FP1 & FP2 - 2018 Russian GP team quotes

Williams

Paddy Lowe, Chief Technical Officer

We are back in Russia but it’s a different time of year to last season and so it is cooler as a result. We have the same tyre compounds as Singapore, so they are very soft compounds for Sochi. This morning we had a reasonably intensive aero programme looking at some front wing geometry options and collecting some rake data. We were also looking at some rear wing levels for this weekend. Both cars flat-spotted one of their sets of tyres so that held us back a little bit, but we still got plenty of good data which we will go through tonight. In FP2 we had a much more normal session preparing for qualifying and the race. Both cars were struggling to get the most out of the tyres, but I think we have found something which should help with that and in the end, Sergey finished the session with a good long run on the prime tyre.

Sergey Sirotkin

We got lots of productive mileage today which is important but performance-wise, there’s still a few things to squeeze out and maximise for tomorrow. There were some areas we found to be better than we first thought, so I think we look OK. There are a few more things to be optimised for tomorrow and you also don’t know what the weather’s going to do. I’m enjoying my home Grand Prix, it’s been very busy but at the same time I’ve got so much support. I didn’t expect so much. It’s been difficult and busy to handle so many activities, but I’ve got to use this positive energy from the fans and put it into performance on the track.

Lance Stroll

We did plenty of consistent running, so it was just the usual Friday. At the end of FP1 I had a flat spot, so I just stopped because we had used all our planned tyres for that session. We look pretty slow, but tomorrow is another day so hopefully we can figure something out tonight and come back strong tomorrow.

Racing Point FI

SERGIO PEREZ

“I drove the car this afternoon and the pace looked competitive straight away. I think we can keep up the form we have shown since the summer break and the car feels good. The challenge is making sure we put everything together tomorrow because qualifying is so important here. We’ve seen how difficult it can be to overtake here, even with a quicker car. It’s hard to know how the track will evolve, but we have the data and information to make the right decisions tonight.”

ESTEBAN OCON

“It has been a solid day ending both sessions in the top ten and I’m pleased with the work we’ve done. We are still testing new parts and it’s easier to do that here compared to Singapore, and the feelings are still positive. We are definitely moving in a good direction with the car. The rest of the time we focussed on the usual race preparation and learning how the different tyre compounds behave over the long runs. I think we have done most of our homework to be in good shape for the weekend.”

NICHOLAS LATIFI

“The team is still learning about the new upgrade package and I am glad I could help collect more data on those test items. I ran on two different tyre compounds – the ultrasoft and the hypersoft - and it was a straightforward session keeping to the run plan. It has been a couple of months since I drove the car and I could definitely feel the progress the team has made recently.”

OTMAR SZAFNAUER, TEAM PRINCIPAL & CEO

“It was a typical Friday with important data collection and preparation for the weekend. We also worked through a comprehensive aero and mechanical test programme, and evaluated some new parts on the cars. Nicholas did a solid and impressive job for us this morning, and Esteban and Sergio were pretty happy with the car performance by the end of second practice. Now it’s all about working through the data and making sure we can be at the front of a very close midfield fight.”

Red Bull

MAX VERSTAPPEN

“It was a good Friday for us. It’s better than expected to be third in FP2. Straight away the car was working well, the long runs were good and we seem to be in good shape. Overall, the performance of the car is pleasing, we just need to understand the tyres better and work out the plan for the race. The information we received today was very good and we have the evening ahead to analyse everything. It was good to be in the mix with Ferrari and so far we can’t really complain. I don’t know what the strategy for qualifying tomorrow will be, but we probably won’t do the full session. I also expect Ferrari to find something overnight, so it’s going to be close tomorrow. Taking the penalties here is not so bad because it’s not our strongest track, so it’s best to get it out of the way. Starting from the back of the grid should be fun. I mean, moving forward and passing people is never easy, but we’ll see how far we can get.”

