TEAM PRINCIPALS: Stefano DOMENICALI (Ferrari), Norbert HAUG (Mercedes), Christian HORNER (Red Bull), Franz TOST (Toro Rosso).
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q. Christian, winner of the last two races. How has it affected the team and how has it affected Mark Webber? Do you feel a load is off his shoulders?
Christian HORNER: Yeah, I mean Germany was a fantastic weekend for Mark Webber. It was his first pole position and his first race win after 130 attempts. It was a big milestone in his career and he was very, very quick throughout the weekend. It was thoroughly deserved the result that he achieved. I think hopefully it will be a weight off his shoulders now. There is a big difference between thinking you can win and knowing you can win and he has crossed that line now, so I am sure we will see hopefully more victories for Mark in the near future.
Q. Is there a different atmosphere in the factory now?
CH: Everybody in the factory was extremely motivated coming into this season. We knew we had a good car. The effort that has gone into the development of this car is nothing short of astounding. The commitment that has been shown by so many unsung heroes back in the factory, in the garage here and at every grand prix so far this year has been quite staggering. I think the challenge we have had this year, combined with new regulations, has also been the lack of testing, so I am sure we, like other teams, are rushing though components at breakneck speed to get them to the car. Even components that were on the drawing board 10 days ago are finding themselves getting onto a car at a grand prix weekend which is unprecedented. The whole development pace is fanatical at the moment but the guys at Milton Keynes have risen to the challenge. The design team led by Adrian (Newey) and his guys have responded brilliantly well and that's resulted in the kind of performances that we have seen in the last couple of races.
Q. You talk about the design team and the pace of development. I am a little surprised that perhaps you haven't got a little update here. I know you had one a couple of races ago but with the beak coming up and then a double header surely it was important to have an update here?
CH: We have got a few little bits here. We are targeting to get something onto the car every single weekend. It is a challenge and the next challenge is obviously the summer break when we are not allowed to do anything, so we have got a week to produce whatever we are going to do for the next race in Valencia. But we have a few bits and pieces here. This weekend is obviously a big weekend. Theoretically this is Brawn territory and we are going to do our best to take the fight to them but there are a few other cars that also will go pretty quick this weekend.
Q. How do you feel about the balance between Brawn and yourselves over the last couple of races? Is it because they weren't suited to the conditions but you had made a step forward?
CH: I was very happy with the balance at the last two races. I think that yes, for sure, we have made a step. I think they have a great car and they started the year and came out of the blocks very quickly. I think over the last few races we have made steps. We have understood the double diffuser more and more and I think more than anything that has added performance to the car. We saw the first iteration of that in Monte Carlo, the second in Silverstone, so as we understand more of that philosophy it is just opening up more and more development avenues. I think that will continue throughout the rest of the season.
Q. Franz, first of all I think one of the things you have got to do is building up your own technical department. How is that coming along?
Franz TOST: It is coming along very well I must say. We have currently around 220 employees. We have started to run the wind tunnel in Bicester and in about two or three weeks we will have the CFD installed in Faenza and so far everything is to the time scale.
Q. The modifications here. Did they come from that group of people?
FT: No, the modifications here are coming from Milton Keynes, from Red Bull Technology. We are still getting the drawings from them because this is for this year's car. Regarding the designer group which is working in Faenza they are doing the job for next year's car.
Q. And how have those modifications worked out today?
FT: They worked out well and I think we made a step forward. We were out with some fuel in the car today and I expect that tomorrow at least we will be in the second qualifying.
Q. You have a new driver here with Jaime Alguersuari. He is the youngest driver ever to be in Formula One and he has not had a lot of experience in a Formula One seat. What was the thinking behind hiring him and also starting his season at this stage?
FT: The thinking behind is that first we were not happy with another driver which we exchanged. Then, as you know, Red Bull, respectively Dietrich Mateschitz, bought the second team to give young drivers a chance to come into Formula One. As you know Red Bull is running a very successful young driver programme and from these drivers Jaime is currently the most experienced, the fastest and the most mature driver. He is currently the youngest driver in a Formula One field but it does not mean he is inexperienced. He has so far done 118 races, he won 17 races. He had 36 finishes on the podium and he won last year the English Formula Three Championship and also this year in the World Series he has so far done a good job. In Le Mans last Sunday he finished in third position and therefore I don't think he is as inexperienced as other drivers think he is. Today he did 82 laps without any mistake and I think the times he did were quite impressive and I am quite convinced that Red Bull has chosen the correct driver and I am convinced that we will have a good future with him. The reason why he started here in Hungary is that five weeks ago he drove a race here for the Renault World Series and he finished in sixth position if I remember right. That means he was familiar with the track and it would have been a much greater risk to start with him in Valencia or even later than in Spa. Therefore he should enjoy being here in Hungary. He should enjoy sitting in the car and I am convinced he will do a good race.
