FP1 & FP2 - Russian GP 2020 - Team quotes

AlphaTauri

Pierre Gasly

“I think FP1 was a bit messy with a lot of things happening, such as a virtual safety car and a red flag, so we didn’t really have a clean session, but FP2 was good. It seems like we have a strong race pace and I’m quite happy with the car in the long run. As for Quali, I think we are still missing something to really fight for Q3 tomorrow, so we have a bit of work ahead of us tonight and hopefully we can make another step forward.”

Daniil Kvyat

“We’ve been working on a few things today and I was pretty happy with the number of laps we did. There’s still some work to do on the balance, but that’s what Friday’s are for, to try and correct all of the limitations you have for Saturday. It’s going to be quite hot for the rest of the weekend, so we’ll do our best to squeeze the maximum out of the car in any conditions. If we do our job well overnight and tomorrow morning, I don’t see why we can’t fight for Q3.”

Jonathan Eddolls (Chief Race Engineer)

“One of the big unknowns for this weekend was going to be tyre performance. We believe it was quite an aggressive choice to bring the C5 compound here, as we’d seen in previous years, two years ago in particular, the C4 struggled with graining. One of our main focusses of today was to understand what the best strategy for the race is. We made our tyre choice so that both drivers had two Prime tyres in FP1, that gave us consistent running through the session and allowed us to focus on good mechanical setup work to try and optimize the through-corner balance of the AT01 at this track. This circuit is quite specific: the first two sectors are medium-speed corners, the last sector has low-speed corners, and with the track temperatures, it’s quite hard on rear tyres so you end up with quite a different car balance. Our setup tests were aimed at optimizing the car balance over a single timed lap. It wasn’t the cleanest of sessions for Pierre in FP1, with the red flag coming out just as he was starting his timed lap on the second tyre, which meant when he went out later the tyres were cold and we couldn’t read too much into his running. Daniil was very competitive, and the changes made gave us a good direction and something to build on for FP2. Moving into the second session, we had our drivers on the Base and they both set very competitive lap times on that compound, they were also generally quite happy with the balance. Going onto the Option tyre, we improved but maybe not as much as we expected, so there’s plenty for us to look at tonight. On the long runs, the performance on the C5 didn’t look bad and it hung in quite well, so tonight it’s going to be a case of putting all the numbers together and coming up with the best strategy choice for the race.”

Renault F1

Renault DP World F1 Team completed a productive Friday practice programme for this weekend’s Russian Grand Prix with both Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon running inside the top ten throughout the day at a scorching Sochi Autodrom.

Daniel finished second in Free Practice 1 and third in Free Practice 2 with Esteban ending sixth in the first session and ninth in the second session.

Both drivers ran a series of aero evaluations to compare various parts across both sessions. In addition, Pirelli have brought a softer range of compounds for this year’s race at the Olympic Park based track, with the C5 (Soft) tyre in use for the first time this season. Learning about the C5 was also a key assessment area through both sessions and understanding its behaviour on both low and high fuel.

Conditions are hot in Sochi this weekend with today’s temperatures peaking at 27C and set to rise over the next two days.

Daniel Ricciardo

“We keep on setting the time sheets alight on Friday, so it’s nice to see us high up again today. It’s a circuit I’ve not had too much success or confidence on before, so it definitely gives me a boost. I learnt a lot and showed strong pace in every run. Looking ahead to tomorrow, I think it’ll be a lot closer especially between us and the teams that are about two to three tenths behind, so I think qualifying will be tightly contested. But I draw a lot of confidence from today and we’ll look to string it all together for the rest of the weekend.”

Esteban Ocon

“I think it was a pretty decent Friday. We tested a lot of things that now we have to put together tomorrow, so I think we’re in a good position. We didn’t quite find the sweet spot with the car so there’s more to come from us. We can see the performance is there. That’s positive and up to us now to do the magic tomorrow. There’s not one sector that stands out as all the corners here are quite similar and we’re looking consistent. We know what to do tomorrow.”