DANIEL RICCIARDO

“The car felt good today and I really enjoyed driving. The circuit was actually good fun and we had pretty good pace. Because you don’t have any banking to give you extra grip on the corners, coming here with the Hypersoft gives you the grip you need, which made it more enjoyable. We got some traffic on the long runs this afternoon which gave us some feeling of how it will be in the race. It’s not the easiest track to overtake on, but we eventually got it done, so I think the race should be pretty entertaining. I’m happy to see there is some tyre degradation, if it’s an easy one-stop race it could be a bit predictable, so I’m hoping it could be a two-stop to make it more exciting. There isn’t much use in us doing the full qualifying tomorrow due to the penalties, but we will see how we go after FP3 and decide what to do then. We did plenty of running this afternoon and I know we have some good data from that. It will be important to do another long run in FP3 and prepare fully for the race. Russia has never been our strongest circuit but today there are some good signs.”

Toro Rosso

Pierre Gasly

“It was a positive day overall, especially after the tough weekend in Singapore it was important to find some answers and try to get our pace back. That’s what we did today, plus we tested an upgraded engine which seems to work well, so I think it’s really encouraging for the few races left before the end of the season. Thank you to Honda for bringing this. We’ll take a penalty on Sunday and we will start from the back of the grid, so we will try to focus on the race more than Qualifying.”

Brendon Hartley

“We knew we will start the race on Sunday at the back of the grid, so today’s main priority was on race pace and getting the car as quick as possible. It’s my first time discovering Sochi, it’s probably not my favourite track in the world but there was a lot to learn in the first few laps. We had a small issue on my car in FP1 which led to a floor change for FP2, the high-fuel long run looked very competitive. Even if in FP2 we didn’t get the most out of the Hypersoft, looking at the high-fuel and race pace it was a positive day.”

Jonathan Eddolls (Chief Race Engineer)

“We knew coming to Sochi we would be taking PU penalties on both cars so we adapted our plans accordingly. We shifted the focus of the weekend more onto the long runs and race performance and less on Qualifying as we would be starting from the back of the grid. Since it was the first time the new PUs had run on track, they required some fine tuning and calibration work to extract the performance, but we completed that work and are looking in good shape at the end of FP2. So from the PU side everything is looking positive – thank you to Honda for this! In FP1 we carried out several aerodynamic and tyre tests at the rear of the car to gather data to correlate the on track performance with our dyno results. We could complete these as very clean tests and obtained good answers so that was positive. The track started quite dusty and generally had low grip, so the balance in FP1 was quite nervous and we didn’t manage to get the perfect balance by the end of the session. The engineers trackside and in the operations room worked hard between FP1 and FP2, to look at setup changes to address the balance and grip issues – one of which was to switch to a spare floor for Brendon after observing issues with his prime floor from FP1 - these changes worked well in FP2. Because of the penalties and our tyre choice for this event, we were able to use two Hypersofts for the short runs in FP2. Even though we hadn’t set the car up for Qualifying the performance was still there. We split the cars in terms of tyres for the long run; Brendon was looking very competitive on the Soft as the tyre looks quite robust. The Ultrasoft on the other hand is more fragile so that took some managing. Overall, we are in a good position with the package we have today and we will see what the rest of the weekend brings.”

Toyoharu Tanabe (Honda F1 Technical Director)

“We ran updated PUs on both cars today, and this involves the drivers taking grid penalties. Today, our work was focused on optimising settings and calibration on the updated PU, running on an actual track, fitted to the STR13. Overall, it was a positive day.”

McLaren

Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne ended this afternoon’s Russian Grand Prix free practice session in 17th and 18th positions respectively. Both drivers spent the day evaluating a suite of component and set-up changes aimed at improving the MCL33’s performance and the team’s understanding of the car.

For Fernando, today’s times were relatively academic: he will be starting towards the back of the grid after receiving grid penalties for fitting new engine components this weekend.

Lando Norris enjoyed his third free practice session of the season behind the wheel, jumping into Fernando’s car this morning and completing 25 trouble-free laps. He set a best lap-time of 1m37.022s.

Fernando Alonso

“We knew coming here that this weekend could be quite difficult for us, so today’s performance was pretty much expected. That’s also why we opted to change the engine components here and take a penalty.

“After Monza and Spa, this track has the highest power sensitivity of the whole season – and we know that’s usually a bad sign for our performance. It’s something we’re trying to understand, so we’ve been trying different set-ups to reduce the drag on the car.

