Fahrerstimmen – Tag 1

It feels really good to be back on pole and it’s something we didn’t take for granted coming here. The team did a perfect job in managing the session and I’m very happy with my lap.
We have to see where we stand in the Sprint and the race, where we expect to be a bit more on the back foot compared to our competitors, but we will give it our all and I look forward to being back in the car for the Shootout tomorrow.

It’s not the easiest to go to the limit around this track and it’s also tough to get the tyres in the right window. I think we kept it quite clean today and we progressed nicely, overall, we can be pleased. Of course, we want to be on pole but it’s about the bigger picture. Charles looks pretty competitive this weekend, he always does in Baku. There are a few characteristics of the track that suit Ferrari and there are others that suit us better. There’s no big drama. I was happy with the setup of the car and I’m looking forward to tomorrow, it will be good to see what we can improve on and do better. We need to have straightforward sessions tomorrow, it’s super easy to make a mistake around here. We have a good race car and the points are scored tomorrow and on Sunday, so that’s what we’ll focus on.

It was pretty intense from the moment Q1 started, nailing that first lap was critical and it made our Q1 a little more stressful than it should be with all the red flags and making sure we kept on the same tyres. My final lap in Q3 wasn’t ideal so with that I am disappointed, but the important thing is to be strong on Sunday. I feel a lot more confident in the car this weekend. I am looking forward to tomorrow, getting some more lap times in and getting a cleaner lap in the Sprint Shootout. Charles did a tremendous job this evening, this weekend has been challenging already with the new format, we have a change of tarmac here too and we have just come from a three-week break and jumped straight into it. It is really nice to see the level everyone in the Team is working at, the engineers and the mechanics.

It was a very tricky day for me today. Since the very beginning of free practice I didn’t feel confident in the car and, with this format, there is obviously no time to change and try different set-ups. Qualifying was a bit of a mess as well, having to use two sets of new tyres in Q1 and therefore only leaving myself one set for Q3. I never got into a decent rhythm overall, my bad.
I will fight back from P4 on Sunday and tonight we will focus on how we can improve the feeling in the car. Congratulations to Charles on a great lap and on securing pole for the team.

We’re trying as hard as we can and giving it everything we’ve got out there. Getting into a rhythm and pulling everything out on this track is not easy. In Q2, I struggled. I had more pace, but I didn’t get the last lap together. My first run in Q3 was a sweet lap though. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make a big improvement on my final run; I needed to find just a little bit more time to get ahead of the Ferrari (of Sainz).

We can’t make any changes to the car now, so this is the pace we have. I will do some studying tonight and hopefully we can eek a little bit more performance out tomorrow. Naturally, this is not the position we want to qualify as a team; we exist to win but everyone has that winning mindset and working as hard as they can. P5 is still a good position to be starting from on Sunday. Hopefully tomorrow we can have a better battle.

I am satisfied with sixth position on the grid for Sunday after we lost a little bit of performance today with a DRS issue. It’s a long weekend ahead of us and there are plenty of opportunities with this new format, so hopefully we can make up some positions and perform well tomorrow in the Sprint. It’s very close between a number of teams, so we’ll need to try and be more consistent throughout the rest of the weekend. It’s exciting to know we are waking up tomorrow and jumping straight into the car for another qualifying session.

A reasonable qualifying – it was great to get two cars in Q3. I think we could have got a bit more out of it and could have been a few positions higher, we just didn't quite get it right in Q3. We didn't get out when we wanted to, and so missed a tow. It was a bit unfortunate, but the team still did a good job otherwise. Thanks to all of the team here and back at the factory for getting the upgrades out, we still have some optimisation to do, but it’s been positive so far. We’re in a good position for Sunday, hopefully, we can do a bit better tomorrow.

First of all, the entire team did a great job. Our weakness has been straight-line speed and everyone in Bicester has worked hard to bring upgrades to make us more competitive, so I’m pleased with the result and excited about the future. It’s a shame how qualifying ended for Nyck as he was looking strong during FP1, but I am glad he’s ok. Looking at my qualifying, I'm happy I have been able to maximise the car’s performance and relieved with my first P8 of the year. It’s a step in the right direction and points can be possible over this weekend, so we'll continue working to find even more performance so we can bring home some points during the sprint race tomorrow and the race on Sunday.

It was close out there today; the car felt good and I had the confidence to push hard which is a huge benefit around a circuit like this. Unfortunately, we were having intermittent DRS issues throughout the session and I completely lost DRS on the pit straight during Q3. It cost us a fair bit of time but we’ll be doing our best to solve the issue before running tomorrow. I enjoyed the new format today; it was exciting to go straight into qualifying and it makes for a more interesting Friday. We know it’ll be a challenge to do it all again first thing tomorrow morning without running beforehand, but I’m looking forward to it.

Two cars in Q3 is a positive result for us, and one which comes courtesy of the upgrade that we have at this race. First of all, I would like to thank everyone in the team – factory and trackside – for pushing relentlessly to bring this development, which is the first step in an upgrade plan for the MCL60 that will continue through the course of the season. We know we still have plenty of hard work ahead in order to achieve our goals, but we can be encouraged that we’re moving in the right direction.

