Buddh - Team reaction after Free practices 1 & 2

Caterham Renault

Giedo van der Garde (in Heikki Kovalainen’s car for FP1): "It was another good session for me today and one I want to dedicate to my Grandpa who sadly passed away last week. I know he’s always been very proud of me and he told me to enjoy myself whenever I’m driving, so I made sure I did today. The circuit is pretty technical but I was up to speed quickly and didn’t have any problems getting through the plan we were running today. One thing that was really obvious was just how much the track evolves - even on my first run I could feel the grip levels improving with every lap, so by Sunday it will probably feel very different, but for me in FP1 it was fine.

"I’ll be back in the car again next week in Abu Dhabi at a track I know well, and then I have two full days at the Yas Marina Circuit in the young driver test. It’s good to keep adding to the mileage I’ve already done this year and I’m really pleased with how much progress I’m making with the car and the team in general."

Heikki Kovalainen: "Having sat out FP1 the key for me was getting through as many laps as possible and I’m pleased with what we achieved in FP2. The balance has been pretty good all afternoon on both tyre compounds - we did have some understeer in the high speed corners on the first run on the soft tyres but we dialled that out for the long run and the car felt good as the grip levels kept improving. It’s good to see clear air between us and the cars behind and maybe we can play with the tyre strategy tomorrow to push closer to the cars ahead - that has to be the aim."

Vitaly Petrov: "FP1 went well for me. Even though there wasn’t a lot of grip early on the car felt pretty good and we got through a lot of aero work that gives us data to work on tonight. In FP2 we were again running well but on my second run on the soft tyres it looked like we might have had a problem with the engine so we ended the session a little early to let the Renault Sport F1 guys take a look and make sure we prevented any damage. Until that point the car had again felt good and we’d found a balance where deg levels on the tyres were very manageable. I think we’re in quite good shape for tomorrow and Sunday so hopefully we can have a strong weekend here in India."

Toro Rosso Ferrari

Daniel Ricciardo: “I enjoyed driving this track last year and it’s been even more enjoyable today in what is a quicker car than I had back then. I had a good time out there, while also pushing as hard as we could to be in good shape for tomorrow. In general, I think we achieved what we set out to do. We were good straight out of the box this morning, so we did not make many changes in FP1 and the general balance of the car seemed quite good. In the afternoon, it was clear that the track evolution affected the balance and we have to keep that in mind, as it will evolve even more tomorrow and we have to plan our changes on the car to take that into account.”

Jean-Eric Vergne: “Today was my first time at this track and it is really fun to drive, keeping you busy throughout the lap. However, my pace was not that good and we definitely need to look at the data and decide what to do because we’re about a second away from where we should be. As for the tyres, there seemed to be a big difference between the performance of the Prime and the Option, but no problems on this front. Daniel and I ran different set-ups to evaluate various choices and clearly, what he had worked better than mine, so we will keep that in mind tonight.”

Laurent Mekies (Chief Engineer): “Today went smoothly for us and we managed to get through all our planned programme on both cars. We had a few set-up directions we wanted to evaluate, some of them on the same car, others across both cars. Overall, we are a little bit happier with the way Daniel’s car was working, while Jev also had to deal with learning this circuit for the very first time, so tonight we will work on providing him with a car he is happy with. We know this circuit features a massive track improvement as the day goes on and we saw that again today: the tyres are lasting very well so we have no concerns on this front.”

Sauber Ferrari

The Sauber F1 Team had an interesting start to the weekend of the Indian Grand Prix at the Buddh International Circuit. After Sergio Pérez arrived in India feeling unwell, the team followed the doctor’s recommendation and decided to be cautious by giving him a rest on Friday morning and letting reserve driver Esteban Gutiérrez drive in the first free practice session. The 21-year old hadn’t driven the C31 before and the track was also new to him. For the second session Sergio was back at the wheel. All in all the team managed to get through today’s job list, and the consensus of opinion is the car looks quite good on long runs but less competitive on single fast laps.

Sergio Pérez: “For me the second free practice was as difficult as expected in terms of finding a good set up for a single lap, but I think we look quite good when it comes to covering the race distance. Of course I didn’t get the mileage I wanted today because I could not take part in the first free practice session, but, despite this, it was a productive day for the team and we have enough information to make the most out of our chances.”

