FP1 & FP2 - 2018 Hungarian GP team quotes

Toro Rosso

Pierre Gasly

“Today was a really good day, I’m super happy to be in Budapest as it’s one of my favourite tracks. We had two positive sessions and completed a lot of testing. The feeling with the car was good from FP1 and we certainly have a good baseline for the rest of the weekend, so we need to keep building on this. We just need to stay focussed and hopefully keep the good performance for tomorrow.”

Brendon Hartley

“It was a pretty clean day and in general I would say it was a good start to the weekend! It looks like we are definitely more competitive than in the previous couple of races and this is positive. Pierre had a very good FP2 having a small pace advantage on me, so we’ll be looking at the different test items overnight to try and maximise everything for tomorrow.”

Jonathan Eddolls (Chief Race Engineer)

“We had a successful Friday here in Budapest covering all of our planned test items. It is a track that suits the characteristics of our car – many low speed corners, fewer long straights - and with higher track temperatures we expected that our competitiveness here should be improved over recent events.

“In FP1 we had two sets of Soft tyres for each car, so we spent it carrying out setup work. We had a number of interesting test items that came out of the analysis from the previous event, and also items which are specific to this track due to the slow speed nature and the importance of traction performance. So far they are all working as expected.

“Moving into FP2, we had one car on the Mediums and the other on the Softs for the first low fuel runs before both cars fitted new Ultras; this allowed us to get long run data on all three tyre compounds. The engineers did a good job to improve the balance from FP1 for the first runs, and then tracked the balance change with the track improving before fitting the new Ultras, which for Pierre was a step of three compounds. The difficult task today was tyre overheating, particularly at the rear, with the nature of the track and also the high track temperatures in the mid 50ºC. We managed to control this on the low fuel runs but the longer runs were trickier. Even so, the car is looking relatively competitive over both short and long runs. There is still work to do to the car to optimise the balance, but it’s more fine-tuning rather than completely changing the setup window, so we are in a good position for the rest of the weekend.”

Toyoharu Tanabe (Honda F1 Technical Director)

“We tackled our usual Friday programme, including long runs and working on settings. As always at this circuit, the track was quite dusty in the first session and then in the second one, it improved, and as expected temperatures were quite high throughout the day. Fortunately, the rain storm we could see clearly heading towards us, missed the track and we were able to complete our programme. Everything in terms of driveability and cooling, key PU factors at this track, worked well, so overall, it was a positive day, which is encouraging for the rest of the weekend. In tomorrow’s free practice we will pay particular attention to qualifying set-up as grid positions are so important at this tight track.”

Red Bull

MAX VERSTAPPEN

“To set a good lap time around this circuit you need a good balance, I felt we have that. The car was good but unfortunately we still lose a bit of time on the straights. I am not sure if the strengths in cornering will be enough to compensate for this, so we shall have to wait and see. I think we can still improve the setup of the car a little bit more and be quicker than our best lap today, if that will be enough for pole position I’m not sure. We are strong in sector 2 as you would expect as it is very tight and twisty. Qualifying will be important as it’s hard to overtake here so getting ahead early is vital. Another factor is tyre management and strategy, this will be important come the race so we will look into the data tonight in order to get an understanding before Sunday. Mercedes seemed to struggle on the Ultras a bit but I’m expecting them to get it together tomorrow as they usually do. It is also uncertain how much they gain with their power mode. In the long runs they already looked quite competitive.”

DANIEL RICCIARDO

“Today was a good day. I think this morning we started well and this afternoon we were also strong, and I think we have a good enough car to be on the front row. Over one lap I think we could still make some improvements, but the long run pace looks good and we’re all very close. I predicted that the top six would be tight this weekend, I think come tomorrow this will still be the case. I feel I can still improve my lap time, but so far it was a good start. I think both of the tyres (Ultrasoft and Soft) performed quite well today and even in the long runs they were holding up alright. I would probably say that the Ultras are my preference for tomorrow, but we’ll make a plan tonight and then we’ll see. Front row would be perfect, second alright, we just don’t want to be third row as it’s difficult to overtake here.”

