FP1 & FP2 - Spanish GP 2021 - Team quotes

Red Bull

MAX VERSTAPPEN

“Overall I think we actually had quite a good day and the car seems pretty competitive. I was a little bit wide at Turn 10 on my push lap in FP2 but there is nothing shocking to report from either session. The track changes to Turn 10 seem better over one lap when you are pushing. It is a bit faster and more enjoyable to drive, but for overtaking I think it could be worse. How competitive we are going to be tomorrow is always going to be a question mark on a Friday but from our side we are quite happy. Of course you always want to improve and do better so we just have to make sure tomorrow that we are up there but I’m looking forward to it.”

SERGIO PEREZ

“It was a tricky day today. We had a couple of delays in both sessions which meant we were rushing a little and running into some traffic, and with less practice time this year it’s important to get the laps in. Tonight we’ve got some understanding to do and pace to find, especially over one lap. I think our long run pace is stronger but there’s work to do. Let’s see what we can find because qualifying here is especially important. Hopefully we can recover the pace and be in the mix tomorrow.”

Alpine F1

Alpine F1 Team finished Friday practice for the Spanish Grand Prix with Esteban Ocon fourth and Fernando Alonso fifth on the timesheets at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Aiming to continue its improvements from last weekend’s Portuguese Grand Prix, the team assessed some further aero items on the A521 in Free Practice 1.

Fernando – driving in Formula 1 on home soil for the first time in three years – began his day on Softs (C3) and Esteban on Hards (C1) with both drivers on a slightly different run plan. Esteban finished the opening session in twelfth on Softs with Fernando in fifteenth, after he ended first practice on Hard tyres, out of sync with the majority of the field.

For Free Practice 2, both drivers were happy from the get-go with car balance, with their initial laps on Mediums (C2) good enough for the top five on the leaderboard. After switching to Softs, both drivers improved their lap times into the mid 1min 18secs with Esteban narrowly ahead of Fernando by 0.052secs.

To finish the day, Fernando ran high fuel on Softs with Esteban sampling the Mediums.

Esteban Ocon

“We can be happy with our day’s work. It’s always tricky in Barcelona with the grip and tyre usage so there’s lots for us to learn and understand. I think the new Turn 10 was interesting and, on our side, we have room for improvement there. As a team, we made a good step from FP1 to FP2 and I felt that in the car. The aim is to repeat that in FP3 and make another step in performance. It was a busy two sessions, lots of things tried on both cars and that gives us a lot to analyse to find more speed.”

Fernando Alonso

“It was a good Friday for us today. Over the two sessions we concentrated on some small upgrades that we brought to the car this weekend and then collected some good information about the tyres and our car set-up. Overall, I am pleased with our two sessions and I think the car balance feels good, so it gives me confidence for tomorrow. Let’s see where we are for qualifying.”

Davide Brivio, Racing Director

“It was a busy day for us, especially with our work in FP2 this afternoon on both low and high fuel. We tested a few different items on both cars, which gives us some good information to go through. We know this track is challenging, especially for our car in the past, so we can be pleased with this productive start to the race weekend. Of course, the work continues tonight and tomorrow morning in order to be ready for when it really counts.”

AlphaTauri

Pierre Gasly

“I think overall FP2 was a good session for us, to finish sixth shows the car is strong. The pace of the car is definitely there but the balance isn’t quite right yet, so we’ve got to make a few tweaks tonight to maximise our performance ahead of Qualifying tomorrow. Obviously, our main goal this weekend is to score points, as we’re fighting against tough opponents in the midfield pack, and I think if we can improve in the few areas that we’re struggling in we could be up for a good weekend.”

Yuki Tsunoda

“I’m happy with our performance and the pace of the car today. I’ve driven this track a lot, so I know it well, which meant I could be more confident driving from the offset, unlike in Portugal where I was having to use each session to learn the circuit. I’m very positive ahead of tomorrow. I just need to focus on my own driving and the set-up of the car before FP3 and Qualifying - this is what I will work on tonight with my engineers.”

Jonathan Eddolls (Chief Race Engineer)

“Barcelona is a track that we obviously know quite a lot better than the Portuguese track, having raced and tested here so many times in the past, so we came here more confident that we could extract a good performance from the car. In free practice one we focused on some aerodynamic testing, as we’ve got some new components here this weekend, and they all worked well which is positive. We also took the opportunity in the morning session to better understand the softer tyre performance over a short run, which helped us going into FP2 – where this analysis was our main priority for the afternoon. I think we managed to extract a reasonable performance from the Softs around a lap here, it’s always a compromise between having understeer at the start of the lap versus oversteer at the end, so I think there’s still some more work we can do ahead of tomorrow but overall the performance there is quite positive. We then completed a long run, which was all about tyre management and understanding what our strategy should be for the race on Sunday.”