Kamui Kobayashi: “I found it difficult today to find any grip. I can’t really say whether this is down to the dust on the circuit, the tyres or the car. Most probably it is a combination of all those factors and we have to find the best way to improve. This goes especially for when we run low fuel, although I didn’t do that many laps with a lighter car. I spent a lot of time running on a high fuel load and I think we are doing fine with the heavier car. We have to work now, but also to consider that anyway the grip level of the track will improve.”

Esteban Gutiérrez: “It was a great experience to step in for Sergio this morning. For me it was the first time I have been at the wheel of the C31, as I have only done straight line testing so far. Also I didn’t know the track before, which made it an even more interesting session. I have worked very closely with the team all season, listening to the radio and attending the engineers’ meetings. Today I really enjoyed seeing from the inside of the cockpit what I had only seen from the outside. It was also very interesting to be part of an official Formula One event for the first time. It is obviously different to testing and it is challenging to stay focused. I think the circuit here is amazing, especially with the chain of fast corners. However, my target was to progress during that session and make sure I brought the car home in one piece. Now Sergio will be taking over again but, in case anything should happen, I feel ready to get into the car again.”

Giampaolo Dall’Ara, Head of Track Engineering: “Actually today was quite similar to what we experienced at the two recent race weekends, when we were also struggling with our low fuel performance on Friday and were a lot happier with the car’s balance on long runs. However, despite the driver change, we still managed to complete our entire programme of evaluating the tyre compounds, which are soft and hard this time, and carrying out set up work under varying fuel loads. We now have to maximise our potential for qualifying.”

HRT Cosworth

The Formula 1 World Championship returned to action today at the Buddh International Circuit with the celebration of the first day of practice sessions at the Indian Grand Prix. A very special Grand Prix for HRT Formula 1 Team and Narain Karthikeyan who is once again racing in front of his home crowd after the inaugural event last year.

In the morning, Narain Karthikeyan had a fruitful session and proved to be competitive from the get go. But his afternoon session came to an early end after the team spotted a minor hydraulic failure and decided to bring him back to the garage for an exhaustive examination. The problem was located and it shouldn’t be an issue for tomorrow’s sessions. Despite this, Karthikeyan finished in 23rd, ahead of Charles Pic. His teammate Pedro de la Rosa, who was racing at the Indian track for the first time, started off by getting to know the circuit and doing small tests with the hard tyres in the morning whilst the track conditions improved. In the afternoon he also tested the soft tyres and carried out long distance runs to finish in 21st position, ahead of both Marussias.

The conditions will improve even more for tomorrow but both F112’s also have room for improvement before tomorrow’s qualifying session and Sunday’s race.

Pedro de la Rosa: "I loved the circuit. It’s really nice and also very challenging. You have to use the kerbs a lot and the car really suffers, so we have to drive carefully. Overall I had good sensations with the balance of the car, especially in the afternoon when I was able to do more laps. But we’ve still got a lot of room for improvement and if we’re able to improve the balance of the car we’ll be able to run better. Especially in changes of direction because we lose too much time on quick corners and we can correct that. Now we must continue working on the set-up of the car to have a good qualifying session tomorrow”.

Narain Karthikeyan: "It was a great feeling racing in India once again, at home. The first session went pretty well and in the afternoon we decided to change the balance of the car to improve certain aspects. We’d just set the soft tyres when, unfortunately, we suffered a hydraulic failure which impeded us from improving our times. But the problem should be fixed for tomorrow so I hope to have a good qualifying session”.

Luis Pérez-Sala, Team Principal: "I’ve got mixed feelings today. Narain was running very well but a hydraulic issue prevented him from getting the most out of the soft tyres. And Pedro was the other way round; in the morning he didn’t run much because we had to change the brakes, and he didn’t know the circuit, but he adapted very quickly and in the afternoon he did some tests on a full tank and set a very good time. We have to try and improve the car to fight for a good result in qualifying”.

Mercedes

Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher completed the first two practice sessions for the 2012 Airtel Indian Grand Prix at the Buddh International Circuit today.

