FP1 & FP2 - 2019 French GP team quotes

Red Bull

MAX VERSTAPPEN

“We still have some work to do but we looked reasonably competitive against Ferrari. Mercedes are still too quick but we will look at the data and see what we can improve for tomorrow. The tyres are not that easy to predict and it seems that the softest compound is not a lot faster than the medium, which will make things quite interesting in qualifying. All in all, it wasn’t a bad day and we were able to make lots of changes, especially this morning, to fine tune our set-up for the rest of the weekend.”

PIERRE GASLY

“Today was good. We tested a lot of new parts on the car and now I need to sit down and analyse with the guys what worked and what didn’t. Regarding the new Honda engine, it’s difficult to say much as I’ve just come out of the car but we will look at everything tonight and push it more tomorrow. The general feeling was good, the reliability was completely fine and in terms of performance, we need to see if it’s delivering what we expected. The conditions and also the tarmac made it difficult with the tyres and grip. In general it’s a bit different to what we expected coming into the weekend but it’s the same for everybody. In FP1, there was less grip initially but this afternoon it seemed a bit better so let’s see if it keeps increasing like this. The soft tyres seemed to fall away so we need to see what’s best in terms of strategy and what we can do for Sunday.”

Renault

Renault F1 Team’s home race weekend, the French Grand Prix, got underway on Friday, with Daniel Ricciardo ninth and twelfth quickest in FP1 and FP2 respectively. Nico Hülkenberg posted the twelfth and fourteenth best time round a scorching hot Circuit Paul Ricard.

Today’s practice focused on evaluating a number of upgrades to the Renault R.S.19 and Renault E-Tech 19 power unit.

Alan Permane Technical programme notes

• The team ran several aerodynamic upgrades today including tighter bodywork. On the power unit, Daniel used a new Spec B ICE.
• In Free Practice 1, both drivers used Pirelli’s Soft (Red, C4) tyres. Nico had a relatively smooth session, while Daniel missed a small part of his programme due to a precautionary check to the floor after running wide at T11.
• In Free Practice 2, Nico began with Medium (Yellow, C3) tyres and Daniel on Hards (White, C2). Both drivers then completed short and long runs on Softs and later Nico assessed long runs on Mediums and Daniel on Hards.
• Today was a clean start to the weekend with lots of data to assess overnight.

What we learned today:

Track temperatures peaked at 52°C, making grip around the 5.842km Le Castellet circuit a particular challenge. Allied to the very high air and track temperatures plus strong gusts of wind, this is a tricky track to get right.

Nico Hülkenberg

“It was a solid Friday in the car, we worked through what we needed to and tested out the new parts in the afternoon. It felt positive and encouraging. Conditions were very hot, which meant it was challenging at the wheel. All in all, it was a decent day where we collected a lot of data, especially on the long runs, which were good. We have more work to do on the low fuel pace. This circuit is quite demanding with different corner variations throughout. As ever for practice, we have some things to look at to find that sweet spot.”

Daniel Ricciardo

“Today was positive, although maybe the timesheets don’t reflect how the car actually felt. Across all our runs today, the car seemed good. Our Soft tyre run in qualifying trim was slightly tricky, especially with high track temperatures and maybe we missed out a little there. It didn’t feel that far off, and I’m certainly optimistic for tomorrow. The upgrades seemed positive and we have some data to go through to find further improvements.”

Nick Chester, Chassis Technical Director

“It’s been an interesting first day of running. This morning was productive, but we seemed to lose some pace in the afternoon. While we looked fairly competitive on the longer runs, we have some pace to find on the shorter ones. The deltas between the tyre compounds isn’t quite as expected here – there’s not much between them. We need to look through the data we gathered to evaluate the new upgrades to make sure we get everything to work together tomorrow.”

Toro Rosso

Alexander Albon

“Today wasn’t the easiest day for us. We made a very good step from FP1 to FP2, although it was hard to get a full understanding of where the tyres were because the track was so hot today. We’ll have a look into the data we gathered and see where we can improve for Qualifying. As always, it’s very close in the midfield, so we need work hard to find those extra tenths of a second to get us into Q3 tomorrow.”

Daniil Kvyat

“All in all, today wasn’t too bad as we had a productive day. Even though it wasn’t easy to understand everything about the tyres, we still managed to learn quite a lot. FP2 was pretty clean and we were able to get a few things done to see where the car is. For me, the focus was mainly race preparation, but we completed a few short runs as well to see how the car performs in those conditions. I think today we covered everything we needed to, now we need to understand what we can do to improve the car further.”