Q. Norbert, you have KERS here. The difference in speed was very interesting at the last race, particularly of Lewis (Hamilton) across the start-finish line in comparison to everybody else which I guess was KERS assisted. Would you expect the same sort of thing here?
Norbert HAUG: Yes, so far I am not quite sure whether the timing is right but I hope it is. Then we have a big advantage in the first sector. The times were a little bit all over the place and I am not quite sure if the split times are the correct ones. But it is quite obvious that we have very good top speed at the start-finish line. Looking back at the Nurburgring I think Lewis really would have made it. Mark, certainly not by purpose, hit him and Lewis got a deflated tyre. He definitely would have made it around the corner and I am sure as Heikki (Kovalainen) showed that at least for the first 15 laps or whatever he could have been in the lead and then it would have been a different story, so that was bad luck, it was not on purpose. It could have been the other way around. You can lose or damage your front wing or whatever. It was very tight, Lewis coming from fifth but to overtake four guys ahead of him and such guys in the cars. That means quite something. It is not the longest straight at the Nurburgring, so I think that was a great achievement. And of course I hope for very much the same here. It would be better to be further up the grid but I doubt it. But maybe we can catch some guys in front of us at the start and then we will see how the race develops. I think we need reasonable lap times but definitely we are not in a position to go for race wins but I think since Silverstone, where we have been nowhere basically, we have improved a lot. You could see that at the Nurburgring where hopefully we were going in the right direction. Coming back to the basis of your question, our KERS is a big, big help, not only here but on various race tracks. Even in Monaco that was the case, I think we did competitive lap times. For obvious reasons we could not get the result there but we have been competitive there. We have been absolutely not competitive at the quick ones like Turkey and Silverstone. The Nurburgring is not the quickest either but we did a reasonable job there and hopefully we can continue that direction here.
*Q. You stated that it would be nice to have a German driver in the team. What is the situation with the current two?
NH: Well, I am stating that for 15 years to be honest and it is still the truth. Just to put it very clear. There is a lot of speculation going around and the newest one is that Lewis is afraid of a German driver in the team but I can honestly tell you that if you have had Fernando Alonso in your first year in the team and you were evenly matched with Fernando Alonso, then I don't think you should be afraid of any team-mate. We need to see how things are developing. I think Heikki did a great job. If you look at qualifying times and qualifying positions this is quite evenly matched between both of them and I think Lewis is a match for basically everybody. I think if you are not 9-0 after nine races, then this is positive and I think in Heikki's case it is quite balanced between both of them. I think we should keep that in mind, so there are no decisions taken. But, of course, I think all of us are looking at the market. This is our job and we are looking to develop opportunities. We helped young drivers a lot. I have to say I am absolutely pleased with the successes of Sebastian Vettel and also the other German guys. They are great guys, good friends. If they are better and quicker than us, then they beat us and that is fine. We just need to do a better job and I think that is the right atmosphere, when you appreciate that somebody else is doing a good job as well. But don't worry we are going to come back and we will be strong again sooner rather than later.
Q. Since the German Grand Prix there have been doubts about German Grand Prix next year. We haven't got a French Grand Prix this year. The British Grand Prix has some doubts around it. There is no American Grand Prix. It has been stated that some of the teams are worried about the grands prix in the future in their major markets, the ones that I have just mentioned. What can you do about reinstating those grands prix? What are the hopes of Constructors' such as yourselves?
NH: First of all I think the British Grand Prix in my view, as being an observer, as being a racer, gave the perfect answer on race day. I was surprised to hear lots of noise and lots of hoorays when I saw on television that Lewis was fighting with Fernando for whatever, 17th position. I think everybody stood up and clapped. These are the real enthusiasts and if Silverstone was not a fantastic race, it was not the most interesting one, we should have done a better job and we should have had more fights. But the people genuinely enjoyed it and not having a race there is, I think, not the right thing to do. Well, they can swap with Donington, it is not my business, but Silverstone proved they are absolutely capable of having a sensational grand prix. It is an historic race track. I like the race track very much. Even if we could not perform there we have won a couple of races there already. But I think races like these should be on the calendar and if they swap one year to the other with Donington, that is fine with me. The same applies to Germany. I think there is still a very good chance for Hockenheim. The Nurburgring was a good race as well, so I think the prospects are not bad to keep these traditional race tracks on the calendar. We, certainly in FOTA, whatever influence we will have, I think, it is our thinking that we would like to have races like these on the calendar.
