Team reaction after day one in Suzuka (part 2)

Williams Cosworth

Sam Michael, Technical Director: We experienced some technical problems today which threw us off plan slightly. We had electrical issues on Nico’s car, while Rubens’ practice engine developed a pneumatic leak towards the end of P2. All of the upgrade parts are working well though so they will remain on the cars for qualifying. The car also looks like it has reasonable pace. The forecast predicts rain tomorrow afternoon, which could make for an interesting qualifying.

Rubens Barrichello: I obviously had a problem with my car during the second session. That was disappointing, but the car seems to be well balanced and should take us through to Q3 again tomorrow.

Nico Hulkenberg: We had some technical problems during today’s second session which prevented us from going out exactly when we wanted to, but they didn’t really cost us anything and today went ok overall. It’s looking really competitive out there. We aren’t looking too bad; we just need to get everything right tomorrow. The circuit is living up to expectation and I’m loving driving it.

Sauber Ferrari

Kamui Kobayashi and Nick Heidfeld both used the first two free practice sessions ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix for many comparisons. On the time sheet Kobayashi ended up in 12th, while Heidfeld was 15th.

Kobayashi is using a special helmet design for his home race. The helmet’s basic colour is white, which makes the red rising sun from the Japanese flag easy to recognize on both sides. On top of the helmet, as usual, Kamui’s name is written in Japanese script.

Kamui Kobayashi: “I am very happy to be in Suzuka, and I enjoy driving here a lot. But nevertheless it was a tough day for me. I wasn’t happy with the balance of the car because I have too much understeer. We definitely have to improve the balance by doing the right set-up changes. I found both tyre compounds difficult because they dropped off so quickly. After just one lap I had problems. In the morning I also had some aero parts to evaluate.”

Nick Heidfeld: “Driving on the Suzuka Circuit always gives me a lot of enjoyment! I found the car really not too bad on the harder Prime compound, but then it was a surprise when we fitted the softer Option tyres. The car behaved a lot differently and the lap time actually didn’t improve. This is something we have to sort out before qualifying. In the first session this morning I did runs comparing different front wings.”

James Key, Technical Director: “It was a standard Friday for us. We had some aero test items in the morning, and rather than doing a lot of set-up work we mainly concentrated on running different parts to make sure we optimise our package from Singapore. In the afternoon we made some set-up changes and ran both tyre compounds. We found we have a small inconsistency in the balance in sector two, which is by far the weakest sector for the car. We have to work on that tonight. We have a lot of data to look at and we’ll analyse this in preparation for tomorrow.”

Toro Rosso Ferrari

Sebastien Buemi: “I had an impressive spin at a high speed corner, but apart from that there were no technical problems. I managed to do quite a good lap time on the Option tyres and I feel I have a clear picture of what the car is doing. But we need to work hard now with the engineers to improve the car, although tomorrow will be a different picture if it rains. We do not appear to be as competitive as we were in Singapore and Monza and it is difficult to say exactly why. It is hard to tell how much we can improve, but the situation is still open for us to increase our performance level.”

Jaime Alguersuari: “This morning, I tested various new components which made the session more complicated than usual, as I found the car quite difficult to drive. I made a couple of mistakes and there were times when I found it hard to keep the car on track. This afternoon went much better, even if we lack a bit of speed compared to Singapore. We can analyse the data tonight and improve for tomorrow and I would be happy if it is wet for qualifying, as I think we can be more competitive in the rain than in the dry.”

Laurent Mekies (Chief Engineer): “It was a trouble-free day for us and we evaluated several different set-up options across both our cars. However, we still have a lot of work to do tonight to try and improve our performance and to get the car as well adapted as possible to the layout of this track. Suzuka presents a real challenge for engineers as well as drivers, which makes it very enjoyable. Life will be further complicated by the fact the forecast is for a wet Qualifying and a dry race, so it seems we are set for a fun weekend!”

Lotus Cosworth

Heikki Kovalainen: “I think we’ve got to be pretty pleased with today. We ran through the whole programme and even though we can’t find the same grip levels as the guys ahead, I think we achieved what we set out to today. The battle with the guys around us is now really tight, and that’s excellent, for us in the team as it keeps us focused, and for the fans as they have something to keep them on the edge of their seats. Obviously nearly all the effort back at the factory is on next year, so it’s good that we can keep ahead of Timo and Lucas, and I think for the rest of the weekend it will be a really good fight between us.”

Jarno Trulli: It’s always good being in Japan. I have some fantastic support here, and it’s great to be here for the first time with Lotus Racing. It’s easy to see what we mean to the fans, and next year will be even better for them, in so many ways for the whole team. Today we completed a good number of laps but I haven’t been particularly happy with the grip levels and balance, in either session. I think there’s a lot more to come from the car tomorrow, and with some more work tonight we should be able to find more time and more performance tomorrow.”

Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer: “Today was the first day of running for us since the very sad news of Peter Warr’s passing. This weekend we want to pay tribute to Peter who contributed so much to the Team Lotus legend. He paid us the privilege of being our guest at the first race this season in Bahrain and our thoughts will be with his family for the whole weekend.

