Red Bull
DANIEL RICCIARDO
“It was a day of two halves. The car felt pretty different this afternoon and I think that showed. The mistake in to Turn 4 this morning was a costly one and I missed the final hour of the session because of it. Tail winds are a big thing in F1 and in any corners with a tail wind you lose a lot of rear grip. Turn 4 is a bad corner to have a tail wind and it caught me and a few others out. Of course you don’t want to crash but if I’m trying to find a silver lining, then FP1 is probably the best time to do it. FP2 is the one where you do your Race and Qualifying simulations. We got our heads down and put the laps in this afternoon, which was important with the updates to the car, there are quite a few aerodynamicists here today so we needed the laps to give them as much feedback as possible. On the soft tyre we were quite fast, we didn’t really get the supersoft working which I don’t think many people did and it looks like it will be a tricky tyre this weekend. At the end with high fuel I think we were ok but I’m sure we can still be better. We have found some pace, there is still a bit more to find, but overall a pretty good end to a Friday.”
MAX VERSTAPPEN
“You always want to improve but I think the car has been handling pretty well today. We didn’t experience too many issues and it looked competitive in the long runs. FP2 and FP3 looks good for us on paper but it is only Friday so we’ll keep pushing tonight to make some steps forward for tomorrow. The updates we brought here seem to be working so we will have to wait and see how much of an impact they have on Qualifying. The supersoft tyre doesn’t seem to be particularly quick and is hard to get working, that might change tomorrow but the soft seemed a better compound today. The new surface created a few moments for a lot of drivers, myself included. A few corners are now flat out which means we lose a bit more time as it effectively makes the straights longer, but we looked competitive in the last sector so we can make up for it a bit there and play to our strengths. Short runs were decent and long runs looked good so come Sunday I feel we can perform well and have good pace. It is tricky to overtake here so hopefully we can put ourselves in a good position for Qualifying tomorrow.”
Toro Rosso
Pierre Gasly
“Today was quite an interesting first day in Barcelona. I think this morning was a really good beginning in FP1 as we had the 10th fastest time. In the afternoon session we struggled with the car – it’s really hot and windy and it looks like we suffer a bit in these kinds of conditions. It’s still very tight between everyone, so we need to find some more performance for tomorrow when it’s going to be even closer between the midfield. I think that If we find a few tenths we can be in the fight around P10, so we’ll work hard tonight to try and get there.”
Brendon Hartley
“It was a pretty clean day, even if I lost some time in the first session after I had a trip to the gravel. For the second session we made some big changes which didn’t really work, but sometimes you just have to try different thigs to figure out the right direction. We weren’t very quick in the afternoon but let’s keep positive, I’m sure we can pick up the pace tomorrow.”
Jonathan Eddolls (Chief Race Engineer)
“We had fairly tricky conditions today, which was the same for everyone, as you could see there was lots of cars going off the track. A lot was due to the wind which was quite variable and gusty, and this is a track where even a small amount of wind can have quite a big effect because the corners are high-speed and quite open. In the morning with Brendon, he went off track in the first 40-minutes. It didn’t really damage the car but he got a lot of stones in the cockpit, so for safety you don’t want stones getting under the brake pedal, this meant we couldn’t get back out within the 40 minutes which was a shame. In FP1 we focussed on setup works and mechanical setup items and some further developments on things that we tried here in winter testing. It’s a very smooth track – the smoothest of the year – so you can try different setups here that wouldn’t work at many other circuits, which we explored this morning. It was a fairly straight forward session for Pierre in FP1, again, it was just going through the setup work to understand more going into this afternoon. The conditions were tricky again in the second practice session. For Pierre, he ran wide at Turn 9 and damaged the floor quite heavily so we had to put a complete new floor on his car. On Brendon’s first run, there was some damage to his floor which we were able to repair in the session. The mechanics did a great job to get the cars prepared so quickly but the problem was, to do all the repairs and to change the floor as well, we were late out for our supersoft qualifying run, which meant we ran into other cars that had started their long runs. We were unable to do nice, clean qualifying simulations, so I think the timesheets aren’t a fair reflection of where the car is. Having said that, we’re still not 100% happy with the balance of the car so there’s still quite a lot of work to do overnight for tomorrow. On the long runs, both cars completed slightly shorter simulations than we had of liked because of the issues we had, but we’ve gathered the information and the soft tyre looks like it’s behaving pretty well, we just need to go through everything and choose the best strategy for Sunday.”
