Friday Team Quotes

Oracle Red Bull Racing

Sergio Perez (2nd, 1:43.490): "We are heading in the right direction with the car, we are finding we can put it together a little bit better. It was definitely a good solid day, I think there is a good base there for us to build from. We made a good step from FP1 to FP2 and now we just need to make sure we are able to progress from here, then we can definitely be in the mix for tomorrow. We are heading in the right direction with the car, we are finding we can put it together a little bit better, there is still a long way to go but it is promising what we have seen so far this weekend. I think anything can happen in qualifying, we just need to keep our head down and deliver a great couple of laps and one great lap in Q3!"

Max Verstappen (6th, 1:44.029): "We learnt quite a bit and now it is just about tidying up the things that we tried. Overall, I think it has been a good day. We learnt quite a bit and now it is just about tidying up the things that we tried, but I think so far we have been more competitive this weekend so that’s positive. There has been a lot of work in the background and it has been positive. For sure FP2 was a bit more difficult for me. I had some issues with my visor, when the sun comes down in between the buildings you have some glaring moments and I struggled with the visibility. The track is also quite slippery and has a lot of 90 degree corners so I just need to get the balance together a bit more, however I’m quite confident that we can be more competitive."

Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team

Lewis Hamilton (3rd, 1:43.550): "Today was a really good day. I enjoyed it from the start as the car felt strong from the first laps on track. We made some positive incremental steps on the set-up. There was nothing we had to come back on, and we continued to build throughout. Pace wise, we didn't complete a huge number of laps on our long run in FP2. We will have to do some comparisons tonight therefore to see where our relative speed is. Our usual competitors looked strong, but I think we are there or thereabouts. That is encouraging and was our hope coming into this weekend. We will stay cautious and vigilant though. We will work hard tonight to try and find more gains and see what we can do in qualifying tomorrow."

George Russell (9th, 1:44.536): "Today wasn't the smoothest Friday we've ever had. Unfortunately, we lost a little bit of running time with a precautionary power unit change ahead of FP2. Once we were out on track, I wasn't completely happy with the balance of the car. I was struggling to get the tyres in the right window and was lacking a little confidence. I'll work hard overnight to improve on that, step my game up for tomorrow and close the gap. The good news is that Lewis was looking very quick out there. It encourages us that the car is strong, and we can be competitive this weekend. It looks very close between several teams, with Ferrari in particular looking strong. If we can make improvements overnight though we can aim to be in the mix for qualifying and the race on Sunday."

Andrew Shovlin: "Lewis had two decent sessions and finished the day happy with the car. His pace also looked sensible although we know the areas we've got to work on. Overall, we're pleased with how his weekend has started. As has been the case in recent races, it looks very tight at the front in terms of single lap, so we'll be working hard overnight to find every bit of lap time. In comparison to Lewis, George had a more challenging day. He wasn't very happy with the balance of the car in FP1, so we spent that session trying to improve it. Shortly after FP1 finished, we spotted an issue with the power unit that led us to take the cautious approach of swapping it out for FP2. That unfortunately cost him 25 minutes of valuable track time and whilst we got to run both tyres, the programme was compromised. We'll be aiming to recover some of the lost ground with George tomorrow in FP3."

Scuderia Ferrari

Charles Leclerc (1st, 1:43.484): "The pace was there today, but between the incident in FP1 and a problem we had in FP2 with the steering, we didn’t complete too many laps. It will be important for us to have a smooth FP3 and get ready to extract the most out of qualifying tomorrow."

Carlos Sainz (4th, 1:43.950): "We had the usual challenging Friday here in Baku, with very little grip to begin with and then finding a different and evolving track as the day went by. We were almost four to five seconds slower compared to last year and it was complicated to get a proper read on the car balance. However, we were able to progress from the first to the second session and I'm confident we can keep it up and have a good qualifying tomorrow."

