Fahrerstimmen – Tag 1

"Das zweite Training war richtig gut. Das Auto vermittelte mir ein vertrauensvolles Gefühl und ich konnte es so fahren, wie ich es wollte. Das erste Training verlief hingegen weniger gut, aber ich glaube, dass das hier relativ normal ist." "Die Strecke ist bei der ersten Ausfahrt noch sehr grün und es ist tagsüber viel wärmer als im zweiten Training. Deshalb bin ich froh, dass wir das Auto am Abend gut hinbekommen haben, denn im dritten Training ist es aufgrund der höheren Temperaturen sehr schwierig, Setupveränderungen auszuprobieren." "Wir haben auf den heutigen Runs definitiv viel gelernt, besonders am Abend. Es gibt jedoch noch einige Punkte, die wir über Nacht anpassen können, um eine gute Abstimmung für das Qualifying und das Rennen zu finden. Es ist schön, die Zeitenliste anzuführen, aber darauf müssen wir jetzt aufbauen." "Wir müssen versuchen, die richtigen Setupänderungen vorzunehmen und ich muss auch noch etwas mehr Performance aus mir selbst herausholen. Mein Ziel ist es an diesem Wochenende, das Ergebnis aus dem Vorjahr zu wiederholen. Bis dahin gibt es aber noch viel zu tun."

“The car seems to be working really well again, better than expected just like we experienced in Brazil. I felt positive right from the start which usually results in a good Friday performance. It was mostly smooth apart from a little moment I had and bottomed out on the long kerb. Luckily there wasn’t too much damage so we carried on as usual. I don’t expect these kerbs to be an issue during the race as we should not be going that wide with our line. As we have seen already this season we are good at managing the tyres. I would expect this to be another circuit where tyre management is key to a good result, hopefully it plays into our hands again. Both long runs and short runs look good for the tyres so I’m pleased with how it has gone so far. A good final Friday of 2018, now time to focus on qualifying.”

“It was a pretty good Friday and it went well for both cars. Hopefully it will stay the same tomorrow as it’s all very close at the moment. The tyres are certainly degrading in the heat which I think will help us. The hypersoft shows a bit more wear on the fronts and the ultra and super has more on the rears. We’re normally in as good a shape as anyone, if not better, with the tyres so it will be important to stay on top of that and take advantage during the race. We looked strong on the long runs today and although there is still a bit to find on the short runs, the exciting thing is that there’s more to come from the car. Since Monaco I’ve been hoping for a strong weekend and now this is my last chance with the Team, I want it even more. It’s only Friday so I don’t know what’s possible in the race yet, but hopefully we can be somewhere on the podium if we perform well in qualifying.”

Alles in allem war es ein guter Tag, obwohl das erste Training nicht ganz perfekt verlaufen ist. Die Strecke war zu Beginn noch sehr grün, weshalb ich - genau wie alle anderen auch - viel herumgerutscht bin, da wir mit den Reifen zu kämpfen hatten. Zwischen den beiden Trainings gibt es einen großen Unterschied bei der Streckentemperatur. Die Bedingungen in der zweiten Session sind viel repräsentativer für das Qualifying und das Rennen. So gesehen sind das erste und das dritte Training nicht wirklich aussagekräftig. Wir haben in der Pause einige richtig gute Veränderungen vorgenommen und danach war ich im zweiten Training viel glücklicher mit dem Auto. Aber es liegt noch viel Arbeit vor uns. Red Bull hat heute schnell ausgesehen. Sie sind normalerweise im Training und Rennen schnell, deshalb bin ich mir sicher, dass es dieses Wochenende genauso sein wird.

“Today, the first session of free practice was a bit tricky in the hotter conditions. However, in the second session after sunset, we were able to improve our pace and the feeling with the car was pretty OK. Twilight conditions do not affect driving at all, only the tyres get a little bit cooler. If you look at the time sheet, you will see that everybody is pretty close, with six drivers within three tenths of a second, so we see where we can end up tomorrow”

“I think today has been ok; obviously we are not quick enough yet, but we did improve between the two sessions, track conditions came towards us and hopefully tomorrow we will be better placed and we’ll try to do our best. I think on Sunday a lot will depend on the tyres. We tried to work a bit on the car today and we still have some margin in terms of performance, but we need to find another extra bit of pace. However, I think we should be able to improve for the race. I was surprised by the fact that the tyres allow you a second attempt on a fast lap today. This is the last race of the season and I remain focused on this year. There’s still a few months to the beginning of a new Championship, so I think we can still learn something from the car we have now”.

“It was a pretty good Friday. I think it was a good improvement from the afternoon into the evening. I was pretty happy with the way the evening session went, which is most important for the weekend, so that was quite positive. FP1 and FP3 aren’t representative, whereas FP2 is, so I’m glad the car worked well there. We have a few things to look into to make sure we get the best of the car tomorrow and prepare for the race the best way we can. Generally, we’re happy with where we are.”

“It’s been a relatively good Friday as we were able to get our work completed. It is a little bit hard to judge where we stand as the track, and therefore the car, felt quite different between FP1 and FP2. It’s always the case in Abu Dhabi as the conditions change a lot between the afternoon and evening. There’s still some work to do on the speed, but overall I think we are in good shape for the rest of the weekend.”