Toyoharu Tanabe (Honda F1 Technical Director):
“In general, our overall package appears to be improving compared to the last two difficult races. We have learned from the data acquired at the previous couple of Grands Prix and applied those ideas here.
“Although there was a slightly long stop in the afternoon for both cars, we ran without major issue and we went through the usual Friday programme. However, it was a shame that our qualifying simulation runs were spoilt by traffic, while gusty winds also made the session a bit more complicated.
“In tomorrow’s final practice, we will focus a bit more on engine settings suitable for quick single laps, because qualifying well is very important here, as overtaking is difficult on this track.”
Force India
SERGIO PEREZ
“I think we’ve made a lot of progress throughout the day. We have some good information and we have learned about the new parts on the car; we have made a step forward. The balance is still not ideal so there is the potential to find more performance tomorrow. The track was very green this morning, but it improved this afternoon even though it was very windy.”
ESTEBAN OCON
“It was a solid day and a big effort by the team to try so many different things on the car in the first session. We managed to complete most of the big jobs and now we need to do more homework to understand everything. I think there is still a lot more to come because we are not exactly where we want to be with the car. Track conditions were not easy for anybody because it was very windy and difficult to put together a clean lap and stay on the track.”
OTMAR SZAFNAUER
“It’s been a productive start to our weekend, despite some tricky conditions. Our work today was mostly aimed at evaluating new aero parts – floor, barge boards and front wing – as well as gathering data about the tyre compounds. The wind was reasonably high and it caught a few drivers out but we managed to collect all the critical data we needed to help our preparations for the weekend. There was a small problem with Sergio’s left front wheel at the end of the session, the cause of which we are investigating, but it only cost us a minimal amount of track time. We are in pretty good shape ahead of the weekend with plenty of data to analyse tonight so that the team can make the right decisions for qualifying and the race.”
Williams
Paddy Lowe, Chief Technical Officer
Firstly I want to congratulate Robert on his first official F1 session since he left the sport at the end of 2010. He did a fantastic job for us today, and it is a great credit to his determination and character that we have seen his return to F1. I’m only sorry that the car we gave him for FP1 was extremely difficult. But he did the very best job possible and provided valuable feedback. Overall it was not a good day. We didn’t expect this to be a strong circuit for us, given the problems we’ve been having with the FW41 all year, but our pace is worse than we predicted. The underlying problems are understood and will be fixed in due course. On top of that we are struggling with the supersoft tyre in particular on this track. Nevertheless, we made some progress between FP1 and FP2 and I’m sure we can do much more overnight to find a better balance for qualifying and the race.
Lance Stroll
I didn’t really run this morning, as I went off on my second push lap so it was not the morning I was hoping for. It was very difficult to understand the balance as it’s definitely not the balance a racing driver wants to feel. This afternoon we tried to sort out a few things and the car improved a little bit, but still there is so much to understand and figure out. There is a lot of work to be done tonight and we have got to understand what to do so we can be better.
Sergey Sirotkin
The car is difficult to drive, and mentally it makes you concentrate 200% on everything because it’s so tricky. You saw this morning how difficult it was with cars going off. It takes a lot of energy from you just to drive. We didn’t expect it to be easy and I’m waiting for the chance to test most of the new bits on our car. Yes, that was a bad session, but we have a long-term plan with a lot of effort from all of us, so I don’t want one bad session or event to affect it. Everyone is working flat out and it will take time, but we will get there.
Robert Kubica
It is a good feeling – not so much from being in the car but from before that, because I’m back driving in an official session, even if it’s only FP1. It’s the first time since the end of 2010 so there’s some emotion, but this disappeared very soon as we have quite a difficult car to drive. The balance was quite off, but somehow we have to stick to what we’ve got to complete our aero tests and evaluations. It wasn’t an easy session, but we managed in difficult conditions and I was able to give some good feedback. When you’re struggling so much it’s difficult to enjoy it, but still I’m happy because I think the most difficult car we’ve had was in this session and I managed to stay cool, and somehow extract what I thought was a reasonable level of performance. I think I can be happy as I did what I was asked to do.