Ciaron Pilbeam, Chief Race Engineer

“It was a good day here in Sochi. The morning session was a bit disrupted with the red flag stoppage and a couple of yellow flags, but the afternoon session was clear, and we got through everything we had planned to do. Our pace looks okay on both short runs and long runs and we’ll remain realistic for tomorrow and Sunday. We’ll do our usual Friday evening homework and come back tomorrow looking to put both cars in a good position on the grid. We’ve tried a few things on set-up on both cars and we’ll aim to put together the best bits we’ve learnt today onto tomorrow’s set-up.”

Red Bull

MAX VERSTAPPEN

“In general we know that this track is not the best for us but we have been trying different downforce levels in both sessions to see what the best option is. I think we could have done a bit better in FP2 but we tested a lot of things on the car. Some things worked and some didn’t but now we have some good ideas for tomorrow. I think qualifying is going to be tough and I am not sure if we can be in the top three but in the race we look a bit more competitive which I am happy about. Renault also look competitive but we have to look at ourselves and make sure we make the right trade-off for downforce levels and have a stable car. I know qualifying will be tight and there is still a bit of work to do to make sure we can finish on the podium, but I think we will be in the fight.”

ALEX ALBON

“This hasn’t been one of our strongest tracks in the past and it’s hard to say if that’s changed or not after today’s practice sessions. There’s some data to look at now as we tried different things on mine and Max’s cars so hopefully we can find something good between the two that works. We knew it would be hard coming here, the midfield have made a big step compared with last year so it will be tight as the times show today. It didn’t feel bad out there but equally it didn’t feel fast either, so we need to do some homework and find what we can. A circuit like this is just about looking after your tyres as it’s such a thermal track. You need to have a really good balance in the car so if you’re good in short runs, you’re also good in the long runs but at the moment we’re missing a little bit in both.”

Haas F1

The 10th round of the 2020 FIA Formula One World Championship began with practice on Friday at the Sochi Autodrom as teams prepared for Sunday’s Russian Grand Prix.

Two 90-minute sessions – FP1 and FP2 – on the 5.848-kilometer (3.634-mile), 18-turn circuit were held under mostly sunny skies at the Sochi Olympic Park.

Grosjean and Magnussen both started FP1 on the Pirelli P Zero Red soft tire. Magnussen promptly set his fastest time of the session on the softs with a 1:37.430 lap – 16th fastest overall. They switched strategies after their opening runs with Grosjean on the Yellow medium rubber and Magnussen selecting the White hard compound. Their baseline stints were marred thanks to a brief red flag stop for the crashed Williams of Nicholas Latifi. Magnussen abandoned his planned run, opting to go straight into a high-fuel outing to finish his program. Grosjean returned on low-fuel and set his best lap of 1:37.649, on the mediums, to place 18th. He wrapped up FP1 with a short high-fuel stretch.

Grosjean kicked off FP2 with an eight-lap taste of the hard rubber with Magnussen running mediums for a seven-lap tour. They bolted on fresh sets of soft tires respectively for their qualifying simulations. A 1:35.729 proved to be Magnussen’s quickest time of the session placing the Dane 18th at the checkered. Grosjean clocked a 1:36.858 – the Frenchman 20th on the timesheet. The afternoon run plan concluded with high-fuel, long-distance runs.

Haas F1 Team ran a total of 110 laps on Friday across FP1 and FP2 – 56 by Grosjean and 54 by Magnussen.

Romain Grosjean

“We’ve been working as much as we could all day. The feeling hasn’t been there, we’re lacking pace – that was quite obvious on the qualifying run. Our race pace was a touch better but it’s still not exactly where we’d like it to be. We’ll keep working and hopefully come up with a solution for tomorrow. I’m surprised to be 1.1 seconds off the other car, that’s not really good. We’re looking at everything as obviously that’s too big of a gap to be true. Hopefully we can come up with something, and my feeling and confidence in the car gets better so I can push a bit more. I have to hope for opportunities and stay out of trouble. We always give our best – that’s for sure.”

Kevin Magnussen

“I think, overall, we’re better than we’re looking. We didn’t get our lap time done on the first lap running on the soft tires in either FP1 or FP2. So, I think there’s a little more left in it. Again, this time, it’s very close down our end of the timesheet. A couple of tenths can move you quite a bit forward. I do think we’re in slightly better shape compared to Mugello, but we’ll see where we are tomorrow when everyone’s going flat out. You don’t need to find a lot of time, but it’s not easy to find that time by any means. We have a few things to work on and we’ll see if we can get into Q2 tomorrow.”