“I guess it was a pretty good Friday. It’s always tricky here with FP1 in bright daylight and the track being so hot, then for FP2 it cools down a lot in the evening. It’s not that easy to learn too much between the two sessions because of the temperature difference. The car seemed to be OK in both sessions, so that’s good news. It’s more the long run on the hypersoft tire, which was the tricky one. It’s difficult to make those tires last more than five laps. The front tires take a big hit. Overall though, I’m happy about how today went.”

“It was a solid day and being fifth in the first session shows that we are in good shape. The car was strong this evening too. We know where we can improve and I think we can find some more performance tonight before qualifying. The midfield is really close, but I think we can target Q3. The race pace looks competitive as well and I think we can end the season on a high note.”

"It was a positive Friday for us as I finished P11 in both sessions. The first feeling with the car is pretty good, but we need to put everything together because we are still lacking some performance to make it inside the top 10. It makes it a great challenge ahead of tomorrow, so we need to work hard tonight to find the best compromise to get our best performance for Qualifying and have a good race on Sunday."

“The conditions between FP1 and FP2 were very different as always. The first session wasn’t very representative with poor car balance and grip, but when night fell we were able to pick up more grip and improve the balance. We have some work to do as it looks like it won’t be a straightforward race strategy, so preparing for good tyre management is very important. We are positive going into tomorrow.”

“In such hot conditions FP1 wasn’t very representative, so it gave us a little time to experiment with some stuff for next year’s concept in terms of car development. In FP2 we concentrated more on this weekend, testing two types of tyres and got some useful information. We’ll be more ready for tomorrow and we’ll see where we are. “If the track is going to be that hot again tomorrow for FP3, we’ll do some more tests for next year, and hopefully gather some good information for the team. “This weekend is going to be tough for us. We need to be realistic. Friday is normally a little bit better as people are hiding, and we expect qualifying to be difficult.”

“It wasn’t the easiest day for me. The car had some issues this morning and I couldn’t get comfortable with the balance. We think there could have been some damage. The afternoon was a bit better, but we had to work really hard to get on top of the balance issues I had with the car. I still think we can be in the top ten tomorrow because we normally pick up some speed between Friday and Saturday when we’ve gone through all the data. ”

“Ich freue mich sehr auf Abu Dhabi. Ich kenne die Rennstrecke bereits und fahre dort sehr gerne. Es ist das letzte Rennen der Saison und die Atmosphäre ist immer toll. Die Stadt mag ich auch sehr gerne – einer der besten Zielorte im Kalender. Die Strecke ist technisch recht anspruchsvoll. Hoffentlich können wir so konkurrenzfähig sein wie in den letzten paar Rennen.”

“I am pleased to have concluded my final free practice session for the team in a positive way. We completed the planned programme and I gave my feedback for the team to be able to make some good steps forward for the upcoming sessions this weekend. It has been a great opportunity to get to know the team better, and I look forward to continuing on this path.”

"Overall it was a positive start to the weekend, a pretty good day for us! We've put a lot of focus on the long run high fuel tyre-life, which is an area we struggled with at the last race. I didn't really have a clean low fuel run on the Hypersoft and I had a little issue with the car, but the real positive was the high fuel running. The race pace looked really strong for us and we'll keep working overnight."

“Wir machen uns auf den Weg zum letzten Grand Prix des Jahres – gleichzeitig wird es bisweilen mein letztes Formel-1-Rennen sein. Es wird ein besonderes Wochenende sein und mein Ziel ist, es positiv abzuschliessen. Wir hatten in letzter Zeit ein paar gute Resultate und sind in starker Form. Das Auto ist konkurrenzfähig und wir werden alles tun, um weitere Punkte zu holen. Ich freue mich sehr auf dieses Saison-Finale.”

“It wasn’t a great final Friday for me! We had quite a few problems to go through and lost a lot of time in FP2 in the garage, so I didn’t really get a feel for the high-fuel running. “It wasn’t the optimal day, but I hope tomorrow we can put all the bits together and have a clean day, which would be nice to finish off with. “I’ve had a pretty good run of races over the past few weeks, so hopefully if we manage to put everything together we can do that again. It looks like the tyres are a little bit tricky again, so there’s going to be a bit of a question mark for me going into the race, but I’m here to enjoy it, have fun and make the best of it. “There’s always a bit of pressure to maximise everything, and even though it’s my last race I still want to do the best I can.”

We have nothing too different this weekend and we are still more or less in the same positions. We will see what tomorrow brings and we will try and break it down tonight and look for some more lap time. I don't want to come to conclusions today, as tomorrow is a new day, anything is possible in qualifying and maybe there will be a surprise or two. It is great to be here in Abu Dhabi, I enjoy the track, which is unique, the infrastructure is great, it is a great destination to wrap up the season and it is certainly a party scene.

We completed a productive FP1. The programme was orientated at evaluating next year and we collected some valuable data during the session. It was not easy as I hadn’t driven the car for nearly four months but from a test point of view it was good. I am looking forward to Tuesday and Wednesday as it’ll be an important test for everybody. It will be nice to be back in the car and working towards the goal of Australia.

It was a tough session, probably the most difficult FP2 in the season. It is a demanding track for the tyre and it’s difficult to put the car balance all together throughout the lap. We must analyse the data tonight, so we have a lot of work to do. Tomorrow is a new day, it’s the last race and I am looking forward to it.