Team reaction after day one in Sepang (part 1)

McLaren Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton: “Sepang is a very special place – it’s not a stop-start circuit; it’s a flowing, high-speed track which is all about getting the car to flow from one corner to the next. You need lots of rear-end grip, a strong balance and a car that can ride the kerbs well while also conserving the tyres. And that’s never an easy combination to achieve.

“I think we had a good first day today. I’ve got a good feeling in the car – it’s probably the best feeling I’ve had in the car around this circuit. Every time I get to a track this year, it always feels light years better than the last time, which is very positive. We’re still trying to get a better feeling for the tyres, but we’ve made some positive first steps.

“This evening, I want to sit down with my engineers and make a couple of changes. We don’t yet know where the others are, so we need to keep focusing on our performance, but we’re optimistic that we’ve made a small step forward.

“Hopefully the weather will be okay for qualifying tomorrow.”

Jenson Button: “It took me quite a while to get to grips with the car’s set-up today. I wasn’t satisfied with it at first – I didn’t really get a balance that I was happy with – but, towards the end of the session, it started getting better. And that was encouraging: it was nice to see that we made some improvements right at the end because it was quite a way from what I wanted.

“We’re steadily getting there, and it’s starting to take shape, which is encouraging. We don’t know what the weather’s supposed to do tomorrow, but we’ll deal with it whatever it is!”

Martin Whitmarsh: “The timesheets in both sessions suggest that we are headed in the right direction, but our focus this evening is to maximise the car’s performance, particularly over a long run, where we know tyre performance will be crucial.

“Lewis made excellent progress throughout both sessions, and we’ve all been encouraged by his view that the MP4-25 is the best McLaren he’s ever driven around this circuit. Jenson struggled to find a satisfactory balance, particularly at the start of this afternoon’s session, but he and his engineers worked well together to improve this deficit by the end of the afternoon. I’m positive that he’ll make further progress overnight ahead of tomorrow’s practice session.

“While we’re mindful that the unpredictable Malaysian weather may play a role in determining the outcome of tomorrow’s grid, we’re nonetheless pleased with the foundations we’ve laid today.”

Red Bull Renault

Sebastian Vettel: “Some small issues for me today, but nothing big. Mark unfortunately had to stop and couldn’t finish the practice, it looks like his engine went. I wasn’t 100% happy today, I think we still need to get a little bit quicker. The McLarens and the Mercedes look quick and Ferrari have a decent long run pace, so we’ll have to see where we are. This circuit is one of the tougher ones here due to the hot and humid conditions.”

Mark Webber: “It was the engine (Mark stopped early in the second session). You never want your Friday disturbed and today’s problem cost us quite a bit of track time, but the car felt pretty good in the quick stuff and also at low speeds. It’s never ideal to lose an engine, but we did, although it was quite high mileage. It’s good that Vettel’s up there, but it’s where
we expected to be, it would have been nice to feel the option tyres today, but we’ll have to do that tomorrow.”

Mercedes GP

The opening two practice sessions for the 2010 PETRONAS Malaysian Grand Prix got underway today at the Sepang International Circuit, located just outside the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur.

The MERCEDES GP PETRONAS pairing of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher ran consistently in the top six throughout the day, ending the morning session in second and fourth places respectively, and the afternoon session with Nico again in second place and Michael in fifth position.

The focus for the team’s running today was to evaluate the Bridgestone Potenza tyre compounds available for Sunday’s race, the soft option tyre and the hard prime tyre, alongside setting up the MGP W01 cars for the specific demands of the fast and challenging Sepang circuit.

Nico Rosberg: “Our programme went according to plan today and we made progress over the two practice sessions. The tyre work which we completed was particularly useful so we have a lot to go through this evening to see if we can continue to improve the car prior to qualifying. It’s always tough here in Malaysia with the heat and humidity but Sepang is one of my favourite circuits to drive.”

Michael Schumacher: “I am quite happy overall with our work today and the practice sessions went very much as we expected. We did have a an issue with the brakes this morning so I did not start running right away but once we were out on track, I felt we had good pace. However we have to be realistic about our performance here and we might still be lacking a little compared to the front runners. The good thing is that you can play with the lines a bit to find time as the track here is quite wide. But in the end, as usual, we will have to wait and see how qualifying and the weather evolve.”

Ross Brawn: “It has been a busy Friday for the team here in Malaysia for the start of our first ‘home’ race. The two dry sessions have enabled us to complete the majority of the planned programme for Nico and Michael, although the track conditions did change this afternoon following the rain shower. The priority today was to evaluate the prime and option tyres. Whilst all of the teams were running different tyre programmes, which makes it difficult to predict our relative pace, we are reasonably satisfied with what we achieved and are looking forward to the challenge of the weekend.”

Norbert Haug: “This is going to be a very challenging race with extreme stress on the drivers, cars and tyres, and particularly all of the team members who have to work in real sauna conditions. The heat and humidity is almost guaranteed and rises in the afternoon. It’s difficult to estimate where we are today but generally we are not where we need to be just yet.”

