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What the teams said – Friday in Abu Dhabi
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McLaren
Norris showed that the McLaren is fast here by finishing second in the opening hour of practice, having a relatively uneventful session bar one moment where he got impeded by Hamilton. Hirakawa also kept his session clean, much to the relief of Piastri who jumped back into the car for FP2. Under the lights, the two team mates delivered a 1-2 for McLaren, which was a very strong showing. But Norris thinks they were running a higher engine mode than their rivals, so the field could bunch up come qualifying.
Lando Norris – FP1: 1:24.542, P2; FP2: 1:23.517, P1
“A good first day in the car, things are feeling good but there’s some room to improve ahead of tomorrow’s Quali. I think we might have shown more performance than our competitors today. We won’t get ahead of ourselves, but we’ll stay focused to keep pushing as a team throughout the weekend.”
Oscar Piastri - FP2: 1:23.751, P2
"It was a good session for us today. I was comfortable in the car from the first lap and the pace was strong. I’m feeling in a good spot going into tomorrow, but the competition is also looking decent. Thank you to Ryo for his support in FP1 this morning and for giving us valuable data. We’ll continue to make tweaks overnight and ensure we continue with this momentum into tomorrow.”
Ryo Hirakawa - FP1: 1:25.874, P14
"Firstly, I want to say thank you to the team for the opportunity to drive in FP1. It was a great experience, and I really enjoyed being on track in the MCL38. I had lots of work to do supporting the team doing aero tests with the rakes, with some push laps at the end, which all went to plan. I appreciate the efforts of everyone who prepared me for this, from the time in the sim to the MCL36 tests. Best of luck to the entire team this weekend in the battle for the Constructors’ title.”
Andrea Stella, Team Principal
"It’s been a decent start to this final race of the season, both sessions ran smoothly today.
"In the first session, Ryo Hirakawa drove Oscar’s car. There was work to do with test items and data acquisition, which he executed diligently and precisely. He has my thanks for his contribution to the team, and I’d also like to say well done. His performance run was impressive, both in terms of immediate pace, but also how well he assimilated feedback from his engineers. We wish him all the best.
"Otherwise, the car seems to be behaving pretty much as expected with the strengths and the weaknesses that we anticipated. We need to stay focused and maximise our performance for the remainder of the weekend."
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Ferrari
Ferrari made history by fielding brothers as team mates in FP1, but their session didn’t go to plan when an issue was detected on the elder Leclerc’s car. That limited his running, but also meant the team had to fit a new energy store – triggering a 10-place grid drop for Sunday’s race. The better news is that the car looks quick, with Leclerc topping FP1. The Ferrari boys were slightly further back in FP2 after picking up traffic on their flying runs, but will certainly be in the mix tomorrow.
Charles Leclerc - FP1: 1:24.321, P1; FP2: 1:24.201, P6
"It was a wonderful day and at the same time a tough one. On the upside, my brother Arthur and I shared the garage for the first time, with him completing his first FP1 for our team. It was an incredible and unique moment and I really enjoyed it. On the other hand, we had an issue with the battery on my side and lost time in FP1 only running for part of the session, and it also comes with a penalty for the race. We are fighting for the title, so this puts us on the back foot, and McLaren seem to be quick. Things can swing one way or the other quickly though, so we have to stay on top of things and we won’t stop until the very last moment. Carlos and I have had a great four years together and we want to finish in style. We rely on each other to make our shared dream of a constructors’ title come true, we will give it absolutely all we’ve got."
Arthur Leclerc - FP1: 1:26.179, P18
"A lot of emotions today. It was just incredible to take part in my first F1 session for Scuderia Ferrari HP, alongside my brother. It was a dream come true.
"The target for today was less focused on me as a driver and more on delivering as much information and data to the team as they wrap up their season. We were on different run plans, I first ran some aero tests and then some further testing to compare our two runs. It felt great, I’ve been working hard to prepare and have put in a lot of hours in the sim, so to have my first outing in F1 is a great way to end this year.
"A big thank you to the whole team for this opportunity, it was a day I will never forget."
