and a little off, but nothing major. The kerbs are what they are here and it’s the same for everyone, the front wing doesn’t really like the yellow kerbs so we do have to be careful. We are I think confident and there are always things we can do better but overall it was a good day and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

“It’s good to be back in the car after a long pause but on the other hand it wasn’t an easy day for us so it was difficult to enjoy it fully. All the cars are very close, which is exciting to see on the one hand, but on the other hand, we would like to be fighting a bit nearer the front. The balance of the car is not that bad, we need to catch up in terms of overall performance. The lack of pace is not down to any one thing in particular so we’ll try different ways for tomorrow and see if we can gain some performance. Qualifying will be good for the show, as there are quite a lot of teams all close together. We’ll be fighting very hard and it’s crucial we make the right choice tonight to come back with a stronger car tomorrow.”

“It’s a positive first Friday for the team, it felt great to be back in the MCL35. We had some challenges and need to keep an eye on those yellow kerbs. I ran over one on my flying lap which cost me time on the final sector. Another minor issue kept me in the garage towards the end of the session but until then the car was showing a decent pace. We are starting to see the pecking order a little better and we are up for a tight Saturday. Let’s see what happens tomorrow!”

“It definitely felt good to be back and I’m very happy to have a decent day’s running. There are little things to improve here and there but that’s normal after a long time away from driving. It’s getting there, the pace is promising and looking at the team today we are in a good place. Our short runs were fairly quick, and the pace is there. I just need to pull it together when it counts tomorrow.”

“FP1 was a tricky session for us today. We were not that satisfied with the window the car was in, but I felt happier in FP2 as we were able to improve the car and make a step forward. We still have some work to do overnight but I’m positive that we will find what we need to improve the car still further for tomorrow.”

"It’s been a long time since we did this amount of running so there’s a lot to look through now ahead of tomorrow. There are a couple of things we need to work on, and there’s always a bit of time in your driving and set-up, so we’ll see where we are tomorrow but we know what to do. You’ve got to build up to the limit here as the kerbs are dangerous and some of them can be front wing killers if you hit them too hard. But overall the car felt good, I feel good, and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

„Es war wirklich schön, nach dieser langen Pause wieder im Auto zu sitzen. Ich habe viel Zeit im Simulator verbracht, aber nichts entspricht dem Gefühl, im echten Auto zu sitzen. Der Tag verlief recht positiv, und es ist uns gelungen, alle Tests zu absolvieren, die wir heute wollten, natürlich fehlt uns noch etwas im Vergleich zu den Top 10, aber wir werden heute Abend hart daran arbeiten, diese Lücke zu schliessen. Wie immer wird es darum gehen, alles zusammenzufügen, insbesondere in der Qualifikation. Wir sind hier, um unser Bestes zu geben, um zu versuchen, ein gutes Ergebnis zu erzielen und Punkte zu sammeln.”

“It was fantastic to be back in the car again and we had a decent day. We’re still learning about the car and discovering little things about it. The rear grip is very good in the new car but consistency is the key. The second session, it wasn’t as trouble-free in terms of some traffic and stuff, but overall though, I’d say it was still a good session – I’m still happy with the day. It’s been an interesting start and I can’t wait for more tomorrow.”

“It wasn’t an ideal start to the day, but it happens sometimes. The guys did a great job to enable us to get an install in at the end of the session just to check that the brakes were back to normal again. We then had a lot of work going on in FP2. We tried to make up for some of the time lost. I’ll tell you this though, coming out of the box and pressing the throttle, I did think to myself ‘wow this goes really fast’. It took me a little longer than I expected to get back to it and focusing on things like getting the braking point right and really just the overall sense of speed – Formula One is very special and unique in that sense. Things settled though and we did manage to run through the planned program. There’s obviously a bit more lap time to gain, the midfield is certainly looking quite tight.”

“I’m very happy to be back in the car after such a long break. It was an exciting day and we managed to do quite a few laps. In terms of performance, we knew it was going to be quite difficult, because I think we are still discovering the car and trying to understand what exactly we need from it. Unfortunately, I couldn’t do a clean lap on the Options due to traffic, but Dany was ok, so we’ll have a lot of things to analyse after today and try to put everything together for tomorrow’s Qualifying.”

It was fun to get back behind the wheel and my body took a bit of time to get used to the g-force again. It was a productive and encouraging day; our low fuel pace isn’t as good as our high fuel pace, where we seem relatively competitive. By the end of the day, I was back in the groove and happy in the car. We are going in the right direction, and that was our main focus.

„Wieder im Rennauto zu sitzen fühlte sich nicht allzu seltsam an, es war ein ganz normaler Freitag. Wir haben Dinge im Auto ausprobiert und herausgefunden, was gut funktioniert und was nicht, um die beste Abstimmung für den Rest des Wochenendes zu entwickeln. Am Ende war es nicht der einfachste Tag, ich bin ein bisschen von der Rennstrecke abgekommen, aber es hat mich nicht viel Zeit gekostet und wir haben etwas, mit dem wir für morgen arbeiten können. Es ist noch viel zu früh, um zu sagen, wo wir heute stehen, wir werden bis zum Ende der Qualifikation warten müssen, um ein klareres Bild zu erhalten.”

Overall, it was a mixed day, but I felt comfortable getting up to speed in the car. FP1 was a pretty positive session and we got through a few test items even with limited running due to the rain. FP2 was a bit more of a difficult session as we decided to try some new things to learn and I made some mistakes, but that is what practice is for. I really enjoyed being back in the car. It was the first time I have driven an FP2 session, so I can now say that I am officially a Formula One driver.