Q. Stefano, how have this weekend's modifications worked out today?
Stefano DOMENICALI: Well, of course today we have done quite a different job on the cars. First of all we also started some work in relation to the new year, 2010, because we need to anticipate some development there because we know that from now to the end of the season we can have a lot of running. Secondly, we had some issues relating mainly to the usage of the tyres today. I don't think Felipe was really happy about the balance of the car in both conditions, even if I have to say that at the end of the day, when he was trying to do a good time on the supersofts, there were always yellow flags at the wrong moment, but that's part of the game. Kimi (Raikkonen) was not too bad, he felt that the car was reasonably good. I think that the modifications that we brought today gave what we expected, so it's really a matter of understanding how the situation is within the real framework. We know that in Hungary the situation on the first day is really very difficult to analyse as always in the past on a track that is not really perfect. We saw a lot of drivers having some difficulties, going wide or not being really clean on the track, and of course we need to understand the lap time exactly because the fuel effect is quite high. So we need to be very careful. And above all, this year, with such a different performance situation, day by day, run by run, we need to not draw any conclusions before the chequered flag, I would say. But for sure, we know that... I think Norbert made a good point: I don't think we are in a position to be ready to win a race from a performance point of view but we need to be ready, just in case something happens. I know that all the competitors are pushing very, very hard to improve their performance and we know that because the gaps are so small, a little step can make the difference. It's a challenging season. In this condition we need to take that now with a positive approach, when you are performing not at the standard that you wanted to react, so I think that's the situation today. Let's see tomorrow.
*Q. How much are you working towards next year and how much are you still concentrating on this year?
SD: We are totally concentrating on this year at the track. I think that now, after the August break, we will be fully concentrated on next year's car.
*Q. A lot of people have been talking about Kimi's performances this year and about his future; what is his future?
SD: I know there is a lot of speculation going around. As we always say, the question is that we don't ever say something about any driver, if he's performing well, if he's performing badly. We are always speaking about the team and that's our line. You know what the situation is with our two drivers and there's no change on that. Nothing to add on top of it. Up until 2010 we have an agreement with Kimi and Felipe, and that's the situation. No more than that.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q. (Ian Parkes - The Press Association) Stefano, it was suggested in Germany that by now the Concorde Agreement would have been signed. Could you explain what the latest situation is, how close are all three parties now?
SD: I think that we are progressing. I think that we are very, very close to reaching a solution. As always with such a complexity, the closer you get to the goal, the more everyone is trying to squeeze or to find different things around it but I am optimistic that before the August break everything will be sorted out.
Q. (Peter Farkas – Auto Motor) Question to Stefano and Norbert: it is being said that we will be down to five engines per driver for next year. How sure are you that it will happen because Cosworth has obviously voiced some concerns about being able to retune their engines and if it will stay at eight engines, will you still be able to offer your engines for five million euros for the independent teams?
SD: What I can say about that is, as I said, that the closer that you get to signatures on a document that also has to incorporate sporting and technical regulations from the baseline, for sure this is not a point that is 100 percent clear. This is the current situation. I think this is one of the most important points that we need to clear up.
Q. (Michael Trawniczek – Rallye and More) Mr Haug, is it true that you said that a crash similar to that of Henry Surtees is not possible in Formula One and if true, why are you so sure?
NH: I never said that.
Q. (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Stefano, could you explain to us what will happen during the summer break because it's something new, where you have to close the door?
*SD: We are looking forward to it; at least, for us, with one week to go and then, at least in my professional career, I've never had two weeks holiday in August, so I'm really looking forward to it. But basically we had to sign an agreement where all the teams would not go ahead with any kind of activity apart from maintenance, things that we need to do in that period to refresh or looking after the maintenance and structure of our buildings, but that there's no production, no design, no activity. This is something that we decided together in order to follow the rules of saving money for all the teams involved.
*CH: As an Italian you should know that the whole of Italy closes for a month anyway and we thought that it was only fair that the rest of the racing community does the same, at least for two weeks. So it's a very strange thing to have an enforced holiday, telling people that they can't work, they can't come into the factory. It's a compulsory, it's been agreed by FOTA, it's documented what we can and can't do. Yes, it's a lot of people who are forced to take a break for two weeks.
Q. (MC) Norbert, does that apply to the racing engine departments at Brixworth and Stuttgart as well?
NH: Absolutely.
