FP1 & FP2 - Russian GP report: Williams Mercedes

Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering

It was quite a stunted session today which stopped us from completing all of the work we wanted to. We had planned to run in the wet but we had a strange situation this afternoon in that half of the circuit was much wetter than the other half which made most of the tests null and void. We have been working on the wet set-up of the car and so wanted to get out at the end of FP2 to see the progress we have made. In a similar vein to our low speed corner work in Singapore, we seem to be making progress. We got through all of the bits and pieces we wanted to get through in terms of control systems and power unit set-up, and we have to go into tomorrow with a good plan for FP3 to get the car set-up for qualifying and the race.

Felipe Massa

We weren’t able to complete a lot of laps today with the wet weather in the afternoon and the spillage that disrupted the morning session. The laps we did complete gave us some understanding of the track and what it’s like in wet conditions, but it’s difficult to say where we are compared to other teams at this stage because there weren’t many cars out on track. Tomorrow morning will be busy for everyone and we need to make sure we make the most of the final practice session.

Valtteri Bottas

The track conditions made today difficult to get a full testing programme complete but it was the same for everyone. We still tried to maximise both of the sessions and we managed to learn a few things about the tyres and how the car performs in wet conditions. We now need to make a good plan for FP3 because, like in Japan, it will be a very important session to get us ready for qualifying and the race.