— In total, Michael and Nico completed 123 laps today in practice - over two race distances

— Both drivers focused on tyre evaluation work, along with set-up programmes on high and low fuel

— The fastest times in P1 and P2 were respectively 0.8s and 0.5s slower than in the same sessions last year

Nico Rosberg: We learned a lot in the two practice sessions today and found some good set-up directions, so it was a decent day. Fourth place is not our realistic position at the moment but I am confident that we’re looking a little better here than at the previous two races.

Michael Schumacher: We had two sessions today where we worked mainly on long runs and the performance was reasonable by the end of the day. The car balance was ok, particularly in the first sector with the slower corners, and as such confirmed the performance that we expected from the circuit characteristics. With the soft tyres, I didn’t really get a lap together, but we managed to build a basis to work on for the rest of the weekend.

Ross Brawn: We’ve had a very solid day’s work here today and completed our planned programme. Our focus was on getting the car balanced which went pretty well over the two sessions. The tyres are very consistent here and, whilst there are still improvements to make to the car, we’re looking in reasonable shape for the weekend.

Norbert Haug: A positive first day for our team. It would be wrong to read too much into Nico´s position in the second session but all in all this was a better Friday for us than we had during the last couple of races.

Marussia Cosworth

It was a challenging start to the day for the Marussia F1 Team in India, as Charles Pic sampled the track for the very first time and both Charles and Timo Glock struggled to balance their cars at the Buddh International Circuit.

This morning Timo worked through the evaluation of a new front wing, while Charles focused on learning the circuit and an engine mapping programme.

This afternoon, they progressed to a normal mix of set-up work, qualifying runs and longer runs to evaluate the tyre compounds being used here in light of the expected higher track temperatures.

On paper this is not a track that favours the Team’s MR01, as the long straight from turns 3-4 is better suited to the KERS-powered cars. The challenge will be to try and find the overall lap performance to mitigate the sector 1 challenge, so the Team will be working with the engineers this evening to make good progress ahead of FP3.

Timo Glock: “Today was a pretty normal Friday. The track was very dirty to begin with and FP1 didn’t work that well for us because we struggled a bit with traffic and I never got a clear lap. In FP2 we worked on the set-up programme and it went pretty well with the tyres. The start of the session was okay and the long run was good, so that’s important for the race on Sunday.”

Charles Pic: “It has not been a straightforward day today. This is another new track for me and I’m enjoying the layout and characteristics. While FP1 went well for us, we have struggled in FP2 and I have experienced a few small issues which have interrupted our flow. There is more we can do to improve ourselves for tomorrow, however our long run pace was good which is positive.”

John Booth, Team Principal: “A fairly routine Friday for us, aside from a few small upgrades around the front wing which we evaluated in FP1. At the minute these look like they represent a small gain, although we will confirm this with more data analysis this evening. Both drivers have completed their intended programmes, running the normal combination of low and high fuel. The track seems to be quite dirty and both drivers have been struggling for overall grip which, at present, does seem to be hurting our pace. However, I’m sure that with more running in FP3 and into the first part of qualifying, we will see the effects of this problem starting to dissipate.”

Lotus Renault

Kimi Räikkönen went fifth fastest and Romain Grosjean set the ninth fastest time at the end of Friday’s two practice sessions at the Buddh International Circuit ahead of Sunday’s Indian Grand Prix. Both drivers used the team’s new Coanda exhaust system, with new updated rear bodywork sections, whilst Kimi evaluated a new evolution front wing. Both cars ran reliably throughout the two 90 minute practice sessions.

Technical programme notes:

— We ran the Coanda exhaust system on both cars for the first time following its successful debut with Kimi in Korea.
— New bodywork around the exhaust area to better harness and utilise the Coanda system was employed on both cars.
— Kimi evaluated the latest evolution front wing.
— Pirelli’s hard compound tyre was used in the morning, the hard and soft used in the afternoon.

What we learned today:

— We’re confident we’ll be able to put in a good showing tomorrow.
— We need to find more pace on the hard tyre, but soft tyre pace is good.
— We are yet to reach a conclusion on whether we will use the updated rear bodywork.
— The front wing will be used by both cars for the rest of the weekend.