Q. (Joris Fioriti – AFP) Your objective is to save money and reduce the costs of Formula One but the teams bring new updates and new steps forward at every single race. So to what level can we say that you are saving money because it seems that development has never been so fast?
*FT: OK, but within the new regulations development will be restricted. For example, with homologations next year: front wings, rear wings. They are homologated. You can bring out three new modifications, the floor as well, the monocoque, also only one crash structure. That means that FOTA has worked out quite a good programme where we are convinced that we can reduce costs.
CH: I think that we've already seen significant savings this year. I think that the testing ban has saved significant money. I think that the work that was done on the engines and if you look at the decrease in price in engines over the last three years, predominantly through the work of FOTA - the FIA has obviously signed it off - is significant. So I think teams have already reduced budgets this year by between fifteen and thirty percent and I think that there will be further significant savings through the resource restrictions that are planned to be implemented. We'll even be restricted on the number of people that we potentially plan to take to a race circuit next year. I think Formula One has reacted responsibly. It has moved to get its costs under control. It's positive to see three new teams entered for next year which would have been impossible, I think, without the resource restrictions that will be introduced.
NH: I think the engine is a very special issue. If you look back two years, an engine lease was four times as much money as it will be next year, and I think that's quite remarkable. FOTA worked on that. I stress, this is a FOTA idea and of course you need to be in a position to produce these engines, so I think that's a really perfect fix and something that is a very special price. I don't think that three years ago anybody could have imagined that this would have happened. In our case, we will spend thirty percent less money as Mercedes Benz than we did last year and this is just the beginning. I'm sure we can improve much more and these resource restrictions are really the way to go and we are very restrictive. These guys put a lot of work into that, much, much more than I did. Martin Whitmarsh, for example, worked flat out and there was a great atmosphere and I think this is the new style of Formula One. You are competitors on the race track but you work together next to the race track and this is really happening, and I think this is a very, very positive development. I think FOTA will improve further and be open, help the media to get the job done and so on and so on and this is not singing a song, this is what we want to do, step by step, what we want to develop, because some things can just be improved and we need to make sure that the spectators like our sport even more, so more interesting races, and so on and so on and there are quite a few ideas and a very constructive co-operation between the teams.
SD: I think that Norbert is totally correct. We don't have to underestimate that this year it is due to FOTA that we are able to save money, above all in the area of the engine. Now, hopefully we will get all the Concorde (Agreement), all the other things done and now FOTA should concentrate on the main things that we have outlined at the beginning, to try to put ahead ideas on improving the show, put ahead ideas on keeping the restrictions that we have discussed. Now is the time to revert to the main objectives of FOTA, as we said, working together with the FIA in proposing something new and giving back the positiveness of Formula One because otherwise we will loop around something that is not beneficial to anyone. We need to make sure that people or sponsors that were on hold now, because of the situation, once again will give the green light, they will find that Formula One is attractive. This is the job that we have to do because otherwise we will miss our objective and this is what we want to start on. Unfortunately we have delayed with our previous planning but now we have to focus on this.
Q. (Peter Farkas – Auto Motor) Christian has just mentioned the testing ban, so what is the future of the in-season testing ban because I've heard some drivers and even team bosses saying that it's just too much not to have any kind of testing, just some straight-line testing during the season? Is there an intention to change that next year maybe?
*CH: I think that the testing for next year is being worked on at the moment within the sporting working group and it will be 15 days of common testing between the teams prior to the season and obviously we then have the three young driver days. I guess this is something that will be debated, as to when you run your young driver days, in order to not prevent youngsters coming in to Formula One. I think it's finding that balance (that is difficult) but I think that can be done quite easily.
Q. (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Cutting costs also means cutting jobs; could you give us some figures about teams next season, how many less people in the aerodynamic department, engine department, chassis department, etc?
SD: All that I can say is that we are working on a situation in order to reduce the number of people at races. All the other things are related to something that we will exploit internally because everyone has their own organisation, so we cannot say that everyone is doing the same thing as the others. But for sure what we are aiming at now is to look at the number of people that attend races.
Morning session: Séastien Buemi 1:23.998 37 laps; Jaime Alguersuari 1:24.228 42 laps. Afternoon session: Séb 1:23.176 45 laps; Jaime 1:23.942 40 laps.
