Team reaction after day one in Abu Dhabi (part 2)

Williams Cosworth

Patrick Head, Director of Engineering: We have a few imbalances on set-up to attend to, but we will address those tonight. Rubens’ had an engine problem in P1 which resulted in a change for the afternoon, but it is not something which concerns us for tomorrow. The option is looking sensitive on high fuel, so there could be some interesting strategies in qualifying and during the race on Sunday.

Rubens Barrichello: Today we had a few set-up issues so the car didn’t perform as we would have liked it to. We have a lot of work to do, but we will make it happen.

Nico Hulkenberg: That was an ok Friday. The first session was pretty tricky and I wasn’t too happy with the car, but it felt more together in the second session after we adjusted the balance. We aren’t exactly where we want to be at the moment; it is really competitive out there this weekend and we need to find a couple of tenths in the set-up. We will see what we can do overnight and during P3 in time for qualifying.

Sauber Ferrari

After Abu Dhabi surprised the Formula One paddock with a refreshing rain shower in the morning, both free practice sessions were held in dry conditions. The preparation work for the season’s final Grand Prix went according to plan, but the result isn’t satisfying yet. Neither Kamui Kobayashi nor Nick Heidfeld are yet happy with the balance of their respective cars.

Kamui Kobayashi: “To me it looked okay in the beginning of both free practice sessions, but for some reason there was no improvement and we were struggling. We were doing a lot of testing and have collected plenty of data. I’m positive we will find solutions for tomorrow.”

Nick Heidfeld: “I really like driving here, the track is nice. The first session wasn’t bad but in the second free practice I was very unhappy with the balance of my car. Luckily it is only Friday, and we have time to work that out.”

James Key, Technical Director: “It was a late start to the first session after some unexpected rain, but otherwise we did a normal programme with just two runs for both drivers. It was just a matter of looking at grip levels, working on the mechanical set-up and checking different wing levels. In the evening we were reasonably well balanced in the first two sectors with regard to the lap time. However, we need to work hard on the third sector, because we are losing a lot there, and we have to understand why. It’s not just down to the downforce level. We have to analyse all the data tonight in order to understand how we can improve there.”

Toro Rosso Ferrari

Jaime Alguersuari: “I am glad to be here for the last race of the season. I’m feeling strong mentally and physically and it seems we are doing quite a good job on track, with reasonably competitive lap times and tyre degradation does not seem to be too big a problem for us here. There is more to come tomorrow, as the car set-up is not yet 100% right, but I feel we can sort that out. Towards the end, I pushed too hard, spun and the engine stalled. My tyres were a bit old by then, but I was still attacking, putting the power down too early, so I lost the rear end. I was trying to find the limit and see if I could brake on the kerb on the outside of the corner – I now understand that I can’t! Fortunately, I did not hit anything so the car is fine. I am happy with the balance of the car on the Prime tyre, because we did a short run on used Primes and it looked quite competitive. Going from daylight to floodlights is no problem, because we experienced it last year and I just removed a dark tear-off visor when it got dark.”

Sebastien Buemi: “And so we come to the final Friday of the season. The track here is still quite a novelty as we have only been here once before and today the surface was rather green. I had a lot of degradation on the tyres this morning, but we felt this would be the situation from what we saw here last year. We expected a big improvement and indeed that was the case, but I was unable to get the most out of the soft tyres because I spun into Turn 16 on a quick lap. Overall, we have done a good day’s work, trying various different set-ups which have shown us which direction to go in tomorrow to try and improve and there was no problem going from daylight to night in terms of visibility.”

Laurent Mekies (Chief Engineer): “We were expecting a standard Friday programme, but this morning’s rain took us by surprise and it meant that everyone only really started running until a bit later. From then on, it was a standard session, apart from losing a bit of track time with Jaime, when he spun off the track during his quick run on option tyres. Fortunately there was no damage, but unfortunately the car stalled so he was unable to continue. We had no reliability issues throughout the day, going through quite a few test items so we have a sufficient amount of data. On the tyre front, the situation is not black and white, which will make the next two days interesting. Last year, was very unusual with everyone finding the Prime to be behaving better than the Option.”

Lotus Cosworth

The final Friday session of the 2010 season started with an unexpected rain shower just before FP1, initially limiting track time in the first of the day’s two sessions for the whole grid. As the circuit dried the pace picked up, and as FP2 ended under the lights Heikki Kovalainen was top of the new teams in 19th, with Jarno Trulli in 21st.

Jarno Trulli: “It was a pretty smooth Friday for me, with no problems in either session. We did some good work evaluating the tyres and saw pretty high degradation so I think we’ll need to keep an eye on that for the race. The balance of the car was good – we still have to improve it but all in all it was a positive day.”

