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Nicholas Latifi:
"It’s good to be back at Yas Marina Circuit. I think the updated
track does suit our car slightly more; it’s definitely better fun to
drive and has a nicer flow to it. I believe that it will help with the
racing too, so hopefully we’re in a position to take advantage of that
on Sunday.
I had an incident at Turn 13 in FP2 and damaged the end plates of the
rear wing, but the guys and girls in the garage did a great job to get
me back out there so I could continue with the session. I was struggling
a bit with the balance of the car in FP1; we made some slight
adjustments going into FP2 which did help a bit, but there was a problem
with a rear damper that we weren’t able to resolve during the session.
We’ll get that fixed tonight and continue to work through the data, so
we should be in a stronger position heading into Saturday." |
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George Russell:
"It was interesting trying out the circuit changes and I have to
say I liked them. The track is now faster and flowing and therefore
nicer to drive. Ultimately though, it all comes down to lap time. I was
a little bit off the pace today, but I still felt that my laps were
pretty decent nevertheless. We've got a bit of work to do to close the
gap to Alfa Romeo and the midfield cars ahead tonight, but I think there
is more lap time to come from me and it's only natural that you find
more lap time throughout the weekend. The aim is to qualify well
tomorrow; we will be working hard tonight to do that and end the season
on a high." |
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Jack Aitkin:
"It was really nice to be back in the car after such a long break
and to feel the progress that’s been made across the last year. I spent
a lot of time making sure I was on top of the car’s set-up and various
procedures, but everything went very smoothly and I was happy that we
collected some valuable data. The car felt good to drive around the
updated track layout and I was pleased with the pace today. I think the
team will make some good progress over the next few sessions, so
hopefully it’ll be a good race to finish off the season on Sunday." |
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Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance:
"The changes to the circuit have injected some renewed interest to
the circuit. The combination of reprofiled corners and new tarmac has
changed the nature of the circuit significantly. We had a good FP1 with
Jack doing an excellent job and providing some excellent feedback in his
return to F1 duties. Nicholas too came to terms with the circuit
revisions quickly and was able to do some good running at low and high
fuel.
George had a solid FP2 session but clearly missed some of the early
learning from FP1 and there is more to come from him tomorrow,
especially at low fuel. Nicholas made a small mistake early in FP2, but
we were able to repair the car quickly and get him back out to complete
most of his original programme. Separate to his minor contact with the
wall, we identified a developing problem with one of his rear dampers,
which we were unable to change during FP2. We will rectify this
overnight, which should help improve the handling of his car. Despite
this issue, his high fuel pace was decent, and we were able to learn
quite a lot about the likely behaviour of the tyres on Sunday.
As always, there is a lot to look at tonight and there are definitely
further improvements to come from the car and the drivers as we complete
the finetuning for the new circuit layout here at Yas Marina." |
