Fahrerstimmen – Tag 2

Ich muss vor dem Team meinen Hut ziehen. Wie sie im dritten Jahr hintereinander die Messlatte höher gelegt haben, das inspiriert und motiviert mich wirklich sehr. Es hat mir richtig viel Spaß gemacht, das Auto heute im Qualifying zu fahren. Wir haben das Setup auf den Punkt hinbekommen und es waren einige sexy Runden dabei! Sie fühlten sich so gut an - flüssig und ohne echte Fehler. Darauf kann man nur hoffen, um sich stetig zu verbessern, und das ist uns gelungen. Deshalb bin ich sehr zufrieden. Dennoch gibt es noch viel zu tun heute Abend und natürlich ganz besonders morgen. Durch die Änderungen am Funk-Reglement gibt es für uns Fahrer noch viel zu lernen. Man darf uns nicht mehr sagen, ob sich die Strategie während des Rennens verändert. Deswegen müssen wir voraussehen können, was passiert und ob wir uns in einer anderen Situation befinden als erwartet. Ich bin gespannt. Das ist etwas Neues und ich hoffe, dass es das Spektakel bereichert. Ich bezweifle es stark, aber warten wir es ab...

Wir müssen vorsichtig sein, da die Saison noch jung ist. Aber es ist sehr beeindruckend, wie das Team hier im dritten Jahr in Folge mit einem guten Vorsprung am schnellsten war. Das ist unglaublich anzusehen. Denn wenn man dominiert, besteht das Risiko, nachlässig zu werden. Das ist ein großes Risiko, wie wir früher schon gesehen haben, aber alle scheinen weiter mit Volldampf zu arbeiten. Natürlich bin ich nicht zufrieden mit dem zweiten Platz. Meine letzte Runde im Q3 war gut. Aber Lewis hat eine bessere Leistung abgeliefert. Das ist alles. Trotzdem gibt es morgen von Startplatz zwei noch viele Gelegenheiten. Deshalb freue ich mich auf das Rennen.

“In comparison to the Mercedes drivers we are a bit further behind than we expected, but we are happy with 3rd and 4th, especially for me as it was a bit difficult to find the rhythm in Qualifying. I felt quite good with the car in P3, but then it took some time to get back, and only in Q3 it really started to happen. I had a very good lap, and in the end, because the gap was quite big, I felt that my first lap had been good enough. There really wasn’t another half a second in there, so we called it off, and saved a set of tires, although surely we would have loved to be closer. As for the qualifying format, I don’t understand why all the people are so surprised now. It was going to happen, there were plenty of engineers and other brains that, basically, had sort of predicted what would happen. It was crazy at the beginning with all the cars lining up at the end of the pitlane, and everybody trying to set a lap time to avoid the risk of being eliminated. And then it was very quiet, same in Q2 and equally in Q3. So I don’t think that it is more exciting, it’s definitely the wrong way to go. Nothing has changed from what we had said a few weeks ago, but apparently somebody liked it, otherwise we wouldn’t have had this format…”

“It was not the ideal qualifying, but not too bad either. The car feels pretty good, and even if the Mercedes are faster than us I don’t think we should be too worried. I was struggling a bit with the front tires to get them working at the first three corners, but apart from that we had a very good package and it was getting better and better. Maybe for us it would have been better to have warmer conditions. The new qualifying format is obviously different, from a driver’s point of view it’s a slightly different feeling than it was before, but if you watch it on TV I think that there is a much bigger difference.I think today we did a good job as a team, this being the first time of the year. In Q3 we did have another set of tires available, but it wouldn’t have changed a lot to go out, so we decided to keep it for the race. So far it’s ok, it can always be better but we’ll see what we can do tomorrow.

"It was a good qualifying session, especially after FP3, where I was struggling a bit with the car. We managed to turn it around and to be P5 – a career best – here in Melbourne is a great achievement by the whole team! If I'm honest, I'm a bit surprised with the result – I thought Q3 was maybe possible, but to be here in P5 is definitely a better result than we expected. I think this new qualifying system is quite tricky because you only have one lap to perform, but I liked it. Over the winter the team did a great job and now we need to enjoy this moment and get ready for tomorrow's race. I'm definitely looking forward to it!"

It was a good qualifying. I managed to qualify the best I could, but unfortunately lost out on fifth place by a very small gap. That is the only negative point. I did some good laps and the car behaves well, so I am happy. It is tricky, and not easy, going through the session knowing the countdown is on every few minutes. Fortunately, I didn’t have any problems on my laps, but if you go out in traffic and you have any problems, it could be a lot closer that it was today.

