Fahrerstimmen – Tag 1

I think it was quite a good day for us. It was a little slippery in the beginning but that’s due to the high pressures that we are running on the tyres. Of course, that is the same for everyone, but it makes it a bit more difficult in the low speed. I think in general the car has been performing really well so we can be happy with that. The performance has also been strong in both sessions and we could complete our programme. The long runs felt good as well so it’s pretty positive. From our side we want to improve the car ahead of qualifying tomorrow but overall, it’s been a strong day.

It was a challenging Friday here in Silverstone. FP1 was quite tricky because of the wind and the track conditions but we completed a good programme and I think this helped us make good progress in FP2.
We need to keep working on tyre management and race pace. This should be our main point of focus going into tomorrow, as today we could see that over one lap we were not too bad. Overall, we are quite happy with today but of course there’s still some work to do.

Obviously a very good day today. I think we need to stay true to ourselves as we don’t know what everyone else is doing. Looking at the timesheets you can’t not be happy, but I think it’s better to just focus on how we can continue to improve, as there’s still more to look at. Let’s also hope tomorrow stays dry.

I am pleased with how the sessions went. We’ve spent a lot of time looking at the tyres today. The most important thing is to assess the data, learn from it and see where and how is best to use that information tomorrow. I think we are looking good for qualifying and for the race. It has been a positive Friday overall, the car is feeling good and we made some positive progress from FP1 to FP2. There is still a lot of work to be done overnight but hopefully tomorrow we can make another step in the right direction.

While the feeling in the car was good on the low fuel run, we still have some work to do to improve our race pace. We hope to make some steps forward by tomorrow, even though the conditions will be very different as we expect it to rain.
It’s a shame that I couldn’t take part in FP2 because we lack some race simulations for Sunday, but we will work on maximizing what we have in preparation for qualifying and the race anyway.

It was a decent Friday in Silverstone, despite being quite tricky with high temperatures and high winds, making it very unpredictable throughout the lap. We’ve done a good job to get on top of it, however there’s still some improvements to make ahead of tomorrow. Either way, it was a great day driving this amazing track and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.

It’s been great to get out on track at Silverstone today; there’s no place quite like it. We made a few set-up changes after FP1 and the AMR23 was feeling stronger for the second session. There are still a few bits to work through tonight, but the pace looked good so I’m feeling positive. We’ll see what tomorrow brings as it looks like the temperature will drop and there could be some rain in the area. We could be in for an interesting Qualifying!

It’s fast here, super dynamic and also the wind direction was good today when going through all of the nice high-speed sections. It’s impressive the speed and the change of direction and the forces we go through. It was an okay day today, the long run didn’t feel too bad, but I was almost always by myself, alone, so it isn’t entirely representative come Sunday. We’re trying to get on top of the long runs a bit more and find some more pace, tire management and see what we can do. I think one lap pace looked okay but we need to focus on what we can do better in the race to extract the most.

Firstly, it’s very enjoyable to drive at such an awesome circuit in front of so many fans. Even on a Friday, the grandstands were full at every corner and that really is good to see for us drivers. On track, it’s been a solid day for us with no real issues and we progressed through our run plan as expected. I definitely think there’s more to come from us and I look forward to tomorrow’s Practice to again try some things and find improvements ahead of Qualifying.

I’d say a pretty productive day. We still need to do some work to get the car into the sweet spot, but I think all-in-all it was pretty solid. We’ll have to see what we can tune-up for tomorrow. The weather is playing a big part, so we'll see what we can do tomorrow but all-in-all, not a bad Friday, a nice first day with the upgraded car.

It’s good to be back at Silverstone and racing just across the road from our AMR Technology Campus. This circuit always provides a lot of adrenaline for us in Formula One cars. It was very windy today which made it quite tricky, but the car felt good. We tested a few things in both sessions and there is more for us to analyse tonight. The weather looks like it could change tomorrow, so let’s see what conditions we are facing.

The upgrades we have brought here seem to be working as we expected; of course, it is difficult to make predictions based on practice sessions: we will find out where we really stand only when qualifying starts. Today has been all about getting to learn these new parts, and testing different setups. I slightly struggled with the balance, but overall, I think P11 is a decent result – and if we manage to fine tune every detail, I am confident we will be able to extract much more from our car. Tonight, all of our work will go into reviewing the data we have gathered today and analysing it to make a further step forward tomorrow.

Today definitely wasn’t our finest Friday. In FP1, our pace on the medium tyre was looking reasonable and we thought we’d be able to make a good step on the soft tyre. However in FP2, we struggled. We’ve seen a small trend that when temperatures are hotter, we tend to take a step backwards. We also made quite a few changes between sessions, but we possibly didn’t compensate enough for the conditions. It was a difficult afternoon for sure, but we will dig into the data with the Team tonight and see what we can do for tomorrow.

Despite the difficulties, I’ve still got half a smile on my face driving here in front of all the British fans. They are giving me and the Team the energy to come back stronger tomorrow.

It’s good to be back driving at this iconic circuit. Silverstone always has such a good flow to it and it feels great to attack some of these amazing corner combinations flat out. In terms of our day today, I think we learned a lot from both Free Practice sessions and we’ve acquired some good data to determine the direction we need to take on set-up ahead of tomorrow. The weather conditions will most likely be different for Qualifying and, perhaps even for the race, so that is something all teams will keep an eye on for sure. We’ve got a lot of work to do ahead of tomorrow and I am confident we will be in good shape.

A bit of a tricky day. I was struggling quite a bit with the car balance and confidence. It hasn't been the best of starts but we’ve still got plenty of time to work it through. We’re probably not at the same level as we were in Austria, but we know we can get more out of the car.

It was very windy out there, as it often is here at Silverstone. I think that’s something that helps it become the best track in the world. It definitely made the car more inconsistent though, but we’re also battling the same challenges that we have been for the majority of the season. It’s a tough car to drive and it continues to be so. On the single lap, we didn’t seem to make any improvement between tyres which suggests we’re missing something. The positive for us is that the long run pace wasn’t too bad.

The balance is tricky, but we will work on in tonight. We will also have Mick in the simulator so hopefully we can come up with some solutions for tomorrow. We’re not in the same race as the Red Bulls but I’m hoping we can fight for the podium, even though it will take a big push. The fans have been phenomenal since yesterday already and hopefully we can give them something to cheer about.

Today, much like most Fridays, has been all about learning. The upgrades we have brought here seem to have given us a bit more downforce; it is a step forward, but we’re not the only team who has brought new parts this weekend, and once again, we have seen how extremely close it is in the field with our main competitors. I reckon there is still some work to do overnight to further optimise this package, in order to find that extra performance that could make the difference. Tomorrow, it will be crucial to execute a perfect qualifying, to place ourselves in a favourable position on the grid and hopefully get in the mix for points on Sunday.

It’s normal focusing on the set up and tires on a Friday. I think we looked a little bit weak today but then again Nico put in a very good lap time on his side. There’s something we can learn from that hopefully. We know our car usually can do one lap but then struggles in the race. I think my focus is really at the end of the day more on race pace and tire performance.

With such a large number of new parts that we have introduced, it takes time to understand them. We have definitely seen some gains in a few places, and we’ll use tonight to analyse the data we collected today. Tomorrow is a new day, and we’ll use FP3 to maximise our package in time for qualifying.

The car performance was decent in FP1, but FP2 was more difficult. With all the updates we brought this weekend, it takes time to understand their behaviour. We’ll go through all our data tonight to learn as much as possible, to get ready for qualifying tomorrow afternoon.