F1 News: Saudi Arabian GP Thursday Practice Quotes & Photos
Quotes from all ten Formula 1 Teams after opening day of practice for the 2024 Saudi Arabian GP Formula 1 race
Oracle Red Bull Racing Quotes
Max Verstappen (3rd, 1:29.158): “Looking to qualifying I am feeling good; it will be tight but we are happy with our performance today. The practice sessions today have been pretty good overall. The pace has been good on both the long and short runs and they have prepared the track well for a street circuit. Overall, we learned a lot and there are always things you look to do better on a one lap performance. We know some other teams have a bit more power on the one lap so we’ll look into the data to try and improve our overall performance and extract as much as we can from this. Looking to qualifying I am feeling good; it will be tight but we are happy with our performance today and looking forward to tomorrow.”
Sergio Perez (5th, 1:29.300): “We have a very good idea what direction we are going to take to make the car faster. I think we are in a good place with the car and performance, it was a very positive Friday. We just need to do some fine tuning but I am happy with the window we have the car in, we understand what we need for tomorrow. We have a very good idea what direction we are going to take to make the car faster and if we can do that it is going to benefit the long run and the qualifying. I am very pleased with today. It is a matter of putting everything together in qualifying, that will be the main target and we will see what we are able to do. Sector One is super-fast and can be scary if you get some traffic there, so we need some clean laps tomorrow, I am looking forward to Friday.”
Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team Quotes
George Russell (2nd, 1:29.057): “It was fun to be back on the track here in Jeddah. It’s a really high-speed circuit so that’s enjoyable. We didn’t have the car in the perfect window and FP2 was a little bit of a scrappy session. The times looked good on the single lap, and we’re not too sure yet where we’re at on the long runs. We did a lot of testing in FP1 with different set-ups across the cars. We then made some changes for FP2 to try and learn more about the W15. It’s still very early days; it’s only the second race of the season and the second circuit we’ve ran at in anger. We need to keep on building on our learnings and everyone will be hard at work overnight to eke out more performance. It’s so close once again so let’s see what we can do tomorrow.”
Lewis Hamilton (8th, 1:29.504): “It was a difficult day. I was lacking a little confidence in the rear of the car. We did some work on the set-up from session-to-session and changed the car quite a bit. The main issue I was struggling with in both FP1 and FP2 was still the rear though. I had a few big moments out there and on such a high-speed track like this, you need to have full confidence in that. I haven’t quite got that yet. We’ll go through the data tonight to see how we can improve. George was clearly in a happier place with the car today. We went in slightly different directions so hopefully we can learn from that and find the right solutions.”
Andrew Shovlin: “We’ve covered quite a range of set-ups over the course of the day. Ultimately, it doesn’t feel like we’ve ended up with either car in the best place. The single lap was messy and compromised by traffic. A cleaner session would have helped but we’re also lacking a bit of grip in the high-speed. We will be looking overnight at solutions to that. Our long runs weren’t very long either, which wasn’t ideal. From the limited date, we have reasonable pace but neither driver was happy with the overall balance. The summary therefore is that we’ve got lap-time to find overnight. The positive is that we have plenty of areas to go looking for it.”
Scuderia Ferrari Quotes
Charles Leclerc (4th, 1:29.180): “The track had good grip to start with and we can expect quite a lot of track evolution throughout the day tomorrow. All in all, everyone is really close in times so it will be tight and interesting to see who extracts the maximum from their car and comes out on top.”
Carlos Sainz (7th, 1:29.455): “It has been a very difficult day for me as I haven’t fully recovered from the sickness that has kept me in bed for the last 24 hours and I still feel very weak. Anyway, I made it to the track and managed to maximize the time with the car and the team. This track has a lot of grip and the high speed corners makes it very demanding for cars and drivers. Even though I couldn’t push to the limit today, at least we completed the program and hopefully tomorrow I will be fully recovered and we can focus on qualifying and the race.”
McLaren Formula 1 Team Quotes
Oscar Piastri (10th, 1:29.594): “An up and down first day, I would say. There’s been good moments where we’ve looked quite quick, other moments not so much. It’s a little bit difficult to tell where exactly we are but I think we’re somewhat in the mix again, which is positive. We have some fine tuning to do for tomorrow, but I think we look ok.”