Mercedes
Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport top the time sheets in both practice sessions in Barcelona
Valtteri finished the morning session in P1 with Lewis in P2
Lewis set the fastest time in the afternoon, ending the session in P1 with Valtteri in P5
Lewis Hamilton
The day was pretty good, but it was a tricky one because it was so windy out there. Every driver was struggling with the changing direction of the wind. You’re constantly arriving at each corner and the wind direction is never the same, so we saw lots of drivers going off. These conditions make it very difficult to define where the set-up needs to go. We got through all our running and were quite fast compared to previous years. We’ve got some work to do overnight, I’m hoping that it’s cooler and calmer tomorrow. I think it is going to be relatively close between the top three teams but I can’t really say who is quickest at the moment.
Valtteri Bottas
It’s been a good day overall. FP1 was especially promising, the car felt good from the start. We made some changes for FP2, which didn’t improve the car, so we reverted back to the original set-up. Today has been a good start to the weekend, but things can change quickly from Friday to Saturday especially since Ferrari and Red Bull looked quick today. I didn’t really feel any gain of grip with the SuperSoft compared to the other tyres, so we will have to work on this area for tomorrow.
Andrew Shovlin
It has been a productive day with both cars running reliably and completing their respective programmes. Conditions haven’t been especially easy, the wind has been strong and unpredictable which caught out both our drivers on their SuperSoft laps but we weren’t the only ones who seemed to be struggling to get all the sectors together. It was difficult to know quite what to expect with the tyres here as the conditions in the winter were so cold, and it is the first time we have run the thinner tread Pirelli tyres. For this reason we spent more time than usual trying to understand how all three compounds compared to make sure we carry good information into the race. Our car worked very well here in the winter but we’v e seen in the early races that both Red Bull and Ferrari have added a lot of performance and that was also evident today in their performance today. We do need to find a bit of pace, especially on the SuperSoft tyre given that qualifying is so important here, but the car wasn’t perfect.
McLaren
Both Fernando and Stoffel completed a good amount of mileage in an effort to comprehensively analyse and evaluate various components and parameters in preparation for this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix and beyond.
Neither driver reported any major issues, and the team condensed a solid amount of running and analysis into the two sessions, leaving the team both pleased with the productive day of track time and armed with a lot of useful information.
Fernando Alonso
“Seen from the inside, the upgrades we brought here are a step forward. There is more performance in the car – it felt better and there was more grip. Conditions were tricky today with the hot temperatures and especially the wind; we saw a lot of people going off track and I think it’s going to be the same tomorrow.
“It has been a positive Friday and we’ve tested everything we brought here. There’s still some debate about some of the parts, but we seem to be a little bit more competitive here than any of the other Fridays this season.
“We’ll have a clear reference tomorrow about how much we have really improved compared to everyone else. It’s going to be cooler and there’s even a threat of rain forecast for Sunday.
“We possibly have a chance to make it into Q3 tomorrow, so let’s try and maximise that.”
Stoffel Vandoorne
“It’s been a pretty good Friday for us. We had a very busy schedule in both sessions, with a lot of things to figure out across both cars, so it was pretty intense for the team but everything was very well-managed.
“The first feeling was positive today – it’s still too early to read anything as the midfield still looks really tight, but I think tomorrow will be the day that counts. The tyre compound selection also won’t be an easy decision to make.
“The conditions were very tricky out there and we saw a lot of mistakes on track, but we all had to deal with the same things and I felt okay in the car. Tomorrow, every tenth and every little bit of performance we can squeeze out of the car will be important for qualifying. It will be up to us to put everything together.
“The results today looked quite promising, but until we’ve pushed everything to the limit we won’t know exactly where we are. We need to understand everything we’ve learned today, put the car in the best specification possible and see what result it brings. I hope this is the start of continuous progression, and that we can build our season from here.”
Eric Boullier
“Today’s practice sessions were always going to be about spending solid time testing the various new components we have brought to Spain this weekend – and that’s exactly what we did.
“We completed a lot of useful mileage and conducted a number of comparison and correlation tests to evaluate their performance and send the data back to the factory.
“Overall, we’re satisfied with today’s work. Naturally, the more you test, the more data you have, and therefore the more number crunching there is to do. So, we’ll be busy this evening analysing the information – not only to determine the programme for tomorrow, but also to help inform our development plans for the coming races.”
