Team reaction after day one in Yeongam (part 2)

Patrick Head, Director of Engineering: It was very interesting to see the track develop and the way both tyres are behaving. I think everyone is experiencing graining on the option tyre, so that may cause some different race strategies. For us, we had a normal Friday, although we’d be happier if our lap times were a bit quicker, but we think we know where that is going to come from.

Rubens Barrichello: We had a reasonable day. The track is getting better all the time. We started running on a high fuel load fairly early on, so I don’t think that where we ended today’s running is entirely reflective.

Nico Hulkenberg: The track is pretty nice, I like driving here. We had a good first session this morning but we made some changes to the set-up for the afternoon which didn’t take us forward. The car felt quite different and I struggled to get the lap time out of it. We were looking competitive all morning though so we’ll go back to what we had originally and improve tomorrow.

The Force India F1 Team broke new ground today as it completed its first-ever laps of the all new Yeongam circuit in South Korea as the first day of practice got underway. With this being a brand new circuit, the focus for the two 90 minute sessions was to learn the 5.621km track, monitor the evolving grip levels and assess set-up options.

Since this is the first time the track has been used by any cars since the final layer of tarmac went down, lap times tumbled as the day progressed. Adrian and Tonio bettered their times by around four seconds over the day and were able to conclude a solid programme to establish a baseline for the weekend.

Adrian Sutil: Learning the new track was a real pleasure today. It has a nice flow and some great corners, particularly in the last sector where it bends into the pit straight. For a modern track it has got a lot of character and once we got some grip down it was fun to put the laps in. It got much quicker over the day and we know there is still a lot more to come so part of the challenge today was trying to keep up with those changes. We had a good programme today to get up to speed with the track and everything worked to plan. I didn’t do so many laps on the long runs but we have a lot of good and useful information we can use over the weekend. A good day overall.

Tonio Liuzzi: The track was really interesting and fun to drive. The grip for the first 15mins of FP1 was so low it was hard to keep the car on track but after that it was OK and improved all the time. Offline though it is still very dirty and slippery and in the race overtaking will be hard as if you go off the rubber you’ll just slide. The programme went well today - we just had a very small problem in the final sector of the final lap of the day when the car started to pull to one side, but it was really nothing to worry about and we just stopped the session a few minutes before. It’s difficult to get a clear picture on the tyres at the moment as the graining is really high and I think everybody is struggling with consistency on the long runs, particularly on the soft tyres. In general I think we have a good idea on the balance and the direction to go on the set up with both tyre compounds so it’s been a positive start to the weekend.

Dominic Harlow, chief race engineer: A very good first day of practice at the Korea circuit. It is an impressive track, with an exciting layout that offers different challenges through the three sectors. It’s really proven to be as our simulations predicted and we’ve gathered plenty of data which we can now use to further validate and refine those initial results. There was some graining on the prime tyre and we found the option offered better grip. Tonio had a problem at the rear of the car during his final outing and stopped the car as a precaution, but otherwise it was a fairly normal and productive day. We tested some new parts that have behaved as we intended and, together with a few changes we plan to make overnight, we are looking forward to the rest of this first Korean Grand Prix weekend.

Jaime Alguersuari: “The simulator programme we had for this track has turned out to be one of the closest to the real thing that I have experienced, so our preparation work was useful. Even though I spent some time this morning testing some components, I was able to catch up quickly in the afternoon and that was partly down to the simulator. Car balance was good and our race pace on a long run was better than I had expected, so I feel we can produce a good performance on Sunday afternoon. As for qualifying, the run we did today was not bad even if I think we can find some speed from the set-up and from getting more knowledge of the new track. The times will come down tomorrow as the track continues to improve but that won’t affect our position. I like the final corner: very nice, because it is really a driver’s corner where you need to take a risk, which can be a bit dangerous as you have walls on both sides. Other parts are also interesting with a mix of different lines and changes of direction.”

