Feature
What the teams said – Friday in Singapore
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McLaren
Norris was flirting with the top spot for all of FP1, but in the end was just beaten by Leclerc. His session was markedly better than his team mate’s with Piastri sidelined at the start thanks to a wheel that had become stuck on his car before he’d even driven it. That led to a tardy start for the Australian, but once on track he looked quick – except for the lap where he kissed the barriers. Roll on FP2, and again Norris was quick. He topped the session but did clobber the barriers at one point, as did Piastri who seems a fraction behind his team mate this weekend.
Lando Norris – FP1: 1:31.839, P2; FP2: 1:30.727, P1
"I’m happy with today, a positive start to the weekend in tough conditions! We’ve got good competition with Ferrari looking strong, but we’ve started the weekend off on the right foot with some strong laps today. The hard work doesn’t stop, and we’ll look to make progress before Qualifying tomorrow evening."
Oscar Piastri - FP1: 1:32.369, P6; FP2: 1:31.474, P5
"It's been a tricky first day. There are definitely some things to work on going into tomorrow. I'm struggling a little bit with the car and some disruption to FP1 meant it wasn't the smoothest first day. However, the car looks quick, and we'll work hard overnight to try to unlock some more performance."
Andrea Stella, Team Principal
"Both sessions were pretty productive, we had to do some checks to the car after kisses to the wall but otherwise Friday has been smooth for the team. We have a lot of data to look at in terms of car setup and tyre behaviours. It’s difficult to understand the competitiveness situation. We see that there’s some midfielders that look to be pretty quick here, so we expect another busy and tight competitive session in Qualifying and the race. We will do our best to be as prepared as possible to fight at the front for another positive result."
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Ferrari
Leclerc’s weekend started on the right note, as he topped FP1 from rival Norris. It was a good session for the Monegasque driver, who was confident enough to push the car closer and closer to the barriers. Sainz looked quick too, underlining the expectation that Ferrari will be strong here. It was much of the same in the second session, this time Leclerc just pipped by Norris with Sainz again a solid third. Leclerc did clip the barriers though, so it wasn’t quite the perfect day for the Scuderia.
Charles Leclerc - FP1: 1:31.763, P1; FP2: 1:30.785, P2
"The car felt good, but there’s still some work ahead of us to get it to feel exactly as I want it to. It was a good starting point, now we have to find the right balance and put it all together in qualifying tomorrow.
"The weather forecast for the rest of the weekend is changeable, so we will have to adapt very quickly. I would be surprised to see the same gap behind us again tomorrow, it will be interesting to see if the pecking order will change."
Carlos Sainz - FP1: 1:31.952, P3; FP2: 1:31.356, P3
"It’s been a challenging start to the weekend to be honest. Already in FP1 I could feel there was something not quite right with the brakes and we seemed to carry that into FP2, so I struggled to get the most out of the two sessions. Other than that, the car seems to be in a good window. I’m confident that we can figure out what happened today and make a big step tomorrow."
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RB
RB looked quick from the off in Singapore, both drivers winding up in the top 10 after their flying laps. Ricciardo did suffer some early disruption after the aero rake he was running didn’t want to come off, but it didn’t cost the Australian too much time. Roll on FP2 and it was the same story, a quick car and two quick drivers. There was next to nothing to choose between them either, Tsunoda just 0.010s ahead of Ricciardo in the end.
Daniel Ricciardo - FP1: 1:32.375, P7; FP2: 1:31.478, P6
“It was a really good day for the whole Team. Yuki and I finished in the top seven in both sessions. It was really close, I think four of us finished within two hundredths of a second. We’re happy with the car. There’s always some fine tuning to do, but it was nice to see ourselves in good points scoring positions today. We have a decent package here and look competitive. I had a lot of grip today, and the circuit was really fun to drive. Hopefully our pace remains tomorrow going into qualifying.”
Yuki Tsunoda - FP1: 1:32.263, P5; FP2: 1:31.468, P4
“It was a positive day and overall, I’m feeling good. Obviously, it’s just free practice and I’m sure some of our competitors will pick up the pace from tomorrow onwards, but at the same time, there’s more to come on our side with some improvements, so we need to stay sharp. I’m definitely looking forward to qualifying more than usual, where we’ll have the chance to put it all together.”