Sebastien Buemi
(STR4-03)
“We have the new package on the car here, but it’s not a magic trick, where you put something on the car and go a lot faster immediately. At the moment, we are trying to understand what it does in terms of car balance. It is definitely better and now our task is to get the most out of it. In between sessions there is not enough time to go in depth into the data, so this evening we will get a better picture. Generally, it has been a positive day and I think we can have a degree of confidence for qualifying. Having a new team-mate does not affect me that much as I drive my car on my own! The team seems happy and he produced a good performance.”
First Practice Session
Best lap 1.23.998, pos. 19th, 37 laps
Second Practice Session
Best lap 1.23.176, pos. 19th, 45 laps
Jaime Alguersuari
(STR4-02)
“I am quite happy with how today has gone, especially this morning, when I had a good pace and felt quite confident. In the second session, my lap time could have been better, but I didn’t get a clean lap on the option tyre. I am learning all the time. The hardest part was the entry into the high speed corners, which I need to take much faster, but that will come as my confidence grows and I do more kilometres. Every time I went out from the garage, I was learning and felt more comfortable with the situation.”
First Practice Session
Best lap 1.24.228, pos. 20th, 42 laps
Second Practice Session
Best lap 1.23.942, pos. 20th, 40 laps
Franz Tost: “Jaime did a very good job in his first day of practice in Formula 1. He completed a total of 82 laps without making any mistakes. With every lap, he got more used to the car, to working with his engineers and to the general environment. Overall, it’s been a good preparation for tomorrow’s qualifying and for the race. A fantastic job so far.”
First Session
F. Massa:
8° 1.22.855 25 laps 277 Chassis
K. Raikkonen:
7° 1.22.796 23 laps 279 Chassis
Second Session
F. Massa:
18° 1.23.156, 32 laps 277 Chassis
K. Raikkonen:
11° 1.22.763, 38 laps 279 Chassis
Weather
First session:
air 26/29 °C, track 30/37 °C; sunny.
Second
session: air 30 °C, track 42/41 °C; sunny.
The first day of testing for the Hungarian Grand Prix is traditionally very difficult to interpret or to offer pointers because of the track conditions, which usually change significantly over the course of the weekend. This Friday was no exception to that rule, with 19 drivers all within eleven tenths and the two Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro drivers ending the day on track with contrasting impressions. “It was a slightly different Friday to usual,” said Stefano Domenicali. “This was because we also began to work with a view to next season, especially so in the morning. The classification is very tight and clearly, while evaluating it, we have to take into account the usual unknowns linked to fuel loads and tyre use. We still have work to do to be as well prepared as possible for tomorrow’s qualifying which is bound to be very tight. It won’t take much to be either on the front row or down the back.”
*Felipe Massa: “I’m not happy with how things went today. I struggled a lot just to get the balance on the car to an acceptable level and found the tyres offered little grip, especially the harder ones, to such an extent I wasn’t able to do a real long run on either types of tyre. On top of that, in the final part of the second session I had a problem with the rear suspension after going off the track, which cost me valuable time. Here, the conditions change a lot from one day to the next and I really hope that will be the case again this time.”
*Kimi Raikkonen: “Today, the car wasn’t that bad. There are still some small things that we can work on to make it quicker, but overall, I am reasonably happy. This year, the supersoft tyre has always been very difficult to manage, but here it seems the situation is rather more straightforward. We’ll see what we can manage tomorrow, but this is definitely a better Friday than those in the recent past. Seeing how close the times are, we will have to try and do the maximum to get a good grid position. It seems to me that the performance level of the various cars at this track is much closer one to the other.”
Chris Dyer: “A very busy Friday for the team, both because we worked in a slightly different way to usual and because we had to solve a few problems on the rear suspension, linked to some off track excursions. Furthermore, we did the usual job of comparing the two types of tyre brought here by Bridgestone and it’s clear we are struggling a bit, as indeed we usually do, in terms of doing a time on the first flying lap, especially on the harder tyre. From what we could see in today’s three hours of practice, everyone is very evenly matched and we will have to do our utmost to get a good qualifying result, which here more than at some other tracks, is very important in terms of the outcome of the race.”
Stefano Domenicali, Ferrari team principal:
“It was a slightly different Friday to usual. This was because we also began to work with a view to next season, especially so in the morning. The classification is very tight and clearly, while evaluating it, we have to take into account the usual unknowns linked to fuel loads and tyre use. We still have work to do to be as well prepared as possible for tomorrow’s qualifying which is bound to be very tight. It won’t take much to be either on the front row or down the back.”
Fernando Alonso - 12th: "It was a fairly normal day of practice, although it wasn't easy to cope with the constantly evolving track. The morning was all about getting used to the car again and in the afternoon we concentrated on understanding the two different tyres, which gave us some useful information for the race. We managed to complete our programme and I think we can be happy with the job we have done today. For tomorrow morning we need to get ready for qualifying as grid position will be very important for the race."