Jonathan Eddolls (Chief Race Engineer)

“It looks to be a very hot weekend in Paul Ricard and this is not giving the tyres an easy time, which were struggling in the heat and proved to be the main topic of the day. We expected a good chance of high track temperatures and difficulties in getting the C4 to work well here given that it’s a lower working range compound, even over a short run.

“We took the decision to fit the new Spec 3 PU from Honda this weekend on Daniil’s car, which is his fourth PU of the season, so the tyre choice was not ideal since he will be starting from the back of the grid. Both cars struggled for grip and balance at the start of FP1, particularly with the tyres overheating, but we made a number of changes during the session which helped improve the car for FP2. As it’s a less conventional weekend for Daniil, we were able to run two Option tyres at the start of the afternoon session to learn about the car rather than trying to set the ultimate lap time. For Alex, it was a more straight-forward session, and actually, the Prime tyre which has a higher working range, performed as well as the Option over the short run as it was more suited to the conditions in FP2.

“As we say most weekends, it’s looking extremely tight in the midfield again, and every fraction of a second we can find for Qualifying will make a difference. We are a little further back in the classification compared to where we expected to be, so the plan for tonight will be to review all of the data and fine-tune the car for tomorrow and the race.”

Toyoharu Tanabe (Honda F1 Technical Director)

“Today, we ran the Spec 3 PU on all of our cars with the exception of Albon’s. He continued with the Spec 2 as it was decided not to have both Toro Rosso cars penalised for use of a fourth PU. We experienced no major issues and the day went smoothly, as we worked on finding the best settings for this latest PU update. Now we must study the data in detail overnight, before continuing to fine tune the settings in the final free practice.”

Alfa Romeo

It was a positive day without issues or interruptions, allowing us to tick all boxes on our practice programme. The morning session was devoted to our updates, the afternoon saw a remarkable upswing in results, with our cars straddling the edge of the top ten and the drivers expressing cautious optimism about the rest of the weekend.

Kimi Räikkönen

“It’s easy to see what the lap times tell, but as usual you cannot read too much into Fridays. In general, I think it was a positive day. We have to keep working to get more out of the car and we’ll see where we end up in qualifying tomorrow.”

Antonio Giovinazzi

“We can be pleased with our first day on track and with finishing close to the top 10. The midfield is still really tight, so we will need to work a lot tonight and find the last bits of performance, but it was a positive start. Tomorrow is another day so we need to focus, work hard and try to have the best car possible for qualifying. Q3 remains our target.”

Racing Point

SERGIO PEREZ

“The new tarmac was very dirty this morning and there was big track evolution during the day. That’s why we saw so many cars struggling this morning and a few spins. We worked on understanding the current package because we don’t have big upgrades for this race. So we just tried to find a balance that I’m happy with and evaluated some of the things we’ve added to the car over the last few events. I can feel the potential in the car and we are making improvements, but we need to make a good step tonight.”

LANCE STROLL

“It was a challenging afternoon and we are further back than we want to be at the moment. Compared to where we were on Friday afternoon in Canada, it looks like we have a lot of work to do overnight to understand where we can make up some ground. This place is a demanding track for the car and the long corners are tough on the neck, but it is what we train for and I am feeling pretty good. We need to find some pace for the performance runs, but the car felt better during the long runs and I’m confident we will be able to push when it counts on Sunday.”

OTMAR SZAFNAUER, CEO & TEAM PRINCIPAL

“The programme today was focussed on improving the balance of the car and continued evaluation of the aero components we have brought to the car recently – including front wings and floors. That went to plan and we also collected important tyre information with hot track conditions similar to those anticipated for Sunday. There’s a lot of information to digest this evening to ensure we make the correct decisions for tomorrow.”

Williams

Dave Robson, Senior Race Engineer

There have been numerous changes to the circuit since last year. This has included further resurfacing, some of which has been done very recently. This, combined with the hot conditions in FP1, appeared to lead to quite low grip with most cars suffering with an oversteer balance. Both drivers did a good job of completing the programme despite the conditions and we were able to gain some useful data on the Pirelli Soft compound.

George was back in his race car for FP2 and was pleased with the set-up work that Nicholas had done during FP1. The wind and track temperature both picked-up during the afternoon making conditions more inconsistent. Both drivers enjoyed good long runs on the harder compounds. As always, we have a lot of data to look through to help us set the car up for tomorrow, but, overall, we have had a good, productive, and error-free day.