“Today’s Grand Prix qualifying session was good. We were managing a small issue on Lando’s car, but the team operated very well, and we could complete the sessions. We’re looking forward to fighting for good points in the Sprint and the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

I’d have loved to have got through to Q3, and I was giving it everything. Unfortunately, we’re just not fast enough this weekend. My first lap in Q2 was strong but I made a mistake on my last run. It may have just been enough for me to have crept into Q3, but I don’t think we could have qualified much higher than P8. It’s a funny sport sometimes. We went from qualifying on the front-row last time out in Melbourne to being out in Q2 today. We’ve got another chance tomorrow though, but not an ideal Friday for sure.

Baku is a unique track and a bit of an outlier. If you were going to choose a circuit to have a bad Qualifying at, this would probably be it. I see no reason why we can’t fight back on Sunday, and we will see what we can do tomorrow. We will be working hard as a team, and I’ll be working hard myself, to see what we can do to come back stronger.

It’s so close out there and I’m loving it. We’re fighting for Q3, one mistake and that’s it and that’s just how it is. It’s great to be a part of it but frustrating when it doesn’t go your way. I lost time in that area with Carlos but when I look back at it, it’s not like he was really in the way but you see how these cars are so sensitive and when you get a snap, the tyres hold on and it’s so punishing. It’s fine margins out there and I wouldn’t want it any other way but unfortunately, we just got the wrong end of it today. It’s another opportunity tomorrow with a lot of racing ahead of us, so we’re feeling good and the car is feeling good. Sunday is going to be hectic with no one having done a proper race run, so it will be about keeping clean and hopefully we can make up some places.

We felt more competitive than in Melbourne and Jeddah, which is a positive step in the right direction, even if it wasn’t enough to make it into Q3 yet. The setup felt good, and I was feeling comfortable with the car, so there is the potential to build on that in the remainder of the weekend. Today has been a pretty intense day, with just one practice session and then heading straight into qualifying, which has been quite interesting. I think there are still a lot of opportunities for us to take with a long weekend ahead, so let’s see what we can come up with tomorrow.

Qualifying was good. It was a pretty good showing for the team and I finally got into my first Q2. It feels like it’s been a long time coming. I was really happy to deliver the lap under pressure at the end of Q1 and then I was going for it in Q2 and didn’t quite get it right so that was that. Free Practice was tricky and coming from that I had to make a pretty big step so I’m happy with my turnaround to make a good jump forward and get closer to where I need to be. All in all, it was a positive day and the best part about it is that we get to do it all again tomorrow!

We were really close to Q2, which would have been a better result, and it’s a bit upsetting to miss out for just a couple of hundredths, but that’s how racing goes sometimes. The car felt pretty good this morning, during practice, but I couldn’t get the same feeling in qualifying. Overall, it’s been a tricky afternoon for me, as I struggled for grip throughout the session: still, I feel we can unlock more performance from our car ahead of tomorrow, and we will be working hard to put ourselves back in the game ahead of the Shootout and the Sprint.

It’s frustrating to be out with an issue but what can we do? We don’t know if it was an assembly issue or just something else out of our hands. It was just cutting out and miss-firing, so I didn’t have much power down the straights – which showed on the lap time. It’s extra frustrating as I feel the lap time we did do with that electrical issue on my first run showed that we had some pace. It just didn’t happen today for us. Our time will come, it just hasn’t been too good so far. Not what we wanted but there’s still a long weekend ahead.

Obviously, it’s been a very disappointing and tough day. I’d like to say a big thanks to the mechanics for their recovery between practice and qualifying to make the changes and have the car ready. It’s been one of those days where we’ve faced setbacks and it’s important we all bounce back. My mind is already looking ahead to tomorrow where we have another qualifying session and, of course, the Sprint race where points are on offer. We’ll debrief as a team, move forwards together and hopefully take something from this race weekend.

Today was very disappointing. Our package has been looking really strong during FP1 and we were hoping to capitalise on that in qualifying. We began the session with a little setback that had to be investigated, so it wasn’t the smoothest start. I haven’t been able to talk to the team yet so before jumping to any conclusions, I want to look at and analyse the data, to see what really happened. Looking ahead to a new start tomorrow, we're hoping to fight with P7 and P8. Historically, Baku can become quite messy, especially at the start, so we will see what happens. The updates we brought here look promising, so I’ll get together with everyone tonight to find what can be improved on for the rest of the weekend.

It’s not been a good day for us a team. We obviously had some reliability issues in Free Practice 1, which did not give us much running time heading into qualifying. We tried to bounce back from our practice issues in qualifying and, in the end, it was not enough to reach Q3. At the moment here in Baku, it’s clear we need to improve the areas where we’re struggling for pace. We will review where we can improve and, as always, we’ll be giving it our best to come away with points tomorrow and Sunday.

It was quite an interrupted Q1 with two red flags and obviously it was quite tricky to get into a rhythm, especially with the limited practice time we had today. We didn’t find the best rhythm I feel and laps weren’t as clean as I wanted them to be, so I think we left something out there and Q2 should’ve been possible. Pace-wise from the little running looked to be a bit more difficult for us this weekend, so we need to dig deep into the data and see what we can find. We have a bit of different procedure tomorrow but I’m looking forward to it, hopefully doing a better job and coming out with a better position as well.