Carlos Sainz - FP2: 1:24.099, P4
"This morning Arthur was on track for FP1, so I got a first feeling for the car in FP2 and it wasn’t too bad. However, looking at the pace, we need to improve our performance if we want to fight at the very top this weekend. We already have a couple of ideas so we’ll work on it today and try it on track tomorrow."
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Mercedes
Both drivers looked quick in FP1, regularly trading fastest lap times. They were bumped down the order late on by Norris and Leclerc, but it was still a solid opening bar one moment where Hamilton seemed to impede Norris – the stewards taking no further action. While Hamilton also looked quick in the evening session, Russell dropped back after running wide on his flying lap. He complained about his rear tyres, saying the car was sliding around so Mercedes will need to analyse the data overnight to try and fix that issue heading into qualifying.
Lewis Hamilton – FP1: 1:24.806, P3; FP2: 1:24.119, P5
"It’s all feeling very surreal being my last weekend with the team. I’m trying to be as present as I can and enjoy every moment. I’ve enjoyed driving the car, working with everyone in the garage, with the engineers, and I’m just trying to capture the moments as much as I can. I’m aiming to channel all of my emotions into the car and the team because I have so much love for them and as always, I want to do really well for them. This weekend I have one last chance to go for it and try to do so.
"I’m not planning on changing too much on the car tonight. We obviously have some work to do as the McLarens are still fast and the Ferraris are also within that mix too. So, we do need to find some time. Overall, though, my feeling with the car has been good today. It’s never easy to determine what our long run pace looks like, but it didn’t seem too bad today so hopefully that’s a positive for us. Ultimately, we have some work to do on our single lap pace and I hope tomorrow we can be closer to those ahead of us."
George Russell - FP1: 1:25.165, P4; FP2: 1:24.534, P13
"Today was a bit of a struggle, but it’s only Friday. We were also trying a lot of different things today in preparation for next year as obviously this is our last opportunity to do so. We therefore wanted to go a little more radical with the set-up options, see if there’s anything more we can learn, and test things to develop our learnings and understanding for 2025.
"As we saw, Lewis did some great laps today. Still, as a team, we don’t seem to be on the pace of the very front runners on a single lap. McLaren in particular look to be in a league of their own at the moment and their pace in both sessions showed that again today. Tomorrow, I expect the Ferraris to be back in the mix but I’m hoping we can make some improvements overnight and have a more competitive showing than today."
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director
"We've had strong single lap performance at the last two races but today we've found the Soft tyre quite tricky. McLaren were clearly very fast today and they will be hard to beat this weekend, but if you look at Lewis' lap then you can see how with a few improvements he could put himself just behind.
"George has a bit more to find but we were experimenting with some new setup directions and the cars were quite different for the low fuel work. We can unpick that work on the simulator overnight, but I'd expect we'll find a good direction through which George can improve for tomorrow. The long run picture was better; Lewis a bit ahead of George and like the single lap, we can see some areas that we ought to be able to improve that should put us closer to the front. We'll use FP3 to continue the work on low fuel and hope that tomorrow we'll close the day a bit nearer the top of the timing screen."
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Red Bull
Hadjar took over Verstappen’s cockpit for FP1 but endured a slightly frustrating session after finding plenty of traffic. He also spun early doors, complaining that he couldn’t quite get enough clearance to turn the wheel properly. Once Verstappen took over, he didn’t find things much easier – complaining about the car and coming in for set-up changes. Perez didn’t fare much better, with plenty of work to do for the team overnight to get the RB20 into a better working window.
Max Verstappen – FP2: 1:24.598, P17
“The balance of the car wasn’t very good today, which made it pretty tricky to drive and meant we had quite a difficult session. This is something that we need to work on overnight and we will be looking in to what we can do to improve our form. We can do better; at this pace I don’t think we would beat the McLarens, as they seem really quick this weekend, but I think if we can get in the top five or six that would be good. It will be about recovery as today was quite tricky, but we will see what happens tomorrow."
Sergio Perez - FP1: 1:25.483, P10; FP2: 1:24.555, P14
“It was tricky out there today, over one lap it is hard right now and I think we have some work to do. I think the long run is a lot more promising but over one lap we need to find something, we need to try and connect the car. We have been trying a lot of stuff out there, but it’s not been coming together just yet. The car is not feeling tremendously bad, it’s just we are slower over one lap than we want to be. The long run was encouraging but we need to work together to make sure we are competitive in qualifying tomorrow."
