Team reaction after day one in Valencia (part 1)

Ferrari

A very busy time for Scuderia Ferrari today at the Valencia street circuit. The focus for the team during the two free practice sessions was twofold: firstly looking at the usual work of defining the set-up for the car best suited to this track and the comparison between the two types of tyre available and secondly, an evaluation of the new technical updates introduced at this event.

Stefano Domenicali: “I would say that our weekend has got off to a positive start, but it’s too early to draw any real conclusion. From what we saw today, we are on the pace on a track that has some similarities to the one in Montreal. Now we have to analyse all the data gathered over these three hours, to be as well prepared as possible for qualifying and especially for the race. As usual, a good grid position will be vital, especially so here on a track where overtaking is very difficult.”

Fernando Alonso: “Here, as in Montreal, our car seems to work well, even if it’s difficult to make a direct comparison, given that the track surface is very different and that one needs a bit more aerodynamic downforce. Together with Felipe, we worked on the development of new technical solutions, but it is hard to say how much we have improved compared to the others. The F10 has turned out to be easy to drive and competitive in every situation, both with low and high fuel loads, but it is too early to say where we are: this morning, the McLarens were very quick, the Red Bulls are always on front running pace and even Mercedes and Renault are very close. However, our only aim is to be ahead of everyone, otherwise we wouldn’t be Ferrari.”

Felipe Massa: “The track was very dirty, which makes it difficult to understand exactly how much the new parts which we used for the first time today have improved the performance of the car. I never managed to get a clean lap when I was on new tyres with low fuel and this explains my position on the time sheet. Nevertheless, I am pleased with the handling of my car. I think we have made a step forward in performance terms and that we should be competitive this weekend: I hope I can fight for a place on the top rows. The spin? I hit a kerb, spun and then I chose to brake to avoid hitting the wall: unfortunately the engine cut out and we now have to look into why the anti-stall did not work.”

Chris Dyer: “Today we had to carry out a very packed programme to test the various new technical updates that we have brought here for the first time. We had a few minor problems this morning with Fernando, which cost a bit of time, while in the afternoon it was Felipe who lost out on half an hour’s running time because of a spin. All the same, we were able to manage the situation and gathered all the data we wanted. We are reasonably pleased with what we have seen: at the moment there do not seem to be any reliability problems relating to the new configuration of the exhaust system and the F10 is pretty competitive. At this track, tyre behaviour seems more “normal” compared to Montreal: the hard ones are struggling to get up to temperature but improve lap after lap, while the softs are more consistent than they were in Canada.”

Red Bull Renault

Sebastian Vettel: “Overall a good day, we did a lot of laps, we didn’t have any problem with the car so we could follow our programme like it should be on a Friday. We need to see if we keep the F-duct in the car, we need to confirm that, but all in all I think the pace was promising today considering this shouldn’t be our strongest track. We did a step forward with the whole car - it was a good day for us.”

Mark Webber: “We had a good Friday programme with no interruptions and evaluated the tyres and the F-duct which we will look into tonight - as we all know it’s not without its challenges getting that thing working. The track changed a lot this afternoon, the conditions were moving around a bit. But a very productive day for us: the car ran faultlessly and was pretty comfortable so looking forward to tomorrow.”

Mercedes GP

The first of the practice sessions for the European Grand Prix got underway today at the Valencia Street Circuit in Spain.

Driving the track for the first time, Michael Schumacher and team-mate Nico Rosberg, who has taken part in the two races previously held at the Marina circuit, had their first opportunity to evaluate the latest developments on the MGP W01.

Nico topped the timesheets this morning and was fourth quickest in the afternoon with Michael ending the day in 11th place.