Sebastien Buemi: “It’s always interesting to discover a new circuit. As expected it was really dirty this morning, improving through the day, which you could see in terms of lap times getting quicker all the time. There are still some corners that have remained dirty or where the asphalt is higher than the kerbs. We ran with no problems all day and now we have a lot of data to analyse, so we need to find the right direction for tomorrow. The simulator version of this track seems to have been quite close to the real thing and the lap times are what we had expected. Overall, it is a nice circuit: quick with a lot of walls, but interesting.”

Laurent Mekies (Chief Engineer): “A very nice track layout with an interesting mix of high speed corners and a straight long enough hopefully to have some overtaking on Sunday. Overall, it is quite challenging in terms of defining the best set-up. Other than that, it was business as usual for us today, trying to find the best set-up as well as comparing both tyre compounds. Obviously, the track changed massively from morning to afternoon; probably the biggest change we have seen this season, which is to be expected on a brand new surface. Towards the end of the three hours, things were pretty much back to where they normally are in terms of tyre behaviour.”

Lotus Racing’s Heikki Kovalainen officially christened the Yeongam Circuit in Korea when he was the first car on track in today’s FP1 at the inaugural Korean Grand Prix. A good day on track for the Anglo-Malaysian team saw Heikki and Jarno Trulli finish 19th and 20th respectively, top of the new team charts having completed a total of 81 laps between them.

Heikki Kovalainen: “Today was good for me. I want to say thanks to the race organisers first for having done such a good job to make sure everything was ready for us, particularly when you bear in mind some of the concerns people had about the event, and it was great to see so many fans in the stands on a Friday – I think this very looks good for this weekend and for future races here.

“On track we had a good day. We found a clear direction for the setup and our pace is strong compared to our direct competitors, so I think we’re in good shape. I enjoyed the day’s work – the high speed section at the beginning of the second sector is pretty cool, and there are some pretty challenging corners in the third sector. I think you’ll see some overtaking in sector one where you have the long straights and tight corners, so while it’s not too tough through there, I think it will provide some action. We’re all going to have to be careful around the pitlane entrance as it’s a bit tight around there, with cars on quick laps having to keep a close eye on the guys slowing down to go into the pitlane, but I’m sure we’ll handle it ok.”

Jarno Trulli: “That was a pretty hard day for me – it does feel like quite a few of the things that could have gone wrong did go wrong, but the mechanics did a great job to repair the gearbox twice and make sure I could get a relatively decent number of laps completed. I learnt the circuit pretty quickly, and on the options the car felt good as the track surface developed, which helped me to improve my times lap after lap.

“Overall I think this is a good circuit. I need to do some more running to really find where I can push, and we’ll do some more work tonight to look at the setup for tomorrow and Sunday, so I think we’ll be ok.”

Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer: “An interesting Friday and obviously it’s always a good challenge when you come to a new track. As expected it was very slippery early on, and the large track evolution has made evaluating the tyres and setup changes very difficult, but we’re pleased with where we have ended up. On Jarno’s side of the garage we had a couple of gearboxes issues which limited his running today, so he did very well to get as close to Heikki’s laptime as he did in the closing stages of FP2. Heikki had a trouble free day and it’s again pleasing to see that we finished ahead of our nearest rivals at the end of FP2. Overall today has been much as we had expected it would be, and I want to say well done to the circuit organisers for making sure that everything was ready in time for us to go to work today. I think we have a good weekend ahead of us.”

Riad Asmat, Chief Executive Officer: “I think we’re all pretty pleased with how today went. It’s obviously great to be in a new country, and the whole Lotus Racing team has been given a warm welcome here, so we will do our best to put on a good show for the fans on track, and make sure we leave Korea having shown what Lotus Racing is all about. One of the most important aspects of today was the fact that none of the problems people were worried about before the race came to light. The track itself was slippery, as we all knew it would be, but that will come good, and the facilities here are great. There were more fans at the track today than we see at quite a few other races around the world, so I think this was a very good first day for the Korean Grand Prix.”

The first two Free Practice sessions for Sunday’s inaugural Korean Grand Prix got underway today at the brand new Korean International Circuit in Yeongam. Following extensive preparation on the simulator and an on-foot reconnaissance lap on arrival at the track yesterday, today’s sessions provided the drivers with their first opportunity to properly gauge the circuit characteristics and conditions at the wheel of their VR-01 race cars.

