Fahrerstimmen – Tag 1

I think that has been our best Friday of the year so far. Plenty of laps for me and Lance, and we have done some important homework ahead of the race.

"I felt happy today and it was my opportunity to try new parts, which are a step forward. It is hard to say exactly where we will be tomorrow in a very close midfield competition, but we will try and find a bit more tonight to squeeze a few more tenths of performance

Heute war ein solider Tag. Das Auto fühlt sich nicht so schlecht an und ich hatte keine großen Balanceprobleme. So gesehen bin ich happy. Auf dem Soft-Reifen wird es entscheidend sein, ihn auf Anhieb vorne und hinten zum Arbeiten zu bringen, denn die Abstände werden sehr gering sein. Heute Abend gehen wir unseren üblichen Prozess durch und werden versuchen, die Abstimmung bestmöglich feinzutunen, denn im Qualifying wird es auf jede Millisekunde ankommen. Das gesamte Feld scheint eng zusammenzuliegen. Auch Ferrari hat heute stark ausgesehen, aber wir müssen uns auf unsere Performance konzentrieren und das Maximum aus unserem Paket herausholen.

We had a good, clean day. I’ve changed my approach a little bit since Portimão. After every weekend, I try to analyse where I need to improve. So far, I’m driving a lot better and feel I am in a good place with the car, so I’m quite happy. Last year we struggled quite a lot here, and this year the car feels much better. It’s great for the whole team, especially those back at the factory who work so hard and can see it pay off looking at the numbers. It motivates us all. Tomorrow will be important with qualifying on this track. If there is a nice surprise then that will be welcome, but I think that the objective is to be just behind the front runners.

We can be happy with our day’s work. It’s always tricky in Barcelona with the grip and tyre usage so there’s lots for us to learn and understand. I think the new Turn 10 was interesting and, on our side, we have room for improvement there. As a team, we made a good step from FP1 to FP2 and I felt that in the car. The aim is to repeat that in FP3 and make another step in performance. It was a busy two sessions, lots of things tried on both cars and that gives us a lot to analyse to find more speed.

It was a good Friday for us today. Over the two sessions we concentrated on some small upgrades that we brought to the car this weekend and then collected some good information about the tyres and our car set-up. Overall, I am pleased with our two sessions and I think the car balance feels good, so it gives me confidence for tomorrow. Let’s see where we are for qualifying.

I think overall FP2 was a good session for us, to finish sixth shows the car is strong. The pace of the car is definitely there but the balance isn’t quite right yet, so we’ve got to make a few tweaks tonight to maximise our performance ahead of Qualifying tomorrow. Obviously, our main goal this weekend is to score points, as we’re fighting against tough opponents in the midfield pack, and I think if we can improve in the few areas that we’re struggling in we could be up for a good weekend.

I’m happy with our performance and the pace of the car today. I’ve driven this track a lot, so I know it well, which meant I could be more confident driving from the offset, unlike in Portugal where I was having to use each session to learn the circuit. I’m very positive ahead of tomorrow. I just need to focus on my own driving and the set-up of the car before FP3 and Qualifying - this is what we will work on tonight with my engineers.

It’s been an encouraging day for us. Right from FP1 we saw the track had quite a lot of grip, which helped with the overall balance of the car. However, in FP2, the balance went away a bit from what I was looking for, particularly for the last sector. Hopefully we can keep working and digging and put it all together for qualifying tomorrow. Reaching Q3 won’t be easy, as we expect three or four cars to be in the same tenth, so we need to make sure we are as prepared as possible.

Overall I think we actually had quite a good day and the car seems pretty competitive. I was a little bit wide at Turn 10 on my push lap in FP2 but there is nothing shocking to report from either session. The track changes to Turn 10 seem better over one lap when you are pushing. It is a bit faster and more enjoyable to drive, but for overtaking I think it could be worse. How competitive we are going to be tomorrow is always going to be a question mark on a Friday but from our side we are quite happy. Of course you always want to improve and do better so we just have to make sure tomorrow that we are up there but I’m looking forward to it.

It was a tricky day today. We had a couple of delays in both sessions which meant we were rushing a little and running into some traffic, and with less practice time this year it’s important to get the laps in. Tonight we’ve got some understanding to do and pace to find, especially over one lap. I think our long run pace is stronger but there’s work to do. Let’s see what we can find because qualifying here is especially important. Hopefully we can recover the pace and be in the mix tomorrow.