“On the track it was a good day for us. We had a solid session with both cars, running a normal Friday programme and we had decent pace and no reliability issues at all. We managed to complete as many laps as possible as obviously the forecast tomorrow is for a lot of rain, so this will be the only dry running we will have all weekend.”

Riad Asmat, Chief Executive Officer: “I’d like to add my thoughts, and those of the whole team, to Peter Warr’s family on the sad news we received as we arrived in Japan. He was an inspiration to all of us, and long may his memory remain.

“We’re all pleased with the day’s work – it was good to see both cars complete a lot of mileage and maintain our position ahead of both other new teams, and it was also good to turn our attention back to the track after a very busy couple of weeks for the whole team. We have a huge amount of support around the world, particularly in Malaysia, across Asia and in the UK, and we have had some amazing feedback to the news that we will be running Red Bull gearboxes and hydraulics next year – we’ll continue to do our best in 2010 to make all our fans and partners proud, and I think today we did just that.”

Virgin Racing Cosworth

The first two Free Practice sessions for Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix took place in sunny and dry conditions at the Suzuka Circuit today, with all three drivers completing their planned programmes.

Jerome D’Ambrosio stepped into car 25 for the first session as part of his evaluation programme, completing a total of 23 laps. He initially concentrated on collecting valuable aero data that enabled the engineers to evaluate the performance of the new aero parts. Timo had a slower start to the session, but still completed 17 laps and ended up splitting the Lotus pair.

In the second session, Lucas took his place in the car, as will be the case for the forthcoming two races. The temperatures began to drop slightly as cloud cover increased, and traffic became an issue as teams tried to get in as much dry running as possible. Both drivers completed 28 laps and finished well placed to make further improvements to the set-up tomorrow. On the Prime tyre, Timo set the fastest lap of the new teams, but was unable to get a good lap on Options, and at the end of the session Lucas and Timo were classified 21st and 22nd respectively.

Lucas di Grassi: “For me this is easily the most technically challenging track of the season. There is no margin for any mistakes as the track is very fast and narrow and if you push too hard you’re definitely going to go off. It was a real pleasure to drive the track for the first time. A lot of work has been done with the car today. We are still far from where we need to be but there is more to come from the car and myself over the next two days. Things are getting better all the time so I think we can make a good improvement for tomorrow.”

Timo Glock: “Today has been a fairly routine day and we kept to our normal programme. This afternoon the car wasn’t feeling too bad at the start of the second session but when we switched to Option tyres we weren’t able to find any time in them, which is a bit strange. I think we will need to review our set-up direction but as the weather is starting to change towards the cloud and rain forecast for the weekend, this will be the case for everybody. I think we will see rain tomorrow so we will see what those conditions bring for the car.”

Jerome D’Ambrosio, Reserve Driver: “It was something very special to be running here at Suzuka today. The track has a lot of history and is very interesting - a kind of ‘Asian Spa’ with a great blend of technical challenge mixed with some very fast corners. This was really my first proper run in dry conditions because the track was wet when I ran in Singapore. It is never possible to get a lot of laps because of the tyre allocation, but I still get to learn a lot in a very short time and I’m very happy about the way everything went today.”

John Booth, Team Principal: “Once again Jerome did a very solid, professional job in the first session and was able to give us some useful information on set-up. We have had to work hard on car set-up today but we seem to be going in the right direction. Unfortunately, neither driver was able to get the ultimate performance from the Option tyre. We’re expecting heavy rain tomorrow, which hopefully will provide a good opportunity for us to qualify further up the grid.”

HRT F1 Cosworth

Both Hispania Racing, HRT F1 Team cars were reliable and performed well today in the first two practice sessions of the Japanese Grand Prix. In the morning, Sakon Yamamoto and Bruno Senna did the most laps, covering 54 between them. The Brazilian finished 23rd (1.38.814) and the Japanese, who is running at his home race, ended up 24th (1.39.443). In the afternoon session, both Hispania Racing, HRT F1 Team drivers were able to improve their times by more than one second each, as well as reduce the difference with the other teams.

Dr. Colin Kolles, Team Principal: “It was an effective day for us, as we could do 121 laps in total and we could fulfill our program completely. So we were able get a lot of information in preparation for Sunday. In the morning, the track was green but it improved in the afternoon when it got quicker. Both drivers, Sakon Yamamoto and Bruno Senna, got more experience on this technical track and now we have to see what happens tomorrow, when the track is expected to be wet.”

Sakon Yamamoto: “It was good to be back racing in Suzuka in front of my home crowd with the team at this challenging circuit. Today was quite successful and we managed to do many laps. Now we have to analyze the data and work on improving for tomorrow. It is going to be exciting to run here under wet conditions, something which I really like to do.”

Bruno Senna: “It was a good day for us and we went through some changes to get a good feedback from the car. We have some ideas of what to do in preparation for the next sessions. Apparently, the weather is going to be wet so we won’t be able to carry on with our setup. We hope to do a good job tomorrow and we will see what happens.”