Fairuz Fauzy: “I’m pretty satisfied with how it went today but it was tricky for the first few laps. After the rain, which I think took everyone by surprise, the track was quite damp in places, and combining that with the fact I could only use one set of tyres, meant I couldn’t really push. Despite that it was great to be back in the car, and I think I did a good team job today.”

Heikki Kovalainen: “It was good for me today. As soon as I went out this afternoon the car was on the pace which was an encouraging sign for the weekend. Fairuz had set up the car very well this morning and with no issues all day we were able to get through the whole programme and finished in a strong position ahead of Timo.”

Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer: “Two good Friday sessions for us at the last race of the season. We had no mechanical issues all day which we hope to carry through the whole weekend. Fairuz drove for us in FP1 and gathered some useful data from his run and both Jarno and Heikki put in some good mileage this afternoon which sets us up well for the weekend.”

Tony Fernandes, Team Principal: “It was a good day for us and it’s always satisfying to finish at the head of the new teams. Fairuz did a good job this morning, particularly bearing in mind he has had very limited running all season. Both cars completed a decent number of laps in the morning and afternoon sessions which allowed us to complete all the setup work we had planned and, despite this being the last race of the seasonand after a long journey from Brazil at the weekend, the whole team looked good today. Everyone is ready for the final push and I think it will be an exciting weekend for us and for the whole grid.”

Virgin Racing Cosworth

The first day of practice for this weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix started wetter than expected when a rain shower soaked the track before the first session, but it soon began to dry as the hot sunshine returned.

Lucas and Timo did their installation laps on Extreme Wet tyres to evaluate the conditions but the track was too damp for slicks, and too dry for Intermediates, so the team opted to carry out a back to back aero comparison on Timo’s car while most teams waited for the sun to dry the surface. Consequently the session itself was very quiet, until the track was dry enough to set representative times in the last half hour. Timo finished the session 19th, fastest of the new teams, Lucas was 21st.

This afternoon’s session was a lot more useful, and the team was able to work through a programme of setup changes on both cars, and were able to evaluate both types of slick tyre.. Timo finished the day classified 20th, splitting the Lotus pair, with Lucas 22nd. The team looks forward to tomorrow in a positive frame of mind, with the engineers pleased with the basic setup and having a variety of changes to try during the last hour of free practice.

Timo Glock: “Today we had a very straightforward Friday practice session. I was quite happy with the car and did some positive fine tuning. In general it looks like the Prime and Soft tyres are quite difficult to handle over one run. Generally a good start to the weekend.”

Lucas di Grassi: “A very good day, my first here at Abu Dhabi. It’s quite an amazing track that they have built in the middle of the desert with all the infrastructure. The circuit itself is mainly low speed corners with a couple of long straights, and we were able to do a lot of running and a lot of setup work. We reached a few conclusions so we will put the best on the car tomorrow and are quite confident that we can go well and we will fight to the end of the race to be the best new team - that’s our spirit.”

John Booth, Team Principal: “An encouraging first day. Both drivers were quickly up to speed, despite never having driven here before, and both cars ran very reliably allowing us to do plenty of laps and evaluate a number of setup options. Tyre management will clearly be an issue over the weekend but we look to be in quite good shape so far and are looking forward to the rest of the event in this spectacular.”

HRT F1 Cosworth

Hispania Racing was able to start the last Grand Prix of the season in a positive way. Both Bruno Senna and Christian Klien’s cars were reliable and performed well again in Abu Dhabi. At the start of the first session the track was still wet due to some early morning desert rain. Both Hispania Racing drivers got used to the track and after their first laps at the Yas Marina Circuit, Bruno Senna ended up 22nd (1.49.590) and Christian Klien was 23rd (1.50.274). In the afternoon, the track conditions got better and both drivers were able to improve their times by more than two seconds. Christian Klien ended up 23rd after clocking a best time of 1.47.210 and Bruno Senna finished 24th with a best time of 1.47.434.

Dr. Colin Kolles, Team Principal: “In the morning, the circuit was wet after a rain shower in the desert. Consequently, the track was hard to drive on and we had to wait for better grip conditions. Our intention was for us to do four outings, but we could only do two and they were just for checking the car. In the second practice, we could do more laps and get more experience for the next sessions. We have a lot of things to do for tomorrow, but I’m confident that we are going to improve.”

Christian Klien: “It was the first time for me at this circuit today and we used the first session to learn all about it. Unfortunately, we only had 45 minutes as it was raining in the morning. In the second practice we could work more on the set-up of the car and even if the track doesn’t have much grip yet, it is a lot of fun to drive on it. The light conditions are similar to those during qualifying and race so it was good to get used to it.”

Bruno Senna: “Due to the rain before the first practice, the track didn’t have a lot of grip and we waited for it to improve. It’s a shame because this made us lose time to work on the set-up of the car. In the second session, we could do more laps and work on our program for the weekend but we have to keep on working and improving the car.”