Kimi Räikkönen: "The circuit is nice. For me it was easier to learn than the Korean track ; it’s not as technical but it’s good. It’s always nice to come to a new place like this - I’ve been racing for many years, and you always end up going to the same places so it’s good when you get a new place and a new circuit. For sure we can still improve on one lap but I think we are not far away from our maximum speed. Of course I hope that we are faster than McLaren. Our car was working well, especially on soft tyres but with the hard tyres it was more difficult to find grip."

Romain Grosjean: "For me it wasn’t that easy a track to learn, and it’s been very hard to set-up the car as the track has been evolving a lot through the day ; from zero grip in the morning to much better in the afternoon. However, we’ve made good progress today and we’re working on improving further overnight. There are a few blind corners, and some quick places where you don’t want to make mistakes either. Hopefully we find the car we want for qualifying and get what we want tomorrow."

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: "Both drivers got up to speed pretty quickly on a new track once more. We spent the morning session evaluating the new front wing and some new rear diffuser parts ; we need to investigate further the diffuser parts but the new front wing looks good so we’ll run it with both cars for the remainder of the weekend. We were able to conduct an uninterrupted FP2 programme, running both tyres reasonably early on, followed by a long run on the soft compound. We’re missing a little pace on the hard tyre so we’re investigating our tyre temperatures and pressures, however on the softer tyre our car looks very competitive on both low and high fuel loads. It would be nice to squeeze another two or three tenths out of the car in qualifying, but nevertheless we confident of the potential for a good show tomorrow."

Red Bull Renault

Sebastian Vettel: “Friday’s are always difficult with so many things changing. The track improvement was quite big today, it was dusty to start and improved lap by lap, so I wouldn’t be surprised if tomorrow the order is different, but we’ve had worse Fridays, so I am happy. We need to keep working and improve a little bit overnight.”

Mark Webber: “That went pretty well. I had a lock-up in Turn 1, which I could have done without, but it wasn’t the end of the world. We got on with the important stuff, which is understanding the soft tyre on short and long runs. We’ll have a look where we can improve the car, you can always improve. The team is incredibly motivated and the drivers also.”

Williams Renault

Mark Gillan, Chief Operations Engineer: The track was in reasonable shape today and we had a couple of very productive sessions with all three drivers giving very clear and detailed feedback on their different run programmes. We clearly have some work to do ahead of qualifying but our longer run pace looks pretty competitive.

Bruno Senna: We were working hard to get the optimum car set-up today so we had to try a number of things to get the right balance during the second session. On the whole we have had a very productive day and completed what we had set out to do. Now we need to work on improving our set-up ahead of tomorrow’s qualifying.

Pastor Maldonado: Today the pace wasn’t quite where we want it to be for qualifying so we will have to work hard and analyse where we can improve to give us the sort of one-lap pace that will get us into Q3. Our long runs continue to be strong though, like they have been all season, so that’s encouraging for the race itself.

Valtteri Bottas: It was a good first practice today because we managed to complete a busy programme. We completed some good aero evaluations and managed to get a good amount of data. This was my first time driving this circuit and I can tell that it will become one of my favourites because it has a nice flow to it and the surface is very smooth which means that tyre wear is lower so you can push the car a bit more.

Force India Mercedes

Sahara Force India was back in action on home soil today as Nico Hulkenberg and Paul Di Resta completed a busy day of free practice at Buddh International Circuit.

Paul Di Resta: “It was not an easy session for me. The balance is still not perfect and we need to work hard tonight to try and improve that before final practice. The main issue of the day was the puncture I picked up half-way through FP2 because I missed out on my high-fuel run on the soft tyres. Also, it was hard to get a clean lap during my low fuel run because the track was so busy. We’ve got data with the other car but it would have been helpful to have run more laps and got a proper feel for the soft.”

Nico Hulkenberg: “It was my first experience of the Buddh circuit today and I have to say they have done a really nice job. There’s a good flow to the lap and the second sector is very technical and challenging. The programme for me today was quite straightforward because we managed to do everything we wanted. I completed a decent long run on the soft tyres this afternoon and I think we are quite well prepared going into tomorrow.”