*Nelson Piquet - 15th: "It wasn't an easy day because I had to learn about the new parts that I have on my car this weekend, as well as working on the set-up. As Fernando already had these updates in Germany, I've been able to get some set-up feedback from his data. Generally the Hungaroring is a circuit where it's quite difficult to find the right set-up, especially as the track is so dirty and bumpy. So far we have lots of data that we will look over this evening to prepare for tomorrow. It's difficult to say if it's possible to qualify in the top ten, but we're doing everything we can to have a quick car for tomorrow."
Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering: "It was quite a straightforward day of practice for us. As usual, we concentrated on understanding the tyres, particularly as we have the super-soft compound here, which is generally more difficult to use than the other compounds. However, today it was extremely satisfactory, for both short and long runs, so we feel confident for the remainder of the weekend."
LEWIS HAMILTON
MP4-24-04
P1 programme 20 laps 1m22.554s (3rd)
P2 programme 36 laps 1m22.079s (1st)
How was today?
"Firstly, I love driving here: it's quite a complex circuit, very technical, lots of bumps and you need a good rhythm. It's definitely in my top five tracks on the calendar. We've refined the improvements we had at the Nurburgring and they seem to be working, but we've still got a lot of work to do to beat the Red Bulls particularly. Nevertheless, it's encouraging to be able to push the car - I'm happier with it than I've been all season."
Where is MP4-24 lacking pace?
"Over the bumps and at the exits of corners: unlike the Red Bulls and the Brawns, we're just not able to get the power down as early as them. It's the speed out of the corners onto the straights where we lose out. Still, the guys at the factory have done an incredible job; I'm looking forward to seeing them next week, just to express how thankful I am for all the hard work they've been doing."
What do you expect for qualifying?
"The front row would be beautiful but, to be honest, I'm just aiming to get into Q3. The car is much more competitive - we've come from 2.5s off but we're still about four to five tenths off the leaders, so we've got to keep working to make that up before we can start thinking about winning."
HEIKKI KOVALAINEN
MP4-24-03
P1 programme 21 laps 1m22.278s (1st)
P2 programme 36 laps 1m22.126s (2nd)
A great result in both sessions - what's made the difference for you?
"I've got the full upgrade package that Lewis raced at the Nurburgring and the car now feels much better to drive. We've got a new floor, new front wing, updated bodywork and some small changes to the suspension. It's a big package - and I know how hard the team has worked to get everything here. There are still components arriving at the circuit today!"
How different does the car feel with the upgrade package?
"The grip level is so much higher now. Stability under braking is much better, and the guys have done a fantastic job to improve the balance at the rear. We still have to keep working hard to make further improvements - but this is a great starting point."
How positive do you now feel ahead of qualifying?
"I still think we need to look at the data and analyse the strength of the opposition. Of course, it would be fantastic to carry this over into qualifying and the race, but we need to be realistic: I'm sure tomorrow morning will give us a much clearer idea of the position of the Brawns and the Red Bulls. But after today's performance, I'll definitely be going for it."
MARTIN WHITMARSH
Team principal, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
How have you managed to achieve such impressive improvements recently?
"The new aero package that Lewis's car was fitted with in Germany was originally intended for Hungary, but as things turned out we were able to introduce it one race early on one car only. Here, in Budapest, we've been able to use it on both cars. It's a pretty major change, which has taken us down a different aerodynamic route from the one we initially followed with MP4-24's design, and I think it's fair to say that that new direction appears to be a fruitful one. In addition, we've also made a few extra aero mods over and above the original Hungary aero package, and both drivers have clearly benefited from those mods today. As a result, MP4-24 is now generating a significant amount more downforce than it was at the beginning of the year - and, combined with what was always a pretty sound mechanical package, the result is the performance step we've seen today."
What are Lewis and Heikki saying about the car today?
"A racing driver will always drive up to and including his car's limits. So, whenever you extend those limits by improving his car's performance, his initial reaction on his first outing will always be a very positive one, simply because he's been enjoying exploring new, higher, limits. On his second outing, by which time he'll have encountered those new, higher, limits, he'll be making fresh observations. As a result, his feedback will be less positive than it was after his first outing. But that's exactly as it should be: you want your drivers to be insatiably ambitious, and ours are."
What can we expect for the rest of the weekend?