Ferrari
It was a Friday of mixed fortunes for Scuderia Ferrari drivers Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen: while Seb managed to complete his daily routine, setting encouraging times in the final long run on Soft tires, Kimi had to coast back to the pits after being radioed to stop the engine because of an apparent malfunction. Gusty winds affected both sessions and the track felt obviously very different from winter testing, with temperatures around the 30 degree mark.
“Everything we put on the car seems to work and that’s important,” said Seb. “I think the biggest change that has been made is on the tires, which seem to be quite different. I don’t think they are better than before. As for the changes you saw with the rearview mirrors, it is no big deal. Before, it was quite difficult for us to look at the cars behind. Now they are in a better position and I can see a little bit better below the rear wing. If you trust your car, there is no reason to try to push over the limit at this stage. Let’s hope we have the same trust as in Baku where I could get everything out of the car when I had to. Today it was quite slippery and gusty and it was a mixed day. We can still work on the car and I think we should be stronger tomorrow”.
“Today the session was a bit messy” Kimi commented “but overall I think it was not too bad. The wind made it a bit tricky, but we know that, at this time of year, it can be like that. The tarmac was the same as we had in testing, but obviously the weather conditions are different. We all know this track very well but every time we come here it’s like starting from zero. We tried different things and learned from them and it was pretty ok most of the times. Maybe it was not the most straightforward Friday, but I think that more or less we know what we should do. At one point we had some issues and I was told by the team to stop the car. We still don’t know what happened, but we’ll figure it out. In the evening we’ll have some work to do; we’ll go through everything and understand. Tomorrow morning we might get a better idea and know where everybody is. I’m sure it is going to be close”.
Sauber
It was a positive day for the Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team with Marcus Ericsson and Charles Leclerc, who used the first day of free practices ahead of the 2018 FIA Formula 1 Emirates Spanish Grand Prix to focus on mechanical set-up work and testing new aerodynamic parts. Both drivers were happy with their cars, and put in a good performance. Tyre management will be the main challenge for tomorrow’s qualifying – the team has shown strong potential for a good performance in Sunday’s race.
Marcus Ericsson
“It was a positive day for us today. We tested some new aerodynamics parts on our cars, and worked with different tyre compounds. We were quite competitive on the soft tyres, and were running within the top ten. After changing to the softer compound, we struggled a bit to improve the lap times. We have some work ahead of us here in terms of tyre management. If we find a way to make a jump with the softer tyres, we should be doing well tomorrow and on Sunday.”
Charles Leclerc
“It was a good day overall. We completed different tests, and set up the car to suit the the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya layout. Our performance is better than expected for this type of track, which is a good sign. It shows us that we have made good progress since the winter tests at beginning of season. We have to continue to work hard now and continue making improvements throughout the weekend. I look forward to tomorrow’s sessions.”
Renault F1
Renault Sport Formula One Team faced a tricky Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya with gusty winds affecting today’s practice sessions for the Formula 1 Gran Premio de España.
Making progress through the day, Nico Hülkenberg ended up as the team’s quicker driver, setting a 1min 20.183secs lap of the 4.6km track.
Alan Permane, Sporting Director – Technical programme notes
In FP1, Carlos first ran with aero rakes conducting data logging, then conducted front wing and other aero assessments using the Medium (white) and Supersoft (red) tyres.
Nico ran with the Soft (yellow) and Supersoft in FP1, conducting aero and set-up assessments.
For FP2, both drivers conducted tyre evaluations and further set-up work, with Carlos using the Soft and Supersoft) tyres whilst Nico sampled the Medium and Supersoft.
Nico Hülkenberg
“It was a difficult quest towards balance and harmony with the car today but we definitely made progress by the end of FP2. Track conditions weren’t too favourable, especially with quite a bit of wind out there. The competition is pretty tough here so we need to find a bit more pace from the car looking to qualifying and the race.”
Carlos Sainz
“It was definitely a challenging day, but we knew this could happen as in winter testing we weren’t particularly comfortable in the car here. We know it’s a track which requires a bit of extra work from us as a team. We have a big margin of improvement for tomorrow, especially as my FP2 fast run on the Supersoft tyres was affected by a mechanical issue, so we have some things to analyse tonight.”