Isack Hadjar – FP1: 1:25.877, P15
"Today was an intense session but I really enjoyed myself. We had a great run plan and I managed to get in more laps than I have done in previous sessions. It didn’t start that well and we had a bit of a spin at the beginning as I was a bit shy on the brakes. However, I improved quite rapidly and was pleased with my long run performance and was more competitive on the short runs too. This was my fourth time in an F1 car today, so I still feel quite new to it and feel like I could have explored the limits of the car even more. I learned a lot and, after driving an F1 car, it feels a lot slower going back to F2 even though it is incredibly physical! All in all I am really happy with today: it was much better performance and an improvement on my previous practice sessions."
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Haas
Haas looked quick in the opening session in Abu Dhabi, with both drivers finishing in the top 10. Given how tight the constructors’ fight is, that was exactly what the team needed to boost their confidence. That strong form was no fluke either, with Hulkenberg finishing even further up the order in FP2. With at least six points needed to overhaul Alpine on Sunday, Haas have made the perfect start.
Nico Hulkenberg - FP1: 1:25.373, P6; FP2: 1:23.979, P3
"It was a very solid Friday. From this morning, the car felt in a happy place and in a sweet spot, which is obviously a good place to start and provides a good foundation. Now we need to preserve that and improve little things, optimize, and we need to be good on the operational side. A lot of drivers were out of position in second practice, so it’s still going to be a challenge to get into the top 10, but I think it’s possible if we do a really good job."
Kevin Magnussen – FP1: 1:25.444, P8; FP2: 1:24.235, P8
"The pace was good in the car, there’s just a little bit we need to work on and hopefully we can find a little bit more. It’s so tight, we’d like to find a bit more to get into Q3 as it’s going to be super difficult. We were in the top 10 with both cars so hopefully we can get there tomorrow too. FP1 straightaway felt good and quick, we made some changes for FP2, and straight out of the box it didn’t feel so good so reverted and found the pace again. We’re giving it everything we have."
Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal
"I think it was a decent Friday and from the get-go both drivers were in a decent place with the car as well. We’ve got a couple of things to look at, but going into this final race with lots riding on it, I feel everyone is working well and is calm. It was a good Friday and I’m looking forward to tomorrow."
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Alpine
Alpine are fielding a new-look line up this weekend, with Doohan in for Ocon. The Australian gave a good account of himself in a steady FP1 session, while Gasly showed there is definitely some pace in the car this weekend. The duo fell backwards slightly in FP2, Gasly still in touching distance of the top 10 in a session where the margins were incredibly tight. The Frenchman was barely three tenths of a second off P6, so it is very possible that he could challenge for Q3 tomorrow.
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Jack Doohan - FP1: 1:26.304, P19; FP2: 1:24.961, P19
“Firstly, a great experience in the car in Abu Dhabi in what was a very busy day. There’s a lot to understand and learn and it was good to get a lot of laps in across both sessions. Free Practice 2 was obviously new territory for me! I just tried to build up the laps and my first few runs in the second session were not the cleanest on my side but that is all part of Practice. There are some steps to make ahead of Free Practice 3 for the team and I look forward to debriefing with the engineers to find those improvements. I am aiming to get more comfortable with each lap and keep pushing closer to where I want to be. Thanks to the entire team for their hard work.”
Pierre Gasly - FP1: 1:25.333, P5; FP2: 1:24.517, P12
“We have more work to do than usual at the end of Practice today in Abu Dhabi. Free Practice 1 felt strong. We had good potential in the car and we managed to put some good laps together. Free Practice 2, however, felt very different. I struggled with understeer and front grip in general. We tried some different set-ups but we were not able to find much improvement. We’re a little bit out of our set-up window and it was the same feeling on both low and high fuel. As always it is tight on the timesheets and a couple of tenths will make a big difference between positions. We will work hard to find the right changes and aim to have better performance tomorrow when it counts.”
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Kick Sauber
The two outgoing drivers opened their final weekend with the team in similar fashion, both running the mediums then the softs. The only blot on the copybook was some understeer for Zhou, which he didn’t sound too impressed with over team radio. Come FP2, and Bottas looked very quick under the lights. He only has one Q3 appearance this year but on this form, he could double that tally tomorrow.
