News
20th June 2014, 17:30
Nico Hulkenberg on Force India struggling more than expected on day one in Spielberg; Romain Grosjean on Lotus's encouraging long run pace; Caterham's Kamui Kobayashi on the questions still facing teams after the first two practice sessions.
The drivers and senior team personnel give their feedback after an absorbing start in Austria
Force India
Nico Hulkenberg, P1 - 1:12.072, 7th; P2 - 1:11.935, 17th
"It's a fun track. Quite a short lap, but it flows nicely. It looks easier on paper because in reality it's quite challenging and technical in many areas. The morning session was very solid; I was happy with the car straight away and the performance was there. For some reason we struggled more this afternoon on both tyre compounds and I was not as comfortable in the car: so that is where we need to analyse things tonight. One explanation could be the wind, which picked up this afternoon, but we will look deep into the data to make sure we improve things for tomorrow."
Sergio Perez, P1 - 1:12.009, 6th; P2 - 1:11.296, 13th
"It was a good day. We followed our programme and managed to learn a lot about the way both tyre compounds behave over long runs. The track is very challenging and it doesn't offer many overtaking opportunities, so grid position will be crucial for a successful weekend. There are still good margins of improvement we can extract: getting everything out of the car and doing the necessary changes to use the tyres in the best way will be our main objectives for tonight."
Otmar Szafnauer, chief operating officer
"It's been a busy day with both drivers having to learn a new track and an aero evaluation programme across both cars, which went to plan. Nico was happy with the car balance this morning, but the set-up direction we took in the afternoon, and the changing conditions, resulted in him struggling to find performance. The opposite was true with Sergio who made some progress in the afternoon, but it's fair to say we need to work hard tonight to optimise car balance on both sides of the garage. The long run pace was encouraging, but as always it's tricky to make comparisons. Hopefully the changes we make overnight will allow us to move closer to the sweet spot so that we are in good shape ahead of qualifying."
Lotus
Romain Grosjean, P1 - 1:13.168, 16th; P2 - 1:12.262, 19th
"It was good to discover the circuit at the wheel of the E22 for the first time today. We have done a lot of work, completed 74 laps however it is fair to say that we have also struggled in the sessions. I wasn't happy with the handling and the set-up of the car but we will work hard to rectify the different areas that need working on. It was good to learn that the longer run pace was stronger, we just need to unlock that pace for qualifying tomorrow."
Pastor Maldonado, P1 - 1:13.642, 17th; P2 - 1:11.765, 15th
"We have worked methodically today and as the track improved we found a bit more pace as the day went on. Unfortunately we have encountered a power unit related issue this afternoon that didn't allow us to entirely complete our programme the way we had planned. We must now investigate and solve any issues encountered today; analyse all the data in order to be ready for Saturday. I remain optimistic as we must push as hard as we can for qualifying tomorrow."
Alan Permane, Lotus trackside operations director
"Certainly our fastest times don't look great at the end of today as we struggled to get good one lap pace from both cars. Finding grip was a particular issue for both Pastor and Romain so we need to get to the bottom of that. Pastor experienced a power unit related issue in the afternoon and Romain didn't get a clear run on fresh tyres so there's scope for improvement in these areas. On heavier fuel and longer runs we look much more competitive, however, with Romain showing good pace in these conditions. Certainly, there's more to learn on our return to Spielberg and we hope for a better performance tomorrow."
Caterham
Kamui Kobayashi, P1 - 1:14.611, 20th; P2 - 1:12.937, 21st
"In FP2 the car was immediately better after the setup changes we made over lunch, especially on braking. On the first run the traction had improved, the car had more grip and even though there was some understeer it was a good step from FP1. We started the long run on supersofts and I was up to lap ten of that first stint when I started feeling the car pull right under braking. It didn't feel right so we boxed so the guys could take a look to see if there were any problems - there wasn't anything obvious, and the data didn't point to anything specific but we decided to end the session with about 15 minutes left so we could have proper inspection and avoid any issues on track. It's a good circuit to drive on, particularly the double-left through five and six, and the last couple of corners onto the start / finish straight, but what we still don't know a lot about yet is how the tyres will behave when the track temps warm up. Today the weather was cooler than its forecast to be for Saturday and Sunday so we'll have to do more work on that in FP3."
Marcus Ericsson, P1 - 1:17.501, 22nd; P2 - 1:13.596, 22nd
"FP1 obviously ended a lot earlier than we'd planned with an electrical system issue on lap nine. We found out the problem was related to the ERS-H control unit so that was fixed over lunch and we had the car ready again well before FP2. After limited laps in FP1 we had more work to do in FP2 than normal so we started with a 13 lap run on the softs. I had some issues with traction and oversteer but the balance was okay, especially in the high speed corners so we made a couple of changes before heading out for the first run on the supersofts. Overall it was an okay afternoon, definitely better than the morning. We have a lot to do tonight to sort out the oversteer and find more grip, but we've been pretty good at finding improvements from Friday to Saturday this year so the aim is to do so again here."
