Fahrerstimmen – Tag 1

It’s been a reasonable day. The car seems quick, and we’ve gathered some good information. I’ve still got some work to do tomorrow on making sure I feel comfortable in the car, but I started to find more of a rhythm in the end. We’ll see what tomorrow holds.

It’s been two positive sessions for the team. The pace has been good all day, and we got some good data to learn from overnight. I’m feeling in a strong position going into tomorrow - let’s see what the weather brings.

We tried quite a few things today, tweaking and testing the car, because it is typically Spa where of course you have sector one and three where you want the top speed and then a very long middle sector where you want a cornering speed. It is always very tricky to find the right balance when you are trying a few things to see what is better. We’ll look at it on the data and analyse the day in debrief. We started off quite positively today and have some things to work on from FP2, so there are a few things to look at. Hopefully all the changes that we made will come together, especially as I will be starting near the back for the race because of the engine penalty. However, we will try to optimise this as much as we can. Naturally, you always want a good qualifying, but the race is our focus.

A difficult day to understand, running with various set ups and tyres, with all the teams on their own run plans.
We don’t yet have a clear picture and with the expectation of rain tomorrow and dry conditions on Sunday, we will work to find the best compromise to extract the maximum on both days. It’s our last race before the holidays, so we will give it everything to finish it on a high.

This year we found a very different track compared to previous years due to the new asphalt. We had to adapt the car to these new conditions and bumps, but overall the new surface provides a lot more grip. We need to keep an eye out for tyre degradation and race simulation was an important part of our Friday programme. Tomorrow we'll try to focus on maximising the package we have and qualify as high up as possible. 

It is always nice to be here at Spa-Francorchamps and getting to drive a car in anger around this incredible circuit. The resurfaced tarmac has also made it extra fast this year. We’ve got some work to do overnight to find some lap time. The McLarens and the Red Bull of Max Verstappen looked to be a step ahead of us today. We need to dig through the data and put in the work in the simulator at Brackley to hopefully unearth some gains and get closer to them. I’m sure we can do that.

Tomorrow will definitely be a very different day if we are able to do so. The forecast is also for rain tomorrow so that will add another factor into the mix. We have often had good Fridays and the others have caught up come Saturday, so hopefully it will be us doing that this weekend.

It is a pleasure to be back at Spa-Francorchamps and driving at this awesome circuit. This morning, unfortunately, we had a water leak on my car, which ended my session early while the team fixed the issue. In Free Practice 2 this afternoon, we were able to run to our programme and get some much-needed laps in. Our low fuel runs looked encouraging but it looks like our long runs need some work, especially on tyre management. We managed to gain plenty of information across both cars today and now it will be important to run through that see what works and what does not and make the necessary changes ahead of tomorrow.

It was a pretty good day; we were looking at different downforce levels and it’s always difficult to pick the right one in Spa. The nature of the track is between different levels of downforce and with the weather also you need to factor in the risk of having to run in the wet, it’s not an easy situation but it’s the same for everyone. Over one lap, it doesn’t matter so much around here as although it means something to start up-front, in the race you can overtake quite easily here, and you need good race pace. We looked decent in FP2, so let’s see.

During the Practice sessions we have been playing around with the set-up, but haven’t been able to fully extract everything out of the car yet. The Team got plenty of information from today with both cars running quite different and there’s a lot to analyse for tomorrow’s strategy. It is going to be an interesting weekend coming up, tomorrow’s qualifying could be potentially wet and Sunday is looking dry at the moment. Going in to the weekend there are still a lot of unknowns so we’ll need to be able to adapt.

Today wasn’t our best day as the car wasn’t feeling particularly strong. FP1 wasn’t great and we worked on some changes for FP2. That initially improved the balance and it felt good, but once we put the Soft tyre on we struggled more. It was definitely an improvement overall, but others took a step forward to too. We’ve got some time to find overnight, and we will be aiming to do so.

There could be some wet weather tomorrow so that good change things up. If it does rain, it will likely open things up a little bit and we can hopefully take advantage of that. Let’s see what Saturday brings.