Alan Permane, Racing Director
“It was a sensible Friday for us. Firstly, both cars came home in one piece at the end of each session, which is always a good start on a track like this. Both drivers were reasonably happy with their cars from the very start of the first session. We made a few minor changes prior to FP2 to tweak the balance and again, the drivers were pretty satisfied. We still have a bit of work to do on single lap pace, but we know which direction to go in and we will make some final adjustments tomorrow before the final hour of practice to ensure the cars are in the best possible shape for Saturday night’s qualifying.”
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Williams
Williams were the other midfield team to set the timing screens alight along with RB, with Albon winding up in the top 10 and Colapinto not too much further back. That solid opening was compounded in FP2, as Albon once again finished in the top 10. Colapinto caused a few chuckles when he tried to pull into the Alpine pit box at one point, but that moment aside, had a very good day at a track where he’s never previously raced.
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Alex Albon - FP1:1:32.451, P8; FP2: 1:31.650, P9
"To be honest, the car doesn’t feel amazing, but I think that’s good because it means we have more lap time to find. We were good on the harder compound tyres but struggled a bit on the Softs, so we just need to figure it out. The pace is good, and the car feels way better than last year, so that’s a positive. With the upgrades, it’s hard to fully delve into them so far in these sessions, however, we’ll look at the data tonight and come back stronger tomorrow."
Franco Colapinto - FP1: 1:32.618, P11; FP2: 1:32.057, P16
"Overall, today has been a good learning session to get used to the track and the heat. I feel positive after both sessions. In FP2, I couldn’t put the lap together on the Softs as I had a lot of oversteer. It’s clear that out here, the Soft is a one lap tyre, so there wasn’t much more I could gain on the second lap. I think I’m looking quite strong when I put the lap together, so let’s see where we end up tomorrow in Qualifying."
Sven Smeets, Sporting Director
"Alex started today with the updated package, using FP1 to get up to speed with the different way it drives, however, after FP2, he was still not completely happy with the balance of the car. Franco used FP1 to learn the track but was quite quickly on the pace, despite also struggling with the balance of the car. The positive is that the car feels much better than last year, which is promising. We’ll go through all the data tonight as we know there is more performance to find for tomorrow."
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Mercedes
It was a quiet opening to the weekend for Mercedes, who had both drivers down the order and neither sounding overly happy with how their car felt straight out of the box. Those complaints intensified in FP2, Hamilton in particular unhappy with the amount of understeer he was experiencing. Russell at least grabbed a spot in the top 10, but he locked up late on and went straight into the wall, breaking his front wing but lucky to escape without more serious damage.
Lewis Hamilton – FP1: 1:32.679, P12; FP2: 1:31.709, P11
"It was a very challenging day for us. I didn’t feel particularly connected with the car throughout. We tried many different things on the set-up to try and find improvements but couldn’t find any major breakthrough. We were working hard as a team to make gains and get closer to the pace at the front, but we weren’t able to do so by the end of FP2. It was challenging to know exactly where we should put the car in terms of set-up and that is something we will be working hard on overnight. We need to find some additional speed otherwise we will be looking at a difficult Saturday tomorrow."
George Russell - FP1: 1:33.334, P16; FP2: 1:31.488, P7
"That was quite a challenging Friday for us. We didn’t have the pace of the frontrunners today and we need to work hard overnight to understand why. The car wasn’t feeling as well connected as it did here last year, or in recent races. We need to get to the bottom of that if we are to have a weekend where we can challenge at the front. I am sure we will find some answers though once we go through all the data this evening.
"There were a lot of surprises out there when you looked at the timing screens. Williams and VCARB seemed to be particularly quick compared to recent races, whilst the Red Bulls looked to be struggling a little. The McLarens and the Ferraris looked to have a comfortable advantage over everyone else meanwhile and we’ve clearly got work on our hands to be in with a chance of racing them this weekend."
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director
"That was one of the trickier Friday’s of the year so far. We experimented with different set-ups across the cars in FP1, aiming to try and counter some of the challenges we’d faced particularly on our Medium tyre stint last weekend in Baku. Unfortunately, the track conditions didn’t give us a brilliant read on this, so we converged more closely for FP2. Neither driver was particularly happy with the balance throughout the session, although we made some progress on our long run.