"We can be happy with our first qualifying session of the season – a P5 and a P7 here in Australia is a great result for the team! I'm pleased with my starting position and even though in Q3 I wasn't able to repeat a strong lap like I did in Q2, a P7 is a good starting point for tomorrow's race. The car feels really good and the hard work we've done over the winter is starting to pay off. It was quite a hectic and tricky session for us, but we hope the fans enjoyed this new format. We've got good pace and our objective tomorrow will be to hopefully go forward and score as many points as possible. We need to aim for that top seven, and I'm certainly looking forward to that challenge, it will be a fun race!"

"To make it into Q3 is good, we expected to more or less be in the top eight. Another tenth would have probably given us a couple of more positions, but that's always the way. As for the new qualifying system, Q1 and Q2 seemed okay, the clock ticking down added a bit more pressure and it might have been a bit more exciting for the fans, but Q3 didn't seem to work as well, it was a bit weird to have the session still going and all the drivers out of their cars."

I am happy about today's result. The team did a great job and I think it's a very positive way to begin the season. Starting ninth gives us many more options in terms of the strategy because we can choose the tyres for our first stint. This could be one of the key aspects of the race so it’s good to be in this position. “As for the new qualifying system, we need to see how the fans react. I think it’s a system that favours the big teams and puts more pressure on the middle of the grid because any mistake during your lap means you will almost certainly be eliminated. You don't have any opportunity to go out again and improve your time, which adds a lot of pressure - much more on us than on bigger teams. It's not just pressure for the drivers, it is for everyone in the team, also the mechanics and engineers - you're in a race against the clock just for the opportunity to get another lap in. “We still have question marks about how the race will unfold, but I think pretty much everyone on the grid is in the same position because of the limited running in the dry. It will be an interesting Sunday and we have the potential to score good points.

“The new qualifying format didn’t really change my approach, although you are certainly under more pressure to deliver a good first run to avoid being at risk of dropping out early. So your first runs in Q1 and Q2 are probably the most important of the day. “In terms of the result, I’m pretty happy with tenth and it’s more or less in the ballpark of what we felt we could achieve today. Under last year’s rules it would have taken us through to Q3, but with the new format it’s actually a really good place to start because it opens up some nice strategy options with the free tyre choice for the start of the race. “There are still a few unknowns for tomorrow, especially in terms of race pace because nobody was able to do their usual long run programmes yesterday. Also, the first race always has the potential to be unpredictable and eventful. I expect a tough race because the grid is very tight, but I want to come away with some big points.”

“The car was fantastic today. “I felt very comfortable and very happy with the performance of the car all weekend. We didn’t expect to be too fast here because our car is still limited in performance in certain areas. But we were more competitive than we anticipated, have some new things coming for in the next few races, and we’re looking to be stronger in the future. “Perhaps we need to give the new qualifying system a bit more time. However, I believe it favours the strongest teams and is a bit unfair towards the less competitive teams. “Because we’d used two sets of Supersofts in Q1 – where I finished third – we only had one chance to run in Q2. On my first run I felt competitive, I was 10th, running under the same conditions and on the same rubber as everyone else; I was only 1.2s off the Mercedes, which was a nice surprise, but then I had to sit in the garage and watch how quali developed, which was a bit sad. “Of course, the top teams don’t need to use both sets of Supersoft tyres in Q1, so the onus is on us to get back to being a top team again, and only use up one set of Options in Q1. But maybe we should do what Moto GP did in qualifying last year – where the less competitive teams could use softer tyres in qualifying. In Formula 1, we’ve chosen to do the opposite. “Tomorrow will be interesting – hopefully we can get both cars into the points.”

“Twelfth and 13th on the grid is slightly better than we expected before we came here. “The car didn’t feel too bad, although I think people struggled with the drop in temperature between FP3 and qualifying. I enjoyed driving the car, although, at the end of Q2, we didn’t have any Supersoft tyres left, and weren’t quite quick enough. “The only problem we encountered with the new qualifying regulations was in the pit-lane: the four cars behind us were being wheeled backwards into the garage at the same time as we were trying to stop in the box, change tyres and run again. It’s quite a narrow pit-lane here, so it turned into a bit of a mess. “Winter testing was positive in terms of mileage, but less so in terms of pace, so we’re all positively surprised with how close we were to Williams and Force India. I actually believe we have a better race car than a qualifying car – which is a turnaround from last year – and our deployment is almost as good as anybody else’s, which will benefit us more in the races. “Today isn’t too bad a starting point – much better than where we were this time last year.”