Sauber

It was a productive day at the Hungaroring for the Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team. The first free practice session saw Marcus Ericsson and Antonio Giovinazzi in the cockpits of the two C37s. With torrid temperatures and demanding track conditions posing a challenge, both drivers reported having to focus on managing the tyres especially well. Unfortunately, Marcus Ericsson’s FP1 session was cut short due to some minor damage caused to the tyres by his spin. Antonio Giovinazzi gave a consistent performance, and supported the team by completing the planned programme, and giving his feedback following his free practice session.

The second free practice session ahead of the 2018 Hungarian Grand Prix saw Charles Leclerc take over the cockpit of his C37. Both Marcus Ericsson and Charles Leclerc report having some work to do in optimizing their performances for the rest of the weekend, but look towards tomorrow’s session with optimism.

Marcus Ericsson

“It was a mixed day for me. FP1 was a bit messy, with some spins that damaged my tyres. We could not run as much as we wanted to after that, so it was not the best first session. We made up for it in FP2, where we completed a good number of laps. We have some work to do overnight, and will do our best to optimise for tomorrow.”

Antonio Giovinazzi

“It was another productive free practice session today – my second one with the team so far this season. It was great to be back in the car after just a week again, and I am starting to get a better feeling for it. As it was last week, my target today was to complete the full programme and give as much feedback to the team as possible. I am happy with this. I look forward to being back in the car for a day of testing with the Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team next week.”

Charles Leclerc

“Today was a more difficult day. I missed the first free practice, and had some catching up to do during the second session. We have a lot of work ahead of us to get to where we want to be for the rest of the weekend. Hopefully we will manage to take a step in the right direction, and build on our performance from the past weeks.”

Haas F1

The 12th round of the 2018 FIA Formula One World Championship began with practice Friday at the Hungaroring in Budapest as teams prepared for the Hungarian Grand Prix Sunday.

Two 90-minute sessions – FP1 and FP2 – on the 4.381-kilometer (2.722-mile), 14-turn circuit were run under sunny and warm conditions, with Haas F1 Team drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen navigating the tight and compact track.

Both drivers began FP1 on the Pirelli P Zero Yellow soft tire before transitioning to the Purple ultrasoft. Grosjean overcame a lack of track time as his crew investigated a leak on his Haas VF-18 to set the seventh-quickest time. He ran 17 laps with his best-of-the-rest mark of 1:18.975 coming on his final tour while utilizing the ultrasoft compound. Magnussen’s best time was a 1:19.187 on his 19th lap, also set on ultrasofts. He ran 29 laps and posted the 10th-quickest time.

Leading the way in FP1 was Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo, whose fast lap of 1:17.613 was .079 of a second better than the next quickest driver, Scuderia Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.

Speeds picked up and lap times dropped in FP2. Grosjean held steady as the seventh-fastest driver in FP2 behind the heavyweight teams of Scuderia Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes with a time of 1:18.065, which was .91 of a second better than his best lap in FP1. His quick time came on the 16th of his 39 laps on a set of ultrasoft tires. Magnussen shaved .307 of a second off his FP1 time with a lap of 1:18.880 to earn the 13th-fastest time. His quick lap came on his 17th tour, also while utilizing the ultrasoft tire. He completed 35 laps.

Grosjean began FP2 on Yellow softs and ran 10 laps until doing the bulk of his running on ultrasofts, returning to softs for the final 10 minutes of track time. Magnussen opted to start on the White medium tire, running nine laps before outfitting his Haas VF-18 with ultrasofts. Magnussen then went back to mediums in the last five minutes of the session.

Vettel topped FP2 with a mark of 1:16.834, which was .074 of a second better than his nearest pursuer, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. The Hungaroring track record of 1:16.276, set last year by Vettel in the final round of qualifying, remained intact.

Between the two sessions, Haas F1 Team ran a total of 120 laps – 64 by Magnussen and 56 by Grosjean.