Renault

Robert Kubica: “It was a usual Friday as we worked on trying to get a feel for the different characteristics of the track. We did a couple of runs this morning to understand and improve the balance of the car, and in the afternoon we mainly concentrated on tyre evaluation and comparison. I had no issues during both sessions so overall it has been a straightforward Friday.”

Vitaly Petrov: “The overall balance of the car was good today and it certainly feels like we have made an improvement compared with Melbourne. Unfortunately I had a problem with the fuel pump this morning and a water leak this afternoon, which cost me some track time. We still have a lot of work to do overnight and tomorrow morning so that I can get the most from the car and qualify well for the race. For today and Saturday, I am wearing a black armband to show my respect for the people who were killed or wounded at Lubyanka and Park Kultury stations in Russia this week. My thoughts are with everybody affected by this tragedy.”

Technical Debrief with Alan Permane, Chief Race Engineer:

Track conditions and evolution: The track was lacking a little bit of grip at the start of P1, but it improved through the session. It was much hotter in P2, but the circuit had more grip.

Tyre performance: We’ve done a good comparison of the prime and option tyres with Robert on both long and short runs so we have a good understanding of their performance for the race.

Chassis balance: Both drivers were quite happy with the cars straight away and we’ve worked on the set-up throughout the day. We’ve got a few issues with braking stability, which we still need to work on, and Vitaly has a bit too much understeer, but the overall balance is not too bad.

Any issues in the session: Unfortunately Vitaly had a fuel leak this morning, which cost him some running time, but the mechanics did a good job to get the car ready for the start of P2. At the end of P2 Vitaly had a water leak. We’re sorry these problems cost him time out on track.

Target for the weekend: As with the previous races we’d like to get Robert well into Q3 tomorrow. Although Vitaly has lost some track time, he’s had good pace today so hopefully we can get him into Q2 and close to Q3.

Ferrari

Stefano Domenicali: “This year, it’s impossible to work out exactly where we are compared to the others, after the first three hours of free practice. And today, was no exception to that rule. For our part, we followed a very precise programme, aimed at acquiring data for Sunday’s race. Once again, it looks like being a weekend when everyone is very evenly matched, with at least four teams looking capable of fighting for the top places. The major unknown factor is the weather: since we have been in Sepang, not a single day has gone by without a storm putting in an appearance at the time when qualifying and the race are due to take place and if that was to be the case tomorrow and Sunday, any predictions could go out the window.”

Fernando Alonso: “It’s pointless to look for any significance in Friday’s classification: I’m seventh, but I could just as well have been second or last and it would not have changed anything. It all depends on the difference between the programmes adopted by the teams. From our side, we are reasonably happy with what we have done and first impressions would be that there is no reason to expect a very different picture to the one we saw in Bahrain and Australia, partly because, in the space of four days, nothing much is likely to have changed. As before, I expect Red Bull, McLaren and Mercedes to be very competitive and we will have to do our best. It will not be easy, but there is no reason to be pessimistic. The temperatures of the engine, brakes, tyres and last but not least, the drivers, will be an important factor, which we will have to keep under control.”

Felipe Massa:“As usual, it’s difficult to draw any hurried conclusions after these three hours of free practice. We ran a different programme to the other main teams, therefore we can’t tell where we are compared with them. What is clear is that Red Bull and McLaren seem to be going very well: let’s wait and see what we can do in qualifying and especially in the race. We tried to find a good set-up and to understand the behaviour of the tyres. The car handles reasonably well. We just need to work a bit more to improve our outright performance, but we don’t have problems in any particular area. Once again, this time on a track with a variety of very quick corners, I’ve got a good feeling from the F10.”

Chris Dyer: “A few little technical problems prevented us from getting through every last item on our agenda, but nevertheless, we have gathered sufficient data to prepare as well as possible for qualifying and the race. We need to find a bit more performance for qualifying: that is what we will work on this afternoon and tomorrow morning, in the third free practice. The two types of Bridgestone tyre are pretty similar in terms of their level of degradation: the softer one seems quicker over the first lap, while over a distance, the situation is less clear. Obviously, the weather is the unknown factor that hangs over the rest of the weekend, with the possibility of rain playing a major role.”

Toro Rosso Ferrari

Sebastien Buemi: “I am happy with the way today went. In the morning we concentrated on finding out how our car behaved on this track and then in the afternoon, we completed a lot of laps, including a very long stint, to assess tyre behaviour. On the long run, I did 30 laps, which is over half a race distance and although the conditions are very tough in terms of the high temperature and humidity, I was fine in the cockpit. I am looking forward to tomorrow, because I think we have established a good base line from which to make progress in the last free practice, before tackling qualifying.”

Jaime Alguersuari: “This is another new track for me, apart from a session on the simulator. Driving it for real is a different matter and I found it was quite a difficult track to learn, at the same time as understanding the behaviour of the two types of tyre. This afternoon’s long run went well. I lost a little bit of time this morning with an electrical problem, but we have improved over the day and there is still more to come from me and from the car.”