Thursday practice - selected team and driver quotes

[irguiz]

It was a mixed opening day in Monte Carlo, not least because of the changeable weather. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso led during a sunny morning session, whilst McLaren’s Jenson Button was the quickest runner after lunch before the rain hit. Drivers and senior team personnel report back...

McLaren
Jenson Button, P1 - 1:17.190, 8th; P2 - 1:15.746, 1st
“The most important job today was to try and get a decent high-fuel long-run on the super-soft tyre - which I don’t think anyone managed. We’ve got to see how the tyre works because its performance will play a considerable role in the race.

“Still, it was nice to briefly stick that tyre on and see how much grip it has - that gives you a bit of information to look over before Saturday, even though we’ll still get to run that compound again before qualifying.

“I definitely feel like the car improved from P1 to P2. We tried something different for this afternoon’s session and I was happier with how the car felt. There’s still room for improvement, but we know what direction we want to take.”

Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren team principal
“Hearing the roar of Formula One engines resonating around the harbour front vividly reminds you that no other circuit in the world can match the taut, visceral thrill of Monte-Carlo.

“Unfortunately, the changeable weather conditions - a dry morning followed by an increasingly damp and greasy afternoon - have caused us to be a little less well prepared for the remainder of the weekend than we’d ideally like. But it’s the same for everyone. It’s just another of the unique challenges posed by this most formidable of street circuits.

“I think we’re yet to see what either Jenson or Lewis can achieve when they push the car to its fullest extent around here, but I know that both our drivers relish the challenge of this circuit and that they’ll hit the ground running again on Saturday.

“At the moment, the sharp end of the grid looks extremely close - and it’ll be all to play for in what’s likely to be an absolutely thrilling qualifying session. Bring it on!”

Lotus
Kimi Raikkonen, P1 - no time, 24th; P2 - 1:19.267, 19th
“It’s good to be back in Monaco even if we missed some running today. The steering wasn’t to my liking so the team changed it for me. It’s something you change for Monaco and there’s no way of knowing what it will be like beforehand. The car felt good in the second session, though it was obviously pretty slippery when the track was wet. I would have liked to have had more time in the car, but Monaco’s a track I know pretty well and it hasn’t changed much over the years. Let’s see what happens tomorrow.”

James Allison, Lotus technical director
“We’re happy with today’s performance as we came here with a certain amount of trepidation about whether our cars would be competitive. It was a disappointment to have missed the first session whilst we changed the steering setup on Kimi’s car, but he’s an old enough trooper to get himself up to speed on Saturday. The pace shown by Romain in both sessions was certainly encouraging. All the Monaco upgrades seem to be working well and the E20 is pretty happy around what is a very unique track.”

Ferrari
Felipe Massa, P1 - 1:16.843, 6th; P2 - 1:16.602, 3rd
“We weren’t able to do as much running as we would have liked because of the light rain that fell this afternoon, but all the same, I am happy with the way things went on this Monaco Thursday. The car seemed to me to be okay right from the start of the first session, with a good balance in all conditions and with slightly better traction than we had expected. Even when we ran the Intermediates in the final part of the second session, the feeling was still positive. As for the tyres, we didn’t even fit the Supersoft, therefore we can’t say anything about their behaviour, while the Softs worked well, also in terms of their degradation. Sure, there is still plenty of work to do to fine tune all the set-up details, but we have an extra day to think about what to do to improve in this area. It’s hard to make predictions about qualifying and, even more so for the race, but definitely we can say the first day of free practice can be considered a positive one.”

Fernando Alonso, P1 - 1:16.265, 1st; P2 - 1:16.661, 4th
“For we drivers, Thursday in Monaco provides the best opportunity to reacquaint ourselves with a very unique track. The more you go round, the more you gain confidence and the harder you can push to bring the lap time down. This morning, we were able to get through our planned programme without any trouble, but in the afternoon, the rain came to spoil our plans and those of the others too. We weren’t able to even fit the Supersoft and only Button was able to find the right window to make the most of the Option, which is how he set the fastest time. Now, we must see what the weather will be like on Saturday morning: if it turns out to be dry then maybe we will do more laps than usual, but even if it rains we will have to do work aimed at the race. In fact, it’s not as though we understood much more when on the Intermediates, given that the track was only damp in places and so it wasn’t very representative. We can’t control the weather, we can only adapt to it as it changes. As for the car, I would say the first impressions are quite positive: everything seems to respond as we would expect. We only made a few small modifications to the set-up, trying to improve it, but it’s obviously too early to draw any conclusions. Let’s say the weekend has got off on the right foot for us: now we must try and keep going down this path.”