Nico Rosberg: “We’ve had a productive day and I am feeling comfortable in the car although the tyres were a challenge again with graining and various issues. The option didn’t seem to work well but it was the same for everyone and we made the most of it. The team has done a good job on our upgrades and I’m sure that they have improved our competitiveness. We have a few bits and pieces to resolve overnight but we are on the right track which is nice to see. We know that our race pace is better than our qualifying performance at the moment so if we can get our qualifying right, we should make good progress this weekend.“

Michael Schumacher: “It was exciting to drive the track for the first time today, probably even to a bigger extent than I had anticipated yesterday after checking it. So this morning for me was mostly about getting a feeling for the track. You need to get used to it but I found it quite comfortable to drive even if some of the corners are blind. However it’s demanding to get the real rhythm which I have not totally found over one lap yet. The long runs went okay and all in all it was not too bad today, depending on the fuel loads obviously which we need to look into more deeply now. Regarding Lewis, I must apologise as I did not see him and was not informed that he was there. As I was planning my lap at that moment and looking ahead, I was unfortunately in his way.”

Ross Brawn: “We had a great deal of work to achieve today with our new developments and it was essential that the cars ran reliably to give us as much track time as possible. Therefore I’m very pleased that this was the case and we have been able to carry out our planned programme. It’s a good start to the weekend but as always, there is a long way to go and we have a few issues to get to grips with overnight before qualifying. From our experiences in Canada, we know that we have to qualify well to avoid compromising our race performance so that will be the focus of our attention this evening and tomorrow morning.”

Norbert Haug: “Today was not a bad start to the weekend with our heavily upgraded car which the team has worked very hard on over the last couple of weeks. I would really like to thank them for their relentless efforts. With low fuel, our lap times could have been quicker today however Nico and Michael both had traffic on their fastest laps, as happened to other drivers. Our lap times in race trim with very heavy fuel loads have been quick and consistent today. If everything comes together as planned, Nico and Michael will be able to show in qualifying and on Sunday during the race that we have made a step forward.”

McLaren Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton: “The first session looked quite good for us. But it was always going to be interesting to see how quickly the blown-diffuser cars could get up to speed – and they looked very competitive this afternoon, particularly over a single lap. And the grip they appear to have through the high-speed stuff could make them difficult for us to touch.

“Nevertheless, I still think our race pace will be good, and we’ll keep pushing: this weekend is all about us taking as much as we can from the blown-diffuser cars while they have an advantage.

“As for the small misunderstanding with Michael [Schumacher], well, it’s always difficult to find a gap out there. I saw him ahead of me and I thought he was on a quick lap – then, all of a sudden, he slowed down to create a gap from the guy in front. Around here, it’s all about managing the gap between the guy in front and the guy behind. Fortunately, I missed him, so no hard feelings – and I hear he apologised anyway, so it’s all good. There’s no problem.

“Everyone’s always backing up here at the final corner, so it’s a bit like Monaco in that sense. And it shows just how tricky it will be to find a gap in qualifying.”

Jenson Button: “It’s hard to get a balance around this circuit, but we changed it throughout P2 and the car feels pretty good now. Our long run was quite promising, too – we were perhaps a little over-cautious at the beginning, so I was able to push at the end.

“I’m reasonably happy, but there are a lot of quick cars out there. The Ferraris look very fast; so do the Red Bulls, Renaults and Mercedes. But that’s because teams bring out upgrade packages at different points during the season, and we don’t have an upgrade for here, and many teams do. Anyway, it evens out over the season but we’ve just got to fight it out here and get the best out of what we’ve got.

“This is a car we know, so we’ll tweak it and try to make sure we don’t make any mistakes this weekend. It’s going to be a tough weekend for us, but an enjoyable one too, and we should still get some good points from it.”

Martin Whitmarsh, Team principal: “Today we saw just how relentless the development race has become in Formula 1, with several cars appearing to take a step forward in pace by adopting a blown diffuser and showing, particularly this afternoon, that it seemingly offers a useful performance advantage.

“As we’ve already said, we don’t have any significant upgrades for this race, so the weekend will be more about pushing to maximise the potential of the package we currently have, minimising our mistakes and pushing hard at every opportunity to score the most possible points on Sunday.”

Renault

Robert Kubica: It was a fairly normal Friday for us and we managed to do quite a lot of laps to understand the car and the new developments that we have for this race. It was quite easy to evaluate the new parts and I was able to feel the difference with the car. Track conditions were pretty good, overall: it was quite dusty to begin with, but things improved a lot during the day.