George Russell

Today was as expected and I enjoyed it. Missing FP1 wasn’t ideal but I know the track well, so I got into the rhythm pretty quickly. Circuit Paul Ricard has a nice flow to it and the car felt alright. Overall, I enjoyed the laps out there and the pace was what we expected. We must keep on improving the car balance to make the most out of the package this weekend.

Robert Kubica

It was a usual Friday, nothing stands out. There were no surprises, so it was okay. We did a lot of work and tested a few data gathering items for aerodynamic purposes. The track was not bad, FP2 it was rubbering in, so the grip increased, and it was quite good fun to drive.

Nicholas Latifi

It was good to have another FP1 session so close to my drive in Canada. I still had the rhythm of a Formula One car and I feel more comfortable. However, this morning the track conditions were tricky making it difficult to maintain consistent grip in the tyres from lap-to-lap. All in all, I was pleased with how today went, I kept it clean and got the car back to George in one piece.

Haas F1

The eighth round of the 2019 FIA Formula One World Championship began with practice Friday at Circuit Paul Ricard in Le Castellet, France, as teams prepared for Sunday’s French Grand Prix.

Two 90-minute sessions – FP1 and FP2 – were run in sunny conditions on the 5.842-kilometer (3.630-mile), 15-turn circuit located in the heart of the Bandol vineyards in the South of France.

Rich Energy Haas F1 Team drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen ran exclusively on the Pirelli P Zero Red soft tire during FP1, Grosjean’s session time significantly cut short as the team worked to remedy a water leak that developed during his first planned stint. Grosjean’s best lap of 1:37.620 came on his ninth and ultimately last lap of his session, leaving him 20th on the timesheet. Magnussen’s best lap of 1:35.410 came on his 14th of 19 laps, good for 15th overall.

Times improved in FP2 with Magnussen climbing into the top-10 with a lap of 1:32.789. It came on a set of softs, was 2.621 seconds better than his top FP1 lap, and put him 10th on the timesheet. Magnussen started and finished the session on Yellow mediums. Grosjean began the session on a new set of White hard tires but had to abort the run three laps into it after flat-spotting his tires on a brake lock-up. He resumed on a set of softs on which he set his best lap of 1:33.591.

Rich Energy Haas F1 Team ran a total of 85 laps – 49 by Magnussen and 36 by Grosjean – during the two sessions.

Romain Grosjean

“We didn’t start with the best baseline set-up, I could feel that in the first run. We then had a water leak and that was the end of FP1. When you’re not starting with a car that’s bang on target, it just puts you a little on the backfoot, it was not ideal. Then in FP2, we had that front lock-up on the first attempt, that’s not understandable at the moment. The tire was damaged, so we had to abort that run. I tried as hard as I could to carry on as I knew I only had one set left after that. We moved onto the soft, and by the end of the high-fuel run we were in a better place. It was a more positive end to the day.”

Kevin Magnussen

“I think it’s been a pretty good day. It was very hot on the track, so the tires were getting hot, but the car seemed to be working alright, on both low-fuel and high-fuel. So, that’s encouraging, and we’ll try to build on that, we’ll try to learn why that is today and try and make sure it also works on Sunday. We’re in the mix but it’s the race pace we’re really focusing on.”

Günther Steiner

“It’s been a very challenging Friday for us, specifically with Romain (Grosjean) not doing many laps and Kevin (Magnussen) struggling to find a balance in the car. The afternoon went a little bit better, at least for Kevin. Not so for Romain as he flat-spotted his first set of tires immediately, then he waited until the track got better to go out on his second set. On Kevin’s car, the guys worked on the set-up and balance – I think we’re getting there. We still need to make quite a step tomorrow to be competitive over the weekend.”

Mercedes

Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport tops the timesheets in the South of France

— Lewis finished the morning session in P1, with Valtteri close behind in P2
— Valtteri ended the afternoon session with the fastest time with Lewis in P2

Valtteri Bottas

It was not easy in the beginning; everyone struggled in the morning because the track was much more slippery than usual. But the track ramped up quickly, I could feel big gains on a lap-by-lap basis, especially in the corners. The more the track improved, the better the balance of the car felt. Despite the balance issues, the car was quick out of the box which is always a good start. We’ve made good changes between the sessions and I felt much more comfortable in FP2, which is why the lap time was better. It’s really warm out there, and it will only get warmer, so tyres are going to be on the limit, especially on Sunday. We still struggle with the balance over the course of the entire lap, so we’ll have a good look at the data tonight to see what we can improve for tomorrow.

