Team reaction after day one in Montréal (part 1)

Red Bull Renault

Sebastian Vettel: “It’s looking okay for us, we’re quite competitive. The secret here is the tyres; everyone was sliding around a bit at the end – it was a bit more like rally cross than Formula One! The track started very green this morning, but that’s normal and it will improve as the weekend goes on.
The secret with these circuits is not to panic, as they tend to come towards you. We only made some small adjustments between the two sessions.”

Mark Webber: “It was a pretty good day – we were pleasantly surprised with the pace. We’re going to have a tight fight with everyone tomorrow, but the car ran really well today. There was some graining with the option tyre, but they’ll get better as the track rubbers in, so I’m not worried about it. We’re happy with how today went, it was good.”

Ferrari

The Canadian Grand Prix got underway with a busy work schedule on the first day for Scuderia Ferrari. Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa completed a total of 110 laps of the “Gilles Villeneuve” circuit: 56 for the Spaniard and two fewer for the Brazilian.

Stefano Domenicali: “This weekend has got off on the right foot for us, as we have worked well and shown that we are more competitive than in Turkey two weeks ago. Having said that, we are well aware that Friday’s times do not mean much because there are so many unknown factors that have an influence on them. Now we face an afternoon and a night of work analysing all the data we have gathered. Then, starting with tomorrow’s qualifying we will try and confirm the step forward that we have glimpsed today.”

Fernando Alonso: “Friday’s results tell us little. In the second session in Turkey, we had not done too badly and then everyone saw what happened in qualifying and the race. We must keep trying our best and then let’s see what we can do. A podium, a place in the points, a win: the final result depends on so many factors and the important thing is to concentrate on our job. We worked on the brakes which have a very hard time here and on various set-ups on the car as well as different downforce levels: we still have a few more ideas to try tomorrow morning before taking a final decision. The soft tyre degrades very easily, but today is only Friday and the track conditions will change a lot between now and Sunday. In Bahrain, after the first day, we were all concerned, but then we all pitted around lap 20 without having any problems. We must try and have a good race, always keeping in mind that our final goal is the world title.”

Felipe Massa: “It was not an easy day, especially in terms of the degradation on the rear tyres, a factor which could play a decisive role in Sunday’s race. From what we have seen today, our car seems to be more competitive than in the previous race: the gap to the strongest teams like Red Bull and McLaren appears to be smaller and I really hope we can get back to fighting for the top places. One of the most complicated aspects is finding the right compromise between the top speed you need on the straights and the stability for traction and braking. We have a few ideas in mind which I hope can take us in the right direction.”

Chris Dyer: “As is always the case on a Friday, we had a packed work programme, with various new elements to experiment with, in addition to the normal work of fine tuning the set-up and comparing the two types of tyre that Bridgestone has brought here. There were a few very minor problems that made the day more complicated, but all the same, we managed to get through the planned schedule. From what we have seen today, the tyres seem to work well over a short distance, while on the longer runs the softer compound appears to degrade very quickly, a situation which seems to be affecting everyone, not just us: we will see how the track conditions evolve tomorrow. This circuit is very tough on brakes: from our point of view, the situation seems to be under control.”

Mercedes GP

The sound of Formula One cars returned to Montreal today after a two-year absence as the practice sessions for Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix got underway at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on the Ile Notre-Dame.

Two busy sessions for Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher saw the Mercedes GP pair complete 110 laps over the course of the day as they developed the set-up of their MGP W01 cars to the high speed and low downforce demands of the 4.361km circuit. With the best of the weekend’s weather expected today, the team also focused on tyre evaluations with the super soft and medium Bridgestone Potenza tyre compounds for this weekend.

Nico completed 57 laps and ended the day in third place with Michael completing 53 laps in ninth position.