"Whilst that second hour of running was more encouraging, we’ve still got a good chunk of work to do overnight. McLaren and Ferrari, in particular Norris and Leclerc, looked to be a step ahead of the rest of the field. We will have to find some big improvements to be in the fight with them tomorrow. We’ve also got one eye on some of the teams behind us. We will need to find gains overnight if we are to have a smoother run through qualifying and that is what we are focused on doing."
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Red Bull
Verstappen was there or thereabouts in FP1, although he didn’t sound too happy with his car, complaining of cold feet amongst other things. Perez was also complaining on the radio, the balance on his car not to his liking. Things didn’t improve for the Dutchman in FP2, the only representative running before tomorrow’s qualifying session. He wound up a lowly P15, and while Perez did better, eighth is hardly much to write home about as Red Bull’s struggles seem to be intensifying.
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Max Verstappen – FP1: 1:32.097, P4; FP2: 1:32.021, P15
“Today was difficult. We didn’t have the grip that we would have liked on the tyres, so I felt like we were sliding a lot more than usual. This caused us particular issues in FP2, which wasn’t really a positive session for us. We haven’t so much been struggling with the bumps and the kerbs, but it was more about the general grip of the tyres. We are going to have to go back and analyse the data and see what we can do to optimise the performance with the car and the tyres so we can improve ahead of qualifying."
Sergio Perez - FP1: 1:32.767, P14; FP2: 1:31.598, P8
“I think we improved a little bit from FP1, but we are still lacking quite a lot of balance. It is quite difficult out there to put a lap together and it’s not looking great at the moment. Our performance has taken us a little by surprise so we have some work to do overnight because we are quite far off. We are nearly a second off the pace, so we need quite a big change to come through. We will see what we are able to do, it could be quite a tough weekend but we will work hard to ensure we can compete."
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Haas
Magnussen was back racing for Haas after his one-race ban, and he had a tidy enough opening. Hulkenberg locked up on the dusty track early doors, and couldn’t quite find a rhythm out there. But the German looked much happier in the late evening session, coming home in the top 10 and only a few tenths off P3 on a night where margins were mostly very tight. Magnussen wasn’t too far back either, but Haas were overshadowed by championship rivals RB on Friday.
Nico Hulkenberg - FP1: 1:33.797, P20; FP2: 1:31.667, P10
“It didn’t look great this morning, but I didn’t get a proper run on the softs so this afternoon showed a bit more of a representative picture, but again it’s very fine margins and it’s very tight in the midfield. I felt okay in the evening with the cooler track temperature, felt the car beneath me a bit more and that’s a good foundation to go from. It will come down to execution and how clean can you produce the laps to squeeze everything out. I think if we do a perfect job, Q3 could be possible.”
Kevin Magnussen – FP1: 1:33.377, P17; FP2: 1:31.793, P13
“It was a bit of a mixed day, but on the other hand, it was pretty straightforward. It looked better in FP2 than in FP1, so that’s a good thing. The conditions in FP1 were daylight, a hot track, and FP2 was more representative of qualifying and the race. Our long runs went okay as well, so we’ll see. It’s very tight, it’s two or three tenths and we’re around P6, so you have to squeeze everything out of it. It’s also hard to take too much risk because it’s so close it can also cost you a lot, we have to treat it like any other weekend and get it right.”
Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal
“In FP1 we struggled a bit with track conditions, but FP2 was a lot better so both drivers are happier with the car. We still need to fine-tune some of the set-up to get the full performance out of the car for this circuit. Kevin had a pretty decent long run on the soft tire, so we learned a great deal for Sunday which is really good information. Overnight, we’ll be looking at the specific corners we’re losing lap time in and improve the car a bit more so that Nico and Kevin can take more confidence into FP3 and qualifying.”
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Aston Martin
Alonso pulled off an impressive save in FP1 after taking too much kerb and nearly losing the rear of his car, but apart from that he had a quiet day. He looks there or thereabouts when it comes to the top 10, but Aston Martin were not the pick of the midfield today. As for Stroll, he earned the wrath of Tsunoda for a second straight weekend after accidentally blocking the RB. He was a little bit off the pace of his team mate on Friday.
Fernando Alonso – FP1: 1:32.610, P9; FP2: 1:31.750, P12
"Every lap in Singapore is a risky one and it was an intense FP1 and FP2. We are struggling a little bit around this circuit with the characteristics of our car. We did think the same in Baku though and we managed to maximise the points there, so let's see what we can do tomorrow."