Lewis Hamilton

It’s been very hot today, but we got through most of the programme. It’s been a bit difficult with the balance of the car; maybe that’s to do with the new tarmac they have here and the high temperatures, I think the track reached 55 to 60 degrees today. In general, the car pace is really good, we just have to fine-tune the balance. I didn’t do a very good FP2 lap, I had a big snap into Turn 3 which I thought was a good catch, but ultimately I had a small issue with the Power Unit afterwards and had to come to the garage. Otherwise it’s been a smooth day with no major problems.

Andrew Shovlin

It’s been an interesting day from the point of view of the tyres and the car performance. All the cornering regions of the circuit have been recently resurfaced and it was clear that the Soft tyre was suffering quite badly on the new tarmac. Our pace looked pretty good, but the balance was really messy due to poor grip from the rear tyres. We made some changes over the break to help calm the car down and both drivers felt it was better in the afternoon. Valtteri had a clean session, his pace on low fuel was good and the long run was consistent. Lewis was finding it a bit harder to get the balance of the car in the right place and he made a mistake on his Soft tyre run. We would have continued on that tyre, but we detected a misfire shortly after and brought the car in to investigate. We were able to get back out to do some long run work after fixing the issue and the car looked to be working well for Lewis on race fuel. We have a bit of work to do tonight to see if we can further improve the rear end, but we seem to have a decent car to work with. So, overall we are quite happy.

McLaren

Carlos Sainz

“An interesting day overall with a lot of testing. I think the first question mark was the tyre performance today, as it was quite different to other races and a very different feeling across all three compounds. I’ve been testing some experimental things today and they don’t always work to perfection. However, I was still P8, so it shows we have potential for tomorrow.

“Running very different set-ups compared to the other car means we have gathered a lot of valuable data for the future. Tomorrow we’ll go back to more normal settings, take things that we’ve learned today from Lando’s car, and hopefully have a strong quali for the team.”

Lando Norris

“It’s been a good day, and to be honest a much better start to the weekend than in Canada for me. It’s a cool track, Turn 11 is the best where I hardly touch the brakes. Position-wise it looks quite promising, although in Canada the car was very quick on Friday, but even though we were still quick, the rest of the weekend we dropped back slightly, so we’re cautious.

“We tried a lot of stuff today and hopefully we can put all of that together on the car tomorrow and we can have a positive day. As a team, we’ve done a good job, the pace looks promising and if we can improve the car a little we should have a good qualifying. There’s a lot of improvements to be made and we just need to keep pushing.”

Andrea Stella - Performance Director

“They were busy sessions today that included lots of testing of car parts and also set-up options. It was hot and windy so it was good to complete plenty of laps to adapt to these conditions, finalise car set-up and to understand tyre behaviour.

“Overall it was a decent Friday but we’ve already seen many times this season that on Saturday and Sunday, the competition gets tighter. So we keep working and preparing the best we possibly can for what we know will be a close qualifying and race.”

Ferrari

It was a very busy free practice Friday for Scuderia Ferrari in preparation for the French Grand Prix. Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel worked on evaluating various updates brought to the Le Castellet circuit, as well as getting on with the usual qualifying and race preparation.

FP1. In the first session, the two SF90s took to the track for a few laps before pitting to have fitted some new components introduced for the French race. Charles and Sebastian then returned on track running just the Soft tyres, doing 21 and 22 laps respectively. The man from Monaco had a best lap of 1.33.111, which put him third, while the German was fifth in 1’33”790.

FP2. At the start of the afternoon session, Sebastian went out first on Medium then on Soft tyres while Charles ran the Medium compound. Both men then did some low fuel runs during which they set their fastest lap times. The number 16 SF90 stopped the clocks in 1.31.586, while in car number 5, Sebastian did a 1.31.665. In the second half of the session they also did some high fuel load runs to simulate some sections of the race, while assessing the behaviour of the car and tyres when track temperatures were in excess of 50 degrees.

Charles Leclerc

“I am generally happy with how our sessions went today. The feeling in the car was good and we tested some new parts. We are confident but we still have a lot of work ahead of us to put the car in the best condition for a strong qualifying.

Our competitors are strong and we must focus on ourselves to really put everything together for tomorrow. It was fun to drive on this circuit again. It is a bit of a different track to the others because the walls are so far away that you can push and try more during practice. I look forward to being back in the car tomorrow morning.”

Sebastian Vettel

“I would say we have a lot of work ahead of us since not all the new parts we have here performed exactly as expected. I think we have a lot of data to analyze overnight, to possibly have a bit better performance tomorrow. On the Canada matter I would say we felt that we didn’t share the opinion of the stewards during the race in Canada and we thought that we could bring something new. It is disappointing that the matter is not going any further but that is what we have now and so we have to move on.”