It was a relatively smooth Friday in F1 Singapore GP but the drivers found it tricky all through to find the limits of the car to extract as much.
The Friday in F1 Singapore GP was relatively calm but the usual challenges of Marina Bay circuit was on display with the drivers having to adjust how much they could push near the dangerous walls. In general, the cars were sliding around more than before.
The lap times were also a bit slower than 2019 as they got to grips with the circuit in the new car. Ferrari set the pace in FP2 after Mercedes took top honours, even though both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell reckon they have a lot of work to do.
The porpoising did return to a certain extent which caused for balance issues and they don’t expect top honours in the race but more in the near region of podium place. At the same time, both Ferrari and Red Bull are counting Mercedes in the game.
They too had their own sets of problems, where Max Verstappen lost time in FP2 due to various set-ups they were trying. It was same for Sergio Perez but the Mexican did not have a clean lap while he also had some engine troubles.
For Ferrari, they in general faced grip issues where Carlos Sainz had multiple moments both in FP1 and FP2, even though he topped the latter. Charles Leclerc did not get as many laps he wanted to and requested for more in FP3.
Verstappen: “I think it started off quite well in FP1; I think the car was working quite well. For FP2 we wanted to try a few things, but they just took a bit longer to change. Then we wanted to try something else and, again, that took quite a long time to change again. We couldn’t really run a lot [so] that’s why I think it’s not really representative, what we showed in FP2. Of course, there’s still a lot of room for improvement, but it’s not the worst day. Around here it’s most important that you’re quick over one lap. We’ll analyse a lot of things. We did a little bit of a long run in FP1, so I don’t think it will be the end of the world.”
Leclerc: “In terms of performance, it’s been a positive day; in terms of running it’s been a very, very difficult day for us. We’ve had quite a bit of problems and very limited running, we need to catch up in FP3. It seems like the performance is good, but we still need to do a step from today to tomorrow. Hopefully we’ll have more running in FP3 tomorrow to get ready for qualifying. We’ll go for the maximum result. We’ll target pole and we’ll see what’s possible.”
Sainz: “We faced some challenges in FP1 – definitely a surprise with how bumpy and how poor the car was in general in terms of ride, and how rough it felt out there. For FP2, we managed to improve a bit the car, but we still have some things to look at, because it looks like it is going to be a tight battle for [us] six. I think today there were a couple of guys with issues that didn’t put probably their best possible lap time together, and I think tomorrow we all have a lot of margin to improve. I expect tomorrow to be a lot quicker, and I think both the Ferraris, the Red Bulls and the Mercs are going to step it up, and we’re going to need to be the ones that step it up the most.”
Hamilton: “It started off well. It wasn’t as great in the second session, but it was pretty much like every other weekend. The car is as it is, we were bouncing around, but it doesn’t feel like we are massively off here this weekend. We are still probably a second down, I would say – something like that. There’s definitely, on my side, more time [to find] – I just didn’t really get a clear lap. With the set-up I have, I have a lot of tyre locking, but we’ll fix it tonight and come back and give it a better try tomorrow. I’m hoping we can be P5, P4 – something like that. If we can get any higher, that would be amazing.”
Behind them, Alpine seemed on pace in F1 Singapore GP with Esteban Ocon in the Top 10 along with Fernando Alonso as they looked to be in a strong position than their direct competition McLaren, who struggled a bit despite the updates they had.
In fact, Lando Norris reckoned they were even behind Alfa Romeo who hovered around the Top 10. Valtteri Bottas seemed positive of making it in the Top 10 along with Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, who found pace despite his FP1 crash along with Sebastian Vettel.
For AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly, it was a save in the pitlane after his airbox caught fire due to fuel breather issue. They already had limited running on Yuki Tsunoda’s side which puts them on the backfoot a bit, while Williams’ Alexander Albon said he ran without much issues.