It's always nice coming back to Spa, it's a great track and a lot of fun to drive around here.
We got a lot of laps in over the two sessions. We tried a few different things on the car and we'll learn a lot from that.
Tomorrow looks set to be wet so that brings its own challenges and we'll work hard to try and take advantage of any unpredictability.

We got a lot of laps in today so we'll analyse the data tonight and see what we can learn.
Rain is possible tomorrow for Qualifying so we'll have to be sharp with the decisions we make if we do get changeable conditions.
We'll work hard tonight to work out the best car setup for what lies ahead this weekend.?

Today has been a productive day of learning – this track never disappoints. We got to further test and understand the new parts introduced in Budapest, although Spa is obviously very different, while trying different configurations to get a clear picture of what we will need from our car for Sunday. While we enjoyed two dry sessions today, the question mark remains on tomorrow’s forecast – there’s some rain expected, which wouldn’t be unusual for Spa. In any case, we got a decent number of long runs under our belt today, gathering useful data for us to work on overnight. Sunday remains our top priority, and the sun is supposed to be out again by then – so we will need to set the car up accordingly.

It was nice to drive here today in dry conditions; they resurfaced part of the track, and a lot of corners have more grip which feels good. Today was a proper test day for us, we tried a lot of things, and I was happier in FP2 compared to this morning. We still need to find a few more tenths for tomorrow but it may rain, and if quali is the only wet session, we won’t have much time to figure it out and find the grip. This will be a challenge for all of us. Sunday looks dry though, so at least we are comfortable, given what we learned today.

It is always mixed emotions coming back to race at Spa-Francorchamps. It’s a truly unique circuit. I love driving a Formula 1 car here as is the case in Free Practice today and it is right up there amongst my favourite circuits. We have some upgrades this weekend so it’s important for us to get them running and help us understand more about the performance. Free Practice 1 was good but we had a couple of small problems in Free Practice 2, which probably masked our performance. We have a lot of data to run through, some comparisons to make to the other car and we go again tomorrow ready for a busy day on track.

It was a tricky Friday in some ways, I didn’t feel the happiest in the car so we need to analyze the data overnight and find a bit more of a sweet spot and harmony between balance and performance. We learned some things today though so it’s all about putting it together tomorrow and putting the best package together. The weather in qualifying could be quite a bit different to Sunday so we’ll need to take a decision on set-up and downforce, it’s going to be interesting.

The car felt fine today; FP1 was really strong but not as representative of our actual pace. FP2, we reversed in the time sheets, but I think we’re somewhere in between. We had a good stint on the Mediums, then we put the Softs on and had a lot of traffic and messy running around us, but I don’t think we’re in a bad position despite some areas we need to improve. Looking to tomorrow, I think with some setup and tyre work we’ll be in the fight for Q3 but let’s see.

It hasn’t been an easy day. I feel like I was missing something personally, which I was starting to find by the end of FP2, so it’s trending in the right direction at least, but we have our work cut out. We will keep chipping away at it and get the car into a better window. Tomorrow still looks tricky as it looks like it will be wet, so this weekend is far from over. The weather throws a new curveball, and you never know what that will bring.

Today was quite a tricky day at the office, but we managed to get through our programme and collect a vast amount of data and information to compare my package with the new upgrades used by Valtteri. It’s clear that we need to make significant progress to find some more pace: it’s rather difficult to be fighting for the top 10 – and even the top 15. While we’re there with the group, I reckon we’re at the back at this moment. Now it’s time for us to regroup, analyse the data, and try to find a few more tenths to be closer to our competitors. Let’s see what the weather has in store tomorrow and what that means for the performance of our car. Spa always has some surprises in its pocket, which could help me to put myself more into position.

We tried a few things today and know some areas we want to look at and improve tomorrow. I have a grid penalty on Sunday for taking new power unit elements, so it’ll be about maximising as much as possible this weekend. The track has a new surface in places which is nice and smooth, and I was able to find more grip. It’s a nice modification and we have a good opportunity to learn more tomorrow and find the most optimum set up. Usually, we perform quite well in the rain, and with the conditions looking mixed this weekend it throws another element into the mix.