Günther Steiner

“There’s a pattern there now, it’s just where we are at the moment. We are always trying to get the best out of our package but today I don’t think we got the best out of our cars, especially not for Romain (Grosjean) as he struggled heavily with the car. Kevin (Magnussen), his fast run in FP2 wasn’t a fantastic effort – but not from his side, we had some tire temperature issues. At the moment we just go from session to session trying to improve the car. It’s the same for tomorrow. We’ll work overnight to try to squeeze a little bit more out of the car and hopefully we can get it better. We need to attempt to get at least one car into Q2, that’s our aim for now – it’s the best we can do.”

Alfa Romeo

The temperatures keeping us warm here in Sochi – consistently north of 25 degrees and bordering on the 30 for most of today – wouldn’t really point to this place being a winter sports paradise: and yet, there are plenty of indications in the local toponyms to suggest this is indeed a venue where people’s attire of choice would include beanies and mitts.

The Sochi Autodrom circuit makes its way past arenas with names such as the Iceberg Skating Palace and the Ice Cube Curling Centre before sliding (see what we did there?) by the Bolshoy Ice Dome. The Shayba Arena, formerly known as the Maly Ice Palace, is just across the road.

Among all these frost-themed buildings, it was Kimi and Antonio who kept their cool during two sessions that caught out many of their rivals: despite the interruptions and the disruption to our programme, it was a productive Friday for the team, with the indications from the first day of on-track action pointing to a mildly optimistic outlook for tomorrow.

Qualifying, as always, will be a tight affair: despite the length of the lap, gaps remain small and a corner aced, or an apex slip-up, can make a big difference. Placing both cars in Q2 remains our target: among Sochi’s ice buildings, achieving this objective wouldn’t leave us cold…

Kimi Räikkönen

“Our programme was not very different from what we would do on any other Friday, although the interruptions in the sessions made everything a bit trickier. The car felt ok straight out of the box this morning, but of course there’s always a margin for improvement. It looks like it’s going to be very close once more in the midfield so even a small gain can bring a step forward. Of course, we want to be as high as we can be tomorrow, so let’s do our best and see where we end up on the grid.”

Antonio Giovinazzi

“It wasn’t the most straightforward of days for me, especially in FP1 where I didn’t get to make any actual flying laps between the red and yellow flags. I managed to recover a little in FP2 and in the end we managed to try quite a few things for tomorrow: my qualifying laps were not very representative and I feel there’s more we can get out of the car. In qualifying, as well as the race, the heat could play a big role but, in the end, it will be a similar situation for everyone: all we have to do is to give our best and put everything together when it matters.”

Racing Point

Sergio Perez

“It was a positive day and the car was feeling good. We’ll go away tonight and look over the data as usual, but I think the car is in a pretty good place already. It was a really hot day out there, so I’m a bit sweaty too! I was surprised at the temperature, and it’ll be interesting to see how that affects the weekend ahead. I think it was clear to see that there’s going to be a close battle for the top positions in qualifying tomorrow – Red Bull, McLaren and Renault are also looking strong. We were able to put in some good laps and improve throughout the day, so I’m confident going into tomorrow and I’m looking forward to qualifying!”

Lance Stroll

“It was a productive day of running and we were able to complete a lot of laps – which is a real positive as we continue to understand our upgraded package this weekend. It definitely feels promising and I was happy with how the car felt, so I think the ingredients are there for a strong weekend – we just need to make sure we put everything together and maximise it. Checo showed some good pace today as well, so I’m confident we can fight for a good position in qualifying tomorrow. It was hot out there, and it looks like it will be all weekend. That’s going to affect everyone, so it’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out. We’re in a good place and I’m happy with our work so far.”

McLaren

Carlos Sainz

“Despite losing much of FP1, I think it’s been a productive Friday with an intense programme in the afternoon. Thanks to the mechanics for fixing the car on time for FP2. We completed the tests we needed and the car balance looks closer to the rest of the season so far, which is a good sign after our struggles at Mugello. We seem to be back in the mix, but we’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see what we can do in quali.”

