The Friday in F1 US GP weekend was quite sedate as Ferrari led the way in both the sessions, where FP2 saw most undertaking Pirelli tyre test.
It was relatively quiet Friday in F1 US GP weekend at Circuit of the Americas as teams and drivers focused a lot on tyre testing for 2023 along with preparing for the grand prix ahead. Some had limited time overall due to four rookies taking part.
Ferrari were in that position with Charles Leclerc sitting out in FP1 and having to do extra work in FP2 to catch up. The Monegasque got through all his programme as he and Carlos Sainz set the pace – of course in sessions like on Friday, times didn’t reflect true picture.
The pecking order truly is not certain as the Red Bull pair of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez noted as well. They had a decent running for the weekend data and Pirelli tyre testing, while Mercedes pair were upbeat about the updates they have in place.
Sainz: “We were definitely on the pace today. It hasn’t been an easy day with the bumps; it’s always challenging here in Austin to have a good balance and to have a good ride over the kerbs and bumps. But in general, even if it wasn’t the most comfortable car to drive out there, we were quick, which is what counts. As for the tyres, in terms of pure pace, it does. In terms of feeling, not so much. There’s still a bit of work to do on the car for tomorrow, especially FP3 where we need to test a couple of things that we couldn’t test in FP2 because of the Pirelli test – so a few things are on the checklist.”
Verstappen: “FP1 was quite good. We tried a few things with the car and I think immediately we were there, so it was very positive. Of course, we knew FP2 was going to be different with the tyre test. It was a bit difficult to get a proper read, but at least we completed the programme. It’s the same for everyone. We have a bit of information from FP1 and I think the car was already in quite a decent window. Let’s see tomorrow – first of all – how we are over one lap. The long run is a little bit more of a question mark, just because we all missed FP2, but I think it’s going to be OK.”
Hamilton: “Everything went to plan, and firstly I’m super grateful to everyone back at the factory for working so hard and bringing us an upgrade this weekend. It’s been a tough year for everyone at the factory, and for them to continuously be pushing and keeping their heads out and pulling out these new pieces, I’m super grateful. And I kept the car in one piece today, which is good, just about. And just about felt some improvements in the car… FP1 was feeling quite good and I’m hoping we make some changes tonight and tomorrow we’ll see where we stand. But it doesn’t feel like we’re too far from everybody.
“As for the tyres, it’s quite like a fun experiment to be honest just to get out there, you don’t know what to expect, and there’s always just a different balance – the tyres reacting in so many different ways each time you go out, when you’re trying something new. It’s interesting, so as you’re just trying to get into the groove and trying to feel it and trying to feel what the difference is and trying to store what the differences are, so when you’re coming in you have to try and jot them all down.”
The fight behind the Top 3 teams saw Aston Martin pop themselves up again with the likes of Alpine and McLaren in the fray. Even AlphaTauri were inside the Top 10 to show good pace, while Alfa Romeo, Haas and Williams hovered just outside it.
With the tyre test scenario, the pace prediction is not clear for the moment but the order is likely not to change much with the Top 10 seeing the three mentioned teams fighting it out, while the rest would look to find the extra tenth to make themselves in.
Stroll: “It felt pretty good out there today, but tomorrow’s practice session will probably give a better indication of where we stack up in this really close midfield. We were able to focus on both long and short runs despite the reduced running in FP1, so that was useful. But, we still have speed to find and a few things we can tweak here and there to find some performance. Everyone is in the same boat in terms of preparation this weekend due to the tyre test. On those tyres we ran this afternoon, it was difficult to generate heat quickly with the cooler tyre blankets.”
Norris: “A reasonable day. This is a difficult circuit, some parts are still quite bumpy, which is a challenge in this car. Some parts of the track are smoother where they’ve resurfaced it. I think we’ve found a direction to go in with the set-up, so we’ll make some more changes overnight, as it seemed in the right direction from FP1 to FP2. FP2 we didn’t really get to try too many things because of the tyre test. Reasonable Friday and I look forward to tomorrow.”
Ocon: “It’s nice to be back in Austin and driving at the Circuit of the Americas, a track I really enjoy. It was obviously an unusual Friday for everyone as we really only had Free Practice 1 to work on our set-up with this year’s tyres, making this a relatively short day for us. It was interesting, however, to test next year’s tyres during Free Practice 2 along with new tyre blanket temperatures and various other things that we’ll be working with in 2023. We’ll be looking at the data from both sessions closely and see what set-up items we can come up with for tomorrow.”
Gasly: “On paper we expected to struggle with this track, but our performance and speed in FP1 was really good. The car has been feeling better than the last two weekends, so we hope we can make another step forward tomorrow. I don’t want to change the car too much, because the initial feeling is good, but FP3 will give us a chance to finetune specific places to extract more from the car, to allow us to hopefully fight for the top ten in Quali.”
Guanyu: “It’s been good fun out there today: the track is one of the bumpiest I’ve driven so far, but nevertheless it felt like a nice layout, with a nice variety of different speed corners. I think I learned quite a lot, even though FP2 was a bit limited because of the tyre test: in the first practice session, I felt at ease straight away, so hopefully we can keep up this momentum ahead of qualifying tomorrow. Q2, as always, will be our minimum aim; we know we’ve done it before and we want to do it again. The battle for Q3 will likely be quite tight, and much will depend on how good one’s lap is. If everything works with the new package, then we can have a nice shot at it, even though I will have a five-place grid penalty for Sunday. It will be a bit difficult starting from behind, but of course we will do our best.”
Giovinazzi: “I wasn’t pushing but there were lots of gusts of wind and unfortunately I lost the rear, which got stuck in the barriers, and the session was over. It was only my second push lap in the session, my first with DRS, so apologies to the team. It’s racing and sometimes these things happen.”
Apart from the above, the FP1 session in F1 US GP saw Alex Palou, Robert Shwartzman, Theo Pourchaire and Logan Sargeant in action for McLaren, Ferrari, Alfa Romeo and Williams respectively as part of the regulation and they all had a pretty decent time.
Pourchaire: “It was amazing, best hour of my life… amazing track, I was discovering this track, and the car as well – wow! It’s a lot of emotions right now. So, so happy, and I am happy to help the team as well – to work, they did some tests – and it’s all good. So, everyone is happy. It’s a good start to the weekend. It was a good session. We did quite a lot of laps. There was a red flag at the beginning so it compromised a bit the start of the session, but yeah, all good. Good laps; did some mistakes – I tried to push the limits and I tried to understand some things… all the settings on the steering wheel, I come from F2 [so] it’s a lot different. But it’s a good experience.”
Sargeant: “I think the main goal coming into today was just to learn as much as possible. And I did feel like I did pick up on a lot. Very different from what I honestly expected, but in a good way. A lot of potential to still pick up on and improve on but I think it was a good start, and I’m happy with how it went.”
Palou: “It was awesome, had so much fun, learned a lot, and the session was quite a lot shorter than when I’m looking from home. I think I was pretty privileged to have run with the previous car before, so I came here, the new cars are really, really awesome. I think this is a proper track for F1 as well, so yeah, super happy with our performance, everything I learned, and hopefully we can help a little bit more the team with everything we collected. And yeah, I’ll be watching and cheering for them during this weekend.”
Shwartzman: “It was awesome, to be honest. It was awesome and hard. Obviously, I haven’t driven a car in a while. This year most of my work was on the sim, which obviously, you know, your body forgets all the feelings of driving in a real car – getting the real bumps, the g-forces, was something very, very new.”
Here’s what happened in FP1 of F1 US GP
Here’s what happened in FP2 of F1 US GP