Fahrerstimmen – Tag 1

It was great to see so many people around the track today, considering that it is only Friday. It really makes me look forward to the next two days and hopefully we can give our tifosi a good result.
We had consistent running and completed a good number of laps. We still have to fine tune the balance but, all in all, it wasn’t too bad and we just need to make the usual step from Friday to Saturday now.

An encouraging day after completing our programme and performing well on track. Monaco is always a demanding track, but also a very exciting and fun circuit to push the car.
Qualifying will be tight tomorrow by the looks of today, but so far we’re happy with the job we’ve done and the way we’ve been improving every time we went out on track. Now it’s all about the small details and finding the perfect balance for qualifying tomorrow.

It’s really nice to be back driving in Monaco, it’s always fun out there! It has been a good few session today for us but the long runs were a bit difficult with the traffic, I couldn’t do more than two laps consistently. All in all we seem to be lacking a bit compared to the Ferraris, they seem really strong. We will analyse the data and see what we can do but they seem to be very quick today. We were a little surprised by the gap to them today, we were expecting a gap but not such a gap as we’ve seen today. It means there is plenty of work to do and we will see tomorrow, Q3 is when it matters.

We tried quite a few different things with our set up today to see how the car is behaving, I was happier with the car in FP1 than in FP2. If we get better balance we can attack the corners a bit more, then of course our lap times will improve. Clearly compared to Ferrari we still need to find more pace, so now it’s all about fine tuning and finding a better balance. The track feels different this year with the new cars, the cars are a bit heavier and slower and a bit more bumpy because they are stiffer. It’s still very hectic to drive around here and I can’t wait for qualifying tomorrow.

It was a decent day I would say and I’m feeling better. I think the initial feeling in the car was good in terms of it giving me some good confidence. It was a car that I felt like I could push on and find the limit quite quickly, which is a very important thing here in Monaco. We worked our way through our programme, and took it step-by-step, trying to find some small improvements here and there, wherever we could, which was good learning. We need to look at it overnight and put what we learnt into the usual plan for tomorrow but I'm happy with today.

Ich denke, es war ein relativ guter Tag, aber es ist klar, dass wir in Sachen Performance noch nicht da sind, wo wir sein wollen. Monaco ist mit diesen Autos eine sehr schwierige Strecke. Sie sind sehr steif abgestimmt, damit die Aerodynamik funktioniert, daher ist es nicht einfach, das Auto auf einem holprigen Straßenkurs wie diesem ans Limit zu bringen. Man muss der Strecke etwas mehr Respekt entgegenbringen, als man es normalerweise tun würde, und es gibt Stellen auf dem Kurs, an denen wir fast einen Wheelie machen, weil beide Vorderreifen in der Luft sind! Wir haben über Nacht noch etwas zu tun, um zu sehen, wie wir das Auto etwas einfacher fahrbar machen können. An der Spitze blüht Ferrari wieder auf - wir haben schon in Imola gesehen, wie gut sie über die Kerbs fahren können, und das spielt ihnen auch hier in die Karten. Wir müssen jetzt die Ärmel hochkrempeln und sehen, was wir für morgen tun können, damit wir hinter Ferrari und Red Bull zumindest Best of the Rest sind.

I’m really happy with my performance this Friday here in Monaco, of course it’s always difficult here, but the pace of the car has been there, and we’ve been near the top of the midfield all day. So far, we’ve shown a lot of positives; we’ve managed many clean laps, put everything together and been competitive. I’m not saying I’m feeling 100% happy still, but I’m pretty pleased and we’ll try to take another step forward for tomorrow. Qualifying is obviously never easy here, it’s a short track, so we’ll have to find the right spot, as there are a lot of cars and strong drivers. We’ve got the pace to be competitive, so we’ve just got to keep it clean and move through the sessions.

Monaco is always different to other tracks as you need to find confidence in the car. FP1 was a little bit messy for us, but in FP2 we started to dial in my car. There is still more to come as we experienced some inconsistent balance here and there that we need to fix, as well as trying to understand the tyres a bit more for qualifying as getting a good position on the grid is obviously the main subject of the weekend. There’s some work to do, but it’s always special to drive here with a lot of adrenaline every lap.

Although I have raced here many times, this circuit feels a lot different in these new cars. The main difference is that the tyres are much bigger so it is more difficult to see the track around you. The cars are also much stiffer and going through the tunnel is not as easy as it used to be. I was lucky to save the car during a mistake at the Swimming Pool, despite my heart rate definitely going up! We tried some new things today, so we need to see what worked well and learn how to fine-tune the set-up more. Tomorrow the key will be making sure we have a clean lap in qualifying, especially during Q1 when the track will be busy.

Today has been quite a difficult day, almost every push lap in both sessions I had traffic, so I didn’t get a clean run that I was happy with. On top of that, I made a mistake on the first set of new tyres in FP2 and had a huge flat spot, meaning I had to finish my first stint earlier than planned. Hopefully tomorrow things will be better, but now I know what to expect and everyone is facing the same situation, so I need to focus on myself and the things I need to improve ahead of Qualifying.