Romain Grosjean

“We did most of our program today. This morning we had a problem with the car and we lost some time in the run, but after that we got the best information we could from the other car and it’s been a good afternoon. The gap with P8 on new tires was pretty good to see and in race pace we can still improve a little bit, so that’s what we’re going to be looking at to get good on Sunday. Our aim is to do as well as we can from now on and look to the future, not the past. We’ve got 10 more races, so we’ll try to make them good.”

Kevin Magnussen

“We had a bit of a messy day, but the car is feeling good and the pace is there, so I think we just wait for tomorrow and work on the things that we see on the data, the feedback, and things should be ok. Some days you just have a lot of traffic and we had some wrong switch headings, little problems that keep you from putting the lap time on the board, but still you get a feeling and you get pieces of the data that you can look into and improve from there. We’ll do a bit more tomorrow and, hopefully, get a clean session where we can verify the things we’re going to change for tomorrow, which won’t be much because I think it was okay today. So, we’re in a good place. Very happy.”

Gunther Steiner

“Pretty good day. We had two small issues which we worked through on the cars. Otherwise, there’s a little more work to be done, but I think for tomorrow we’ll have a good day.”

Williams

Paddy Lowe, Chief Technical Officer

It’s been a typical hot day in Hungary, which inevitably makes everything more difficult than normal. There were some thunderstorms around this afternoon which fortunately didn’t hit the track, but we expect some may do tomorrow. In terms of the work we’ve been doing, we’ve been building on the results we gathered in Germany a week ago and we’ve done some more testing, particularly in FP1, and found a few more good directions with the new components we’ve got. We spent most of FP2 learning how to manage the tyres in these hot conditions, ready for the race on Sunday. Inevitably that’s going to be quite difficult, but that’s the case for everybody. We have plenty to work on overnight to try and find some improvements for qualifying tomorrow, which is very important around here, and perhaps less so for Sunday as overtaking here is more difficult.

Lance Stroll

This has been a usual Friday, just collecting data, information and all that sort of stuff. We have been exploring the front wing a little bit and did some work on the rear wing. We were running the same wing as Silverstone, we have looked into it and made some corrections to it, so it seems more stable now. So far it looks OK. I think rain would give us a bit of an opportunity, as without that it is going to be a difficult weekend. I do enjoy this circuit and it is one of my favourites. It is a real drivers’ track and you really have to position the car the right way to get a good laptime. It reminds me a bit of Melbourne and those kind of circuits, as there is not a lot of room for error and it is quite a lot of fun.

Sergey Sirotkin

Both sessions were quite tough today, as expected. I’m still quite calm because we’re trying many things. There’s quite a lot of work going on with the car so it’s normal that some things go better than others. Some things we’re spot on with, and others we’re still struggling with. It was like that in Germany after the Friday sessions. I knew we had done a good programme and tested many things, but last week didn’t feel that good either. Once we looked into everything, the performance was better on the Saturday. I’m quite confident we can do that tomorrow. For now, it’s been a productive day and we just have to analyse everything.

Mercedes

Work to do for Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport ahead of the Hungarian GP

— Lewis finished the morning session in P5 followed by Valtteri in P6
— In the afternoon session, the positions remained unchanged with Lewis in P5 and Valtteri in P6
— The team focused on understanding tyre performance and finding the optimum cooling level for the high temperatures in Budapest.

Lewis Hamilton

It has been a relatively normal day. As we expected, the Ferraris and the Red Bulls were quite quick and had a little bit more pace than us, so we’ve got some work to do tonight. This is a tricky circuit and the tyres are overheating; looking after the rear tyres is the biggest issue. The temperatures today and the layout of the track – corner after corner after corner – made it really tricky for the tyres as there’s no time for them to cool down. We will do our debrief now and dig deep to try and figure out what changes we make between now and tomorrow. I hope we’re able to find something tonight and that tomorrow is dry so we can test whatever changes we make overnight.