Lando Norris (12th, 1:29.758): “A reasonable day. A bit of a better feeling than we had in Bahrain. There were certain corners where we’re struggling to get the balance in the right window. There’s a few bits we need to improve but, on the whole, I think it was a pretty decent day. Some work to do but still a good start to the weekend.”
Andrea Stella, Team Principal: “It’s been a smooth day of practice here in Saudi Arabia. We tested several set-up options to optimize the car for this circuit, which is demanding in terms both of top speed and car balance. The data gathered today will help us understand the best approaches for qualifying and the race. We have a lot of analysis to do tonight to put all of that together and prepare the most competitive package for the remainder of the weekend.”
Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team Quotes
Fernando Alonso (1st, 1:28.827):
Lance Stroll (6th, 1:29.336):
BWT Alpine F1 Team Quotes
Pierre Gasly (9th, 1:29.528): “It’s great to be back in Jeddah. It’s such a different style to Bahrain with the high-speed sequences. Looking at the pace, we seem to be slightly more competitive than last week, but it is only the beginning of the weekend and there’s a long way to go. The feeling inside the car is still challenging, there are some limitations, but, equally, there are positives for us to take forward. I’m staying calm. We have a good base to work from and there’s certainly more things we can do to extract more performance from the current package here. I’m looking forward to tomorrow when it counts.”
Esteban Ocon (15th, 1:29.901): “It’s been an interesting day here in Jeddah and I’m happy to be back driving at this exciting circuit. We had two solid sessions, lots of laps completed both on low and high fuel, so lots of data collected and learnings to take forward. We have some work to do to improve the car and better the set-up as best as we can for tomorrow. There are a few things at this stage that we must work on but it’s been an encouraging day. We will see what we can do in Qualifying tomorrow night.”
Williams Racing Quotes
Alexander Albon (14th, 1:29.789): “The car felt good and from the moment we hit the track, it’s been in a good place. FP2, we made some changes and most of them worked, with only a couple of exceptions, so we’ll work to find a sweet spot for tomorrow. The race runs look sensible, so I’m pretty optimistic. We’ve got a good car and like always, it’s going to be close but I’m enjoying it out there, it’s a fun circuit. We’re going to aim for the top of the midfield and hope to take advantage of any opportunities we can.”
Logan Sargeant (16th, 1:29.934): “It’s been a good day for the team, and I think we’re definitely moving in the right direction. The circuit here in Jeddah is hugely different to Bahrain, so it’s like re-learning the car to an extent, but it’s been great since we put it on the ground this morning. We’ve made some small changes to get the car closer to the perfect window, and I’ve been building up each session and feeling more comfortable with every lap. Looking forward to FP3 and Qualifying tomorrow!”
Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance: “We had a solid day. There were no issues and both drivers got a sight of the circuit across a range of conditions and tire compounds. Both are reasonably happy with their setups and have identified some areas that we can work on overnight. As we expected, the tires are behaving noticeably differently on the smooth Jeddah circuit than they did on the much rougher track in Bahrain. We anticipated many of these differences but there is still scope to get more out of the tires tomorrow and on Saturday. We will be focussing on this tonight and into FP3. Once again, the midfield is very tight, and we’ll be looking to do everything that we can to make sure that we are firmly in that fight.”
Visa Cash App RB Formula One Quotes
Yuki Tsunoda (11th, 1:29.666): “Overall, today was a good day. There are still a couple of areas to look into tonight, but the car is feeling ok in terms of balance. The data we gathered in both Practice Sessions today is important and will help us find more time for tomorrow. I lost out on Q3 by seven-thousandths of a second last week in Bahrain and that shows it’s a very tight field, but this keeps the team and myself motivated and focused. Tonight is about fine-tuning and putting it together for tomorrow and the race on Saturday. Let’s see how we go.”
Daniel Ricciardo (19th, 1:30.088): “It was an FP2 session of two halves. We were competitive on the first set of the soft compound but instead, I struggled a lot with the second set. The track was getting better, and everyone was improving, but I really struggled to improve my time because I encountered some traffic and didn’t feel that bite. The second set was a little bit of a mystery, so there’s something to learn from that, but looking at the first set, we don’t have to be too discouraged. We’ll get back to work tonight and understand how we can put it all together. Looking at tomorrow, it’s really hard to predict the outcome because the standing has been very close today. It’s such a different circuit compared to Bahrain; the surface and the way the tires behave are different. It’s a great track, so I think qualifying will be a fun session tomorrow.”
