Fahrerstimmen – Tag 1

Overall it’s been quite a good day for us and although there are a few things to look into, which is very normal for a Friday, I am quite happy with where the car is at the moment. In the second practice Lewis had a faster lap time that was deleted so it looks a bit different to what is shown at the moment on the timesheets but we expect to see both teams at the top. The weather forecast looks like it is changing all the time, so let’s see what it is actually like tomorrow, but I think it will be a very tight battle again.

So, a good day. I’d say strange. Strange because we were expecting a lot of rain, especially this afternoon and it didn’t quite arrive. We weren’t expecting two dry sessions. Whether that’s going to stay for the weekend, we’ll see.
I think it was a productive Friday for sure. In the morning we were a little off the pace. We made a few adjustments for the afternoon and I think that was better. Obviously, the time sheets certainly show it was better. We made a step in feeling and confidence in the car, but I do feel there’s another step we need to make to stay in a strong position for tomorrow. A bit of fine-tuning tonight but otherwise we should be pretty good. I’m happy with the day and we’ll go from there.

This morning was great, the pace and performance of the car was strong and everything went well, so it was a really positive session for the start of the weekend. Unfortunately, the team spotted an issue on the PU and didn’t want to take any risks, so have spent the afternoon checking this. There were some things we wanted to try during FP2 so it’s a shame to have not been able to do that but at the end of the day, there’s nothing we can do about it and we just need to look forward to tomorrow now. Yuki didn’t feel as comfortable in the car this afternoon as he was in FP1, so we need to go away and analyse all the data we have ahead of tomorrow, then we can piece everything together for Qualifying.

It’s been a busy Friday for us with lots of things completed. Having both cars well into the top ten is positive but it is only Friday and we need to stay focused and keep working on the areas that we can improve. Nevertheless, it’s been a productive day and we look forward to tomorrow. It’s nice to be third on the timesheets and hear ‘you’re P1’ on the radio for a short moment, but it’s only FP2 and tomorrow is when it counts.

Alles in allem gibt es noch einiges zu tun. Es war ein wundervoller Tag, zu Beginn des zweiten Trainings hat es ein wenig geregnet, aber die Strecke ist fantastisch. Wir liegen noch etwas zurück, vor allem auf einer schnellen Runde, aber insgesamt fühlte sich das Auto solide an. Ich bin damit zufrieden, wie wir es hinbekommen haben. Ich habe die gesamte Woche hart daran gearbeitet, um herauszufinden, wo ich das Auto haben möchte und ich hoffe, dass sich diese harte Arbeit bald auszahlt. Red Bull ist aktuell gut unterwegs, also müssen wir achtsam sein und sicherstellen, dass wir bereit sind, um zurückzuschlagen.

It was a smooth Friday for us today. We were all expecting a wet free practice session, but the weather stayed on the dry side, so we completed our normal programme. The car felt good straight away in FP1 and I think there is more pace to come as we didn’t quite put everything together. That gives me confidence heading into qualifying tomorrow so hopefully we should be in for a competitive weekend.

I think we have made a decent start to the weekend. Our pace over one lap is looking encouraging and I think we can squeeze out more from the longer runs.
We have a good idea of where we can make those improvements, which is the important thing. Racing in the mountains means it can be really tricky to predict the weather, so it is going to be about making sure we are on the right tyres at the right time and reacting well to the conditions.
We have not had much wet running this year, so it would be good to experience the car in the rain.

A positive day. We started FP1 not looking too good, but we made some changes and definitely made the car better going into FP2. Hopefully we can make another step into FP3 and gain even more lap-time, but it’s going to be extremely close. It's all about putting the lap together and doing that consistently. I think we can be confident we have a decent car, but it’s going to be tight no matter what.

The car felt good from the first lap and both sessions were positive for us. We know where we can make some improvements, such as the balance in the low-speed corners, so we will go away tonight and review the data to see where we can find some further improvements.
There has been a lot of talk about rain, but it only slightly drizzled at times today, so it was not really a factor. I love driving in wet conditions and it always mixes up the field - so I will not complain if we get some rain tomorrow or Sunday.

Track conditions were tricky at the start of FP2 but they improved throughout the session. From our side we need to do a bit of fine tuning as there’s definitely some more potential in the car and finding a few tenths here makes a huge difference. I’m still learning the best set-up adjustments for the car and as usual, taking my time with the engineers to get that right. I think we do have good pace and the long runs seem to be promising. So, if we’re able to find a couple of tenths overnight then we should be in the fight tomorrow and hopefully we can put a good lap together in Q3.

Es war ein guter Freitag heute. Die Balance des Autos fühlte sich von den ersten Runden im FT1 gut an, sodass wir eine gute Basis haben, auf der wir aufbauen können. Wir sind zufrieden mit dem Tag, aber wir wissen auch, dass es morgen schwieriger wird. Wir müssen heute Abend weiterarbeiten, in ein paar kleinen Details etwas Speed finden und hoffentlich das gleiche positive Gefühl haben, wenn wir in FT3 rausfahren. Es ist eine Herausforderung, hier eine Runde zusammenzustellen, der Verkehr und die Streckenbegrenzungen werden ausschlaggebend im Qualifying sein. Aber wenn wir alles hinbekommen, können wir auch einen guten Samstag haben.

It was an intense Friday. In the morning, we tried various set-ups to find the best direction to follow regarding the tyres. Our main aim in both of today’s sessions was to understand the behaviour of the various compounds.

