The drivers have their say on Friday's running at the Yas Marina Circuit
Friday 21 November 2014 18:36, UK
The drivers have their say on the opening day of running at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi.
Sebastian Vettel: “I think we have improved the car today, but we can still improve more. The super soft tyre seems pretty good for one lap, but I don’t think they lasted very long, for everyone, and then we focused mainly on the harder compound.
“McLaren has made a step forward the last couple of races and the nature of the track here maybe suits them a bit better than other tracks, but it’s Friday so I guess we will find out tomorrow. I don’t really want to interfere with Mercedes in the race. It would be nice to race them and beat them, but I think realistically they are a bit far away. I want to get everything out of myself and the car and make sure I finish fourth in the Championship.”
Daniel Ricciardo: “Nice and warm today! We got all the laps in, which was important and we got to run both compounds on the long runs, so I think we achieved all we could in terms of a run plan. Mercedes are … yeah I won’t even mention them! But anyway, they’re fighting for the title so we’ll let them go, but as for the rest it looks pretty tight as always for third place.
“We’ll definitely try and do something (with strategy). Anything can happen and it’s the final race, so hopefully the strategy can work to our advantage someway. Sebastian looked competitive today and hopefully we’re fighting for that spot on the podium, it would be nice to have a battle with him and end the season like that, it could be a good farewell for him and the team.”
Lewis Hamilton: “It's been a good Friday. We've run the same programme as we run every race weekend but this time we had the whole of both sessions to work with the tyres, look at long runs, analyse setup and the countless other things you need to assess in practice which was great. We made good steps forward with the setup but, as always, there is still more time to be found.
“We'll keep chipping away at it and look to improve in every area possible but the car feels great - the best I've ever driven here without doubt. The team have done an amazing job. Coming into the weekend I was already excited and couldn't wait to get out on track. When you know you have a package as competitive as ours it's like being a kid at Christmas.
“I don't feel any particular pressure this weekend. I'll just drive the way I always drive and what will be, will be. So far it's all moving in the right direction so I just have to keep working away at it.”
Nico Rosberg: “It's been a good day today but I really haven't got my best lap together yet, so there is still a lot of work to do over the rest of the weekend. In general the car felt great out there today. I just need to fine-tune it so that the set-up is exactly to my liking, then go for it and get the job done.
“This track really is amazing. It's always a highlight when darkness falls and the lights come up - just spectacular! It will be a great show here, so I hope the fans at the circuit and everyone watching at home enjoy it.”
Fernando Alonso: “It was a real shame losing the opportunity to take part in the second free practice session here at Yas Marina, as it’s the only chance to get an idea of how things will really go this weekend.
“On my second lap, the car just stopped unexpectedly and even though the marshals did their best to push the car back to the pits in time to get it back out on track, the work took the mechanics longer than expected. In the first session, we managed to complete our programme and the car behaved as expected, but the temperature, much hotter than it will be in qualifying and the race, means the data we acquired is not that relevant.
“For the same reason, tomorrow’s third session won't be that useful and that means the first lap to match conditions in qualifying and the race, in the dark in the afternoon, will be the first lap in Q1. We definitely won’t be that well prepared but all the same, we will try our best as usual.”
Kimi Raikkonen: “It was a very busy day and, particularly in the first session, we struggled a bit to find the right balance on the car. The programme included various set-up tests and, probably partly because of the high temperatures, my car felt rather nervous.
“Between the two sessions, we decided to make a few changes and in FP2, with lower temperatures, things improved, also in terms of how we compared to our competitors. My best lap wasn’t perfect, I made a small mistake.
“Overall, the work we did today produced positive results and this evening’s analysis of the data will deliver a lot of useful information to help us improve for qualifying and the race.”
Pastor Maldonado: "It was a good day with a lot of work completed. I'm happy with the way my car feels and there is good potential for the car tomorrow and in the race too. We still can find some more improvements but for sure I am looking forward to making some improvements in FP3 then pushing to the maximum in qualifying."
Romain Grosjean: "We still have some work to do to get the E22 where we want it to be. I did miss some track time in FP1, and you notice this a little, even if the temperature conditions are different from what we see when it matters this weekend. There's still pace to be found in the car and I'm sure we'll unlock more speed for qualifying tomorrow."
Esteban Ocon: "It felt great to be out on track today. I didn't push too hard too soon, but everything felt good. Certainly the car is pretty different to drive from the previous generation F1 cars I've driven before, it's definitely more complicated in terms of all the settings and the driving style required is a change too. I'm quite happy with the pace show, but I was driving with margin so there's more speed to come in next week's test."
Kevin Magnussen: “It hasn’t been a bad day, all in all. I tried out our new front wing during both today’s sessions, and it felt different, which is good. Fortunately, we managed to get a lot of testing of it done, and we learned some interesting things about it, so that’s good too.
“It – our new front wing – follows a very different philosophy from our regular front wing, and I think today’s running has given us a positive direction for the future.
“Looking forwards to the race, the Option [tyre] has shown itself to be extremely soft; it needs to be looked after in order to last a stint. And, in terms of degradation, there’s quite a big difference between the two compounds.
“Although I ended up in P3 today, it’s possible that we may not be quite able to fight for the second row tomorrow. All year we’ve tended to look stronger on Friday than we do on Saturday. Some of the other teams seem to be able to find a bit of extra pace overnight – and I guess that may happen again here. Even so, we’ll be giving it our very best shot, so let’s see how it pans out. The car feels okay, and tomorrow is when its speed will really count.”