Lando Norris

“Tricky day. FP1 wasn’t ideal. Obviously, we have a couple of new parts on the car, so a lot of it was just aero running and trying to understand how it was performing on track. There was a lot of disruption, so FP1 was a bit messy and lacked laps altogether. We tried to make up for it in FP2 and I think we did. I got a bit more comfortable with the car, we made some progress with the set-up and I’m feeling a bit more confident going into tomorrow – but we’ve still got some work to do if we want to be as competitive as our rivals. On the whole, a tricky day but I’m reasonably happy.”

Andrea Stella - Racing Director

“It’s been a productive Friday despite losing some time this morning after Carlos had contact with the barriers. That required us to change the rear end of his car, which was a great effort from the team in such a short space of time. We were still able to get through our programme. Today was mainly focused on testing aerodynamic parts and understanding the tyres – in particular the C5 Soft compound, which was expected to be relatively soft for the Sochi Circuit.

“We’ve gathered good information on both fronts and found that, overall, the car is behaving better than it was at Mugello. For tomorrow, we have to continue fine-tuning the set-up, working on the details so that we can stay competitive and fight for Q3 and good points on Sunday.”

Williams

Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance

Grip level this morning was quite low, which caught Nicholas out on his second run. The car was quite badly damaged considering that the incident was fairly innocuous. Fortunately, we were able to repair or replace all the damaged components and although Nicholas lost the opening 20min of FP2, his car was back to full race specification. He was quickly back up to speed and was able to complete some good running at both low and high fuel during the afternoon. He was very happy with the car, which bodes well for the rest of the weekend.

Both drivers did a good job this afternoon allowing us to explore all three tyre compounds. There is a lot to go through overnight, but if we can get the set-up and tyre preparation correct then we are hopeful of challenging for a place in Q2. At a circuit at which we expected to find it a little tricky, this would be a good result and would set us up for another decent race. No matter where we qualify tomorrow, it is such a long way from the grid to Turn 2 that the order can change quite a lot anyway.

Nicholas Latifi

I overstepped the limit in FP1. The track was very green, very dusty, which is kind of a characteristic of this track for the first session. I was the one that went off the fastest and had the biggest shunt sadly. It is just unfortunate as it left my boys a lot of work to do to get the car back out there. They did a great job and we were still able to complete most of the FP2 programme, so a big thanks to them. FP2 felt much better and even with the missed track time I felt comfortable with the car. The qualifying simulations and the race runs looked promising which has given us some interesting data to look over going into tomorrow.

George Russell

Today we were trying out some different things on the car to see how the tyres would react, as that is something that we need to work on to get some more pace on race day. We were therefore looking at how much our qualifying performance would be compromised in order to help us more on Sunday. We don’t know the outcome yet but as it’s a very long run into turn two, it’s potentially less important where you qualify at this circuit as so much can happen going into that first corner and the tyre behaviour is often a bit unpredictable.

Mercedes

Valtteri quickest for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team in both practice sessions on Friday at the Sochi Autodrom

— Valtteri set the pace in FP1, while Lewis struggled to get a clean lap together and finished the session in P19
— Valtteri was quickest again in FP2, with Lewis ending the afternoon session in P2
— The team focused on understanding the tyres on both short and long runs, as well as temperature management on the Soft and Medium compounds

Valtteri Bottas

There’s definitely more to come but overall, it was a positive first day of running. Conditions were quite tricky out there and that’s why there were so many drivers making mistakes. There were a few interruptions and that meant we were a bit limited with running, and I also had a big lock-up, which destroyed a set of tyres. Second practice was better, and we managed a lot of laps, but I still didn’t quite get all the sectors right. The first two sectors felt really good, but the car was a bit too nervous in sector three. I was doing some rally-style drifting at times, which probably isn’t the fastest way around, so there’s still a lot of time to find. But we’re in good shape and I’m sure we can make improvements ahead of tomorrow.