Jerome D’Ambrosio was at the wheel of car 25 for the first session as part of his evaluation role. Running alongside Timo Glock, he conducted an aero evaluation programme and provided important feedback on how the track was bedding in. He completed a total of 17 laps. Timo’s first day of running got off to a good start and he quickly got up to speed, ending the morning session within half a second of the established teams and ahead of the Lotus cars. He posted 20 laps.

This afternoon, Lucas took to the new track for the first time and began his familiarisation and setup work, completing 29 laps. As usual both he and Timo tried both types of tyre and suffered some graining issues, especially on the Option tyre. Timo completed a further 26 laps.

Timo Glock: “I really like the new track. It is technically very interesting and it has a bit of everything you need as a racing driver - long straights, hairpins where you can overtake, a very narrow final sector all mixed up into one exciting lap. Once again we were unlucky on the Option tyre but the Prime tyre was not too bad. We lost some time due to traffic but overall not a bad first day.”

Lucas di Grassi: “My first session at the Korean International Circuit went well and I really like the track. I started my programme this afternoon and got up to speed quite quickly. We still have some upgrades to run on the car tomorrow, by which time I will be even more familiar with the track, so I think we can make good progress again tomorrow.”

Jerome D’Ambrosio, Reserve Driver: “It has been good for me to sample the new track here for the first time. It was really dirty at the beginning, but it cleaned up a lot during the course of the whole session and because of that each lap was getting better and better. I did a lot of laps but because the track was so dirty I got the opportunity to try some new things such as practice starts, which I didn’t do before. I am learning all the time and this is the main aim for me for these four days of running I am doing with Virgin Racing.”

John Booth, Team Principal: “A promising first day here at the new Korean International Circuit. All three drivers got up to speed quickly and both cars ran very reliably, enabling us to complete plenty of laps. The track grip improved dramatically through the day, which makes assessing setup changes more difficult, but it’s the same situation for everyone. The track is a challenging one which the drivers seem to enjoy driving, so we are very pleased to be racing here in Korea and we are looking forward to the weekend ahead.”

The first two practice sessions at the all-new Korean Grand Prix got underway today. In the morning session, both Hispania Racing, HRT F1 Team drivers, Sakon Yamamoto and Bruno Senna, familiarized themselves with the new layout and were soon able to improve their times. The Japanese driver clocked a best time of 1.50.347 and ended up 22nd after 29 laps, while the Brazilian ended up 23rd (1.50.821) and was only able to do 15 laps before his car ground to a halt because of a technical issue. But in the afternoon the problems were solved and both drivers were able to continue gaining experience and keep improving their times by more than 4 seconds each. Sakon Yamamoto finished 23rd (1.45.166) and Bruno Senna was 24th (1.46.649).

Dr. Colin Kolles, Team Principal: “The circuit was very green at the beginning but it improved during the day and the lap times continuously got quicker. Everyone had to get used to the circuit and learn about it. There are some nice parts and it’s a mix of fast and slow corners. In the morning session, Sakon completed many laps and it was very important to get track time. Unfortunately, we had a technical failure on Bruno Senna’s car and he had to stop before the end of the session. This is also the reason why he started late in the second practice. After this difficult day for us, we are focusing on qualifying and the race, where we hope to be a bit luckier and get more experience on this new circuit.”

Sakon Yamamoto: “This is the first Korean Grand Prix and therefore first time for everyone to race here at this circuit. As expected, the track was quite slippery in the morning but the grip level got better and better. We did many laps and got as much data as possible. We finally managed to use both tyre compounds in preparation for the race. Now we have to keep on working hard for tomorrow.”

Bruno Senna: “It was not an effective first day for us here in Korea. In the first practice, we had a technical failure and I had to stop the car prematurely. Some parts had to be changed on the car and that’s why we could only set one lap time in the afternoon. The mechanics did a great job and managed to fix the car before the end of the session. Now we have to focus on tomorrow, when we will hopefully be more successful.”