Nico Rosberg: “I’m generally pleased with the progress that we made today although conditions were difficult because it was very slippery out there on the track. We made some good set-up changes to help the car around this circuit and spent a lot of time working with the tyres to understand their performance. The soft option tyre was particularly difficult and we were struggling a little there, like many teams. But overall it was a good start and we have a lot of information to look at tonight before qualifying.“

Michael Schumacher: “My sessions today were a bit mixed. In the morning, we were making progress but towards the end we carried over some issues into the second session which we could not solve. The main focus this afternoon was to get the tyres together. The track is pretty green with not much rubber which means the tyres are getting a hard time and everybody was struggling with graining. If it rains, the track will remain green and it will probably be difficult to hold the tyres together again, even the harder compound. For tomorrow, it is difficult to predict what we will be able to achieve. My feeling is that we will perform according to our expectations which is around the third quickest of the teams.”

Ross Brawn: “We’re reasonably happy with where we are today in terms of performance and were able to achieve some good longer runs this afternoon in preparation for the race. The key consideration for the weekend looks to be the tyre strategies and managing the levels of graining, particularly on the options and to a lesser extent the prime, as was evident from the struggles faced by most of the teams this afternoon. With the predicted weather conditions for the weekend, this could all change, but for now we are in a decent position and looking forward to qualifying tomorrow.”

Norbert Haug: “We had quite a constructive first day today and are all working hard to improve our pace. If it stays dry, the key issue will be how to use the tyres, particularly the softer options, in the best possible way. We saw long runs from various teams today where lap times varied up to five seconds or more through the runs. Having said that, there will be more grip tomorrow and on Sunday, of course only if it stays dry, and the tyre situation could change. The forecast predicts rain for the weekend, so it will be interesting to see who can do the best job if that is the case. Our experience and performance in the rain has been reasonable at the wet qualifying and races that we have had so far this season.”

Force India Mercedes

The Force India F1 Team’s Canadian Grand Prix weekend got off to a very positive start with Adrian Sutil and Tonio Liuzzi finishing both of today’s practice sessions in the top 12. Adrian was 11th quickest in the morning and improved his time by almost two seconds to post the sixth quickest time in the second session. Tonio also enjoyed a productive opening day with the eighth best time in FP1 and the 10th fastest in the afternoon.
The pair used the two 90 minute practices to evaluate the VJM03 in low downforce trim and gather further information on the new upgrades used this weekend, including a new front wing and mirror mounting positions. Additionally, the team was able to complete back to back tests of the standard rear wing and the switchable rear wing used for the first time in Turkey.

Adrian Sutil: It went OK today. I had a small issue at the end of the morning session so I missed my final run of first practice. The team did a great job to fix it over lunch and we could put in a really good session in the afternoon. After the delays we had in Turkey we could finally do a comparison between the standard rear wing and the switchable rear wing and I could see the difference it made. In addition to the set up and baseline work we also completed our normal tyre programme. The surface grip is one of the lowest in the calendar and the car is moving around a lot so the soft tyre is quite difficult to use, particularly on the long runs. Over one lap it is much better but to go over any sort of distance is very hard as the tyre just grains up so much. It’s the same for everybody though so we’ll look at the information overnight and hopefully there will be a little bit more grip tomorrow when there has been more running. The times look pretty good and I felt comfortable so I’m really hopeful of a good result in qualifying.

Tonio Liuzzi: Today was very positive and definitely a good place to start from. We went in a good direction and got a lot of information to look at for the qualifying. Everything felt a bit better and I was more comfortable, which shows in the times, but it’s difficult to compare here with other races as the track doesn’t have any grip at all right now. Overall I think we’re looking pretty good, particularly with the harder tyre - I think we are spot on with the set-up on this compound. I didn’t get a clear run on the new option tyres in FP2, which was a shame as you only get a couple of laps where they can work at the optimum. It will be an interesting weekend and I think we can be quite encouraged by the speed we’ve shown here today.

Dominic Harlow, chief race engineer: We’re satisfied with what was acheived today. The track was very dirty to start with, but things gradually improved. Aside from one glitch this morning on Adrian’s car the programmes were well executed. Free Practice two’s tyre evaluations were interesting and there’s certainly plenty to think about for the race. Our performance seems reasonable, and with one or two improvements that we can make for tomorrow I think we can be competitive in qualifying and on Sunday.