Alfa Romeo

Few circuits hold as few secrets as Barcelona: the habitual venue of winter testing and a circuit that featured in the calendar, albeit with a few layout changes, since 1991, it is probably the most familiar venue for anyone who has ever driven a Formula One car in anger.

Still, practice is important to fine tune the cars’ set-up to respond to this year’s tyres, vehicles and the reprofiled turns 10 and 11, so today we set off to tick off all boxes in our to-do list. Robert Kubica took over Kimi Räikkönen’s car for the morning session, doing a fine job until a spin brought his day to a premature end, while the Finn returned to the cockpit alongside Antonio Giovinazzi for the afternoon. The day produced a good return of laps and the demonstration, as if any was needed after three rounds of racing, that the midfield fight will once again be tight.

In such a competitive scenario, extracting every ounce of performance from the car will be crucial and that’s exactly what we will set out to do tonight, when our engineers will crunch the data the drivers produced. More of the same – not an unusual thing to be confronted with when here in Barcelona…

Kimi Räikkönen

“I was able to do a good number of laps in the afternoon, which is always positive. I know the track really well and there is effectively only one new corner to learn. The car didn’t feel too bad so we can be optimistic ahead of the rest of the weekend. We have work to do tonight, but so does everyone and we will see tomorrow where we end up in qualifying.”

Antonio Giovinazzi

“All in all, it was a positive day in which we showed to be really close to the top ten. We need to find something more while looking at the data tonight, but we know qualifying will be decided by the smallest of margins. The track layout has improved, I like the new turn ten: I think it’s much better than the previous configuration. It remains a difficult corner and one that can make the difference on the single lap.”

Robert Kubica

“It was nice to be back in the car in an official session and I’m sorry about finishing the session like this. It was a very small mistake but we paid a high price: I misjudged the grip levels on my first run on soft tyres, spun mid-corner and got stuck in the gravel trap. It still was good to get back the feeling with this car, especially ahead of next week’s test: I am looking forward to trying the new 18-inch tyres and helping the team in making this important step. It will be an interesting session!”

Haas F1

The fourth round of the 2021 FIA Formula 1 World Championship began with practice on Friday at Circuit de Barcelona – Catalunya, Spain as teams prepared for Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix.

Friday’s running was held in sunny conditions with the opening day’s track activity consisting of two 60-minute sessions – FP1 and FP2 – on the 4.655-kilometer (2.892-mile), 16-turn circuit.

Both Mazepin and Schumacher began FP1 with a baseline outing on the Pirelli P Zero White hard tire before switching to the Red softs where they set their respective fastest times of the session. Schumacher logged a 1:20.766 to place 18th while Mazepin ran a best of 1:21.976 for 20th. Valuable time was then lost off the clock thanks to a red flag stop to recover the beached car of Alfa Romeo’s Robert Kubica. With just under 10 minutes remaining Mazepin and Schumacher returned for some high-fuel running on the soft and hard tires respectively.

FP2 started with a preliminary excursion for both drivers on the Yellow medium compound for the first time. Swapping onto the soft rubber for their qualifying simulations, Schumacher set a 1:20.326 lap for 19th with Mazepin recording a 1:20.753 for 20th on the timesheets. High-fuel stints with pit-stops concluded the afternoon’s track running for Mazepin and Schumacher.

Uralkali Haas F1 Team ran a total of 102 laps on Friday across FP1 and FP2 – 49 by Mazepin and 53 by Schumacher.

Nikita Mazepin

“I think the track was improving with the sessions, obviously turn 10 is a bit new, which means the tarmac is very black so there’s still some dust and oil in it – it’s getting more rubbered in with the more laps we do. Again, it’s a Friday, so there are three free practices and we have one more to go tomorrow. I always learn when I’m out but so far, my weekend starts where I’m three steps back from where I used to be driving different cars, and then slowly I make the steps forward. If I end up one step ahead from where I wanted to start, I think that’s a good day for me – it was no different today.”

