News
22nd August 2014, 19:00
Lewis Hamilton on how rain could disrupt his and others' Sunday preparations; Daniil Kvyat on why his confidence is high after a strong opening day in Belgium; and Toto Wolff on why Mercedes' one-lap pace might not translate over a race distance. The drivers and senior team personnel report back after an intriguing first day at Spa-Francorchamps...
Toro Rosso
Daniil Kvyat, P1 - 1:53.594, 12th; P2 - 1:50.725, 7th
"I really enjoyed driving this track today and I'm quite happy with the car and how we managed to get through our programme. We improved the car balance between the two sessions and I have to say that I feel confident for tomorrow, where I hope we will continue on this strong trend and improve even further."
Jean-Eric Vergne, P1 - 1:54.189, 16th; P2 - 1:51.383, 11th
"This morning we had some Power Unit related issues, which compromised our programme a bit but nevertheless our performance didn't look too bad. In the afternoon, while trying different things, we probably didn't go in the right direction but we have a clear picture now on what we have to do for tomorrow. On the positive side, we seem competitive on the long runs, which is definitely an encouraging aspect for the rest of the weekend. Overall I'm happy, as we have a good car and we know what steps to take next."
Phil Charles, Toro Rosso chief race engineer
"Overall it was quite an interesting day for us. We tested a few things and played with down force levels across the cars. Both drivers have done a good job to work through their programme and we learned quite a bit, experimenting with the cars. On the long runs JEV looked quite strong, while Daniil looked particularly good on the short runs, so it's a matter of combining these two aspects. There is still some homework for us to do tonight, but hopefully we can put it all together for tomorrow and get both drivers in a good place."
Mercedes
Lewis Hamilton, P1 - 1:51.674, 2nd; P2 - 1:49.189, 1st
"It's great to be back in the car and it was feeling good out there today. The morning wasn't as strong, but it definitely improved in the afternoon. As always, we still have work to do tonight, but overall today was ok. It stayed dry throughout both sessions but the forecast is wet for tomorrow, so it was important to maximise track time as this may be our last dry running before the race. We've seen rain so often here in the past and that can really mix things up - particularly when it's wet in places and dry in others. Your visor is almost level with the ground, so it's not like looking from above where you can see the different patches. That makes it really hard to pick out the areas where you can find grip, but it's also a lot of fun. The only bad part of today was that I had my suit on when I did the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. It was pretty cold but I didn't feel it that much, so I think I'll need to do it again to make up for it!"
Nico Rosberg, P1 - 1:51.577, 1st; P2 - 1:49.793, 2nd
"It's really great to be back at Spa. It's a fantastic track, the flow of the circuit is great and driving Eau Rouge is tricky this year with less downforce. You need to be really precise, and with worn tyres it was tough to take this unique corner flat out. It looks like we have the quickest car again, but it's a bit different here than at some other tracks. It seems that some of the other teams are closer and we need to work a bit on our speed down the straights. As normal, it will be a long night analysing everything that we learned today to really nail it tomorrow. The interesting challenge for this weekend is to find the right compromise between being quick over one lap and over a long distance in the race - especially if it's wet tomorrow, with the predictions currently saying we will have mixed conditions."
Toto Wolff, head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
"Spa is always a tough circuit for both the drivers and the cars, and it usually takes a little while for everything to come together during practice. The drivers were not completely happy at the start of the day and worked hard to improve the balance for the long runs this afternoon. The headline times looked good but we still need to make some progress to convert that into a good advantage in race conditions. That will be our focus overnight ahead of qualifying."
Paddy Lowe, Mercedes team executive director (technical)
"We found the expected cool conditions today at Spa but fortunately neither session was disrupted by rain, so we completed a lot of work with both cars as we ran through the technical programme. This is a very challenging circuit at which to find the optimum set-up - balancing the requirements of the high-speed corners with the low drag you ideally want on the straights - so we did a lot of work on that to find the best compromise. Both drivers were struggling with the balance at different points of the session but we made good steps with the set-up to get them happier by the end of the day. However, we still have a lot more to do overnight to maximise the potential of the car."