Tomorrow we will concentrate more on enhancing the car’s performance on flying laps with the aim of qualifying well, but it will not be easy. Our race pace was not bad, but we are cautious and we will continue to analyse all the information and data gathered today.

Das erste Training fühlte sich insgesamt etwas besser an als das zweite. Wir hatten nur einen Versuch mit weniger Benzin an Bord und der war etwas chaotisch. Deshalb war die Rundenzeit nicht überragend. Aber unser Fokus lag heute auf den Long Runs, um die Long-Run-Performance zu finden. Darauf haben wir das Hauptaugenmerk gelegt und das zahlt sich hoffentlich am Sonntag aus. Lewis und ich sind mit relativ unterschiedlichen Setups gefahren, weshalb wir jede Menge Daten haben, um sie heute Abend zu analysieren. Daraus können wir jetzt die besten Dinge für das Qualifying und das Rennen herauspicken.

We learned a lot today, having tried many solutions. Our long run pace seems quite competitive compared to our closest rivals. Where we did struggle a bit was with our qualifying pace, which it is not usually the case, so we will have to concentrate on this tonight and tomorrow. It’s hard to say if we have found the way to get the tyres to work at their best but we look in better shape when compared to the previous race. There’s still a question mark over the weather, as it could rain and also be cooler and that could make the situation even more complicated.

Ich konnte in der Nachmittagssession einen guten Job machen und das Auto fühlte sich nicht allzu schlecht an. Natürlich kann man sich immer verbessern, aber daran müssen wir für morgen arbeiten. Der Verkehr ist auf dieser kurzen Strecke ein Problem und machte es heute ziemlich knifflig. Im Qualifying wird es wichtig sein, die richtige Zeit zu wählen. Wir werden sehen, was das Wetter morgen macht. Auf jeden Fall müssen wir, besonders auf einer so kurzen Runde, alle Kurven gut meistern, denn jeder kleine Fehler zählt.

I’m fairly happy with today. We saw in FP1 that the short run pace of the car is definitely there, and I was able to put in some good lap times during the session. However, on the longer runs in FP2 I struggled quite a bit with the balance of the car, so I need to work on that tonight. I know there’s a chance of rain tomorrow, but I would prefer dry conditions if I’m honest. I don’t have a lot of experience in the wet in Formula 1 so that would make things trickier for me. If it’s dry, I just need to put everything together step-by-step in Qualifying and increase my confidence as I go through the session.

It was enjoyable out there; the car felt good and our high fuel runs are looking really strong, so there are plenty of positives. The conditions were difficult at the start of FP2 with some rain, so I didn’t push too hard as it wasn’t worth the risk, but I think we’ve definitely got some more lap time in the pocket. We’ve been very consistent with our qualifying efforts this season, so I’m hoping for Q2 tomorrow. However, we’re also focussing on finding a balance which translates that qualifying performance into race pace, as that’s where the points are scored.

Overall, we had steady improvement over the day. We got to do everything we wanted, and I feel like we’re in a pretty decent place. There were a few raindrops at the beginning of FP2 but they didn’t do any harm. There are always things you can improve, whether that’s with driving or the car. It’s not far away from what I want in the car, it’s just about finding a little percent here and there to try to get it to exactly where I want it to be. I wasn’t expecting a Q2 appearance at Paul Ricard but we were there, so hopefully we’ll be able to make a surprise appearance again here.

The first few laps in FP1 were a lot calmer in comparison to tracks I know less – such as Portugal, Baku and Monaco for example. Overall, it was quite a chilled working day. I was pretty surprised this morning when I woke up because I expected it to be pouring down with rain and it wasn’t. We got some dry running in, some understanding of the set-up, but I’m not sure if we’re going to be using much of that knowledge tomorrow subject to the weather. I’m trying to be happy regardless of the factors I cannot control. I can learn a lot from the conditions that we had today, but it’s also a great learning opportunity for me and the team to get this car around in the wet conditions. Let’s see what the weather brings.

The track limits were a little tricky out there today, and in FP2 I overstepped a little bit and dipped the wheel on the edge of the gravel which caused the car to spin. The car set-up felt good though, which is definitely an improvement from France. In terms of tomorrow, it’s a little difficult to say what the expectations are, especially due to the changing conditions, but we’ll go away tonight, analyse the data and make sure we’re ready for qualifying.

Es ist immer toll, wieder in einem F1-Auto zu sitzen, obwohl heute nicht der reibungsloseste Tag war. Seit ich den C41 in Barcelona das letzte Mal gefahren bin, bin ich in anderen Kategorien gefahren und es ist nicht einfach, ein Gefühl zu bekommen, wenn man nur ein paar Runden Zeit hat, um auf Tempo zu kommen. Trotzdem habe ich die Gelegenheit genossen und dem Team hoffentlich ein paar nützliche Daten geliefert. Es ist schwer zu vergleichen, inwieweit sich das Auto seit meiner letzten Fahrt weiterentwickelt hat, da wir immer verschiedene Dinge unter unterschiedlichen Bedingungen testen, aber das allgemeine Gefühl ist positiv. Das Team hat sich in letzter Zeit gut geschlagen und man spürt, wie das Vertrauen wächst. Wir wissen, dass wir im Kampf dabei sein können, wenn wir einen guten Job machen, also müssen wir das Beste aus unserem Paket und aus allen Möglichkeiten machen.