Fahrerstimmen – Tag 1

I think overall it’s been a good end to the day and we improved quite well. I wasn’t entirely happy in FP1 and even at the start of FP2 but on the second set of tyres this afternoon the car felt a lot better and a lot more connected. It’s still really difficult around here as the track is so open and it’s quite windy which means it isn’t always easy to nail the lap. The wind is also quite gusty so one lap it feels alright and the next lap it can increase, which means it’s not always easy to judge your mid-corner speeds, but everyone has to deal with the same thing. It’s difficult to say where we will be tomorrow and you never know what people will find overnight but the long runs also seemed decent so for sure I expect it to be very tight and it definitely won’t be easy.

I have a lot better feeling than a couple of weeks ago, that's for sure. We started the weekend on the front foot, everything felt okay and the car has been pretty fast so far. The balance is good, the tyres are working well, I'm confident with the car and I can trust the car - I think that's the biggest difference from Baku. It's going to be close between us and Red Bull, I'm sure they have lots more to come, but so do we.

It was quite a struggle out there, probably for everyone. I don't know if it's the track surface, the temperature or these inflated tyres - the pressures are higher than ever before - but we were all sliding around out there. We'll be doing a lot of analysis tonight with the hope that it's better for tomorrow but the times don't look terrible and we're in the battle, so that's positive.

"The hard compound is the better-feeling tyre, it felt heavy-duty which is important with the temperatures here - the softer you go the worse it feels so I imagine the hard tyre will be the one everyone wants to get onto in the race on Sunday.

We faced quite tricky conditions today with some strong winds and high track temperatures, but I think we can be quite pleased with what we managed to achieve from Friday practice. We tested a few items in FP1 and then we followed our programme for the afternoon in FP2 with some decent mileage clocked. We’ll analyse all of our data now and this evening, but so far I think we look quite competitive here so let’s see how we go tomorrow.”

The main focus today was on car balance. The wind was very strong, which made it tricky to drive, but that was the same for everyone so we just had to try and find a good way to manage in these conditions.
In general, here things are looking more in line with what we expected compared to the last two race weekends, where we had pleasant surprises.
Our performance today was not bad and although we still have quite a bit of work to do, we made a nice recovery from FP1 and the car felt better this afternoon.
It will be important to understand how to get the tyres in the right operating window tomorrow. With the wind, we also have to find the right set-up to make sure that the car is easy to drive in qualifying. If we manage to put these two things together, I’m pretty sure we can have a decent weekend.

Today’s practice has been solid. We’re back into the top ten for the moment, but we know it’s still early days. Both cars have good pace – that’s promising – and the aim is to keep working hard and consolidate this pace. The car feels good and the team has been working hard on that. There are, of course, areas to improve, and there’s more performance to find. It’s fantastic to be back racing in France, at home, and even better to see fans in the grandstands. Hopefully there will be even more fans tomorrow and Sunday and I look forward to seeing them.

Today was an ok day, however it’s been quite difficult with the wind which has made the car very tricky to drive. In terms of performance, I think it’s good that we’ve ended both sessions within the top 10, but it’s definitely been more difficult than the last two weekends. We’ve been working on the balance of the car today, so we’ll analyse all the data tonight and make some improvements to the set-up of the car to be more confident out on track tomorrow. I’m racing in front of my home fans here and I’m aiming to reach Q3 again in Qualifying. It’s so great seeing this many French flags in the grandstands here, I really want to do well for the people here supporting me this weekend, so they’ve got something to celebrate on Sunday.

Today was quite tricky. We knew that this layout would be challenging for us compared to some of the previous races, so today went more or less as expected. However, we are not that far away and we are reasonably pleased with the car balance.
The trickiest thing was the strong wind, which was blowing in the worst possible directions, with a head wind on the straights and a tail wind in the corners. It made the circuit challenging and slower.
The Soft and Hard tyres seem to work well, so we’ll keep working tonight to try and extract the maximum from the car tomorrow.

It wasn’t too bad out there, I even feel I could have been a few places higher with a better lap. The hope, of course, is that we can be somewhere around this region, in the top ten, when we get into qualifying: as always, we can try to find something more tonight, with the engineers, and squeeze some more performance out of the car, but it’s not a bad start.

Tough first day, tricky conditions playing the biggest part. The temperature made it difficult to keep the tyres in a good window. So, driving the car became a bit of a challenge especially with the wind.

I think we’ve got a few bits we can definitely improve upon, but we still have quite a bit of work to do. It’s very close with the rest of the field so every little bit is going to help – but it’s also going to make qualifying tough going into tomorrow. Hopefully we can find a little bit extra to make our lives a little bit easier.

