Fahrerstimmen – Tag 2

I’m happy with my result today. This circuit is really tricky and I’ve always struggled here in the past. It may not have seemed like it this weekend because we’ve been quite fast, but I’ve done a lot of work to optimise my performance.
The team did a great job. We stayed calm at all times, despite red flags, yellow flags and traffic. The biggest limitation for me was the sun. It was low and at an inconvenient angle and it was almost impossible to see where I was in Q2 and most of Q3. I took a lot of risks and I’m glad that I managed to put together such a good lap in the end.
It doesn’t look too bad in terms of race pace. It’s very close with our competitors so it will be a difficult but exciting race tomorrow.

The weekend so far has been a bit of a struggle, there is a gap between Charles and I, but second of course is not bad and I think there is a lot more potential in the car than we are showing at the moment. I didn’t really feel 100% in the car today, so we tried to change a few things in the set up, but it didn’t quite make the improvements we hoped for and we’ll do the best we can tomorrow. I think we have a good race car and in race conditions everything stabilises a bit, so it is more consistent. Let’s hope we can have a good race tomorrow.

I think qualifying was going well, Q2 especially and then there were red flags on a couple of occasions which meant we didn’t get to experiment with the tyres, it is always hard with strategy when you get red flags. We went for three laps and carried that fuel just to find out at the end that the double push didn’t work any better than just setting one lap. It wasn’t the right thing to do and that costs us a couple of tenths, but Charles put in a tremendous lap, he put everything together and I didn’t. Hopefully tomorrow in the race we can be a lot closer, make it hard for them, have a strong race and enjoy it. I like this car, we are all learning every time we drive these new cars and tomorrow in the race I want to make a big step.

Very happy, it’s nice to be P4. It’s a good reward for the team and the best we could have done today by quite a long way. Big thanks to everyone here at track and back at the factory for their hard work, which made this possible. It’s good to be back in Q3 given where we’ve been over the last few weeks. Hopefully today sets us up for a good race tomorrow and some decent points.

Im Vergleich zu gestern und zum letzten Rennen war heute ein guter Tag für mich. Ich bin wirklich dankbar für die Arbeit, die das Team in der Fabrik geleistet hat, um das Auto im Vergleich zu gestern zu verbessern. Ich hätte fast P4 erreicht, was cool gewesen wäre, aber wir werden morgen um diese Position kämpfen. Ich würde sagen, dass diese Fahrzeug-Ära mit Blick auf das "Porpoising" die schlechteste ist, die ich je erlebt habe. Zur Erklärung für die Zuschauer zu Hause: Die Fahrhöhe verändert sich ständig, rauf und runter, rauf und runter. Dadurch weiß man beim Einlenken nie, in welcher Position sich das Auto gerade befindet und je nachdem, in welcher Position es sich befindet, über- oder untersteuert es. Das macht es zu einer echten Herausforderung, das Auto zu fahren - es ist wie eine Klapperschlange. Wir müssen die richtige Balance bei der Fahrhöhe finden, um die Performance herauszuholen und gleichzeitig das "Bouncing" morgen zu kontrollieren. George und ich haben heute ein paar leicht unterschiedliche Dinge an unseren Autos ausprobiert, und hoffentlich kann das Team daraus für das Rennen lernen. 

Wir lernen immer noch dazu und versuchen, das Auto zu verstehen. Es hüpfte heute viel herum, was mich in den schnellen Kurven stark einschränkte, wo ich die ganze Zeit verloren habe. Ich habe mich an diesem Wochenende noch nicht so richtig wohl im Auto gefühlt, deshalb war ich mit dem Qualifying zufrieden. Ich denke, wenn uns vor der Session jemand die Plätze fünf und sechs angeboten hätte, hätten wir sie angenommen. Es gibt keinen Grund, warum wir morgen nicht vor McLaren ins Ziel kommen können. Zudem müssen wir versuchen, auch Sainz und Alonso hinter uns zu halten, obwohl sie heute beide sehr schnell aussahen. Morgen wird es knifflig, aber ich denke, wir haben das beste Kompromissfenster für die uns zur Verfügung stehenden Möglichkeiten gefunden. Uns erwartet ein langes Rennen, warten wir ab, was wir daraus machen können. 

I think it’s been a positive weekend so far. I've been really happy with the progress and the car has felt good, which I think shows. We had a strong qualifying, so that’s been good, and overall, I’m very pleased. I think the only thing I’m a little bit sour about is the last run. I struggled on that last set of tyres but I’m not really sure why, so we’ll look into that. Other than that though, it was a really good session. So, we’re in a good spot for tomorrow.

It’s a bittersweet result for us today. Having both cars into Q3 is a decent result but it’s a shame that Fernando could not complete his lap as he was on for a mega one. I know the team is looking into exactly what happened but he has shown great pace all weekend. On my side it hasn’t been the smoothest of days, but I need to be happy in the end with eighth. We’re in the fight for tomorrow, and that’s what matters. There’s definitely plenty of work to do and I know there is pace to find so we’ll be leaving no stone unturned to try and put everything together to maximise our race tomorrow.