Lance Stroll - FP1: 1:32.778, P15; FP2: 1:31.957, P14
"It's been great to get back out on track at Marina Bay; it's a circuit we all love driving at. Performance-wise, we're still not where we want to be so it's been a difficult day. We've used the practice sessions to run and compare a few different parts, so we'll take that data away with the aim of making some improvements ahead of tomorrow."
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Alpine
Alpine spent much of the first session data gathering, with Gasly running flow vis paint on his rear wing. Both drivers did jump up the order late on though, in a more promising start to their weekend than the one they had in Baku. But they tumbled back down the order in FP2, highlighting that they may struggle to have much of an impact here this weekend at a track they didn’t think would suit their car.
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Esteban Ocon - FP1: 1:32.615, P10; FP2: 1:32.119, P17
“The pace looked relatively promising this morning in Free Practice 1 but seemed to drop off for us in Free Practice 2 even though the car felt similar between the two sessions. We need to debrief as a team and understand why that is and aim to come back stronger tomorrow. We were expecting a little more in terms of pace from the car but that was not the case today. We will give it our best to improve the car and hopefully be up in the mix in Qualifying.”
Pierre Gasly - FP1: 1:32.694, P13; FP2: 1:32.222, P18
“It’s been a tough Friday Practice for us in Singapore. We have not been competitive relative to our expectations, so we have a lot of work to do in order to understand the areas where we are lacking. We have another Practice before Qualifying where hopefully we can make the necessary changes to improve things. We need to be faster and the aim is to really find these much-needed improvements because today has not been a great day.”
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Kick Sauber
Bottas was one of the unluckiest drivers in FP1, constantly being baulked whenever he tired to complete a hot lap by a variety of drivers. He couldn’t use that as an excuse in FP2, where his car didn’t look overly happy under the lights in Singapore. As for Zhou, he joined his team mate towards the back of the pack, with Kick Sauber still struggling to make inroads from the back of the midfield pack.
Valtteri Bottas - FP1: 1:33.485, P18; FP2: 1:32.786, P20
"It was a challenging day on track today with a lack of overall car performance. We struggled to find the right balance, as we lacked the consistency we were looking for. We made some changes between the two sessions, but I feel we made a step backwards: we'll work hard overnight get back on track, improve and make the car more stable and drivable, so we can find that extra performance for FP3 and take a step forward for qualifying."
Zhou Guanyu - FP1: 1:33.585, P19; FP2: 1:32.359, P19
"It’s good to be back racing in Singapore, a place with such great energy. I think we had two solid and relatively smooth sessions in the car today. On paper, we were not expecting a significant improvement over Baku, but I felt I was in a better window when it came to car balance compared to the last few events. The times are really close, and if we can continue to improve tomorrow and find a little more laptime, especially on our first lap on new tyres, we can push for the edge of Q2. It's tricky out there, though – every session in Singapore brings different track conditions and you constantly need to adapt. Getting the car dialled in here is crucial, because once you're confident and get into the rhythm, it really makes a difference to the lap times."
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Pirelli
Mario Isola, Motorsport Director
“A day that could be described as normal. Two hours of free practice went off without a hitch, with all teams trying all three available compounds, also with different fuel loads. From what we saw today, there was no graining, not even on the Soft, which could open the door to its eventual use on Sunday. With that in mind, it will be interesting to see how the teams tackle the third free practice sessions while there’s the mandatory selection of the Hard and a Medium, some could choose to hold back two Mediums while others might prefer having an extra set of new Softs for qualifying.
“The track proved to be considerably quicker than last year, to the extent that the 2023 pole time has already been beaten. Apart from the inevitable improvement in car performance from one year to the next, it could also be down to the fact that the track, at least on the racing line, has been cleaned with high-pressure jet washers, which means the track surface offers better performance and is much cleaner. However, lap times will continue to come down as the track rubbers in, so it is conceivable that in qualifying we could even get below the 1’29”200 predicted for pole by the simulations provided by the teams going into this Grand Prix.
“One unknown factor could be the weather, as one can never rule out heavy showers here, straddling the Equator, which could see a reset of track conditions and a loss of the grip built up so far.”
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