Formula 1 News

2010 Spanish GP, practice: Team quotes 

Mike Gascoyne: “Basically it was a good day’s work. The drivers have been very happy with the updates and we’ve been making adjustment to the improvements on the cars throughout the day to help us fine tune the updates. There’s a fair bit more time to come from the new package, and everyone in the team has worked very hard to get us to this point, so it’s great to hear such positive feedback from the drivers. Now we’re looking forward to building on this performance tomorrow and seeing where we are in qualifying.”

James Key: “We came here with several additions to the car which we were going to test today. Therefore we went out early in the session. Unfortunately Pedro suffered a problem with the gearbox, which is under investigation. It’s not clear whether it’s a hardware problem or one of the control systems. It meant he spun and had to stop his session after just a few laps. Kamui carried on and went through the programme very well. We had several new parts on the car which we wanted to test. The F-Duct system has taken a very good step forward, so we are pleased with the work we have done there. The aero components, which were new on the car, didn’t give us any surprises so we are happy with the work there as well. We found some useful directions for the set-up which added a lot to our database for understanding the car and the tyres. In the afternoon both drivers carried out similar programmes. Pedro obviously needed to get the laps in, so getting a feel for the car. I think the comments from both drivers are positive concerning the changes we made to the car, which are both set-up and aerodynamic updates. So we can be happy we made the step which we expected. It looks like the pace is reasonable, certainly on the long runs.”

Ross Brawn: “We had a reasonable day and covered a great deal of work to gather all of the set-up information that we needed with our upgrade package. Michael and Nico followed different programmes and therefore this evening we need to bring all of the data together and decide how we run the cars tomorrow. The new developments performed pretty much as we expected however all of the teams have moved forward here and the target is constantly moving. It looks like we have kept up but we still have to find more pace to compete right at the front.”

Norbert Haug: “Our upgrade package for the start of the European season seems to work as anticipated and it was visible on track and on the timing sheets that Michael was quicker and felt more comfortable today than at the last race in China three weeks ago. Nico was less happy with his car today but the data after the session shows where we went in the wrong direction with the set-up so Nico should be back tomorrow to the strength that he showed in the previous four races. Our pace during the race simulations didn’t look too bad but there is definitely still quite a gap to the quickest cars. We will work hard to make another step tomorrow. Today it is not possible to judge whether the competitive order has changed compared to the last races but everybody will find out tomorrow.”

Martin Whitmarsh: “We certainly come away from today’s two sessions armed with a considerable amount of data to sift through ahead of third practice and qualifying tomorrow. Today’s uncharacteristically chilly weather, and the resultant difficulties we encountered in adapting the set-up to best suit the conditions, meant that neither Jenson nor Lewis felt entirely happy with their cars by the end of second practice. As a result, we’ll place even greater emphasis on an examination of the data before tomorrow. We’re confident that our car has the potential to be well suited to this circuit, and that this afternoon’s pace was not fully representative of our expected race performance. Finally, it was a very proud moment to see the Circuit de Catalunya and the people of Spain commemorating Jenson’s world title by inducting him into their Champions’ Avenue parade this afternoon. We’ve got some extremely happy memories of racing here, and we think both Jenson and Lewis are doing the very best possible job to ensure that we’re in the hunt for both 2010 world championships.”

Chris Dyer: “We are very happy with the work we did today. We had a very complicated programme to run, with many new technical elements to test, both for this race and for the more long-term future. We managed it, which means we now have a lot of data to analyse. On top of that, we also worked through the usual preparation of the cars for qualifying and the race, including the comparison between the two types of tyre available. From what we have seen, we can expect the usual very close battle, both in qualifying and the race.”

Alan Permane: “The track is used quite regularly so it was in a reasonable condition for the start of the session, although, like any track, it evolved during the day and picked up grip. In the afternoon, the wind picked up and there was a strong headwind on the main straight, which made it more difficult to assess things. It’s difficult to make a judgement until we’ve been over all the data, and, of course, we don’t know the fuel loads the other teams are running. My feeling is that we should be in our normal position so I don’t think the order of the teams has changed significantly. We’ve done short and long runs on both the prime (hard) and option (soft) tyres, and these are two tyres we are starting to know quite well because we have used them at the previous three races. The track is tough on tyres, especially the front left, but we still need to look over the wear figures to see how we’re doing. Robert complained of a bit of oversteer in the afternoon, which is unusual for the R30 because the car balance generally tends more towards understeer. A few changes have helped that, but we still have some more work to do tomorrow. For Vitaly, he struggled for grip today, especially on the option tyre, so there will be more work to do overnight to try and get him back to his normal position.”

Nick Wirth: “I was very encouraged by the reliability today, particularly the work done with the fuel systems, which seems to have been very productive. On the performance side there is still some work to do although the signs are good. This was the first time out with the longer car and perhaps it does react slightly differently; it may take a few more sessions to get to grips with it. We also had a couple of issues, for example where we lost a piece of bodywork which affected downforce levels. It will just take a bit of time before we find the sweet-spot of the new chassis.”

Sam Michael: “Today we evaluated some new aero parts on Rubens’ car and some mechanical parts on both cars. All ran without issue and we will have some more new parts arriving tonight to test tomorrow morning. Unfortunately, Nico went off at Turn 9 this afternoon and we were unable to run his car for the remainder of the session. He’s ok and the car suffered minimal damage.”

Dominic Harlow: “This weekend will be about qualifying position and the way the weather turns out to be on Sunday. Today’s programmes with Paul, Tonio and Adrian were trouble-free, and apart from relatively low grip levels we have had no significant problems. We tested some developments for future events together with the updates we have brought here, and once we’ve completed our usual analysis will carry this forward to tomorrow. ”

Colin Kolles: “First of all, we want to thank FIA and Mr. Ecclestone for their support to make it possible in that short period of time Christian Klien got his super license and consequently was allowed to drive this morning. We used the time off since China and despite delay getting our cars back we conducted some dyno-tests to increase the performance. We need to continue to improve reliability with the car and take advantage of the upgrades. Today, the HRT F1 Team continued its development program. None of our drivers needed to learn about the circuit, so they were able to start the work right away and made a further improvement barely six seconds off the leading pace. I am pleased to see the team push hard.”