"This morning was basically a test session in which we did some disciplined development work and gathered some useful data. This afternoon we turned our attention to trialling race fuel loads and doing tyre comparisons. There were no big issues, and our drivers both performed well. We learned quite a lot today, in fact. For tomorrow, we hope to be able to improve our car's ride a little, and to continue to optimise its set-up and thereby find a little more speed. We know what programme we were on today in terms of tyres and fuel loads, but we don't have the same information about our competitors, so it would be foolish to make predictions about the rest of the weekend. Suffice it to say that we hope to qualify well with both cars, from which platform there's no reason why we shouldn't be able to race competitively on Sunday."
NORBERT HAUG
Vice-president, Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
"Quite a constructive first day on this demanding track. Clearly, our KERS Hybrid is a big help around this circuit - particularly in the first sector. But, in addition, it's obvious that our car in total has improved a lot since Silverstone two races ago. Now we need to continue in the same direction tomorrow and on Sunday in order to finally bring home a creditable and respectable result."
Rubens Barrichello - 7th: "Our programme today was to work with the two tyre compounds to fully understand their working range and the impact on the set-up and balance of the car. Most of my day was focused on evaluating the prime tyre which proved not have a great deal of grip so it was important to establish some set-up assumptions. We then tried the option tyre later this afternoon which seemed to be quicker. Overall I'm pretty happy with our progress today."
Jenson Button - 13th: "It's been a much better Friday for us than at the last couple of races. Obviously the temperatures are higher here which works in our favour and we have some good aerodynamic updates to the car for this race. We achieved a lot of important work today with the tyres and whilst we have some way to go to get them working at their optimum, it's a good start to the weekend."
Ross Brawn: "A productive day for us today and we're pleased with the amount of set-up work that we have been able to achieve over the two sessions. The initial feedback from the performance improvements that we've brought to this race looks positive and both Rubens and Jenson were happy with the progress made. The temperatures were pretty much as we expected with the hot and sunny conditions enabling us to make reasonable use of the tyres and develop our understanding of their performance characteristics. We will now look through the data this evening to ensure we are ready for qualifying, which is crucial here as there are limited overtaking opportunities, but overall a positive start to our weekend."
Adrian Sutil - 16th: "Today was quite a tough day. The grip level was so low on the circuit and it was hard to judge the tyres. The balance in general is hard to get and the car is difficult to drive. We're getting some oversteer and then understeer in the mid corner with a lot of snaps over the bumps. It is made harder as the grip levels are changing constantly, but we've got lots of data to work on so I'm confident we'll find some more tomorrow."
Giancarlo Fisichella - 17th: "Everything went reasonably well today as we went through the programme. The balance for me was not too bad, particularly on the longer run I did in the afternoon, but the circuit is still quite low on grip. Unfortunately on my last run with the new tyres I had some traffic on the first lap so couldn't warm the tyres adequately and I locked up into turn one and got a flat spot and some vibration. I couldn't improve my lap time with the new tyres in the end, but we do know that there is more to come."
Dominic Harlow, chief race engineer: "During FP1 both cars carried out some structured tests whilst the circuit improved and most of the work was about gathering data. It was quite tricky to balance the cars this afternoon, with the wind and warm temperatures adding to the mix. Nevertheless both drivers worked diligently and aside from a minor issue that delayed Adrian's baseline outing there were no serious problems. As expected the closer tyre compounds available here have produced some interesting data for us to analyse as we prepare a strategy for the race."
Hirohide Hamashima - Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre Development
What was significant about today's running?
"Today was all about track improvement and finding set-up. As we would expect here in Hungary, the track surface developed a lot over the course of the day, as the surface was cleaned and rubber was laid. Temperatures were hot so we did see a lot of heat generated in the tyres, especially when cars were heavy and sliding on the slippery surface. Interestingly, we did not see as much graining as we would normally expect here. Lap times were close with a second covering the top 17 cars in the afternoon."
How do you expect this allocation to work over the weekend?
"Some drivers told us today that they didn't have enough grip with the soft compound, however past experience shows us that the circuit improves a lot so we don't expect it to be an issue on Sunday. Both compounds worked well, so the team who can find the best set-up for qualifying and then the race will do well. This is more difficult than usual as the track develops so much here. How much track improvement we see, and the temperatures we experience on race day will help determine the race strategy. I think we are set for a very interesting weekend."
Nico Rosberg, P1 - 1:22.337, 2nd; P2 - 1:22.154, 3rd
“We have made some good progress today in the sessions, but I don’t yet feel completely happy in the car and I think we can find some more improvement tomorrow. The tyres will be quite interesting to work out as although they are quite close together, the option at the end of a run is obviously a bit slower than the prime. We will have to analyse carefully which way we go in the race and I think that the answer might not be too obvious. We also spent some time testing the new aero parts we have here.”