Pat Fry, Ferrari chassis director
“The rain upset our programme a bit in the second session, preventing us from getting through the usual FP2 work, centred on a comparison of the two types of tyre brought here by Pirelli. This morning, we worked mainly on the set-up of the car, which has no significant new parts apart from the usual adjustments typically required for this track. In the afternoon, we actually wanted to try both tyres over a short and a long run, but we didn’t even manage a single lap on the Supersoft. In the end, we used a set of Intermediates with both drivers but, even in this case, the track conditions were not exactly ideal for this tyre. The same applied to almost everyone, therefore relatively speaking, we are not at any disadvantage. Clearly, we have less data available with which to define the best strategy for Sunday’s race: a bit more improvisation will be called for and we will need to be even more ready to react to every eventuality. We have no had any problems of any sort on both cars, which is always positive on a track like this.”

Williams
Bruno Senna, P1 - 1:18.617, 17th; P2 - 1:17.655, 14th
“It was great to be able to do both sessions today as it meant that we could learn bit by bit. It's been quite a few years since I drove something competitive here so it was good to have extra time to remember the track. We’re chipping away and the afternoon session was hampered by the rain, but every little helps.”

Mark Gillan, Williams chief operations engineer
“This morning we had a productive session with both drivers successfully working through their test programmes, but unfortunately the wet second session in the afternoon proved more problematic and limited useful running. Both drivers were happier with the car balance in the second session but we still have quite a bit more to do in preparation for Sunday.”

Mercedes
Nico Rosberg, P1 - 1:17.261, 10th; P2 - 1:17.021, 6th
"It was great to be back again and to race through the city. I'm pleased with today's practice sessions. We have the feeling that we are going in the right direction with our set-up work for this demanding track. It took a bit of a time to find the right rhythm for the circuit but it worked out well, even though we did not run very much in the afternoon because of the bad weather. I'm now really looking forward to Saturday and Sunday."

Michael Schumacher, P1 - 1:17.413, 11th; P2 - 1:17.293, 9th
“It's always great to get out on the track for the first laps in Monaco and get back into the rhythm of this special place. Already, during practice this morning I could see the areas where the safety has been improved further since last year, and it's great that the organisers always push to make things even better every year. The weather was mixed today, which made it hard to make any firm conclusions, but basically my feeling with the car on this circuit was positive."

Ross Brawn, Mercedes team principal
"We've had a reasonable first day here in Monaco. Obviously, this is a track where conditions are changing all the time and the wet weather in the second session this afternoon reminds us that these things can happen here. We have a lot of information to look at and work out what we're going to do and how we think the circuit will evolve for Saturday. Generally, it's been a good start to the weekend."

Norbert Haug, vice-president, Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
"Today's sessions were effectively brought to an early end in the morning after an engine failure on the track, then we had rain in the second half of the afternoon session. Considering these circumstances, which handicapped the progress of all the teams, we had quite a positive first day and found a reasonable baseline for our cars from which we can progress further on Saturday. With everybody completing fewer laps than usual during the first practice day in Monaco, the challenge of this demanding race is probably even higher this year. We now are looking forward to Saturday when our target is to make a good step forward to be in a position for good results in the race on Sunday. Understandably, we have been asked frequently about the status of our Concorde Agreement negotiations in the past days. On this matter, I can confirm we are having constructive discussions that are heading in the right direction."

Red Bull
Mark Webber, P1 - 1:18.106, 13th; P2 - 1:17.148, 7th
“It was not easy for us, as for all the teams today, and we’ve got some work to do in the next 24 hours. There are clearly some very quick cars and we need to see where we can improve. Obviously it was limited running for everyone, so we didn’t do as much as we would have liked; but that’s how it went today and Monaco’s like that - it throws up some challenges. The track’s quite inconsistent in terms of grip - but we did learn some things today.”

Pirelli
Paul Hembery, Pirelli motorsport director
“Of all the tyres in our range, the teams have had the least running of all on the super-soft to date, so today was very important for them to get out and expand their knowledge of the compound in the truly unique conditions of Monaco. Unfortunately the changeable weather conditions meant that the majority of the field were unable to compare the soft and super-soft tyres as much as we had hoped making Saturday’s practice very important for the full fuel load runs. There will still be plenty of data for us to analyse tonight, and we would expect the soft tyre to last for around 50 laps and the super-soft to last for 35 laps, with a difference of about a second per lap between the two compounds. This is going to make strategy a very important part of the equation, with the key thing in qualifying being to find a clear lap, which is never easy. The super-softs have a rapid warm-up time: then it’s down to the driver to make it count. But even in Monaco, we’ve seen how a good tyre strategy can help drivers make up positions if they are further down the grid.”