Mick Schumacher

“It was alright, a bit tricky here and there, but lots learned today and definitely a lot to try and improve for tomorrow. It seemed like the hard tire was the most difficult tire to switch on, it looked the same for everybody else, so we quite quickly switched to the soft tire in FP1. I would say the progress through the day was quite positive, there are little things we have to improve, and can improve. Looking at it, we were quite quick on the straights, but we’re struggling a bit to find the downforce we want – but that’s what we have and we’ll have to work with it.”

Günther Steiner

“It was a pretty difficult FP1 starting on the C1 hard tire for both drivers. Obviously, Nikita (Mazepin) was hurt more as he spun – there was very little grip out there on the C1 which didn’t give him a lot of confidence going forward. They had to readjust everything when they put on the softer C3 tires. I would say we made some progress in FP2, for ourselves, not necessarily on the timesheet – we can read that one ourselves. We made progress, I think we’re slowly getting there, and this was only really possible because we had more than 100 laps today without any real issues. We have to keep on working and hopefully in FP3 we’ll find a little bit more and be ready for qualifying. At the moment I wouldn’t say we’re ready for qualifying, but everybody will be working hard to get there.”

Aston Martin F1

Sebastian Vettel

“I think it was our best Friday of the year so far: plenty of laps for Lance and me, and we have done some important homework ahead of the race. I felt happy today and it was my opportunity to try the new parts, which are a step forward. It is hard to say exactly where we will be tomorrow in a very close midfield competition, but we will try to find a bit more tonight to squeeze a few more tenths of performance.”

Lance Stroll

“That was a really busy Friday covering lots of laps and learning about the car. Even though it was windy and hot out there, I felt comfortable, and we did some useful work today. It is a case of continuing to understand the car and the new parts we have introduced, which seem to have taken us in a good direction. Today’s times showed just how close the grid will be here, and it is never easy to overtake on this track, so we have got to make sure we have a strong Saturday and hook up the laps when it matters.”

McLaren

Lando Norris

"Tricky day. We felt good in FP1 but, as the temperatures came up a bit in FP2, we struggled a little bit more. We need to understand that a bit better if we can and make some improvements for tomorrow. It didn’t feel bad, but we were just a bit off the pace. As usual, we’ll work hard tonight and see if we can turn it around for tomorrow."

Daniel Ricciardo

“So, Barcelona. I was going to say not much has changed – but it has with Turn 10. I don’t think it’s going to change the racing, but it makes it a little more interesting to have a new corner.

“Today, it’s close. Our positions don’t look great on paper, and we do have work to do but I’m only a second off in fifteenth, so it’s really close. Every tenth counts at this point so we certainly have to find a few for tomorrow and put ourselves in a fighting position. We’ve changed a few things on the car and it’s still too early to know what’s good and what needs work, but we’ll spend some time tonight looking at it. The important thing was that we got the laps in. I think FP2 was definitely better than FP1, even if the position doesn’t reflect that, so we’ll hopefully make another step in the morning.”

Andrea Stella - Executive Director, Racing

“A busy day in Barcelona. We had an intense programme today in terms of both aerodynamic tests and work on tyres in preparation for the race, which are always a fundamental factor here, given the high wear on the left-hand side of the car. Overall, we worked through our programme well, and we’re happy with the data we’ve gained. Overnight, we’ll review everything we’ve learned and come back tomorrow ready for what should be a very close qualifying session.”

Williams

George Russell

It’s always tricky missing FP1 and having half the running, but it was great to get back out in the car after a difficult weekend in Portugal. In terms of the circuit, the new corner at Turn 10 is a nicer corner than the previous one and is fun to drive. We look a little further away on the low fuel pace compared to where we usually are, but our high fuel pace seems relatively decent. Barcelona can be difficult with high tyre degradation and history has shown that we tend to struggle here, so Sunday will be interesting.

Nicholas Latifi

It was a tricky Friday. Straight away in FP1 the track conditions were not very good with low grip out there. We made some improvements from one session to the next, but I still feel there is scope to improve the basic set-up of the car. We have still got some work to do and were more focused on the high fuel race pace, as that was not particularly competitive in Portugal. We are not where we want to be, but we will do some work tonight and see where we can improve.

Roy Nissany

Today was beautiful, the sun was shining and I was back on the track. It felt great to jump in the car having spent a lot of time, and driven many kilometres, in the simulator. I enjoyed every second and every metre of it and I think the result reflects that. It was a productive day, good to be back and I am looking forward to the next outing.

Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance

The track grip was quite low in FP1 and it was difficult to learn very much about the car. Roy did a good job once again and collected some useful data for us on one of our test parts. He also gave us a clear indication of the early balance weaknesses of the FW43B at this circuit. Nicholas had a steady FP1 session and although he struggled with rear grip in the high-speed corners, he still had a productive morning.

George took a little time to get up to speed in FP2, and there is still more to come from him tomorrow. Nicholas made good progress this afternoon but as a team we are struggling at this circuit and we have a lot to look through tonight.

Mercedes F1

Consistent day for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team on day one in Barcelona

— Valtteri set the fastest time of the first practice session with Lewis in P3.
— Lewis led the way in the second session with Valtteri just behind in P2.
— The team’s programme today focused on improving tyre and balance understanding on a range of short and long runs.

Lewis Hamilton

It’s been a good start to the weekend, the track is awesome and our balance is similar to what we had in the last race. It looks close but I think we’ve got good pace - we understand the car and know which direction we need to go balance-wise. We made some tweaks along the way, I don’t know if the car got better through the session but there were definitely findings there and we’ll analyse the two sessions to hopefully have a better set-up for tomorrow. It’s amazing to see the progress that McLaren, Ferrari and Alpine are making, not just Red Bull, and that puts pressure on us.

Valtteri Bottas

It was a solid day, the feeling in the car was not too bad and no massive balance issues so I’m fairly happy. On the soft tyre, getting both axles working straightaway for lap one is going to be key because the gaps will be so small. Tonight will be our usual process – fine tune the set-up as best as we can because we know every millisecond is going to be crucial in qualifying. The whole field seems to be close and Ferrari looked strong today but we just need to focus on our performance and extract the maximum from this package.

Andrew Shovlin

We’ve managed to do some good work today, both drivers have a decent balance and we look to be in a reasonable place on all compounds. Ahead of the weekend we were concerned that rear overheating would cause us more issues but things seem to be under control, even in the hotter conditions of the afternoon session. We still have work to do getting the best out of the tyre on low fuel as we didn’t find as much time as some but we have a good baseline to work from. Traffic was difficult today, it’s a short lap and it looked like Red Bull may have been affected by that more than ourselves so we’ll work on the assumption that they are very close on pace and we need to find everything we can overnight.

Ferrari

The day of free practice for the Spanish Grand Prix went according to plan for Scuderia Ferrari. In the second session, which saw the fastest times being set, Charles Leclerc was third and Carlos Sainz eighth.

FP1. In the morning, work began running the Hard compound tyres, while in the second part of the session, when the work also involved a comparison of various aerodynamic configurations, Charles and Carlos were the only drivers to run the Mediums, setting best times of 1’18”996 for the Monegasque (5th) and 1’19”020 for the Spaniard (6th). Leclerc did 25 laps, Sainz 22.

FP2. In the afternoon, the team continued working on fine-tuning the balance of the car, before tackling the usual qualifying simulation on Soft tyres. It was naturally in this configuration that both drivers set their best times, 1’18”335 for Charles and 1’18”674 for Carlos, ending the day in third and eighth places on the time sheet. During the final 20 minutes, the work switched to race configuration, doing long runs while looking at management of the Pirelli tyres. The single timed lap and the long runs all confirmed that, here too at the Barcelona-Catalunya Circuit, the gaps separating the teams just behind the top two are very small. Once again, every hundredth could make the difference in deciding the grid positions.

Programme. Qualifying starts at 15 CET tomorrow, but first there’s the final free practice session at 12. The Spanish Grand Prix gets underway at 15 on Sunday.

Charles Leclerc

We had a good, clean day. I’ve changed my approach a little bit since Portimão. After every weekend, I try to analyse where I need to improve. So far, I’m driving a lot better and feel I am in a good place with the car, so I’m quite happy. Last year we struggled quite a lot here, and this year the car feels much better. It’s great for the whole team, especially those back at the factory who work so hard and can see it pay off looking at the numbers. It motivates us all. Tomorrow will be important with qualifying on this track. If there is a nice surprise then that will be welcome, but I think that the objective is to be just behind the front runners.

Carlos Sainz

It’s been an encouraging day for us. Right from FP1 we saw the track had quite a lot of grip, which helped with the overall balance of the car. However, in FP2, the balance went away a bit from what I was looking for, particularly for the last sector. Hopefully we can keep working and digging and put it all together for qualifying tomorrow. Reaching Q3 won’t be easy, as we expect three or four cars to be in the same tenth, so we need to make sure we are as prepared as possible.