More to follow...
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Toro Rosso
Daniil Kvyat, P1 - 1:53.594, 12th; P2 - 1:50.725, 7th
"I really enjoyed driving this track today and I'm quite happy with the car and how we managed to get through our programme. We improved the car balance between the two sessions and I have to say that I feel confident for tomorrow, where I hope we will continue on this strong trend and improve even further."
Jean-Eric Vergne, P1 - 1:54.189, 16th; P2 - 1:51.383, 11th
"This morning we had some Power Unit related issues, which compromised our programme a bit but nevertheless our performance didn't look too bad. In the afternoon, while trying different things, we probably didn't go in the right direction but we have a clear picture now on what we have to do for tomorrow. On the positive side, we seem competitive on the long runs, which is definitely an encouraging aspect for the rest of the weekend. Overall I'm happy, as we have a good car and we know what steps to take next."
Phil Charles, Toro Rosso chief race engineer
"Overall it was quite an interesting day for us. We tested a few things and played with down force levels across the cars. Both drivers have done a good job to work through their programme and we learned quite a bit, experimenting with the cars. On the long runs JEV looked quite strong, while Daniil looked particularly good on the short runs, so it's a matter of combining these two aspects. There is still some homework for us to do tonight, but hopefully we can put it all together for tomorrow and get both drivers in a good place."
Mercedes
Lewis Hamilton, P1 - 1:51.674, 2nd; P2 - 1:49.189, 1st
"It's great to be back in the car and it was feeling good out there today. The morning wasn't as strong, but it definitely improved in the afternoon. As always, we still have work to do tonight, but overall today was ok. It stayed dry throughout both sessions but the forecast is wet for tomorrow, so it was important to maximise track time as this may be our last dry running before the race. We've seen rain so often here in the past and that can really mix things up - particularly when it's wet in places and dry in others. Your visor is almost level with the ground, so it's not like looking from above where you can see the different patches. That makes it really hard to pick out the areas where you can find grip, but it's also a lot of fun. The only bad part of today was that I had my suit on when I did the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. It was pretty cold but I didn't feel it that much, so I think I'll need to do it again to make up for it!"
Nico Rosberg, P1 - 1:51.577, 1st; P2 - 1:49.793, 2nd
"It's really great to be back at Spa. It's a fantastic track, the flow of the circuit is great and driving Eau Rouge is tricky this year with less downforce. You need to be really precise, and with worn tyres it was tough to take this unique corner flat out. It looks like we have the quickest car again, but it's a bit different here than at some other tracks. It seems that some of the other teams are closer and we need to work a bit on our speed down the straights. As normal, it will be a long night analysing everything that we learned today to really nail it tomorrow. The interesting challenge for this weekend is to find the right compromise between being quick over one lap and over a long distance in the race - especially if it's wet tomorrow, with the predictions currently saying we will have mixed conditions."
Toto Wolff, head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
"Spa is always a tough circuit for both the drivers and the cars, and it usually takes a little while for everything to come together during practice. The drivers were not completely happy at the start of the day and worked hard to improve the balance for the long runs this afternoon. The headline times looked good but we still need to make some progress to convert that into a good advantage in race conditions. That will be our focus overnight ahead of qualifying."
Paddy Lowe, Mercedes team executive director (technical)
"We found the expected cool conditions today at Spa but fortunately neither session was disrupted by rain, so we completed a lot of work with both cars as we ran through the technical programme. This is a very challenging circuit at which to find the optimum set-up - balancing the requirements of the high-speed corners with the low drag you ideally want on the straights - so we did a lot of work on that to find the best compromise. Both drivers were struggling with the balance at different points of the session but we made good steps with the set-up to get them happier by the end of the day. However, we still have a lot more to do overnight to maximise the potential of the car."
More to follow...
For tickets and travel to 2014 FORMULA 1 races, click here (http://redirect.viglink.com?key=11fe087258b6fc0532a5ccfc9 24805c0&u=http%3A%2F%2Ftickets.formula1.com%2F).
For FORMULA 1 merchandise,