Ocon: “It’s been a good day; [it’s] good to tackle the challenge of Singapore. The car has been performing well, we’ve been trying to understand now our updates, trying to make them work as best as we can. That’s still obviously ongoing and so far, it’s been going in the right direction. The car felt quite healthy today and I was glad straight away that I had confidence since the beginning of the morning. So, it’s been pretty good. Obviously qualifying is mega important – it’s hard to pass – but the race is so long that it is also quite important. We are going to need to think about getting the right strategy. That’s still for Sunday but let’s have a good day tomorrow also. I think we look competitive in long run and short runs, well in the top 10. I think from FP1 to FP2 we also made a good step in terms of performance compared to the top cars in front. It’s still early days, qualifying is only tomorrow but I am pretty pleased about today.”
Norris: “It’s looking tough, like, we’re a long way off Alfa Romeo, a long, long, long way off Alpine, so looking like one of the tougher weekends – which is a shame, but it’s the way it is. We’ll maximise it and do the best we can with the car we’ve got and the performance we have this weekend, and we’ll keep pushing. It’s all we can do for now, so some small things to hopefully find tomorrow and we can still go for it. It’s just not looking as easy as normal.
“Nothing surprising, let’s say, in any way, so that’s a good thing. But like I said before, yesterday to the media, it’s not an upgrade, it’s just a different car that performs at a very similar level. We weren’t expecting like a big step or to go much quicker or look more competitive today… it’s a car which will hopefully allow us to unlock more in the future, into next year. So, this is again, not a short-term thing; it’s more of a long-term thing. It’s been working well and as we expect, it’s just trying to learn about it and try and unlock some small things for tomorrow.”
Gasly: “I’m loving this track, it’s a really special place and very technical. It obviously wasn’t ideal to have the small fire when we connected the fuel breather, as we lost some running, but it was easily put out, ultimately it just burnt some paint, and we could get back out on track fairly soon after. Overall, on the performance side we’re not that happy right now, we were quite far back in FP2, and we didn’t have the pace to make it into the top 10 this evening, so we need to find something more for tomorrow. We brought some small upgrades here this weekend, which we’ll need to now go away and analyse some more, so we can get the most out of them moving forward.”
Stroll: “Driving in Singapore is always good fun, but it is also really demanding in very hot conditions. I brushed the wall in FP1 today, but fortunately we did not damage the car too much. We did some important homework, especially in the second session, and I think this is going to be a race of opportunity. We will go through the data tonight and see where we can make some progress before qualifying tomorrow.”
Bottas: “It’s been quite a positive Friday, a clean day in which we could go through all our programme nicely and do lots of laps. Our pace looks quite decent and it’s nice to see we are in a condition to fight for Q3 tomorrow. It was interesting to have our first outing with the new cars here: the track felt a bit bumpy, but I was expecting more. I was still able to enjoy the track and had some good fun. Of course, there’s more pace to find tonight: analysing the gaps between the tyre compounds will be crucial, but we had a good start and we can build on that.
Albon: “Okay. I’d leave it at okay! We knew it was going to be difficult, but I feel like I’m coping better than I expected. We’ve had a good amount of long runs. It’s still a quarter of what we’d be doing come race day on Sunday, but I’ve still got a day to rest tomorrow and of course, just it being one race and one block of driving, it should hopefully be not too bad. It feels okay when I’m in the car, generally speaking. It’s more just the heat! When you get out, you can feel that it’s obviously physical. But I feel like there’s no big issues so I’m feeling pretty good. It feels like we know where we’re struggling, that’s the main thing.
“It feels like the car’s got a little bit more potential in it. We knew that coming here, we were, let’s say, a little bit more behind than we were in Monza. The circuit doesn’t tend to go in our favour; this is a very downforce efficient circuit – it’s 22, 23, corners around here, not many straight lines to get that lap time back. We’re doing what we can. I feel like there’s definitely lap time to be had, I’m still getting into the rhythm and getting closer to the walls, that’s what it’s about. So we’ll do our research, homework tonight, we’ll come back stronger and Q2 would be a really big success for us this weekend.”
Here’s how FP1 in F1 Singapore GP panned out
Here’s how FP2 in F1 Singapore GP panned out