McLaren Formula 1 Team

Oscar Piastri (5th, 1:43.983): “That’s Friday done in Baku. It was a pretty solid day, and the pace seemed good. There’s some polishing and tidying-up to do, but the potential is certainly there, which I’m happy with. Hopefully, we can find a little bit more in the car tomorrow and get into a good position in Qualifying. The track is still evolving and getting a lot quicker, so it’s still a little bit difficult to know exactly what our pace is like, but it seems to be going in the right direction.”

Lando Norris (17th, 1:45.156): “Today was a reasonable day. I found it a little difficult to get comfortable on track, and we’ve got some work to do on car balance overall, but we’ll work hard tonight to put us in the best place for tomorrow. There’s lots of potential so let’s see what we can do.”

Andrea Stella, Team Principal: “Leaving aside the usual red flags and yellow flags, which are pretty typical here in Baku, it’s been a smooth and productive day of practice running. We’ve had a good look at the tyres, made progress on our set-up and we’ve acquired valuable information. Once again, the top four teams seem to be grouped within a tenth or two, which is going to make for a very interesting weekend. We’ll work hard tonight to maximise our package and see where that leaves us for Qualifying tomorrow and Sunday’s race.”

Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team

Lance Stroll (7th, 1:44.093): "Fernando and I ran some floor comparison tests today in FP1. We'll analyse the data from that tonight with the engineers and assess the best direction going forwards. We're pushing hard to extract performance from the AMR24 and we'll see what we can do overnight to set ourselves up for Qualifying tomorrow."

Fernando Alonso (12th, 1:44.683): "We've picked up useful data across the two Free Practice sessions which we'll analyse with the engineers tonight. We tried a few different things today so we'll study that overnight and work out the best route to take with car setup ahead of Qualifying."

BWT Alpine F1 Team

Pierre Gasly (18th, 1:45.391): “That was not the smoothest Friday Practice Day from our side. We did not have a clean day with both Free Practice 1 and Free Practice 2 compromised for various reasons. We have a lot of work to do to turn things around in order to be better placed for the rest of the weekend. We will all put the hard work in and aim to find some improvements.”

Esteban Ocon (19th, 1:45.810): “We had some issues in Free Practice 1 and we had to catch up in Free Practice 2 this afternoon, as we missed some valuable running time. As a result, it was a very busy second session for us and we managed to do a lot of work during that hour on track. We have items to be working on this evening and tomorrow to bring more performance to the car. We know what to work on with the engineers now to get ready for, hopefully, a better day tomorrow.”

Williams Racing

Alexander Albon (13th, 1:44.737): "It’s been a tricky day. We haven’t been very happy with the way the car has been behaving so we’ll make some changes and, if we make the right calls, I think we’ll make a good step forward. The track is super sensitive with low grip and the tyres are overheating a lot. Pirelli have set the pressures really high so you can’t afford to slide the car or it damages the tyre really quickly so you really need to look after those tyres. It’s not fun but it’s the same for everyone. At the minute we don’t quite have top ten pace but there is definitely a lot of things we can look at tonight and then I don’t think we’ll be too bad."

Franco Colapinto (14th, 1:44.749): "The crash was a rookie mistake as I was still getting to grips with the track, and everything was new. Taking that away, we had a good second session. The heroes of the day are the mechanics. They did an amazing job to repair my car in time for FP2. I’m proud of the team for all their efforts. I was really happy to be able to get another session under my belt to help build my confidence up. It was a small mistake but here it can cost you a lot. The car is in a good position and I’m feeling more comfortable lap after lap. I need to keep working to understand how the overheating and degradation works. This is still a process as it’s only my second race and it’s a street track. It’s a tough start but I think we’re doing a good job."

Sven Smeets, Racing Director: "In FP1 both drivers weren’t very happy with the car. There was no grip and the tyres were never operating in the right window. Franco made a mistake in his second push lap on the Soft, hit the wall and had to retire from the rest of FP1. The team did a brilliant job to get his car ready for FP2 and he was able to run almost the whole session. Also, on Alex’s side the team was very busy, changing many things on the car in order to find a better balance and performance. The hard work has paid off as the drivers were happier with the behaviour of the car in FP2 but there is still more work to do tonight, going through all the data and finding performance if we want to be fighting for points on Sunday."