It’s tough. Monaco has become an even greater challenge it seems this year with these cars. It’s just all the bumps, many bumps which I didn’t know were there, you feel them now. On many of the entries to corners, the car is so twitchy, so if you hit a bump in the wrong way you lose the rear. It’s very intense and it’s still great. It’s very tough out there, it’s a small track – we already know that – and it’s the same thing every year but you’ve got to really try hard not to get in people’s way because it’s very difficult.

Ich habe heute gekämpft, um eine Runde zusammenzubekommen, und es ist eine ganz andere Erfahrung als in den vergangenen Jahren hier in Monaco. Ich erinnere mich, dass ich früher mit leichteren und wendigeren Autos hierhergekommen bin. Jetzt sind sie viel schwerer, und das verändert das Fahrgefühl ziemlich stark. Die Strecke wurde neu asphaltiert, aber es ist wahrscheinlich die holprigste Strecke, auf der ich je gefahren bin - an manchen Stellen fühlt es sich durch die Bodenwellen so an, als würden meine Augäpfel aus den Höhlen springen! Das Auto hüpfte heute auf den Bodenwellen ziemlich stark, aber das lag nicht am aerodynamischen Bouncing, wie wir es bisher in diesem Jahr erlebt haben, sondern einfach daran, dass wir das Auto tief und steif abgestimmt hatten. Dadurch setzte es viel auf. Wir haben das Auto für das zweite Training verbessert, und wir müssen heute Abend noch analysieren, wie wir die richtige Mischung zwischen ultimativer Performance und einer fahrbaren Balance finden können. Ich habe meine besten Sektoren noch nicht zusammenbekommen, und der Grip fühlt sich ziemlich gut an, wenn wir pushen. Letztendlich denke ich, dass wir das Potenzial haben, um vorne mitzumischen. Vielleicht sind wir nicht ganz so schnell wie Ferrari und Red Bull, aber ich hoffe, dass wir morgen und am Sonntag vor dem Rest sein können.

Not an ideal Friday, but we had a good recovery in FP2. We lost the first session with a power unit failure that took two hours to fix, which is a shame as this really is a track where you need every possible lap to get fully comfortable: you don’t get to do too many clean laps either, with all the traffic, to prepare for qualifying, so it will be crucial to have a good FP3. FP2 was effectively my first session of the weekend, so I took it step by step. I know there is a lot of performance still to find, both in myself and with the setup, and I still think we have the potential to be in the top ten tomorrow. The car felt ok and I know we can be in the mix for Q3.

It felt good out there today. We were feeling fairly optimistic heading into FP1 as the track is similar to the Miami circuit which seemed to suit our car’s characteristics slightly more, so I’d say that we aren’t too far off where we want to be. There are a few corners in the second sector where we should be able to find some more lap time, so that’s what we’ll be working on tonight. I’m feeling positive; I think we’ll be pushing for Q2 tomorrow.

My first day in Monaco was tough but I really enjoyed driving here. You can really feel the speed around these streets: you have to commit fully, leave nothing behind and kiss the walls if you want to get a good time. It’s not easy, it’s a big challenge and I am still building up to it, but it was fun. We ended up the day with a decent amount of laps, which is especially important as Valtteri missed FP1. I think we have all it takes to make another step forward tonight and come back ready for qualifying.

It is great to be back in Monaco. Regardless of the car regulations, it is still the same track with the same corners and challenges. Today was a good opportunity to continue understanding the latest car developments and build on our experience in Barcelona. The tyres were overheating a bit in the hot weather, so managing the degradation will be a key part of the race on Sunday. As always, there are still a few things to work on, but I am confident we will make progress before qualifying.

We had a few issues, especially this morning, so I didn’t get to run for most of FP1 unfortunately, so still catching up. Nonetheless we got a good amount of running in during FP2 so it’s now a matter of finding out what we need from the car to go quicker. It’s definitely different compared to last year, it’s a lot bouncier, and the bumps are not filtered so you feel it straight away in your body which has an effect, not only on the car but in terms of driving. The approach will be different, and the overall feel is a bit different compared to last year.

It’s good to be back driving in Monaco and discover the challenges that these new cars bring on such a specific track like this. It’s clear there are some improvements we need to make to be where we want to be this weekend with regards to performance. We learned a lot today with different set-ups between the cars and now there is plenty of work to do overnight in order for us to be in a better position for tomorrow. It will be important to get it right as we know how crucial qualifying is in Monaco. There’s more to come from me, so I’m looking forward to more practice tomorrow afternoon.

It was very tricky today. I think in general these new generation cars are trickier around here, the ride on the bumps is very harsh and visibility is tricky, meaning that on a few corners here you’re sort of guessing where to turn. I’m sure a lot of other people are going through similar things. In terms of the car, we’re not quite there with optimising it, but we have a clear direction of where we need to go overnight on my side.

FP2 was obviously a very short session with a crash on the first lap. We had a decent running earlier in the day, I feel it was a solid FP1, and we obviously just tried to push the car more and try a few things with set-up. I think we ultimately just pushed it a bit too far and I lost the car in the high-speed Swimming Pool. I did my best to catch it but obviously this track is so unforgiving that you can’t get away with anything. It is what it is: obviously it’s a long night ahead for the mechanics which puts a bit of a downer on the day – but I’m still not going to let it affect us into tomorrow. We know where we went wrong and we’ll fix it for tomorrow. Lando’s pace looked decent, so we’ll hopefully put ourselves back up there, in a good position tomorrow.