Alan Permane, Racing Director: “Today was a reasonably good day for us. We ran a slightly different program from the others because we wanted to run two sets of the soft compound in cooler conditions in the evening in preparation for qualifying tomorrow. While Yuki was P11 at the end of the second session, unfortunately, Daniel had traffic on his quickest lap in FP2 and it prevented him from setting a representative lap time. We did our race preparation work on the soft compound tires and have got plenty of data to analyze. We’ll spend tonight looking through it to make sure we’re ready for qualifying tomorrow and the race on Saturday.”
Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber Quotes
Guanyu Zhou (13th, 1:29.777): “I had a good feeling in the car today, and we managed to go through our whole intended program to collect the data we needed. This track is always quite enjoyable and unique: I believe its layout should suit us better than Bahrain, to still be in the battle for the points. As a team, we’re definitely making steps forward, and I hope we can achieve similar results as in Bahrain, if not better. While challenging the top five teams is difficult, our main competitors are undoubtedly the teams around us, and we’ll be fighting against them for points this weekend. Tonight, we’ll continue fine-tuning the car and its setup to be ready for an exciting qualifying tomorrow.”
Valtteri Bottas (20th, 1:30.153): “It’s good to be back on this track – it’s always a fun layout to drive on, and completely different from what we had in Bahrain last week. The car felt rather good in FP1, I was feeling comfortable on track right from the start. We experimented a bit more for the second practice session, testing different setup configurations, and some of them didn’t go in the right direction. Still, as a positive, we learned which way not to go, and the data gathered today will be useful as we work through it overnight with a view to qualifying.”
MoneyGram Haas F1 Team Quotes
Kevin Magnussen (17th, 1:29.985): “I think we had a decent day – nothing spectacular on pace – but again the car seems okay on long runs, more so than low-fuel. We need to pick up the pace a little bit there, so hopefully we can do that but it’s very tight, so even finding two-tenths and you’re close to the top 10. It’s so close, I think we could get close to the top 10 with an amazing lap and we hook up the balance in the car. We want to get a decent qualifying position, but the race is the important one so that’s still what we’re focusing on. It’s all to play for tomorrow.”
Nico Hulkenberg (18th, 1:30.077): “It’s very different to Bahrain – a different circuit, different sensation and feeling, but ultimately it’s still very quick here. I think from a running perspective it was fine, a day with no problems so that was good. The feeling in the car isn’t amazing, there’s room for improvement – especially over one lap – although I think we’re really close together in the midfield. Small things can make a big difference. It’s the normal learning process on the first day where we learn things and hopefully can put it all together tomorrow. Right now, I think it looks more challenging than seven days ago but you never know, there are very small margins.”
Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal:“In Saudi we have a different level of downforce and a different speed of corners, so we expected a different challenge. Today went more or less as expected, I think we’ve got decent straight-line speed, we struggled a bit in the high-speed corners, but then the tires are working okay. As you can see the midfield is really tight so I think qualifying is going to be pretty challenging. We have to put everything together but with the temperature and everything else it’s not easy – it’s right on the edge – so that’s going to be challenging. The encouraging thing is Kevin’s high-fuel run was really good in FP2, so that’s a good baseline. I think if we can qualify in a decent position, we’ve got good race pace.”
Pirelli Tires Quotes
SIMONE BERRA – CHIEF ENGINEER
“Quite an interesting day as far as use and performance of the tires is concerned. First and foremost, we noticed that the C2 is working very well so far, proving it is clearly an ideal compound for the race, both in terms of degradation and consistent performance, thanks partly to the condition of the track surface which offered a lot of grip. As for the C3 and C4, both showed signs of graining, as indeed is predictable on a track like this. It’s a phenomenon that should improve as the track gradually rubbers in and, in the race, it could therefore be easier to manage for the drivers. The majority of teams concentrated on the C3 for their long runs, but there were some drivers who simulated the first stint of the race on the C4, which shows it cannot be ruled out for the moment. In a race where the most likely strategy is a one-stop, benefiting from the extra grip that the softest compound can deliver in the first few laps or the final ones, could be an important factor. Another element to consider is the wind which not only affects car stability but also can cause the tires to slide, which in turn can lead to graining.”