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Valtteri Bottas - FP1: 1:25.611, P13; FP2: 1:24.230, P7
"Today has been a positive start for us. The improved pace we've had in recent events seems to have carried on to Abu Dhabi, and I think we have a good base car now upon which to build, as the balance is in a decent window. We know it's going to be extremely close in qualifying, so we need to make sure we find a bit more performance for tomorrow. If we do that, we should be again in a strong position to fight for a good qualifying result, while also not compromising on the steup for the race."
Zhou Guanyu - FP1: 1:25.921, P16; FP2: 1:24.557, P15
"It hasn't been the smoothest day out there, but the pace of the car was promising. However, we suffered some issues with the brakes which hampered our progression. Our priority now, of course, must be to resolve this problem: I am confident we will be in a stronger position moving forward, and we will be able to maximise this final weekend of racing this year."
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RB
Iwasa was in the RB car in place of Tsunoda for FP1, and spent a chunk of the session running the aero rakes and data gathering. That left Lawson to push the car and try and discover some pace out there, which he did well. He backed up his P12 with a P11, just a fraction behind his team mate. RB certainly seem to be in the mix for the lower reaches of the top 10 – but the margins are very tight, as demonstrated by the fact there was only just 0.006s between the two team mates in FP2.
Liam Lawson - FP1: 1:25.563, P12; FP2: 1:24.503, P11
“The car is looking decent, we still have another practice session to go and then qualifying obviously, but we’re in a good place; we’re chipping away a bit, but then so is everybody else. Compared to last week we’re in a stronger position, we feel more confident coming here with the car. At the same time, we’re not exactly where we want to be yet, especially with Haas and Niko being 3rd in that session. We obviously need to bridge that gap, but it’s a strong start. I’m hoping for Q3 tomorrow, but honestly the midfield is so close right now, one tenth up and we’re P8 and one tenth back and we’re P16, it’s very very close, it’s probably going to be a bit of a fight this weekend.”
Yuki Tsunoda - FP2: 1:24.497, P10
“It was a pretty good Friday. After missing FP1 as planned, FP2 went smoothly and I was feeling good in the car. We tried some things and I think we started the weekend in a better way, compared to Qatar last week. We’re all very close and every millisecond counts here. It seems to not be an easy track for the tyres, and I felt the balance of the car changed throughout the stint, so we’ll look at the data tonight to try and put it all together. The most important thing is that we have clear idea of what to look at and do for the rest of the weekend.”
Ayumu Iwasa - FP1: 1:26.121, P17
“This was another amazing day for me. I enjoyed it very much and had a good feeling from the car, more than from my previous time driving a Formula 1 car. I hope the team was able to get some good data from the testing we were doing during the session. It was a little bit difficult to build up the pace with all the things we had to test but I was able to do a new tyre run towards the end. Overall, I’m happy with how everything went and it was a useful experience for my future.”
Alan Permane, Racing Director
“A reasonably straightforward day for us. Ayumu did a very creditable job for us in FP1. He didn’t put a foot wrong and did everything we asked of him and we are very happy with his laps and his feedback. One of our tasks today was to evaluate our new front wing and Liam ran it in FP1. It gave us plenty of data to look at, but we reverted back to the standard one for FP2 and we will make a decision tonight on which one to fit for tomorrow. FP2 was about setting the cars up for qualifying and then a long high fuel run on the Medium tyre in preparation for the race. Both guys are reasonably happy with their cars, but there’s always more to come and I’m sure Yuki will find something more, having sat out FP1. Overall, a solid start to the weekend.”
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Aston Martin
Alonso wasn’t happy in FP1, calling the AMR24 “the worst car ever” at the end of the session. His team had sent him out in traffic for his quick runs, which probably didn’t help matters. Drugovich had a better opening session, in for Stroll. Roll on FP2, and Alonso finished even further down the order, which won’t have improved his mood. The car didn’t look overly quick, but it remains to be seen if they can tweak the set-up to extract more pace for qualifying.
