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Bothers me that we only got some gap closed over Mercedes but couldn't on Red Bull. On another note that Honda Engine raise suspicions to me as I read somewhere that they recreated the engine from 0 to a new spec. Hopefully they aren't doing any shady things like Ferrari did in 2019?
Here we go again, Racing Point last year.....Honda this year ! Why not just concentrate on McLaren and their own doing rather than being into question other teams/engine manufacturers?
Chill friend. I just made an assumption nothing more.
Any word at all from Lando or the team?
I heard Ricciardo saying he was relatively happy on the Sky coverage but Sky had to scoot so the GP2 coverage could start
Any word at all from Lando or the team?
I heard Ricciardo saying he was relatively happy on the Sky coverage but Sky had to scoot so the GP2 coverage could start
Unhappy with the car and mentioned some little problems with the deployment.
Well all I can say is keep focusing on ourselves and keep pushing till we get that first place. It's not a matter of IF. It will definately happen. Only a matter of when.
Any word at all from Lando or the team?
I heard Ricciardo saying he was relatively happy on the Sky coverage but Sky had to scoot so the GP2 coverage could start
Unhappy with the car and mentioned some little problems with the deployment.
Didn't know Mercedes themselves had issues too. Anyway, does anyone have an onboard of Ricciardo's (or Norris's) Q3 lap? I just saw Gasly's lap and he missed the apex of a couple of corners and still was very quick. Leclerc on the other hand was pretty much perfect apart from a little nibble in T13.
“It’s a pleasant relief to get the first quali out of the way and get a decent result. I think, after the test, I was fairly comfortable in the car but probably more so on long runs. I still felt that, if anything, my Saturdays were going to need improving – and I think they still do – but I certainly made a nice step from a couple of weeks ago and I’m happy. We've got a good platform to build on now, I’m really happy with how we approached it as a team, not putting too much pressure on me. We were a bit off the pace yesterday, but they could see I was just trying to figure it out.
"I don’t want to do somersaults or backflips just yet, but it’s certainly a nice start for the campaign and I think we’ll do alright tomorrow. There’s a mix of cars around us, so I’m looking forward to that, and with Lando alongside hopefully we can get some big points for the team and start the year right.”
Lando:
“Tricky qualifying, just because it’s very close between everyone. First one of the season, so I think we’re pretty happy with sixth and seventh for the team and getting to see where the car is – it’s a good position for tomorrow. It’s probably a bit more of a race track than a qualifying track, so hopefully, after focusing a little bit on that throughout the weekend, we can be strong tomorrow.”
Andreas:
“We’ve got off to a good start in our first qualifying session of the year. Great work from the whole team, along with our colleagues from Mercedes, which allowed us to execute three very good qualifying sessions. Both drivers put in excellent laps to get us into Q3 and then to P6 and P7 on the grid. We saw the expected close battle between ourselves and several other teams – and that makes for an exciting race tomorrow. Our long runs have been good so far, both in testing and free practice, so we’re going into the race confident in our ability to compete for good points.”
“It’s a pleasant relief to get the first quali out of the way and get a decent result. I think, after the test, I was fairly comfortable in the car but probably more so on long runs. I still felt that, if anything, my Saturdays were going to need improving – and I think they still do – but I certainly made a nice step from a couple of weeks ago and I’m happy. We've got a good platform to build on now, I’m really happy with how we approached it as a team, not putting too much pressure on me. We were a bit off the pace yesterday, but they could see I was just trying to figure it out.
"I don’t want to do somersaults or backflips just yet, but it’s certainly a nice start for the campaign and I think we’ll do alright tomorrow. There’s a mix of cars around us, so I’m looking forward to that, and with Lando alongside hopefully we can get some big points for the team and start the year right.”
Lando:
“Tricky qualifying, just because it’s very close between everyone. First one of the season, so I think we’re pretty happy with sixth and seventh for the team and getting to see where the car is – it’s a good position for tomorrow. It’s probably a bit more of a race track than a qualifying track, so hopefully, after focusing a little bit on that throughout the weekend, we can be strong tomorrow.”
Andreas:
“We’ve got off to a good start in our first qualifying session of the year. Great work from the whole team, along with our colleagues from Mercedes, which allowed us to execute three very good qualifying sessions. Both drivers put in excellent laps to get us into Q3 and then to P6 and P7 on the grid. We saw the expected close battle between ourselves and several other teams – and that makes for an exciting race tomorrow. Our long runs have been good so far, both in testing and free practice, so we’re going into the race confident in our ability to compete for good points.”
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They definitely don't sound pessimistic, so that's good. They expect to be quite strong in the race tomorrow. And from Daniel's side, I am very impressed that he managed to get the better of Norris from the get-go while he still isn't 100% there with the car yet. It will be exciting to see how he will progress though the season as McLaren starts to understand their car a little bit better too.
The team seems to be looking forward to tomorrow’s race... As they stated, long run pace has been there, so they should be able to fight the cars in front of them.
Regarding Daniel vs Lando, the difference in lap time is extremely small, which is great and shows that both of them have speed and that’s exactly what the team needs... If we compare it to the rest of the field, it seems to be the most balanced line up.
So, basically sounds like their weekend preparation leaned towards Sunday performance and must have sacrificed a bit of one lap pace. Hope it works out tomorrow, and they can make the softs work on the first stint.
Q: (Stefano Mancini – La Stampa) Kimi, will you help Vettel to win his championship this year?
Kimi Raikkonen: I can only drive one car, obviously.
@2018 Singapore Grand Prix drivers press conference.
Decent result all in all. We have lost approx the same time as RB have compared to 2020. So the integration of the power unit has been decent enough. I have always been of the opinion that the front wing looks light on total DF generation. It looks good on initial turn in and then it becomes hesitant to go in further scrubbing speed in the process, delaying throttle application. It’s that what separates the midfield from the top 4. They’ll know better themselves what can be done, as these things are never isolated problems.
Come on boys and girls. 6th and 7th swapping engines and a trouble free pre season plus gaining time on the leaders. Got to see the positives
“We didn’t have the smoothest of runs with some of the deployment and things like that, so not a perfect run for us, but it wasn’t bad and I’m not going to complain or have any excuses. I think I’m where I deserve to be and we are as a team. So we’ve got a fight on our hands tomorrow and we’ll try and go forwards.”
Small issues it seems... We can’t forget that it was a bit windy today and the MCL35 was pretty sensitive to it... I’m trying to find out if the wind change direction between FP2 yesterday and today... It would be interesting to see if it changed direction.