We had good pace today but my Q3 went completely wrong. We got the red flag right before the finish line of the first flying lap and on my second one, I was about to go out but there was a delay in firing up my car. We finally got going but I didn’t have time to do the preparation lap, which meant the tyres were far from ready for the push lap, sliding everywhere.
Tomorrow I’ll obviously try to recover as much as possible, but without the fourth DRS zone the circuit hasn’t changed that much from the old one and it will be tricky to overtake. Anyway, tomorrow is another day and we’ll try to come back.

It seems we are very unlucky in these three races so far and to have this issue today in qualifying is a real shame. We had the pace for the top three or maybe even the front row today and on my Q3 lap I felt very fast. I’m not surprised to be this close to the leaders because we’ve been working hard as a team. Each weekend we have got better and better, so that is a positive. It’s been the best weekend for years for me personally, and it’s frustrating we weren’t able to deliver it today. Let’s see how the car is overnight and do our investigations. Hopefully we can aim to score some points tomorrow.

It’s always disappointing to miss out on Q3, but I think this weekend has been tough for us. We saw that McLaren and Alpine have made a step forward, we just didn’t have the pace to do much better. We know what we need to work on and we’ve planned some upgrades in the coming races, but to miss Q3 by a tenth of a second is always painful. We’ve managed to improve on some areas, but some issues just remained throughout the weekend, so it’s a bigger picture we need to look at. I think we did what we could, I don’t think Q3 was on the cards today. It’s going to be a long race, there could be some mistakes made by others, so I need to keep focussed and make sure to see the chequered flag.

Our qualifying went pretty smoothly, and I feel we delivered some good laps: it felt I got everything out of the car and didn’t leave anything on the table, so it’s a disappointment not to be in Q3. We wanted to be in the top ten but we lacked a bit of one-lap pace: we took the decision to prioritise our setup for the race, with a smaller rear wing, so hopefully we can benefit from this decision tomorrow. The car felt good, we can see how fine the margins are in the midfield but I am confident we have a fast car, we have a car geared for overtaking and we have a good opportunity to score points. Of course, it’s sad to bring my streak of 103 consecutive Q3s to an end, but it’s good to know I had such a long run. It felt a bit weird watching the session on TV!

It was hard but there was potential to be in the top 10. Between Q1 and Q2 I lost performance from the car and it just felt different, the rear was gone and I struggled to adapt to it. I went off track in one of my runs and impeded Pierre, which I apologise for. We have to see what happened, hopefully we can put everything together and score points in the race.

I’m happy about my performance, all things considered. We struggled a bit with the balance in qualifying, but we cleared a very tight battle with our rivals in Q1 and we still got into a position that will allow us to fight for the points tomorrow. This track is not an easy one to learn so I am pleased my performance was good, now our focus has to be on making up ground and finishing in the top ten tomorrow. I think our setup will help us, and our car has been good in race trim this weekend. Turn one and the opening lap will be key to do a good job tomorrow, and I am looking forward to it.

Unfortunately, I ran into some traffic in the last sector with four or five cars in front of me which wasn’t too nice, but these things happen. We did the best we could and we had the right approach to this session. After a poor Friday we definitely managed to bring some pace back into the car. Hopefully we’ll be in a position to fight tomorrow as the car in the long run felt good and we were able to follow, so hopefully we can follow and pass.

It hasn’t really been our weekend so far – we haven’t found the sweet spot on this track. We’ve made some improvements but in qualifying it was a little bit messy with the red flag. I don’t think the result is representative of what the car can do in the race – there is more to come. We’re not starting in a great position so we’ll see what we can do but I’m optimistic that we’ve got a good car for the race.

Today is about the team: the boys and girls did an amazing job to get both cars out on track for qualifying. They did so well to get Lance’s car ready and it was great to see the team spirit when both sides of the garage came together to help finish getting my car ready. Just getting out to set a lap was a huge achievement. P18 may not look great on paper, but today it was the result of a little bit of magic. Things are not easy at the moment, but we know that the car has more potential and we are working very hard as a team to make progress. I have not had much running this weekend so hopefully we can have a clean race tomorrow and learn more about the car.

I’ve seen the video so it’s very clear from my side who is at fault,
I let Lance pass as I was told he was on a push lap, which he then must have aborted a corner or so before, which is why he was then going slow.
I needed to carry on with my cool-down lap and pick up the pace again and get my tyre preparation correct.
There was a very big gap to overtake him and, when I got alongside, he turned in for whatever reason.
The impact itself was very small, but because of the way of the impact it has big consequences.
There’s a lot of damage to the car so we’ll have to see what the guys can do and I know we have one of the best teams for that.
This is the last thing I would have wanted; the goal here was to have a clean weekend and so this is extremely frustrating.

It was a messy day, unfortunately. More than anything, I want to say thank you to the team for their incredible hard work today. It was not easy to get the car ready for qualifying, but they managed it. It was a shame to have such an awkward incident with Nicholas [Latifi] in Q1, though. It happened at a narrow point of the track and I was following the curve of it to the right. As I went to the inside, he accelerated at the last second and made contact. It has been a day to forget, so we will regroup and come back tomorrow and try to take any opportunities that come our way in the race.

It’s frustrating not to make it through to Q2 today,
The team have done an amazing job overnight to maximise the performance of the car, so we were in a position to fight for more.
We’re finding that we need to do a couple of push laps to get the tyres in the optimum window, and unfortunately, my second lap on the second set of tyres was interrupted by the red flag. I felt like we deserved a bit more today, but it’s all to play for tomorrow.