Team reaction after day one in Melbourne (part 1)

McLaren Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton :“It’s great to be back in Melbourne – I love this place. The track was very dirty this morning – everybody usually waits for some of the cars to clean the line, but I just wanted to get out there and have some fun!

“I definitely think we’ve made some improvements to our pace compared with Bahrain. And the feeling over one lap is better for us. That’s what we’ve been trying to work on since the first race, and I feel more confident that, going into qualifying, we’ll be able to attack the guys who were at the front two weeks ago.

“Despite this afternoon’s wet weather, we went out early in the second session when it was still dry and got some good running under our belts in order to see how some of the changes we’d made between the sessions felt.

“We’re feeling positive. We’d hoped to evaluate some further changes at the end of P2, but the track still wasn’t up to full speed. Nevertheless, we feel quite comfortable with the balance of the car. I actually feel very relaxed: I’ve got a car that probably feels better than I’ve ever had at this track, so that’s a major positive.”

Jenson Button : “I’m reasonably pleased with the balance, and it’s just got better throughout the day. I’ve been happy since lap one this morning.

“It’s only Friday, and we may be lighter than some of the quick cars out there, but tomorrow we’ll see where we actually stand. Nevertheless, it’s important for us to find a good balance and get a good feeling with the car.

“We’ve just been trying to continually tweak the balance of the car, but it’s been tough because of the conditions and the traffic out on the circuit. Every time I’ve tried to put a good lap in on a new set of tyres, I’ve hit traffic. But we’ll make the best of it for tomorrow.

“For qualifying, the car should feel better than it did in Bahrain: it feels like we have the correct downforce level for this circuit. Both tyre compounds are working well too, so it’s all positive.

Martin Whitmarsh, Team principal, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes : “All the teams would probably have had an easier time of it if today’s sessions had been completely dry, because the rain made things rather challenging in terms of optimising learning potential. That being the case, we chose not to go out in the rain, to conserve tyres. Instead, we did heavy fuel runs to gauge tyre wear, plus a little light running too.

“We’re not about to get carried away by Jenson’s and Lewis’s positions on today’s time sheet, although of course it’s always gratifying to see your two drivers finish first and second on any day in any conditions.

“Having said that, we’re pretty confident that we’ll be more competitive here in Australia than we were in Bahrain.”

Red Bull Renault

Mark Webber : “It wasn’t too bad today. Everyone’s programmes were disrupted in P2 with the intermittent weather. It’s pretty much the team’s worst nightmare when the weather’s just on the edge like that; you can’t commit to learning too much in the wet and it’s quite tricky in the dry as well. We had a couple of windows where we got some information though, so we have good data to go through tonight.”

Sebastian Vettel : “I had a drift off track at the end of the second session; obviously it wasn’t ideal, but it happens – that’s what practice is for. It was my mistake; I was a bit too far to the left when hitting the brakes. It meant I missed the most important time on the track at the end of P2, but the car feels good and Mark showed that we are right there. It looks very close between the top cars.”

Mercedes GP

The opening day of practice for the second race of the 2010 season, the Australian Grand Prix held at Albert Park in Melbourne, got underway today with the two practice sessions taking place in very different conditions.

The first session began at 12.30pm local time under blue skies and warm sunshine. Nico and Michael completed their installation laps and then remained in the garage until the track, which uses public roads, had cleaned up a little. With just over 30 minutes of the session gone, the pair headed back out to begin their set-up programme for the MGP W01.

The start of the second session at 16.30pm was greeted with a brief rain shower which kept the cars in the garage for the first fifteen minutes. A second shower arriving shortly afterwards limited the dry running available with Nico and Michael going out on the intermediate tyres to complete practice pit stops and track familiarisation. The conditions improved for the final quarter of an hour to allow for some dry running to end the day.

Michael completed 35 laps today, ending the day in P4 on the times, with Nico completing 40 laps in P10.

Michael Schumacher : “As often on Fridays, the performance is difficult to judge as everybody seemed to be on different programmes. Having said that, I am quite happy with today’s sessions, even if we did not run too much overall. My first session was a bit handicapped by red flags, later we faced some rain in the second session. But all in all, we learned a lot and we could improve the set up of our car quite reasonably. In the end our times were competitive so I think we can look forward to the rest of the weekend.”

Nico Rosberg : “The first session was ok this morning and we learnt some good things. This afternoon was a bit frustrating with the weather interruptions but we were still able to learn a good amount on the tyres which gives us some preparation for tomorrow. There are still some set-up issues to look at and improvements to make on the car so we have plenty of work to do overnight.”

Ross Brawn : “It was a frustrating afternoon with the weather but we were able to get some good work done this morning. However its always very difficult to judge where you are on the first day. We made some progress on Michaels side and he was fairly happy with the car. Nico was not quite so happy and we may have gone the wrong way on some changes so there is still some work to do on the set-up of his car.”

Norbert Haug : “There were quite challenging circumstances for the teams and drivers in the second session with the frequently changing weather conditions. Nico was amongst the quickest in the first session and Michael in the second. But it is difficult to judge our performance compared to our competitors and we have to wait until tomorrow to find out what our results of today mean. All in all it was a productive day and we should have a reasonable baseline for qualifying.”

