Formula 1 News

2010 British GP, practice: Driver quotes 

Kamui Kobayashi: “After we lost some track time we tried to catch up with the programme, and I think we managed that quite well, especially with the short runs. We obviously have to improve our pace everywhere, but I found the balance of the car not too bad. I had only a little understeer and I think we can fix it with some set-up changes. The tyre situation with both compounds looks okay to me. The new track section is a bit bumpy and dusty, but it will get cleaner.”

Pedro de la Rosa: “I must admit it was not an easy day for me. The front end of the car doesn’t react the way I want it to. I really have a lot of understeer. It is worse in the very high and very low speed corners. I find it difficult to make the car turn. We have to look into the data now and find a solution.”

Sebastien Buemi: “I think today was quite good for us, at least better than it seems from looking at our times. In general I was happy with the car and we saw some useful improvements from the changes we made to the set-up and another positive factor is that we managed a good long stint on the Option tyre. I am pretty confident for the rest of the weekend, but we must continue to work hard. I enjoyed the new circuit layout, as the new section is attractive, although there is a big bump entering Turn 11. As usual, after FP2, we must now make a good job of drawing the right conclusions from the data we have gathered.”

Jaime Alguersuari: “Another new circuit in an F1 car for me, even if part of it is new to everyone. So, much of today consisted of learning the track and finding out how to set up the car. On the tyre front, we did a useful comparison between the two compounds, so it was an information gathering day and I expect a lot more from tomorrow. Before then, I need to look at the data to see where I am losing out to my team-mate. This year, every time we have been at a circuit that I had not driven before in an F1 car, I improved a lot from Friday to Saturday so I expect this will again be the case this weekend. In general, I enjoyed the circuit, apart from the big bump at Turn 11.”

Karun Chandhok: “It was a very productive day for me today. We did a lot of work with the suspension to improve the car over the bumps. This afternoon especially we made some good progress with the rear end and were able to do a good comparison between the two tyre compounds. Our gap to the other teams is about where we expected coming into the weekend so let’s see how tomorrow goes. I always enjoy driving around Silverstone and despite the bumps it was fun to drive here in a Formula 1 car for the first time.”

Sakon Yamamoto: “It was a brilliant day for me being back in Formula 1 since 2007, especially as it is my birthday today. It is the first time for me to run on a Friday afternoon after I was running for Hispania Racing, HRT F1 Team in Istanbul in practice session one. Today, we could follow our program and everything was going quite well. I tried to understand the differences between the prime and the option tyres because it is the first time for me to drive on the option tyre. But we are well prepared for tomorrow.”

Robert Kubica: “It has been a fairly normal Friday for us. Of course there is a new layout this year, so I had to get a feeling for the braking points and the lines, but to be honest it only took a couple of laps. We then evaluated a new front wing, but we will probably use the older spec for the rest of the weekend. In the afternoon we worked on the set-up just to get a feeling for the car, but I think we will stick with the settings we had this morning. The new part of the track was dirty and slippery because it was quite windy and there was a lot of dust. There is also a huge bump in turn 11 on the new tarmac, which is quite surprising for a new section of track.”

Vitaly Petrov: “One of the most important things today was to learn the new part of the track, which is quite interesting. However, there is a big bump at turn 11, which is a very quick part of the track and this was causing problems for a lot of cars. Once I had learned the new section, I started to work on the set-up and we changed quite a bit between FP1 and FP2 and found an improvement with the balance. We will continue working this evening and looking at the data to be ready for tomorrow.”

Fernando Alonso: “I think the only way to describe today is that it was a Friday like so many others. I expected to be competitive because our car is much better than it was at the Turkish Grand Prix, which was the last time we raced at a track with similar characteristics to this one. As expected, Red Bull is very strong and therefore the big favourite for tomorrow’s qualifying and behind them, we will fight it out with McLaren, Renault and maybe also Mercedes: nothing different there to Valencia. At this track, you need a car with a lot of aerodynamic downforce and slightly different suspension settings to usual. The new components introduced in Valencia and those brought here have improved the handling of the F10: we must continue to push on the car development front at each and every race. I like the new part of the track: it is fun and safe and I think it improves the show. Regrets over the outcome of the last two races? The final adding up comes in Abu Dhabi. We lost points that were within our grasp but, in Barcelona for example, we were lucky to pick up others. Now there are 75 points up for grabs in the space of four weeks: we must try and do better than our rivals, trying to always finish on the podium, starting from here.”