Jenson Button: “This afternoon we had an issue with the rear suspension, then a hydraulic problem ahead of FP2. I also had a problem with something inside the cockpit, which meant I had to climb out then climb in again, so I suppose you’d have to say it’s been quite a busy day.
“Because of all that additional work, we haven’t really established a good set-up foundation – but then that’s a natural consequence whenever you find yourselves having to right so many things that have gone wrong.
“Over one lap, the car looks pretty good – but whether it’ll be the same tomorrow, I don’t know. We need to do a bit more work to get a proper idea of how the tyres will behave across a long run.
“So we’ve got a lot to do overnight, but, hopefully, we can put the car right for tomorrow, and then we’ll see where we are.”
Sergio Perez: “It was a busy day, but I think we did a good job of getting the information we needed and understanding the changing temperatures throughout the day. Tyres will clearly play a big part with quite high degradation over the long runs and that will be the main challenge on Sunday. So it’s important to analyse the tyre performance and see where we can improve. We also need to focus on our single lap pace with the target of Q3 tomorrow, but it’s looking very competitive to try and get in the top ten.”
Nico Hulkenberg: “The first session went well, but my car felt quite different this evening and not so easy to drive. It’s something we need to analyse and understand because it certainly had an impact on performance and lap time. Despite these issues I was still able to get a feeling for the tyres, which have been more of a challenge than we expected. It was very cool this evening at the end of FP2 and that was a big factor on tyre performance.”
Esteban Gutierrez: “It was a positive day. Finally we were able to do both practice sessions. I think it was quite productive, although we do not have the pace we would like to have. It looks pretty tough for the long runs. We need to find the best way to improve our lap times.”
Adrian Sutil: “Unfortunately, I missed the first early afternoon free practice session. At the beginning of FP2 we had to replace the front brake disks. These are obviously not ideal preparations. That’s the way it is at the moment, and we have to make the best out of it. We have a lot of work ahead of us and, furthermore, I did not have an optimal feeling in the car.”
Adderly Fong: “It was a good session. This car is totally different to the C31 I had driven in Valencia. As it was quite hot today the track temperatures were high, so it was very tricky to get the tyres to work. I think for my first FP1 I was pushing too much.
“I was trying to get onto the power as quickly as possible, but that driving style cost me time, especially in most of the slow corners such as in sector three. Then I had a cool down and was actually quicker on that lap on some of the corner exits. But I guess this is what FP1 is for, for learning a new car and also the operation procedures of the team.
“It was a bit overwhelming at the beginning with all the buttons I had to press. But having done the first run, you start to cool down. It was very nice to see drivers I normally watch on TV right in front of me. It is a privilege to be here, and it was a fantastic experience for me.”
Daniil Kvyat: “Conditions were changing quite fast here, because obviously we started when it was hot, in the middle of the day, and we ended in cooler temperatures, almost at night. It was interesting to experience this change of conditions and I think we learned something today, which is always very important for a Friday. Overall, I have to say my feeling was quite good in both sessions, so I’m positive that tomorrow we’ll put everything together, to get the best out of the car.”
Jean-Eric Vergne: “Overall it was a good Friday. The car is not exactly to my liking yet, especially this afternoon, when we didn’t have the optimum engine set up, which explains why I wasn’t so fast in FP2. I also suffered some understeer, but I’m confident everything will be solved for tomorrow. We have some work to do tonight but we’ll find the right solution to get a better car and be quicker for the remainder of the weekend.”
Valtteri Bottas: “After some issues in FP1 we managed to make up some lost time in FP2. In the second session everything worked well, but there is still some work to do tomorrow with regards to the balance of the car. In some corners I lose the front and in others, the rear, so I want to get that sorted early. There is time, so we are under no pressure, and we still have some tuning to go which will add performance.”
Felipe Massa: “I wouldn’t say I had a perfect day, but I know the areas that I need to improve and how I will do this, so I am not worried. The first session wasn’t too much of an issue, luckily I saw the problem early, and so the bodywork didn’t come off. The afternoon was better, we made some progress but I still struggled on the new tyres. The Mercedes are still looking quick, but we will keep working to close the gap.”
Kamui Kobayashi: “It was great to be able to drive the car again. I’m really glad to be here and I’d like to thank all the fans out there who made this possible. It was a trouble-free Friday where we managed to complete plenty of laps – something that is always useful in order to prepare for the weekend ahead. There’s still some work to be done and we need to work on the set-up for tomorrow, but it’s been a useful Friday and I look forward to the rest of the weekend here in Abu Dhabi. I’d also like to add that the team is doing a great job, it’s clearly a big team effort and I’m very impressed.”
Will Stevens: “I had been waiting for this day to arrive for a very long time – it didn’t start as well as I had hoped for, as a small technical issue meant I had to jump out of the car after only competing my installation lap. Luckily, the team did a great job and it got sorted out rapidly, meaning I could spend the rest of the day focusing on getting to grips with the car and completing as many laps as possible.
“In this afternoon’s session I already felt much more comfortable. We now need to work hard tonight and go through all the data gathered so that we drive out tomorrow well prepared. I’m happy with my race weekend so far, it’s definitely a steep learning curve, but I’m ready for the challenge and I want to thank all the fans out there that believed in the team and got us here to race.”