Valtteri Bottas

Today was not an easy day; the car was difficult to drive and I struggled to get laps together, especially in FP1. We managed to improve the set-up for FP2, but there’s still more work to do. This is a difficult circuit, you need to have a well-balanced car in order to get all the corners right and we need to get the car more stable. The wind direction is forecast to change for tomorrow, so we need to count that in as well. We struggled to get the UltraSoft compound tyres working consistently and had some issues with overheating. It is difficult to overtake here, so track position is very important and the less stops you can do is always going to be better. Red Bull and Ferrari are as quick as we expected; I think it’s going to be very close.

James Allison

It’s not as dusty or bumpy as it was in years gone by, but Budapest always presents a real challenge to the car and driver - searing heat and an asphalt that is not easy on the tyres. Although we managed to improve the car across the sessions, especially with Valtteri, there’s more to be done ahead of tomorrow if we want to come home from this weekend with a good result. So we are busy working this evening to try to make sure that we can get the car in good shape for Qualifying on a track where it is notoriously difficult to overtake, while making sure that we have decent long run pace on Sunday when it’s expected to be very hot indeed.

Ferrari

The best way for Scuderia Ferrari to honor the late Sergio Marchionne and endure the tragic events of this week is to focus on the job we have to do this weekend. Both Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen are well aware of this and the whole team did their best in the first day of practice at the Hungaroring, an effort resulting in a convincing pace in both the fast laps and the long runs. But it’s only Friday and the real challenge will begin tomorrow on the hot, 4.381 kilometre-long track just a few miles from Budapest.

“I was pretty happy in the afternoon” Seb said “more than in the morning session, as I think the car is performing well also over one lap. We can still improve, but this has been one of the best Fridays so far, technically speaking. Having a great amount of work ahead of us is probably the best thing for keeping our mind busy and getting through the weekend. It’s not easy, but I focused on the job to do. On this track, the qualifying session and the start are very important and can make the difference because overtaking is very difficult. Getting ahead after the first couple of corners is crucial, but there’s a lot of work to do before getting to that point”.

“It was a very normal Friday”, Kimi commented “trying things and learning as much as possible. The conditions were not very easy in many ways, but it’s normal on a Friday. We don’t really pay too much attention to the lap times, they really don’t count in a practice session. For sure we still have some work to do, but it was not too bad and the car worked as we expected. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll have the speed we need”.

Force India

SERGIO PEREZ

“It wasn’t the easiest session for me, but the most important job was collecting the tyre information, which we managed to achieve. Car balance and confidence are really important here, and we have room to improve before qualifying. I’m not worried if it becomes hotter tomorrow or Sunday because we’ve done our homework today.”

ESTEBAN OCON

“It’s been a decent day. There is still a lot of work to do before qualifying, but by the end of second practice we were getting close to a good car balance. I always enjoy driving here: the circuit is one of the highlights of the year and every lap makes me smile. It feels really special in a Formula One car and when the car is working underneath you it’s really good fun.”

OTMAR SZAFNAUER

“A hot day of work with the middle of the pack closely matched once again. The drivers made good progress bringing the car balance more to their liking during the day and we’re well prepared for the weekend now. Given the high track temperatures this week, one of the most important jobs was collecting relevant tyre data because there is the potential for even hotter conditions on Sunday. We’ve done long runs on all three tyre compounds so that’s very helpful for our decision-making and race planning. Our attention tonight will be on trying to find more one-lap performance because qualifying well is especially important for securing a good result on Sunday.”

Renault F1

Renault Sport Formula One Team enjoyed a productive day on one side of the garage with an interrupted day on the other side as Carlos Sainz set the eighth fastest time on Friday, a 1min 18.495secs at a scorching hot Hungaroring, as the Formula 1 weekend got underway.

Carlos ran without issue through both sessions, whilst Nico suffered from an electrical shutdown on his car part way through FP1, with the resultant Energy Store replacement eating into his FP2 session.