“Equally, we know we can’t perform miracles from one weekend to the next, so it’s going to be tough.

“The degradation looks quite high, so we need to choose a good strategy for Sunday: qualifying isn’t too meaningful for us this weekend, but I still hope we’ll be in the points at the chequered flag.

“A big thanks to Lando for waiting in the pit-lane for 20 minutes for the FP1 green light. I’ll have a better starting position on Sunday because of him – so I’m very happy with the job he did today!”

Stoffel Vandoorne

“We’ve been trying quite a few different things across both cars during practice today – trying to learn about the tyres, which are looking quite interesting. I think everybody has been surprised by just how big the degradation is on the longer runs. Typically, this has been a one-stop race without too much degradation, so the key today was to understand just how the tyres are working.

“I think a two-stopper will still be tricky to make work as overtaking is so difficult around here. But let’s see how the degradation pans out – it’s usually a little less critical on a Sunday, so probably still a one-stop – but hopefully with the race being a bit more interesting…

“Fernando and I experimented with the tow today: any lap-time we can gain is important, but it’s too early to say what we’ll do in qualifying tomorrow.”

Gil de Ferran

“For this race weekend, we elected to change power unit components and take a penalty on Fernando’s car. One of the knock-ons of that was ensuring Fernando’s was the first car out of the pit-lane this morning – correspondingly becoming the first of several cars to earn a penalty, and consequently ensuring he will start ahead of the other penalty-affected drivers. Kudos to everyone in the garage this morning for accomplishing that small but important task.

“The rest of the day’s running was primarily focused on race preparation: neither driver encountered any issues throughout the day, which was a positive.

“In FP1 this morning, Lando enjoyed another a smooth and trouble-free session, very quickly getting down to business and immediately setting representative times.

“Clearly, we’ve got some work to do to improve our competitiveness at a circuit that doesn’t seem to suit our car’s handling characteristics. We evaluated several new developments and set-up options and made a good start to our weekend.”

Mercedes

Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport top the time sheets on Friday afternoon

— Lewis finished the morning session in P3 with Valtteri in P4
— Lewis ended the day in P1 with Valtteri in P2
— Today’s programme focused on understanding the tyres performance around the track as well as testing aerodynamic upgrades the team brought to Sochi

Lewis Hamilton

Sochi has been one of the weaker circuits for me in the past, particularly last year. So I’ve done a lot of work to understand the balance and see where I can improve to try and rectify this – today has been good in that sense. From every race we’re learning more and more and particularly the last few races have helped us to really gauge which foot we need to start on for the weekend. We’ve brought more upgrades this weekend; there’s so much work going on at home and it’s just really encouraging when you come to a race and you get an upgrade, knowing that this late in the season we’re also already working on next year’s car – it motivates me to get the best out of everything. It’s been a good day for us, so let’s hope that it continues tomorrow.

Valtteri Bottas

It was a good day for us; on paper it looks like we should be competitive, but it’s only Friday. The initial feeling of the car was good; however, there’s still work to do. It’s so difficult to get a perfect set-up for each corner on this track, because the balance is so different throughout the lap. We brought some aerodynamic updates to the car that worked well and added more grip; we’ll see if that’s going to be enough for the weekend. It seemed like Ferrari weren’t really showing everything they have, so they will probably be stronger tomorrow. I think it’s going to be very close, so we’ll have to keep pushing.

James Allison

It’s been a pretty decent day where both cars looked strong on all the tyres we ran. The HyperSoft is once again a very good, fast tyre for a single lap, but it is less obvious here than it was in Singapore whether it will be so strong in the race. The long-runs went well, we looked competitive on them and the car generally behaved itself – so far, so good. We’re looking forward to tomorrow and seeing how it all pans out once it starts to count.

Renault F1

Renault Sport Formula One Team enjoyed a productive first day of the Russian Grand Prix, which included Artem Markelov making his FP1 debut, at the Sochi Autodrom.

Artem took over Carlos’ Renault R.S.18 in the morning FP1 session, with Carlos back in action alongside Nico Hülkenberg in the afternoon. Carlos ended the day as the team’s quickest driver, setting a lap of 1min 35.341secs in FP2. Notably, the team debuted a new floor for the car today.