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Fernando Alonso - FP1: 1:25.504, P11; FP2: 1:24.574, P16
"It was a difficult day as we tried to optimise things. The car felt a little better in FP2, but we still have some work to do overnight to find the best setup going into Qualifying. It's looking like it's going to be a difficult to fight for the points, but we will do our best tomorrow."
Lance Stroll - FP2: 1:24.686, P18
"We tried a few different things on the car in FP2 as we look to find the right setup for the rest of the weekend.
"It's too early to draw many conclusions from today's running, so we'll study the data tonight and make improvements where we can to give ourselves the best chance in Qualifying tomorrow.
"It looks like the midfield will be tightly packed so hopefully we can optimise as much as possible."
Felipe Drugovich – FP1: 1:25.471, P9
"We managed to test everything we wanted to and try a few things with the objective of potentially applying them to next year's car.
"Towards the end of the session I did some laps on the Soft tyre so I could push and have a bit of fun. I was pleased with my fastest lap and I enjoyed driving the AMR24. It's always nice to classify as the fastest rookie as well."
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Williams
Browning was in for Albon in the opening session, the youngster keeping the car in one piece in an assured opening. As for Colapinto, he looked quick on both the mediums and the softs in what is his final outing with the team. But with two grid penalties to come for fitting both cars with a new gearbox, all was not rosy with Williams. And it was made worse when Colapinto flew wide on his fast lap, damaging the floor and ending his session. Albon also had to pit with what looked like a rear tyre issue, but fortunately the team were able to get him going again.
Alex Albon - FP2: 1:24.269, P9
"We need to investigate what happened in FP2 further, but everything was okay in my shortened long run. It’s a shame to miss part of probably the most important weekend session, but I’m not unhappy as the car feels more competitive than in Qatar. We’ve got some work to do tonight and considering the 5-place grid penalty, the long run is crucial to understand. So, it’s not ideal but we’re taking it in our stride and will do our best to understand the car further."
Luke Browning - FP1: 1:26.519, P20
"It was thoroughly enjoyable to get my first taste of a Williams F1 car. Thank you to everyone at Williams for the opportunity and an amazing learning experience. It’s never easy hopping into an F1 car in an official session for the first time, but we built up slowly and brought the car home. I can’t wait to get back behind the wheel on Tuesday for the Young Driver Test."
Franco Colapinto - FP1: 1:25.382, P7; FP2: 1:25.265, P20
"We were quite quick today, and everything was generally positive. During FP2, I ran a bit wide at the exit of Turn 9, and we had to bring the car back and unfortunately end our session early so that the team could assess the damage on the right part of the floor, which we’ll have to repair. We were really strong today, so I’m feeling good. It looks like a better weekend than Qatar, so we’ll work hard tonight and go again tomorrow."
Sven Smeets, Sporting Director
"Luke did a good job in FP1 and will be looking forward to Tuesday when he can have a whole day of testing. Franco had a good FP1 but then had to stop in FP2 due to some floor damage that needed attention and repairs but up till then he was confident and showed good performance. Alex started his weekend in FP2 but was very quickly up to speed with the car. He will use FP3 tomorrow to find a better balance and more performance in the car, but first impressions are that we look more competitive than in Qatar."
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Pirelli
Simone Berra, Chief Engineer
“The final round of the season said something about how much quicker the cars have become in the space of a year. The improvement in performance is significant when one considers that parameters such as the track and the tyres have remained unchanged. That can be seen from the fact that today’s best time is already 72 thousandths faster than Verstappen’s pole time of last year (1’23”445).
“The other important data concerns the use of the compounds. For the fourth time this season, after Sakhir, Melbourne and Las Vegas, no driver used the Hard tyre over the two hours of Friday free practice. It’s a clear indication of how the C3 is definitely considered the main tyre for Sunday’s race by the teams. Furthermore, we saw that most of the drivers who did a long run, opted for the Medium. One can therefore begin to draw the conclusion that a one-stop strategy, using one set of Medium and one of Hard, must be favourite, with the second set of Hards on hand in case of a Safety Car or if degradation is greater than expected.
“Other interesting aspect from today are graining, which varied from team to team, but not in a particular impactful way, especially as degradation is also quite low, and then the track evolution, significant in FP1 before settling down in FP2.”
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