McLaren Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton: “I guess I’d have to say I’m not entirely happy with how this afternoon went. Today, in general, the track has been incredibly difficult to drive. It’s very hard to switch the tyres on and get heat into them – it’s so slippery, it’s like driving on an ice rink. It’s such a huge difference from when we were last here.

“We’re not pulling away down the straights and we’ve got quite a bit of bottoming – but we can improve in those areas. We’re going to have a big debrief this evening and work out where we want to go with the car for tomorrow.

“The graining on the Option tyre made things difficult too – but I think everybody had a similar experience out there, except maybe the Red Bulls. I don’t think you’ll be seeing a long first stint on the Option tyre on Sunday, that’s for sure.”

Jenson Button: “We need to find out what changed from this morning to this afternoon. I was happy with the car in P1, but less so in P2. Certainly, we struggled with the balance instability under braking and corner entry during P2.

“It was tough on the long runs – the tyres didn’t last long. I ran with the Option tyre at the end of the session for just a couple of laps, and it grained so much that I had to put the Prime on, where I was two or three seconds quicker than the cars still running Options. Still, I then started experiencing graining as well, so we have a few tyre issues – but then again I think almost everybody is struggling with tyre issues here. It could be a pretty interesting race.

“We’re possibly a little bit too quick along the straights, too. Maybe we’re not running enough downforce, but we’ll look at that. But we’ve got a lot of info from today’s running, so we’ll go away now and work out what we need to do for tomorrow.”

Martin Whitmarsh Team principal: “The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is a uniquely challenging track, which never fails to throw up tricky conditions, abnormal circumstances and unpredictable outcomes. This morning, we were able quickly to establish a competitive baseline with both cars. This afternoon, however, we found it difficult to refine that advantage, particularly when we switched from Prime to Option tyres. In so doing, we lost not only balance but also found that the Options were graining extremely quickly.

“Nonetheless, we’ve amassed a significant amount of data from today’s running – and our task now is therefore to sit down and sift through it with absolute thoroughness in order to hit the ground running tomorrow morning.

“We’re still convinced that our basic package should be quick around here – it’s just a matter of adapting it to suit the prevailing weather and circuit conditions, which today proved tougher than we’d initially anticipated.”

Renault

Robert Kubica: It was quite a difficult Friday. In the morning the track conditions were very poor, especially at the start of the session, so we had to wait quite a long time for the track to get better. In both sessions we tried to evaluate different downforce levels because we were not sure what would work best for us. Overall we are struggling with a lack of grip and it seems like everybody is suffering with the tyre wear on the long runs. So managing the tyres will be quite an important factor for the weekend.

Vitaly Petrov: It was my first experience of Montreal today so I had to learn the track. It’s a challenging circuit because you need to attack and be aggressive, but also beware of the walls, which are very close to the track. We did some set-up work preparing for the race and evaluated the tyres, which have quite a big drop off in performance here during the long runs, and that could be a problem for the race. We still need to find the optimal set-up, but we have final practice tomorrow morning to work on things.

Technical Debrief with Alan Permane, Chief Race Engineer:

Track conditions: The track began the day very dirty and slippery. It did improve, but not enough to make us happy and comfortable with the car. The cars are sliding about and that’s made even more difficult by the fact that we are running with low downforce.

Performance of low downforce package: The new wing package is performing as expected. We did a downforce test and compared our Montreal package against our previous lowest downforce wings and overall we’re happy with our Montreal wings. I’m pretty sure we will run them for the rest of the weekend.

Tyre performance: We ran both tyre compounds (medium and supersoft) this afternoon. It’s difficult to say which one is better in terms of lap time and we still need to look over the data to determine which one we will favour. We will continue monitoring this during final practice tomorrow morning as the track evolves further and more rubber is laid down.

Weather predictions: At the moment we’re predicting a dry day tomorrow and rain on Sunday afternoon – probably after the race, but the forecast can change very quickly here so we will keep a close eye on the weather radar.