Alan Permane, Sporting Director - Technical programme notes

— In FP1, Nico ran with Ultrasoft (purple) Pirelli tyres and aero rakes to conduct front and chassis wing comparisons. His car shutdown after 14 laps, meaning it was recovered to the garage and an Energy Store change was made.
— Carlos also conducted front wing comparisons for data logging in FP1, running with the Ultrasoft tyres for 32 laps.
— Nico joined FP2 part way through with a replaced Energy Store and ran with the Ultrasoft and then Medium (white) compound tyres.
— Carlos ran with the Soft (yellow) and Ultrasoft tyres in FP2.
— We have a solid basis for the rest of the weekend.

Nico Hülkenberg

“We missed quite a lot of running today, which never helps the cause. We were reasonable out of the box in the morning but the car just shut down with no warning. Once the Energy Store was changed I was able to get out in the afternoon, but obviously my programme was very different from that intended. On the plus side, we were still in the top ten at the end of FP1, so it wasn’t all bad. Looking at the other side of the garage there doesn’t look to be any major concerns so I’m hoping for a better day tomorrow.”

Carlos Sainz

“It was good to get out on this track and the car was feeling pretty decent. We ran through the usual programme, and were able to make positive progress. As usual, we identified what we need to do to improve the car and I’m particularly looking forward to tomorrow.”

Nick Chester, Technical Director, Chassis

“Nico lost some track time with the Energy Store change, but aside from that it was reasonably straightforward for us. Carlos had a decent day, on the pace in both sessions and with good feedback for us to work on in terms of setup. Nico missed a lot of running today but was on the pace in FP1 and we know that’s something he can bounce back from very easily.”

McLaren

Fernando set the 12th fastest time in both the morning and the afternoon practice sessions today at the Hungaroring in Budapest.

Stoffel, in a different chassis to the one he raced in at Silverstone and Hockenheim, spent much of the morning session working with his engineers to dial-in the car to the demands of the Hungaroring, and finished in 16th position.

The afternoon was similarly productive, although a spin at Turn Four in the final stages of the session interrupted his pre-qualifying simulation, which meant he didn’t set a fully representative time before the chequer and was classified in 19th.

The two sessions went smoothly for both drivers, who completed a productive day of testing, conducting a number of aero and component tests among preparations for the weekend ahead.

Fernando Alonso

“It’s been a positive Friday for us, in terms of the feeling in the car. We did a lot of tests and collected good data, with the morning session focusing more on aero tests and gathering basic information, and the afternoon session about trying out both compounds of tyres.

“It was quite warm today, with the asphalt reaching as much as 61 degrees Celsius in FP2 I think, which is quite a record! So, let’s see tomorrow what we can find.

“The set-up and balance were not ideal today, as we struggled a little bit with understeer. There is a lot of performance to unlock in the car if we find the right balance. We need to chase the track temperature and track conditions as this is a circuit that always keeps improving with more rubber being laid down by different series running. Tomorrow we’ll have a different track and we need to anticipate that.”

Stoffel Vandoorne

“I’m happy with how this Friday went. I had a normal feeling in the car, and we could go back working on the set-up of the car again and not just trying to solve problems all the time.

“Unfortunately, I didn’t set any lap-times on the Ultrasoft tyres because I made a mistake and spun off the track. But, our long-run pace looked strong and we’re getting the balance much more together.

“There were significant changes from FP1 to FP2 and we gathered a lot of valuable info to put the car in good shape for tomorrow. I’m looking forward to having a good final practice session and then we can prepare as best we can for qualifying.

“The target for us is to be as close as possible to the top-ten as I don’t know if actually being in Q3 is a good thing, having to start on the Ultrasoft tyres. All-in-all, it was nice to just have a normal Friday.”

Gil de Ferran

“Today was a productive day where we were able to complete our test plan, and we saw some positive results come out of it.

“Obviously, we had to deal with extreme temperatures today, and certainly how people deal with this factor throughout the weekend will play a part in how competitive everyone is.

“Both our drivers and engineers still feel like there’s some room for improvement, however, I would regard today as being as good a Friday as we’ve had of late.”