Alan Permane, Sporting Director - Technical programme notes

— In FP1, Nico concentrated on a number of aero evaluations and set-up work, using the older specification floor. His session ended slightly early whilst the team sought a suspected exhaust leak. He ran with Pirelli’s Hypersoft (pink) tyres.
— Artem ran aero assessments and set-up work, running with the #46 on Carlos’ car. He used the Hypersoft tyres and the new specification floor for this session.
— In FP2, both drivers ran with the latest specification floor and used the Hypersoft tyres, looking at tyre performance, including a high fuel run. Nico also used the Soft (yellow) tyres and Carlos also used the Ultrasoft (purple) tyres.
— The new floor is working as predicted and Artem made a good FP1 debut.

Nico Hülkenberg

“For me, a standard Friday. It’s a track I enjoy to drive so we spent the day working on things to get the car to go faster and be better balanced. We focused on the usual areas on the car here as we’ve a pretty good handle on how it behaves at this point in the season, so there were no surprises. We’ve plenty of info to work on for the rest of the weekend.”

Artem Markelov

“I was very excited to be in the car today and I’m pretty happy with everything. The team gave me good feedback and it was a great experience. I felt pretty confident after the second lap and an F1 car is where it feels like I should be! Thank you to Renault for this first experience in an official Grand Prix session.”

Carlos Sainz

“It’s definitely not ideal to miss a session like I did for FP1, but it’s also satisfying when you jump in the car for FP2 and there are no big surprises. It was a positive afternoon with the car and we managed to put a good amount of laps to prepare the car for qualifying and the race. We know we need to work on getting the most from the tyres since this will be key for us on Sunday. We have a good idea where we should be able to unlock a little more speed, so I look forward to tomorrow.”

Nick Chester, Chassis Technical Director

“It was a straightforward day for us. Artem did a good job in the morning, getting quickly up to speed and ended the session not far off Nico’s pace after completing our programme for the session. The car performed as expected today, with the new floor delivering the expected performance gain. It does look like a very close midfield here so we’re looking to extract every ounce of performance for tomorrow and the race.”

Ferrari

Sebastian Vettel

“Some Fridays are good, some aren’t and this one hasn’t been great for us. We are not where we want to be yet and we’ve got some catching-up to do. Today it was difficult to put the laps together, we went through the tyres too fast, especially the front left, and struggled a bit with both the fast laps and with fuel on board. There was also a lot of traffic and obviously this never helps. Now we have some work to do, as we need to find the reasons for that and come back stronger. However, I am positive as ever, as I think that tomorrow and on Sunday it will be better and we’ll find out the right things to apply. We want to put both cars on the front row tomorrow; we don’t know yet what will happen, but we’ll try to do our best as pole is the best place to start from”.

Kimi Raikkonen

“Usually, on Friday, it is always tricky with the tires; then the situation improves, the circuit cleans up and there’s more grip to be found. Today, the conditions we found were pretty much those we had expected. Normally, we don’t look too much into the lap times on Friday ; we try many things and learn from it. For sure there’s some work to be done and there are things to improve, but this is normal. We’ll see what tomorrow brings in qualifying, when everybody is pushing to the maximum.

Sauber

The challenging Sochi Autodrom saw the Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team showing strong performances and fighting for positions in the upper midfield today. In FP1 the Italian driver Antonio Giovinazzi took over the cockpit from Marcus Ericsson, to complete his third FP1 session with the team this season. The Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team finished the session in P10 (Giovinazzi) and P14 (Leclerc). Both drivers discovered the Sochi Autodrom for the first time in their careers, and did excellent jobs in getting up to speed. With the track conditions improving throughout the day, Ericsson took over his cockpit for FP2, heading into the session feeling confident, despite having missed the first free practice session. Ericsson put in a strong performance, and finished in P10. Leclerc finished the second free practice session in P13, and focused on becoming familiar with the challenges of the Russian circuit. The team looks forward to tomorrow, keeping in mind that a good qualifying is essential for the outcome of the race.

Antonio Giovinazzi

“It was great to be back in the car and FP1 was a good session overall. We went through the planned programme, and I could give my feedback to the team after the session. My second run was on the hypersoft tyre compound. The track was improving and I am happy with my lap. I am looking forward to driving again.”