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The drivers and senior team personnel give their feedback after an absorbing start in Austria
Force India
Nico Hulkenberg, P1 - 1:12.072, 7th; P2 - 1:11.935, 17th
"It's a fun track. Quite a short lap, but it flows nicely. It looks easier on paper because in reality it's quite challenging and technical in many areas. The morning session was very solid; I was happy with the car straight away and the performance was there. For some reason we struggled more this afternoon on both tyre compounds and I was not as comfortable in the car: so that is where we need to analyse things tonight. One explanation could be the wind, which picked up this afternoon, but we will look deep into the data to make sure we improve things for tomorrow."
Sergio Perez, P1 - 1:12.009, 6th; P2 - 1:11.296, 13th
"It was a good day. We followed our programme and managed to learn a lot about the way both tyre compounds behave over long runs. The track is very challenging and it doesn't offer many overtaking opportunities, so grid position will be crucial for a successful weekend. There are still good margins of improvement we can extract: getting everything out of the car and doing the necessary changes to use the tyres in the best way will be our main objectives for tonight."
Otmar Szafnauer, chief operating officer
"It's been a busy day with both drivers having to learn a new track and an aero evaluation programme across both cars, which went to plan. Nico was happy with the car balance this morning, but the set-up direction we took in the afternoon, and the changing conditions, resulted in him struggling to find performance. The opposite was true with Sergio who made some progress in the afternoon, but it's fair to say we need to work hard tonight to optimise car balance on both sides of the garage. The long run pace was encouraging, but as always it's tricky to make comparisons. Hopefully the changes we make overnight will allow us to move closer to the sweet spot so that we are in good shape ahead of qualifying."
Lotus
Romain Grosjean, P1 - 1:13.168, 16th; P2 - 1:12.262, 19th
"It was good to discover the circuit at the wheel of the E22 for the first time today. We have done a lot of work, completed 74 laps however it is fair to say that we have also struggled in the sessions. I wasn't happy with the handling and the set-up of the car but we will work hard to rectify the different areas that need working on. It was good to learn that the longer run pace was stronger, we just need to unlock that pace for qualifying tomorrow."
Pastor Maldonado, P1 - 1:13.642, 17th; P2 - 1:11.765, 15th
"We have worked methodically today and as the track improved we found a bit more pace as the day went on. Unfortunately we have encountered a power unit related issue this afternoon that didn't allow us to entirely complete our programme the way we had planned. We must now investigate and solve any issues encountered today; analyse all the data in order to be ready for Saturday. I remain optimistic as we must push as hard as we can for qualifying tomorrow."
Alan Permane, Lotus trackside operations director
"Certainly our fastest times don't look great at the end of today as we struggled to get good one lap pace from both cars. Finding grip was a particular issue for both Pastor and Romain so we need to get to the bottom of that. Pastor experienced a power unit related issue in the afternoon and Romain didn't get a clear run on fresh tyres so there's scope for improvement in these areas. On heavier fuel and longer runs we look much more competitive, however, with Romain showing good pace in these conditions. Certainly, there's more to learn on our return to Spielberg and we hope for a better performance tomorrow."
Caterham
Kamui Kobayashi, P1 - 1:14.611, 20th; P2 - 1:12.937, 21st
"In FP2 the car was immediately better after the setup changes we made over lunch, especially on braking. On the first run the traction had improved, the car had more grip and even though there was some understeer it was a good step from FP1. We started the long run on supersofts and I was up to lap ten of that first stint when I started feeling the car pull right under braking. It didn't feel right so we boxed so the guys could take a look to see if there were any problems - there wasn't anything obvious, and the data didn't point to anything specific but we decided to end the session with about 15 minutes left so we could have proper inspection and avoid any issues on track. It's a good circuit to drive on, particularly the double-left through five and six, and the last couple of corners onto the start / finish straight, but what we still don't know a lot about yet is how the tyres will behave when the track temps warm up. Today the weather was cooler than its forecast to be for Saturday and Sunday so we'll have to do more work on that in FP3."
Marcus Ericsson, P1 - 1:17.501, 22nd; P2 - 1:13.596, 22nd
"FP1 obviously ended a lot earlier than we'd planned with an electrical system issue on lap nine. We found out the problem was related to the ERS-H control unit so that was fixed over lunch and we had the car ready again well before FP2. After limited laps in FP1 we had more work to do in FP2 than normal so we started with a 13 lap run on the softs. I had some issues with traction and oversteer but the balance was okay, especially in the high speed corners so we made a couple of changes before heading out for the first run on the supersofts. Overall it was an okay afternoon, definitely better than the morning. We have a lot to do tonight to sort out the oversteer and find more grip, but we've been pretty good at finding improvements from Friday to Saturday this year so the aim is to do so again here."
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For FORMULA 1 merchandise,