It was a pretty busy qualifying, obviously as it was the first one with the new system. It really built up and we were going quicker and quicker all the time so you had to make sure you kept your head above the water and not get knocked out. We’re happy to be in Q2; we didn’t really expect much more. I hadn’t done many laps in the dry here so I was trying to build up to it a little bit and then on the last lap, I knew I had to give it everything. It was enough to make Q2 so happy days!

We didn’t think we would be as strong as we were today, we hadn’t expected to get out of Q1 and actually we got both cars through. My lap wasn’t perfect, there was more to get out of the car so that is encouraging. It was frustrating that things didn’t go our way in Q2, we had traffic which meant we didn’t get a chance to set a better time, but qualifying is the same for everyone and at some point it will work out in our favour.

Es war ein ordentliches Qualifying, erstmals mit dem neuen Modus. Das Auto fühlte sich zufriedenstellend an und hatte eine gute Balance. Das Team arbeitete toll, wenn man bedenkt, wie wenige Trainingsrunden wir am Freitag gefahren sind. Dass es für Q2 sehr knapp werden würde, hatten wir erwartet. Wir waren nahe dran, aber eben nicht nahe genug. Im Rennen werden wir alles versuchen, damit wir um Punkte kämpfen können.

It was a disappointing session. I was struggling with grip today, so we need to have a look to see if we got everything out of the tyres, the pressure and temperatures. I was hoping to get to Q3, but tomorrow is a new day and from 11th it is still possible to have a good race.

Es war ein schwieriges Qualifying für uns. Das ganze Starterfeld ist konkurrenzfähig und uns ist klar, dass wir noch sehr viel Arbeit am Auto vor uns haben. Für das Rennen bin ich zuversichtlich, dass wir noch einige Positionen nach vorne rücken können. Es war schade, dass ich mit einem neuen Satz Supersoft-Reifen keine schnelle Runde mehr fahren konnte, weil die Zeit abgelaufen war. Doch das gehört auch zum neuen Qualifying-Modus.

"Of course it's frustrating to be P18 but we will learn from what we have done today. My first lap was compromised by traffic so I had to give it up, and on the second push lap the tyres lost a lot of performance so it wasn't enough. It's a new system and someone had to get it wrong and today it was us but we have plenty of things to analyse from our short life in Q1. "I will do my best to go through the field tomorrow, definitely. It's not going to be enjoyable to start from P18 but it's a long race and we have to try and squeeze everything out of it and bring some points home."

“I was on a good lap and then suddenly I’m out. I don’t even get a chance to go to the end of the lap. That’s annoying because the car was good, our baseline is good, and in terms of performance, we were clearly able to go through. We just missed a bit of speed on the turnaround in the garage, so we were massively out of position. This is one of those races where it’s tricky and you need to finish. That’s our first call for tomorrow though. That’s what Gene (Haas, chairman) wants. From there, everything is possible. It’s a long race and we have new rules with the radio ban, so we just have to try to use the experience.”

“It was a little frustrating not to see the lap time we achieved reflected in the results. However, we know the potential is there. Overall, I think we’ve had a very tricky weekend, but with more time we’ll become more efficient as a team. The good thing is we know the lap time was good enough to be further up the grid. Looking ahead, we need to be positive, to keep working hard and moving forward.”

Not the result I was hoping for but I can’t complain; the system is the system. This was our first shot at it and we’ll have to find a way to improve. The window is incredibly tight so while my lap time is key, we have to work hard to optimise the strategy to see where we can gain extra time. I don’t think there was too much more we could have done today on the first time out, so we’ll have to take it step by step to make it better. Tomorrow is where it really counts though. I’ve waited a long time for this moment so as disappointed as I am today, nothing will take the shine away from lining up on the grid for the first time.

“After the previous Q1 system of having 20 minutes to extract the best from the car and driver, it felt pretty strange to have such a short qualifying. Today we only had time for one lap. It wasn’t a bad lap either, but it also wasn’t perfect. I could have been quicker and that’s what we’ll have to work on but even with a tenth or so to play with we would still have been out of time. Still, I completed my first qualifying, learned a lot and my job is to keep improving in every area. Tomorrow is my first F1 race and I’m very excited for that. I’m sure we can have a better day.”