Team reaction after day one in Interlagos (part 1)

Sebastian Vettel: "I think it was pretty good today – of course it’s not the most important thing to be at the top of the timing list today, it’s more important tomorrow and Sunday – but it’s a good start. The car feels alright, I’m not one hundred percent happy with the balance and think we can improve it, but it’s looking okay. I think it’s likely to rain tomorrow.”

Mark Webber: “It was a good Friday and we got through everything we wanted. Obviously the track was in a good condition from the outset, so we were able to get down to work. Conditions were good and we made the most of it. We’re not too sure what will happen weather-wise, but we’re pretty quick and the car works well in all conditions, so we should be set for a good result.”

The first day of the Brazilian Grand Prix followed the now traditional script, with the Red Bulls apparently extremely fast, the McLarens very competitive and Scuderia Ferrari on the pace, especially over a long run. Two problems, one for each driver, delayed the programme for both Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa. This morning the engine on car number 8 broke a few minutes before the end of the session, just ahead of its planned life, given that it was due to be “pensioned off” during the lunch break. In the afternoon, an electrical problem with the neutral finder, disengaged the clutch which meant Felipe had to park the car when he had just begun his first run on the soft tyres.

Stefano Domenicali: “I would say there is nothing new under the sun, even here in Brazil. The pecking order seems to be the one we have seen throughout this part of the season, with Red Bull definitely having a slight edge, especially on the first lap. However, tomorrow the forecast is for rain, therefore qualifying will be even more difficult and factors other than the pure pace of the vehicle and the driver’s performance will also come into consideration. More than ever, it will be important to keep a cool head and concentrate, in order to manage the various situations that could arise as well as possible.”

Fernando Alonso: “As usual, it is very difficult to draw any conclusions after Friday’s two free practice sessions. In fact, the Red Bulls have always been dominant in the last six or seven Fridays, therefore there were no surprises today. Even when we have managed to take pole, they have been very competitive the previous day. For us, it will be important to stay ahead of the McLarens and the other teams, who on this track could be in the mix: by that I mean Renault, Williams and Mercedes. Then, the forecast is for rain tomorrow and anything could happen. It will be vital to understand when and on what tyres to go out on track to set a time. We have introduced a few updates on the car which seems to be a positive step, even if we still need to analyse the data in depth. The engine change between the two sessions was already on the day’s programme therefore, in reality I only lost a couple of laps, nothing more.”

Felipe Massa: “I ran wide at Turn 2 and went over the kerb quite heavily: I immediately noticed that the clutch had disengaged and I was unable to select any gear to try and get back to the pits. Nothing like that has ever happened to me before: it was only when the car was brought back to the garage that we discovered it was an electrical problem. It was a shame, because I was on my first run with the soft tyres and I had yet to fully understand how they were working. Overall, I feel we can be competitive this weekend. Sure, the Red Bulls are very strong, as are the McLarens. It is meant to rain tomorrow and, on a wet track, anything could happen. I don’t expect any special problems with the tyres as their behaviour seems to match our expectations. It’s true I did not do a long run on the softs, but the initial impression is that they are also consistent. The Brazilian crowd is incredible, singing and dancing all day long! They are very passionate about Formula 1 and for a driver who is from here, it is a great pleasure to race in front of these fans: it gives you an extra motivation to give your all to make them happy.”

Chris Dyer: “It was a reasonably average sort of day, apart from the two little problems we had, first on Fernando’s car and then on Felipe’s. The engine on car 8 had reached the end of its life, so we lost practically nothing, while Felipe’s had a problem linked to the electrics in the switch which controls the neutral finder that disengaged the clutch . In terms of performance, today we tried some aerodynamic updates: the first indications are positive and we are thinking of also using them on Saturday and Sunday. On the first flying lap, the situation is not bad, but we definitely have to improve if we want to be in the fight for pole position. Having said that, we are expecting a wet qualifying tomorrow: an opportunity to make up some places on the grid, but at the same time, a risk of losing an equal number. We have seen that on a long run, the car handles very well., but we know how important is the grid position in terms of the outcome of the race.”

Lewis Hamilton: “The car felt good today – I’m getting everything out of it – but I still felt it needs just a little more downforce.
Still, I’m optimistic for qualifying tomorrow – especially if it rains, which I’m told it probably will. This year’s car is much better than last year’s car in the wet, so I feel confident that if it rains we should be able to fight for the front row.
In terms of pure pace in the dry, the Red Bull looks very quick. But a number of factors will play a part in deciding how things pan out in the next two grands prix – weather, engines, reliability – so it’s all still up for grabs.”

Jenson Button: “We spent today playing about with the balance. The car feels good in high-speed corners, but we still need to work on the front end of the car in low-speed corners.
Towards the end of today’s running, on higher fuel, the car felt pretty good, which was encouraging.
The weather forecast says it looks like rain tomorrow, so it’ll be interesting to see how that affects qualifying.
I think our race car should be good – and that’s important because Sunday should be dry. Hopefully, our race set-up won’t be too compromised by the anticipated wet conditions in qualifying tomorrow.”