Marcus Ericsson

“It is always tricky to miss FP1, but I know the Sochi Autodrom quite well so I was ready to jump straight into FP2 today. The car felt good from the start of the session and I was happy with the balance. As always, tyre management is critical on this circuit, and we learned a lot about that today. Overall, it was a positive day, and I look forward to the rest of the weekend.”

Charles Leclerc

“I drove on this circuit for the first time today, and I am still working on finding its rhythm. The track conditions improved throughout the day, and we tested different tyre compounds. We will work hard to find out how we can improve for tomorrow, which will be the day that counts. I look forward to qualifying.”

Haas F1

The 16th round of the 2018 FIA Formula One World Championship began with practice Friday at Sochi Autodrom as teams prepared for the Russian Grand Prix Sunday.

Two 90-minute sessions – FP1 and FP2 – on the 5.848-kilometer (3.634-mile), 18-turn track were run under mostly cloudy conditions, with Haas F1 Team drivers Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean navigating the smooth surface of the semi-street circuit in the host city of the 2014 Winter Olympics. This is the fifth grand prix at Sochi Autodrom, and the track has remained relatively unchanged since its inaugural race in 2014, with some new asphalt on the entry to turns one and eight, as well as the pit lane, being the only changes for 2018.

Both drivers ran the Pirelli P Zero Pink hypersoft tire throughout FP1 as they looked to get a handle on the fastest tire in Pirelli’s lineup to determine how it would fit into their qualifying and race strategies. Magnussen’s quick time of 1:36.196 came on his 10th lap and put him eighth overall. Grosjean’s best time was a 1:36.816 on his 12th lap, good for 11th fastest.

Leading the way in FP1 was Scuderia Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel, whose fast lap of 1:34.488 was .050 of a second better than the next quickest driver, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

Speeds picked up and lap times dropped in FP2 as the track continued to evolve. Magnussen wrapped FP2 as the 11th-quickest driver with a time of 1:35.331, which was .865 of a second better than his best lap in FP1. His quick time came on the 12th of his 33 laps on a set of hypersofts. Grosjean shaved .905 of a second off his FP1 time with a lap of 1:35.911 to claim the 15th fastest time. His quick lap came on his 13th tour, also while utilizing the hypersoft tire. He completed 35 laps.

Magnussen ran his first seven laps of FP2 on Yellow soft tires before transitioning to the hypersofts. Grosjean began FP2 on Purple ultrasoft tires, turning eight laps until he bolted on hypersofts.

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton took top honors in FP2 with a mark of 1:33.385, which was .199 of a second better than his teammate and nearest pursuer, Valtteri Bottas. The Sochi track record of 1:33.194, set last year by Vettel in the final round of knockout qualifying, remained intact.

Between the two sessions, Haas F1 Team ran a total of 112 laps – 58 by Grosjean and 54 by Magnussen.

Romain Grosjean

“It went okay. It’s a track which is not that easy to drive and to find the limits. So, I’ve probably got a little bit of driving to find. The car, as well, needs to get in a better place. Generally, we’ve been working a lot on the hypersoft, seeing if it’s a potential race tire or not, just to see what strategy we go into qualifying with. The balance was actually alright – almost too easy to drive – and that’s never the sign of a really fast car. We’re going to work to make it a bit more challenging and faster over one lap. So, there’s some work to be done tonight. Tomorrow should be a much better day.”

Kevin Magnussen

“It’s not too bad today. We’re seeing that the front of the midfield is very close. It’s only a couple of tenths between P7 and P12. It’s an exciting battle up there, and it’s going to be tight in qualifying, as well. The hypersoft on high fuel, in race running, is very tricky. It wears out incredibly fast. It’s very fragile. I think there’s going to be a big advantage if you qualify in P11, just outside of Q3. With a free choice to start on softs, you’ll have a big advantage. The balance of the car was pretty good. There are a few things to fine tune, but our starting point was nice. We can work from there.”

Günther Steiner

“It’s been a learning day today for us. We need to find the right downforce-drag level. I think we’re as competitive as we were in the last races. We need to make a few more changes for tomorrow. Hopefully, we can get better.”