Renault

Robert Kubica: “It was a good Friday. This morning everything went well with just some small balance issues, so we did some set-up wok to get used to the track, which is very different to Bahrain and the tracks where we tested over the winter. The second session was damp so we did some runs on intermediates to get a feeling for the wet conditions. Overnight we will work to try and improve the balance so that we get the maximum from the car tomorrow.”

Vitaly Petrov: “This morning the car felt pretty good and better than it did in Bahrain. The first session was a learning experience for me as I got to know the track and did some set-up work. We knew it was going to be wet in the second session so we went out as early as we could on the dry tyres before the rain got too heavy. When the track was damp we did some runs to analyse a few things and to understand the balance of the car on different fuel loads. It could rain on Sunday so it was good experience to run in these conditions.”

Technical Debrief with Alan Permane, Chief Race Engineer

Track conditions and evolution: Albert Park is a track that is not used very often so the track started off very dirty and there was a quick evolution during the first session with the lap times coming down rapidly. The second session was affected by rain which slowed the evolution down.

Tyre performance: We’ve not been able to assess both compounds as much as we would have liked because of the rain. We ran on the prime in the morning and were happy with things, but we didn’t get to do a comparison in the afternoon. However, we did run one car on option and one on prime so we can look at that data. As yet we haven’t seen any clear trends.

Car balance: A little bit too much understeer still. The car is quite stable at the rear, but we need to work on the front end. Both drivers are reasonably happy and the new parts are performing as expected.

Ride on the bumps: It is bumpy here but the car is working well on the bumps so no complaints.

Drivers approach: For Vitaly it was a new circuit so he ran earlier in the first session with Robert running a bit later. The approach this afternoon was affected by the rain, but we ran as much as we could, especially with Vitaly. With Robert we ran into the dry on intermediate tyres and the car looked like it was working well.

General outlook: Robert was quickest this morning and although we don’t know fuel loads of the others, we had no major complaints with the car. I said at the beginning of the weekend that the goal was to get both cars into Q3 and I still think that’s a realistic target.

Toro Rosso Ferrari

Sebastien Buemi : “I was quite happy with the way things went, even if the weather was not so good. Unlike Bahrain, I managed to complete all the sessions which is positive. Now we have to analyse the data from FP2 as it should give us a good picture of tyre behaviour in all conditions – wet, dry, high and low fuel – working mainly in race trim. We are quite confident that we can be well prepared for qualifying and the race. A good day’s work.”

Jaime Alguersuari : “It is my first time here and I think it is an amazing track. It’s a pleasure to be here in Melbourne, because everyone had told me what a great event this is. Luckily the weather was with us in the first session, so I was able to enjoy learning the track and I was quick. This afternoon in the wet in the second session, of course there was a lot less grip, which is made worse by the fact this is a street circuit. All the same, driving for 90 minutes in the different conditions was very useful. A positive start.”

Force India Mercedes

The Force India Formula One Team’s preparations for this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix got underway today with two 90 minute practice sessions. Paul di Resta made his F1 event debut in FP1 as he replaced Adrian Sutil for the first of his scheduled appearances on a Grand Prix Friday. On the programme today for all three drivers was, as per usual Friday schedule, baseline running, tyre evaluation and longer runs. The notoriously fickle Melbourne weather threw in occasional rain showers however the team gathered the information required for tomorrow’s running.

Adrian Sutil : The rain in the second session was not ideal, particularly as I had sat out the first session, but we did what we could and I think overall the findings were very positive. At the start of the session we did some running with the harder tyre compound and then with the softer. We also tried out the intermediate tyre when the circuit was wetter. Everything seems to be working OK and we could get all the information we wanted today. I still have a good feeling about this weekend and I would like to better the result we had in Bahrain.

Tonio Liuzzi : Today was OK and the car was responding pretty well to the changes we made over the sessions. I was quite happy with the balance. The conditions were not ideal as in the first session there were the two red flags in quite quick succession and then the weather didn’t help in the second practice. Unfortunately then there was always traffic as there were people slowing down and backing off to try and get some space so I didn’t get a free lap. It was like people were on a Sunday drive in some places. Overall though a good day to start the weekend on and I think we are looking good for tomorrow.

Paul di Resta : I was pretty nervous going into the session, after all Albert Park is one of the most difficult tracks on the calendar. It’s half street, half track so I had to build the programme from the bottom to the top. I had to feel comfortable in the car, particularly as I’ve not had the chance to drive it in the dry after the wet testing we had over the winter. It was something new and once the track rubbered in I was able to push myself beyond my comfortable limits. In Melbourne there’s not much margin for error and therefore I had to be careful in some sectors as the walls get pretty close here. But the main job is to get the mileage and learn the track but most importantly to try and build a base for the drivers in the race with the optimum set-up. It’s a good starting block for both me and I hope the team this weekend.

Dominic Harlow, chief race engineer : We had to think on our feet a bit today with both sessions being interrupted. Red flags in FP1 and the rain showers in FP2 both punctuated the running, and there is a lot of traffic to contend with . All three drivers were happy with the balance of the car, and we completed our usual Friday homework. As usual the circuit is quite slippery at the start of the weekend, but we’d expect as it rubbers in the grip to come up. We’re confident that we can make some further improvements to the car overnight, and look forward to a competitive weekend.