It was a good start to our weekend and we’re confident ahead of qualifying. The conditions out there were not easy, with a lot of wind and low grip, but this is what we can expect for tomorrow as well. To be just outside the top then when I am still not 100% happy with the car means we can be in the fight for Q3 if we find some improvement tonight. This is our task and if we do a better job at it than our rivals, we can have a good Saturday. Let’s have a good debrief now and see what tomorrow brings.

I got a pretty bad run of traffic today so it probably looks worse than it actually is on the time sheets. We look to be there or thereabouts and Max had a good day on pace. We tried some changes during the sessions and so tonight we’ll look at them to see what worked and hopefully we can find some pace overnight so we are right in the mix tomorrow. Coming from Baku, obviously this is a very different track but we’re continuing the good momentum, the understanding of the car is getting better and there are plenty of positives to take from today.

It’s been a good day. I think the approach here in France compared to the last few races is a bit easier, as I’ve already got experience driving here at Paul Ricard. I had a spin in the first session, but I think we’ve made good progress through the two sessions today. I struggled a bit with the set-up in FP2, but we adapted really well and by the end of the day I was happy with the car behaviour. My confidence in the car is definitely returning and my result in Baku has helped with that. We still have lots of work to do ahead of Qualifying and the field is very tight, so it’s going to be very competitive but the pace is definitely there.

First day done, it was quite a warm one! The morning was pretty promising. We had a good start to first practice, but then in second practice, competitively, we didn’t seem as good. I’m not really sure why right now, but we’ll look into it. It didn’t feel too bad and it’s all very close. We’re probably only missing a few tenths right now. That said, I’m not too concerned, we’ll work at it tonight. Generally, the feeling isn’t too bad, so we’ll just chip away and find a bit more pace for tomorrow.

The track conditions were hot and very windy, which caught me out this morning when I had a small off. It cost us some track time, but we recovered well in the afternoon. The long run was clean and we managed to get some consecutive laps together, which was important. My performance run was not the best and I made a mistake, but today is about getting a feel for the car to make sure we perform in qualifying. I think we know where we can find gains and there are some things we can do better, which is where we will focus our energy tonight.

It was really hot out there today, and very gusty at times, which made for some tricky conditions because it is a low-grip track surface. It was particularly windy early in the day, but we were able to get into a rhythm and work through our programme. We have learned some useful things about the car balance and done some important homework. However, I think we are leaving some pace out there, so we will go away tonight, look over everything and try to come back stronger tomorrow. The midfield is already looking very close this weekend, so small gains can certainly make a difference; that is what we will be aiming to find for qualifying.

It’s always tricky only doing one session, but I don’t feel like I missed out on too much as the conditions were difficult this morning and there were a few errors on track which showed how gusty it was. In FP2 my high fuel runs looked strong and I got into a good groove putting in those laps, but I think there’s still more to come from me with low fuel. We’ll go away tonight and look to understand how we can extract more out of the car.

The track was very green in FP1 and the wind caught a lot of drivers out. Initially the car wasn’t feeling great, but we made some changes going into FP2 and it was much nicer to drive. The car on high fuel was better than expected, so that’s definitely a positive. We’ll go away and do our normal analysis tonight and hopefully find some more performance to take into Saturday.

Obviously, we had some issues in FP1 unfortunately and it just meant that we didn’t get to do all the running that we wanted to. We still got to do all the laps we wanted in FP2 which was a positive and we got to learn the track even better compared to FP1, so now it’s just about finalizing all the things that we have and try to improve in the aspects we need to and hopefully we will be a bit closer to Williams. We feel the temperature in the tires and we also had some increase in pressures which makes it a bit more difficult to keep the tires alive, especially in the long runs, so now it’s about trying to set the car up so its ok in qualifying and it’s good in the race, so hopefully we’ll manage.

Not an easy day for us – the heat and the increased tire pressures are perhaps not the best things for the car that does not have the most downforce but from my side, it was a very smooth FP1. In FP2, we completed the run plan and I think we know where we stand for Sunday, but there is a lot more to be improved for qualifying. Coming straight from Baku and Monaco, I see it rather easier as there isn’t a wall waiting for you on the exit of every corner, which for a rookie is a positive note. This circuit has its challenges to it – the tarmac is very tricky here but I’m enjoying driving in France.

It was a productive session, although I do think I could have extracted a little more out of the car. It takes time to build up your confidence after some time away, and Paul Ricard is definitely a track where you need a lot of confidence due to the high speeds and long corners. It was still a very informative session and we got lots of data gathered, so we’ve learnt some good lessons and being in the FW43B is always great.