Lewis Hamilton

The car has been performing really well here, but it wasn’t the smoothest day for me, so there’s work to do tonight both on the driving side and set-up wise. The day didn’t start very well, as first practice was pretty poor. I had a lock-up at Turn 2 on the Soft tyre and then when I went onto the Hard compound, I completely destroyed them, so FP1 was scrapped. The second session was a lot better, but I wasn’t able to put all the sectors together so it’s still a work in progress: I was a bit down in sectors one and two, but sector three was nice. The grip levels today were pretty low and that made things tricky out here, with a lot of sliding around. But I’m sure it will grip up and things will be closer tomorrow.

Andrew Shovlin

The first session was pretty messy; both drivers flat-spotted tyres and it impacted the running we could do later in the session. We managed to get some long run laps with Lewis, but there was still a vibration that was affecting pace and balance. The single lap was quite encouraging, we did the Soft tyre earlier than most and had expected our times to be eclipsed later in the session, so it was promising to see Valtteri finish the session quickest by a solid margin. The afternoon session was much better. Single lap pace was strong for both although as always, getting the tyres to last the whole lap is a bit of a challenge here. The long runs were also good, we look a bit better than we normally do on a Friday despite running a bit less wing here. There’s a bit of work to do on the balance for single lap and long run, but overall, it seems like we have got off to a decent start.

Ferrari

Scuderia Ferrari worked through its planned programme for the Friday of free practice for the Russian Grand Prix. Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel completed 68 laps each over the three hours of track time.

FP1. Sebastian and Charles both started on Soft tyres, a choice dictated by the fact the track was very dirty and track and air temperatures were not particularly high. Leclerc set his best time, good enough for 11th in 1’36”896 on this compound, before switching to the hard tyre for the second part of the 90 minute session. At this stage, he also did some long runs in race trim. Sebastian set his best time using the Medium tyres, stopping the clocks in 1’36”323, ninth fastest.

FP2. In the second session, Charles and Seb did 35 laps each. Once again, the team opted to send the drivers out on different tyre compounds: Charles ran the Medium tyres and Seb was on the Hards. The Monegasque’s first quick lap was a 1’36”338, while Sebastian stopped the clocks in 1’36”516. Halfway through the session, they both switched to Softs for a qualifying simulation and naturally, they set their best times on this compound: 1’35”052 for Charles and 1’35”183 for Seb. The final 35 minutes of track time were devoted to working in race configuration, running with different compounds and fuel levels to simulate different stages of the race.

Programme. The cars are back on track for the final hour of free practice at 12 tomorrow, prior to qualifying at 15 (14 CET.) The race gets underway at 14.10 (13.10 CET) on Sunday.

Charles Leclerc

“We struggled quite a bit today, but our lap times were better than we expected. The main thing we have to focus on is the balance, because I think there’s room to improve both in terms of performance and driveability.

At this track, it is a completely different situation from qualifying to the race and this makes it very difficult to find the right setup. We have plenty of work to do for tomorrow.”

Sebastian Vettel

“This was not such a bad Friday and our car seemed to perform a bit better than in recent races. There is still room to improve and find more lap time. However, leaving aside the top two in the standings, you can see this was a decent day for us.

Qualifying will be very tight tomorrow and it is not easy to put everything together on one lap. Therefore, it will be very important to put in clean laps without any mistakes and with everything running smoothly.”

Mattia Binotto Team Principal

This is an important day for our sport, with the announcement from Liberty Media that Stefano Domenicali will take on the role of President and CEO of Formula 1. On behalf of Ferrari, I would first like to thank Chase Carey. There have been many positive changes made to the sport under his leadership, in particular the promoter’s relationship with the teams. Very important decisions have been taken concerning the future of Formula 1, such as the new Concorde Agreement and the creation of an operational structure that will help the sport grow in terms of its audience and its appeal to the youngers generations. And let’s not forget that Formula 1 has managed to put on a World Championship this year under very difficult circumstances. We very much appreciate the fact that continuity is assured as Chase stays on as the non-executive Chairman of Formula 1.

We are very pleased that Chase’s role will be entrusted to Stefano as from 1st January. His talents as a manager and especially his knowledge of the sport, combined with his experience and personal qualities, make him the ideal choice to carry on Chase’s reforms. Personally, it will be a pleasure for me to work with a good friend, as we came through the ranks at Ferrari together. I look forward to working along with all the other stakeholders in this sport and with him to make Formula 1 even stronger and more spectacular.