Jakob Andreasen, Chief Engineer: “The circuit was quite green this morning with very low grip so that made it difficult to learn too much. The priority was to get Nico up-to-speed quickly and pick up some data on a few test items, which all went to plan. The afternoon was less straightforward, largely because Paul picked up a puncture after his low fuel run on the soft tyres. That meant he missed out on his long run. Fortunately we got all the data we needed with Nico’s programme, but it certainly put Paul on the back foot. In terms of car balance we still have some work to do to get the car where we want it, but we have the data we need to make sure we can pick the right options for tomorrow.”

McLaren Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton: “It was quite a positive day – on my side of the garage, at least.

“The car felt quite good, but to get the best from the tyres each lap wasn’t so easy. We’re not quite quick enough yet, but tyre durability and our long-run pace both looked quite good. In fact, I was very happy with the long run. If we continue in that direction, we’ll hopefully be strong in the race.

“I think we’re probably quick enough to qualify third or fourth fastest at the moment, but, to go for pole, we’re going to really need to push hard in our development work tonight.

“It looks like it’ll be another close race.”

Jenson Button: “It hasn’t been a perfect day.

“Our lap-times in the first session were okay, but we couldn’t really get the Option [tyre] working in FP2 – perhaps that was down to a temperature issue.

“Then I had a gearshift problem during my long run in the afternoon. The team is currently looking into it – hopefully, we’ll have it sorted by tomorrow.

“Still, I think Lewis’s long-run pace looks promising. We’re still a few tenths shy of the very fastest cars, but I think we’re more competitive on long runs than we are on short runs, where we’re slightly struggling to get the tyres working.

“Fortunately, this is a good circuit for overtaking, but our aim is obviously still to qualify as close to the front as possible.”

Martin Whitmarsh: “This was a relatively routine practice day for the team, although it proved quite difficult throughout both sessions to find a low-fuel balance that worked for both drivers. However, our long-run pace certainly looks competitive.

“Unfortunately, Jenson’s final run of the afternoon was cut short by a gearshift issue, but Lewis’s race pace was more encouraging – Lewis himself felt the car was very well balanced during his long run.

“Our aim for this evening will be further to maximise our race-pace potential while simultaneously looking to improve our performance in qualifying. Whilst a good grid position isn’t essential for the race, since overtaking into Turns Three and Four should be relatively straightforward, it’ll still be important to stake a place close to the front of the grid in order to optimise our chances of scoring maximum possible points on Sunday.”

Ferrari

The second running of the Indian Grand Prix got underway in straightforward fashion for Scuderia Ferrari. In the three hours of free practice, Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa completed a total of 105 laps; 58 for the Spaniard and 47 for the Brazilian.

Fernando Alonso: “This is an interesting circuit: after the longest straight, there’s a combination of high speed corners which are very nice to drive. Today the track was still very dirty, which is usually the case at new tracks that aren’t used very often. Tomorrow, when it will deliver more grip, it will be even more fun. The track conditions, which change rapidly lap after lap, make it even more complicated to understand the situation relating to the hierarchy down the pit lane. We must study the data carefully to make the right choices for the rest of the weekend. Nothing much to say about tyre performance: from what we’ve seen today, we can hope there’s one less problem to take into consideration.”

Felipe Massa: “It was a rather difficult day, especially in the afternoon. The first session went well and we were able to do everything we had planned. But in the second one, when we switched from the Hard to the Soft, the balance of the car was no longer the best and it was becoming very difficult to drive, to such an extent that I ended up spinning. Unfortunately, that damaged a tyre and so I was unable to do the work over a long run which had been one of our priorities. In the final half hour, I therefore concentrated on pit stop practice, the only thing possible with the tyres in that condition.”

Pat Fry: “As usual on a Friday, we had a busy programme to get through. In the morning we concentrated on evaluating some aerodynamic updates we had for this race, while the afternoon was given over mainly to the comparison of the two types of tyre, over short and long runs. Unfortunately, while Fernando had no problems and was able to carry out his programme normally, the same could not be said for Felipe: one of the settings on his car was incorrect and that compromised the balance of the car and prevented him from getting the most out of the set of Softs and also led to him spinning, which damaged one of the tyres, pretty much ending his session. We have to evaluate the data carefully to understand which of the updates we brought here will be used, but first impressions seem to be positive.”