Visa Cash App RB Formula One

Yuki Tsunoda (11th, 1:44.645): “It started pretty tricky, but we made good progress between FP1 and FP2, just not quite enough to be in the top of the midfield. It’s difficult on this kind of track to have nice balance everywhere, but we managed to improve session by session, we just need to work on some fine tuning and fix the bouncing I experienced in FP2. We have a couple of ideas already on how we can improve before FP3 tomorrow, to turn it around for a good qualifying.”

Daniel Ricciardo (16th, 1:45.056): “Today was mixed. FP1 went well, it was nice to get back on this circuit, it’s been a couple of years since I last drove here. I felt like I got into the flow of it relatively well and felt good. We made some changes for FP2 to see if we could improve grip, as it’s very slippery here. However, we didn’t feel the conclusion of this enhanced things. We know what worked this morning and was in a good position, so if we use our FP1 set up and try to get a little bit more out of it, we’ll be fighting towards the front of the mid-field with a good lap in qualifying tomorrow. Like any street circuit, if you can put the lap together you can go very well. We’ll try our best to make it work.”

Alan Permane, Racing Director: “A decent day for us although still plenty of pace to find, as the car balance was not quite perfect. It meant that neither driver was fully happy. We carried out our floor comparison with Daniel running the latest spec in FP1 and both cars running it in FP2 and we will continue analysing the data this evening. The initial impression is that it’s a decent step in the right direction. As usual at this street circuit, the track evolves throughout the day and that involves adjusting the balance to follow the improvement. Tonight, we will look carefully at our level of downforce and we might adjust that for FP3 and possibly into qualifying.”

Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber

Valtteri Bottas (15th, 1:44.785): "It was quite difficult out there in FP1. We had quite limited running due to the red flags, and the grip conditions started from a very low level, which caused us some initial struggles. We had to make changes to the setup and downforce levels for the car to start feeling better in the second practice session. While we're heading in the right direction now, we're still lacking overall grip and a bit of balance, which we’ll need to work on overnight. Our focus will be on finding that extra performance and improving the car's behaviour before qualifying tomorrow."

Guanyu Zhou (20th, 1:45.947): "Today wasn’t an easy day with quite a mix of feelings, but we managed to gather valuable data. The grip was significantly lower than last year, but by the end of FP2, we managed to improve the balance a bit. There’s still plenty of work ahead, but I’m sure tomorrow is going to be another tight qualifying, especially as the track keeps evolving. As a team, we'll analyse the data, keep working on it and try to improve every single little detail along the way."

MoneyGram Haas F1 Team

Nico Hulkenberg (8th, 1:44.475): “The day hasn’t been bad, not perfect either, but it is a practice day. It was a day spent getting to grips with this very interesting, intense circuit again. It was super dusty; this morning grip conditions were very poor so there was huge track evolution throughout the day, and staying on top of the circuit evolution was key today. I didn’t have the cleanest run on the low-fuel softs which is okay, we just need to learn from it, understand our package and understand the tires. It’s been a positive day and a good base that we can compete from this weekend.”

Oliver Bearman (10th, 1:44.547): “It was nice to do a full Friday, building step-by-step without having to rush anything. I was quite happy with how the day went and how the day finished-up, and I was confident in the car which is important on a track like this. Tomorrow, my goal is to be proud of my performance; that’s going to be done by improving and finishing at a level I know I’m capable of, and having a clean performance.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: “Today has been a really good day. We started FP1 reasonably strong but we had a few tweaks to make, which we did. We accounted for big track evolution, which is normal for here, so the feedback on the engineering side was very good. In terms of both low- and high-fuel performance, we didn’t maximize everything, but some good lessons learned and a clear direction of what we need to achieve so it was a decent Friday. Ollie has done a fantastic job again in both sessions, his learning rate is fast so I’m very pleased.”