I think that has been our best Friday of the year so far. Plenty of laps for me and Lance, and we have done some important homework ahead of the race.
I felt happy today and it was my opportunity to try new parts, which are a step forward. It is hard to say exactly where we will be tomorrow in a very close midfield competition, but we will try and find a bit more tonight to squeeze a few more tenths of performance.

Tricky day. We felt good in FP1 but, as the temperatures came up a bit in FP2, we struggled a little bit more. We need to understand that a bit better if we can and make some improvements for tomorrow. It didn't feel bad, but we were just a bit off the pace. As usual, we’ll work hard tonight and see if we can turn it around for tomorrow.

All in all, it was a positive day in which we showed to be really close to the top ten. We need to find something more while looking at the data tonight, but we know qualifying will be decided by the smallest of margins. The track layout has improved, I like the new turn ten: I think it’s much better than the previous configuration. It remains a difficult corner and one that can make the difference on the single lap.

A really busy Friday covering lots of laps and learning about the car. Even though it was windy and hot out there, I felt comfortable, and we did some useful work today.
It is a case of continuing to understand the car and the new parts we have introduced, which seem to have taken us in a good direction.
We have seen just how close the grid is here, and it is never easy to overtake on this track, so we have got to make sure we have a strong Saturday and hook up the laps when it matters.

So, Barcelona. I was going to say not much has changed – but it has with Turn 10. I don't think it's going to change the racing, but it makes it a little more interesting to have a new corner.
Today, it’s close. Our positions don’t look great on paper, and we do have work to do but I’m only a second off in 15th, so it’s really close. Every tenth counts at this point so we certainly have to find a few for tomorrow and put ourselves in a fighting position. We’ve changed a few things on the car and it’s still too early to know what’s good and what needs work, but we’ll spend some time tonight looking at it. The important thing was that we got the laps in. I think FP2 was definitely better than FP1, even if the position doesn't reflect that, so we’ll hopefully make another step in the morning.

I was able to do a good number of laps in the afternoon, which is always positive. I know the track really well and there is effectively only one new corner to learn. The car didn’t feel too bad so we can be optimistic ahead of the rest of the weekend. We have work to do tonight, but so does everyone and we will see tomorrow where we end up in qualifying.

It’s always tricky missing FP1 and having half the running, but it was great to get back out in the car after a difficult weekend in Portugal. In terms of the circuit, the new corner at Turn 10 is a nicer corner than the previous one and is fun to drive. We look a little further away on the low fuel pace compared to where we usually are, but our high fuel pace seems relatively decent. Barcelona can be difficult with high tyre degradation and history has shown that we tend to struggle here, so Sunday will be interesting.

Today was beautiful, the sun was shining and I was back on the track. It felt great to jump in the car having spent a lot of time, and driven many kilometres, in the simulator. I enjoyed every second and every metre of it and I think the result reflects that. It was a productive day, good to be back and I am looking forward to the next outing.

It was a tricky Friday. Straight away in FP1 the track conditions were not very good with low grip out there. We made some improvements from one session to the next, but I still feel there is scope to improve the basic set-up of the car. We have still got some work to do and were more focused on the high fuel race pace, as that was not particularly competitive in Portugal. We are not where we want to be, but we will do some work tonight and see where we can improve.

It was alright, a bit tricky here and there, but lots learned today and definitely a lot to try and improve for tomorrow. It seemed like the hard tire was the most difficult tire to switch on, it looked the same for everybody else, so we quite quickly switched to the soft tire in FP1. I would say the progress through the day was quite positive, there are little things we have to improve, and can improve. Looking at it, we were quite quick on the straights, but we’re struggling a bit to find the downforce we want – but that’s what we have and we’ll have to work with it.

It was nice to be back in the car in an official session and I’m sorry about finishing the session like this. It was a very small mistake but we paid a high price: I misjudged the grip levels on my first run on soft tyres, spun mid-corner and got stuck in the gravel trap. It still was good to get back the feeling with this car, especially ahead of next week’s test: I am looking forward to trying the new 18-inch tyres and helping the team in making this important step. It will be an interesting session!

I think the track was improving with the sessions, obviously turn 10 is a bit new, which means the tarmac is very black so there’s still some dust and oil in it – it’s getting more rubbered in with the more laps we do. Again, it’s a Friday, so there are three free practices and we have one more to go tomorrow. I always learn when I’m out but so far, my weekend starts where I’m three steps back from where I used to be driving different cars, and then slowly I make the steps forward. If I end up one step ahead from where I wanted to start, I think that’s a good day for me – it was no different today.