Kazuki Nakajima, P1 - 1:22.619, 5th; P2 - 1:22.426, 5th
“It was a good session today. We recorded some good long runs and although our short runs were not quite as good, if we can fix this by working with the data, we will be looking good for tomorrow.”
Sam Michael, Williams’ technical director:
“It was a good practice today, we managed to get through everything on set-up and testing the new aero parts we have here. Everything went well on both fronts. We then spent the afternoon session evaluating the two different tyres, both of which look quite good for us, so from here we will be concentrating on qualifying and refining the set-up for tomorrow. We had no technical problems today.”
Jarno Trulli, P1 - 1:22.705, 6th; P2 - 1:22.663, 8th
“It was a difficult day for me and I had a bit of trouble. It was disappointing we couldn't do all the work we had planned in second practice due to the problem but the team did a great job to get the car ready again so quickly. It's not easy to say where we are in terms of competitiveness or set-up because it didn't run as smoothly as normal. The track conditions evolved quite a lot during the day, as expected, and by the end of the second session there was a lot more grip than in the morning. Now it is important to make the best possible use of tomorrow's practice session so we are well prepared for qualifying."
Timo Glock, P1 - 1:23.234, 14th; P2 - 1:22.751, 10th
"Today was quite positive for me and overall I am definitely happier than at this stage of the weekend at the Nurburgring. The car felt quite good, especially later in second practice when the track had rubbered in more. There wasn't a lot of grip this morning or for the first few laps of the afternoon session so it was a little tricky but it improved after that. So I am happy with how things have gone for me, but of course we still have work to do to improve the set-up even more. We have taken a step in the right direction and I hope for a strong qualifying tomorrow."
Dieter Gass, Toyota chief engineer race and test:
"As usual here in Hungary, the track initially had quite poor grip but this improved significantly during the sessions. We had some temperature problems on Jarno's car in the afternoon which caused him to stop on track at one stage. Also, his morning session was also not entirely trouble-free and we needed to change some components, which cost a little time. So he lost a bit of running and is therefore a little behind in his programme. Timo had a smooth day without any problems so we will transfer some of the information we learned from his work to Jarno's car. It is interesting to see how close the field is today, with almost the whole field covered by one second, so it will be really important tomorrow to get everything spot on in qualifying and get the cars as far up the grid as we can."
Nick Heidfeld, P1 - 1:23.154, 12th; P2 - 1:22.690, 9th
“We are making progress, although I’m not satisfied with the balance of the car yet. It is not just as I want it would be - neither on a single lap nor on a long run. You can feel the tyre compounds are now more similar to each other than they used to be, but I’m afraid the tyres are still not really good. Despite the traffic on the track, I was lucky this time and had quite a few clear laps.”
Robert Kubica, P1 - 1:23.146, 11th; P2 - 1:22.870, 14th
“Today it was very hot. The car in the morning session felt good straightaway. In the first run especially I was quite happy. When there was more rubber on the track we tested some new parts and a modified front wing. In the afternoon I was not too happy with the car. We now have to compare the data from the two sessions and find the right balance.”
Willy Rampf, BMW Sauber head of engineering:
“We used some new parts today, which prior to this had only been tested in the wind tunnel. Therefore we put a lot of emphasis on working on the set-up of the car and finding a good baseline. I think we were able to make a small step forward. Compared to the last two races, the ambient temperatures are much higher here which makes the set-up work quite a bit easier. Both drivers also completed long-runs in the afternoon to gather some information on the tyres.”
Mark Webber - 4th: "We've had a good day so far. It's normal for Budapest to be pretty warm, so we've experienced the normal characteristics and the problems that Budapest throws at the engineers and drivers. The car seems to be going okay at the moment - we'll see what fuel loads people are running as usual tomorrow and on Sunday. We've got a bit of work to do with our car but, in general, it's been a reasonably positive day, with the exception of stopping towards the end of the second session with a hydraulic problem."
Sebastian Vettel - 6th: "A hot, hot Friday, obviously the sun is out in Hungary, which makes it hot in the car, but it's okay. Overall I think we are still struggling to find the balance – I'm not yet 100% happy, so we need to look into it carefully overnight to see where we are. Hopefully we can make a step forward tomorrow and then it will be all about qualifying as usual. I think it's much closer here than at previous races, other teams are very competitive, so we will see!"