Bob Bell, Chief Technical Officer
“It was a tricky day, where we struggled to get a good balance on the car. A lot of this was due to the wind conditions, which was difficult for the drivers, particularly where there was a tail wind on corner entry. The tyres proved tricky too, especially the Soft and Supersoft, with the Medium proving to be more solid and predictable as you’d expect. Despite two difficult sessions, both cars ran reliably and we got through our test programme with all the data we need for Sunday. The main challenge today was trying to find a good balance.”
Haas F1
The fifth round of the 2018 FIA Formula One World Championship began with practice Friday at Circuit de Barcelona – Catalunya as teams prepared for the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday.
Two 90-minute sessions – FP1 and FP2 – on the 4.655-kilometer (2.892-mile), 16-turn track were run under sunny and comfortable, albeit windy, conditions.
Haas F1 Team drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen ran identical programs in FP1 – an installation lap on Pirelli P Zero White medium tires followed by a baseline stint on that same set of mediums. Yellow soft tires were used to complete the session, with each driver making two runs, staying on their respective sets of softs for both.
Grosjean’s quick time of 1:19.906 came on his 16th lap with his Haas VF-18 using softs. He ran 24 laps and was the eighth-fastest driver. Magnussen’s best time was a 1:20.637 earned on his 10th lap, but his was set on mediums. Magnussen ran 28 laps and posted the 11th-quickest time.
Leading the way in FP1 was Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas, whose fast lap of 1:18.148 was .849 of a second better than the next quickest driver, Lewis Hamilton, who is Bottas’ teammate.
Grosjean and Magnussen increased their pace in FP2. Grosjean ended the session as the seventh-quickest driver. His time of 1:19.579 was .327 of a second better than his best lap in FP1. Even more impressive was that it came with limited track time, as Grosjean spun into the gravel at turn seven approximately 10 minutes into FP2. Despite missing nearly 40 minutes of running, Grosjean made the most of his return to the track, logging a total of 24 laps and scoring his fast time on his 11th tour.
Magnussen followed right behind his teammate as the eighth-fastest driver. He knocked .994 of a second from his FP1 time with a lap of 1:19.643. His quick time came on the 14th of his 39 laps.
The two drivers earned their fast laps while carrying out different programs. Grosjean began the session on mediums where he ran four laps before the excursion into the gravel. He returned to the track on Red supersofts, running two stints on the softest tire made available by Pirelli for the Spanish Grand Prix. Magnussen started FP2 on softs, running two stints before switching to supersofts, where he performed two more stints. Magnussen culminated his FP2 running with a 13-lap drive on softs. Both Haas F1 Team drivers earned their quick times in FP2 on supersofts.
Mercedes remained atop FP2, but it was Hamilton who proved quickest. His fast lap of 1:18.259 was .133 of a second faster than his nearest pursuer, Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull. And after being fastest in FP1, Bottas was fifth quick in FP2, .352 of a second arrears Hamilton.
Bottas’ quick time in FP1 set a new track record, which broke the previous record by .89 of a second, set last year by Hamilton in the final round of qualifying. However, the fastest unofficial lap still belongs to Scuderia Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel, who set a time of 1:17.182 on March 8 during the penultimate day of preseason testing.
Between the two sessions, Haas F1 Team ran a total of 115 laps – 67 by Magnussen and 48 by Grosjean.
Romain Grosjean
“It was an okay day. It was pretty good in terms of performance and classification. It was tricky with the wind, but we’ve been working with different setups – some are more positive, others a bit trickier. Generally, the car feels pretty good. I’m hopeful we’re going to make it even better for tomorrow and be able to go a bit faster. We’re looking into what we can do, and we’ve got some ideas. We tried some things that we’ve never tried before – they worked in some aspects, but not in others. We’ll change those and make sure the car’s a bit easier on the entry into the corners to be able to push a bit more.”
Kevin Magnussen
“Good day today. Happy about the car performance. A few things to improve tomorrow but, generally, I think we are looking quite strong.”
Gunther Steiner
“We had two good sessions, but not completely trouble-free. Romain went off at the beginning of FP2, but we recovered the car and we got it ready to go out again. Everyone did a fantastic job. We’ve learned a lot and now we’re ready for tomorrow.”
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