Felipe Massa: “I would say it’s been a good day for us. We tried out various new aerodynamic components and compared different configurations: by the end, the car was pretty good, with a variety of fuel loads and on both new and used tyres. We are doing so much work on the development of the car and one can see the benefits: the new elements we brought to the track for this Grand Prix did the job and can now be signed off after their track debut. After this good start, let’s hope the weekend continues down this route. The new part of the track? Honestly, I was expecting more in terms of overtaking opportunities: I do not think it will change the situation much compared to the past.”

Adrian Sutil: “This morning was quite OK – out on the partly new circuit, which I have to say was quite nice to drive. The new section was reasonably difficult to learn with quite low grip and hard to find a good line through the esses in particular. The car behaved well in the morning and it was easy to set a good time, but we had a couple of problems in the afternoon to find a decent set-up or balance. I had a bit too much oversteer and at one stage it was very hard to drive but it improved on the new tyres and the long run was good. I think we now need to do a little bit of work to perfect the set-up changes from last year but there’s still some time before qualifying to get all the little things sorted.”

Tonio Liuzzi: “I think we are quite competitive on this new track. We need to understand a few issues on top speed compared to the other car but through the high speed corners it seems pretty stable and we are in a good position balance and set-up wise. It was a little difficult sitting out the first session, particularly at a circuit like this when things are new and not particularly easy. There are a couple of corners we need to figure out in the new section but overall I think we can quite happy about the performance today but I really hope we can find a bit more top speed with my car.”

Paul di Resta: “This morning was quite productive, getting up to speed with another new track. There are a few bumps in there and the grip is quite low for now, but by the time we go racing it should have rubbered in and provide a new overtaking opportunity. I went through my usual programme, building up slowly through the session but unfortunately on my last run I had a problem with the radio not working and I got caught in some major traffic and could and should have improved the time. Overall I’m pleased with the session and it’s a great thrill to be out here in front of my home crowd at a circuit I’ve watched so many races at in the past.”

Nico Rosberg: “It’s been a decent start today and we have been able to get on top of many of our problems from Valencia. We achieved some good set-up work to optimise the aero package. It’s not easy to understand and find the optimum so it was good to make progress there and I think that we’ve found a good direction. Our pace this afternoon was reasonable and we seem to be getting the most out of the car. I like the changes that they have made to the circuit here and it’s a great track to drive.”

Michael Schumacher: “It was quite a reasonable Friday which went according to our expectations and it looks as if our updates have helped. Saying that, it looked similar in Valencia on Friday so I prefer to see what more we will find out tomorrow. The new part of the circuit is certainly interesting. It’s very fluid and fast but there is no overtaking possibility which is a bit of pity for me. The bump at Abbey is tricky, a lot of the drivers had to really work their steering wheel, so it is likely that this will be discussed more deeply in the drivers briefing today.”

Heikki Kovalainen: “It felt fine out there today. I had just one problem at the end with the power steering, but that was the only issue with my car. I’m not sure this circuit suits our car as well as it does with some of the top cars, but compared to the other new teams I think we’re in good shape. The new layout is nothing like the old circuit – now it feels like it’s pretty straightforward. It’s quite bumpy, and the corners are pretty simple, not like the old circuit where you got on the throttle and could find a really good line through the corners. I have no problem with the circuit, I just preferred the old one.”

Fairuz Fauzy: “First it was just great to be out on track at Silverstone – it was such an honour, and something that will stay with me for ever. We had a bit of a problem with the engine at the start of the session, which was a little unexpected, but the team did an amazing job to change the engine during the session in less than an hour. This meant I had a good 40 minutes with the car, and in that time I could see we’ve made some big steps forward.”

Jarno Trulli: “I can’t say much about today really – we had a problem with the gearbox that the guys spent most of the session trying to fix, but then it was clear it couldn’t be done in time for today so we’ll just focus on tomorrow, and hope the luck changes.”