Vitaly Petrov: I had driven here before in GP2, but today was my first experience of Valencia in an F1 car. Obviously it feels very different and I had to adapt my driving style. We had a lot of new parts to try out so the car felt quite different and I spent the sessions getting used to that and understanding the car’s behaviour. Overall the car felt okay, but we’re still working on the set-up and will continue that tomorrow morning.

Technical Debrief with Alan Permane, Chief Race Engineer

Track conditions: For the first session the track was a little bit dirty and we saw the usual track evolution because nobody wanted to run early on. The track was a lot better in the afternoon: a bit warmer and much cleaner, so no real complaints about the conditions in the second session. We saw a lot of cars running off track today, but that’s probably because they were pushing to the limit and making the most of the generous run-off areas, rather than it being down to the track conditions.

Set-up approach: The cars started the day aerodynamically very similar and both cars ran with the new blown floor. By the end of the day they were both running with a reasonably similar set-up, although Robert tried a different downforce level towards the end of the day, which he preferred. We will look at the data tonight to decide whether we will try it with Vitaly tomorrow.

New updates: We had a good look at our new parts today, including our first iteration of the blown floor. The data was encouraging and it seems to be working as the wind tunnel and CFD predicted. We expect to continue running with our updates for the rest of the weekend.

Force India Mercedes

The Juan Carlos I marina in downtown Valencia provided a scenic backdrop for the opening day of practice for this weekend’s European Grand Prix. The Force India F1 Team put in two productive sessions, with Adrian Sutil and Tonio Liuzzi finishing the day inside the top 12.

Paul di Resta was back in action in FP1 for the first time since the Spanish Grand Prix. As both he and Tonio had not driven the circuit before they used the 90 minute opener to familiarise themselves with the demands of the 5.419km street track. The green, dusty surface did not make conditions ideal however the pair were able to complete 18 and 19 laps to establish a baseline set-up for the weekend.

Adrian Sutil took over his regular chassis for the afternoon and continued the programme of further data accumulation on the switchable rear wing, completing back to back tests between the SRW and the standard rear wing engine cover. Both Adrian and Tonio concluded the day in the top 12, with Adrian’s quickest lap the eighth fastest of the day.

Adrian Sutil: I was only out in FP2 but it went well today, according to plan. I was happy with the balance straight away and didn’t change so much over the session. The switchable rear wing is working very well now and it makes a real difference. The long run pace was also good so overall there were no real problems - quite a relaxing day! At this stage we can’t predict exactly what will happen tomorrow, but based on our pace today I think we are strong here and I hope we can have the same positions we did in Montreal, or around that area - Q3 is definitely possible from what we’ve seen in practice.

Tonio Liuzzi: Quite a good Friday for us. I used the opening session to learn the track: it’s quite a strange circuit as there aren’t too many corners, but it’s quite technical and the kerbs are a little strange as you have to find a very precise line. The car is responding well to changes and we seem to be pretty competitive on lower fuel. We’ve also got some good information on the SRW and it is working better than in Turkey. We just need to make a couple of small steps to adjust the balance but we are going in the right direction and I think we can improve a bit for tomorrow.

Paul di Resta: It felt good to be back in the car after a while watching from the garage. Valencia was again a completely new track for me but it was relatively easy to learn as there’s not so many corners - it’s straights, then turn in. The grip was very low at the start and the track was dusty so we found, as I think a lot of the other drivers did as well, that the tyres grained up very quickly. I could get up to speed quickly though, and completed the programme we wanted. I feel I know the car behaviour a lot more so I’m going forward with the schedule and coming back with results that can be fed back into the weekend, so I’m pretty happy with how it went.

Dominic Harlow, chief race engineer: We completed our normal programme on the basics during FP1 and 2 today, using Paul, Tonio and Adrian to cover the various items. There was quite a substantial improvement in the track condition during the sessions and all in all we’re satisfied with the way the car was performing by the end of the afternoon. It looks set to continue to be warm and we now need to follow the evolution of the conditions and tyres through the event to get the best result we can on Sunday.