FP1 & FP2 - Abu Dhabi GP report: Toro Rosso Renault

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.”

Phil Charles (Chief Race Engineer)

“It was a very interesting Friday for us. When we came here we were expecting big track temperature change from the middle of the day, FP1, to the twilight, FP2, and we actually saw a big shift. Today it was predictably a matter to find out how to tackle that in the best possible way with the car set up and to be honest, we still have some work to do as both the drivers are not really happy with their cars. Having said that, we worked through most of our programme, and this is a positive factor. Our long runs are relatively better than the short ones, the option tyres do not last that long, so it will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow and on Sunday.”

Ricardo Penteado (Renault Sport F1 track support leader)

“We’ve carried out a lot of data acquisition work today and the car looks fundamentally strong here. Certainly Daniil achieved a lot of mileage, which will help confirm our pre-event simulations. That’s important given that fuel consumption tends to be quite high at Yas Marina. We had a problem with JEV’s ERS-H this morning, but the part was old and it hasn’t especially impacted on our weekend’s work. I think we’ve got a good base set-up to work from in final practice tomorrow which, come Sunday, will help us to fight for a double points finish.”