Timo Glock: “A difficult day for me. We had a few problems in the first session with a fuel leak, which cost us pretty much the whole session – I only got two runs at the end. In the second session we had to change the set-up quite a lot, which took up nearly half of the practice. I completed two productive tests but unfortunately the front wing broke over the kerb, so I had to go back to the old one and run the soft tyre towards the end of the session which cost us a lot of performance compared to our new spec. It hasn’t been the smooth day we hoped for but I’m confident that tomorrow will bring better things.”

Lucas di Grassi: “We’ve had a very productive day today. We’ve done a lot of work with the new upgrades and the car was behaving as expected throughout the sessions. I’m very happy that we are getting closer to Lotus and we are ready to go for tomorrow. I am confident we can make another step forward for qualifying.”

Lewis Hamilton: “It’s a fantastic feeling to be racing at home again. You feel that the most when you launch from the pitlane exit and see so many fans on the banking – and they’re all waving at you! And when you’re driving, you really can pick out all those rocket-red caps all around the track, even on a Friday. And that support is definitely a bonus. The fans always make my weekend – the Silverstone fans are the best in the world. We spent both sessions running with the new components. I definitely feel we’ve made a step forward from the last race. This circuit is a bit like Barcelona, where we were one second behind Red Bull – I don’t think we’ll be seeing that sort of gap tomorrow though, hopefully. It was fun to try the new track configuration for the first time. The new section is very fast and flowing, and I don’t think it interrupts your rhythm too much. It still feels a little weird turning right at Abbey rather than left, and there’s a big bump there too, but that just makes it more exciting. We haven’t got the optimum out of the car yet, there’s still more to come.”

Jenson Button: “It’s great to be back at Silverstone. Hearing all the fans cheering you when you first walk into the garage makes it such a special atmosphere – it was a really great start to my day. And the number of rocket-red caps in the grandstands was unbelievable – when I first saw them, I thought it was for another team, then I realised they were for us, which was amazing. And I think the new layout works, too. I put this circuit up there with the best in the world, like Spa and Suzuka, and getting a good balance around here is such a good feeling. There are a couple of new grandstands down at Turn 13, where there’s a good opportunity for overtaking, particularly if somebody gets out of shape at Turn 11. If I was a spectator around here, I think I’d want to be at that corner, because there could be a lot of action there. Our day was a little trickier than we’d expected. I couldn’t get a set-up with the new package. We improved through the day, but there’s still a lot of work to do, and we’re not where we want to be with the balance yet. As always, the Red Bulls look very fast, and it’s going to be tough to challenge them. So we’ve just got to hope we make a good step forward tonight. But I’m still positive; I remember in Turkey last year, I really struggled on Friday, and yet I won the race. And I’d really love to win my home grand prix in front of all the fans here. This is a special weekend for everyone in our team – we want to get the best out of car, and put on a show for all the thousands of people who’ll be cheering us on.”

Rubens Barrichello: “I was very surprised by Silverstone today. I really love this circuit, it is one of my favourites, but it’s really, really bumpy. It’s quite odd and I’m sorry to say this because I’m usually such a fan. We weren’t anticipating such a bumpy track, so we had to make a lot of unexpected set-up changes in response. The team handled it well though and did a good job today.”

Nico Hulkenberg: “It went ok today. We worked through our run plan and covered everything we needed to, even though I was delayed starting the afternoon session. The car had a gearbox oil leak but the mechanics managed to fix it really quickly so I didn’t lose a great deal of time. I’m not quite happy with the car as it is at the moment, so we’ll be working hard tonight, analysing the data so we improve for tomorrow.”

Sebastian Vettel: “The sessions were okay today – in afternoon I had a bit of a spin and a set of hard tyres. We also had a with the brake pedal, but nothing big. pace of the car was good. The new the track is quite low speed, but it’s slow as we expected and doesn’t kill rhythm. It adds something new and more of a challenge. The track here magnificent; it’s good fun, so I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

Mark Webber: “A pretty good day apart from the electrical problem at the end, which was a shame – we lost a few laps. The car seems to be going pretty well here otherwise – I think a few of the other teams were sandbagging a bit, but we’re happy with our programme and looking forward to qualifying. The new section of the track is pretty difficult, but they got it right I think – it’s a good challenge for the drivers.”