Martin Whitmarsh, Team principal, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes: “Today was an extremely busy day of testing for us as we gathered data on a number of new components, including floor modifications and a selection of rear wings.
Both drivers reported that the car wasn’t as well-balanced as they’d ideally like, but we feel we have enough data to be able to effect some very positive changes ahead of running tomorrow.
Neither Jenson nor Lewis was able to set optimal lap times during their Option-tyre runs, owing to a yellow flag adversely affecting their running. However, our long-run pace looks particularly encouraging and is a very good basis for Sunday’s race.
In the meantime, the weather forecasters are predicting an 80 per cent chance of rain tomorrow – and that will inevitably have some influence over some of the decisions we take this evening – but we believe we’re heading in the right direction for the rest of the weekend.”

Robert Kubica: Our position looked pretty good in both sessions today but we know from
experience that Friday can be misleading, so we need to be cautious. The main target
overnight will be to improve the balance of the car because it was not ideal today – I was
struggling with inconsistency and low grip. None of the changes we made really allowed
us to make a big step forward, so we need to work hard this evening to make progress.
Although the circuit was quite slippery early on, the grip levels picked up quite quickly, so
we had a consistent basis for our testing.

Vitaly Petrov: We lost quite a lot of time this morning after my accident, and that obviously had a knock-on effect this afternoon as well. It’s been a difficult day for me, but I have enjoyed driving this circuit, which gives the driver quite a lot of challenges. We need to
work hard tonight to ensure that we can make up for the problems we had today.

Technical Debrief with Alan Permane, Chief Race Engineer:

Robert finished in the top six in both sessions. How did his day go?
It was actually a bit of a frustrating day, and we struggled to find a car balance that
Robert was happy with. He suffered from inconsistency, probably owing to the low-grip
surface here, and we will work tonight to improve that and make the car easier to drive.

Things looked tougher for Vitaly…
Vitaly endured a very tricky day. A problem with the rear wing caused him to crash
during this morning’s session, and the mechanics did a good job to get him out in good
time in the second session. But he was always playing catch-up after that, and never
really got comfortable with the car balance.

What’s your overall assessment of the day?
We’ve still got a lot of work to do tonight, to improve both cars and get to where we want
to be. What’s more, the weather forecast indicates that we’ll probably have rain all day
tomorrow. That will be an added challenge – but, as always, could also give us the
opportunity to spring a surprise.

During the first two practice sessions for the Brazilian Grand Prix the team learned that the C29 looks stronger on the challenging Interlagos circuit than expected. Nick Heidfeld especially was very happy with his car and the general performance, while Kamui Kobayashi is still trying to improve the car’s balance. In the morning the Japanese went off the track at the very end of the first session because of a puncture. Apparently he had damaged the left rear tyre when he drove over debris.

Nick Heidfeld: “I am quite satisfied because I didn’t expect us to be that strong here, and the lap time isn’t on the edge yet. The long runs were even better than eighth fastest. I feel here I made a step forward with the set up of the car.”

Kamui Kobayashi: “I think our general performance is quite good, but I’m not yet happy with my car. We have to find the right balance, as it is too understeery. Also I expected a bit more grip from the option tyres. At least the puncture at the end of the first session didn’t cost track time, and we have completed our programme as planned.”

James Key, Technical Director: “We had no development items to test, so it was just a case of setting up the car for both drivers. The track’s grip came in quickly this morning, and was already quite consistent in free practice 1. We scanned the downforce levels, and we are happy with what we have now established. In the afternoon we evaluated the tyres. It looks like we have to work a little bit on the prime tyres to fully understand how they are behaving when warming up, and then also with longevity. The option tyres seem to be fairly consistent, and both drivers did a better lap time on them. Nick seems to be reasonably happy with the car. Kamui’s got a few more balance issues that we will work on overnight. Overall it was a useful day.”

Preparations for the penultimate race of the season, the Brazilian Grand
Prix, got underway today at the Interlagos circuit in Sao Paulo. MERCEDES GP
PETRONAS pair Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg completed a total of 61
and 60 laps respectively of the 4.309km track as they began the team’s
preparations for the weekend.

Nico Rosberg: "We made some good set-up changes and definitely learned a lot over the two sessions today. As a result, I’m confident that we can nail the set-up if it is dry tomorrow. However if the predicted rain arrives, then I will look forward to it even more as we should be a little stronger if it is wet and have a better chance of being further up the field."

Michael Schumacher: "We had two trouble free practice sessions today and were able to complete a lot of work with the car. I would have wished and expected for us to be
closer to the top teams but unfortunately the gap seems to be a little bigger than at the last races. The track itself has improved a lot since I last raced here and the bumps are not really a problem anymore. All in all, we have to see what we can improve for qualifying tomorrow and we will have a deep look into our data now."

Ross Brawn: "Although we had a more challenging Friday than at recent race weekends, it was a useful day to achieve our set-up work in anticipation of a dry race on
Sunday. So far we haven’t achieved the level of performance that we would like but we have collected good information to work through tonight. The weather always seems to play its part in Brazil and if the rain arrives tomorrow, the conditions may benefit us."

Norbert Haug: "Today we did not quite achieve the level of performance that we have shown at the last couple of races however we are not too far off. Our high fuel
runs looked reasonable but the single lap performance can be improved further before qualifying. The weather forecast predicts heavy rain for tomorrow so we may see a different order in such conditions. So far, the team, Nico and Michael have always performed quite well in wet conditions."