06/05/2011
NEWS STORY
After the first two practice sessions for the Turkish Grand Prix were held in mixed weather conditions, the Sauber F1 Team has to analyse a huge amount of data. Both cars carried test items - Kamui Kobayashi working with new mechanical parts and Sergio Perez trying new aerodynamic components. Obviously the conditions were not ideal to obtain proper results from these. The morning session was the first one this year to be entirely wet, with neither of the two drivers having anything else but wet tyres on their cars. As soon as the cars are on either wets or intermediates, the use of DRS is not possible according to the regulations. In the second 90 minutes session, which was dry, Perez was ninth and Kobayashi 18th.
Apart from test items, there have also been livery changes to the Sauber C30-Ferraris: In two cases for this race in Istanbul partners of the Sauber F1 Team decided to display logos of different brands of their respective companies. Instead of Tequila Cuervo it reads Cholula Hot Sauce and instead of disensa a dog's head represents the brand of Apasco.
Sergio Perez: "I have completed the programme which had been planned for me. In the morning I didn't put in a proper lap time due to some aero testing. After the second session I'm quite positive for tomorrow. We have to draw the right conclusions tonight, and I believe we can be good in qualifying. I absolutely enjoy every lap going through turn eight. For me it is the first time in an F1 car here and it is sensational."
Kamui Kobayashi: "In the morning I did some testing with mechanical parts, but we have been quite unfortunate with the weather conditions for this. It is really difficult to judge from the wet testing. Nevertheless it was a good experience to use the wet tyres for an entire session. I think Pirelli has done a good job, I don't see degradation problems,and the tyres should be ok for a race. In the second session we did our normal programme, despite an hydraulic problem which we had to solve. But again I find it difficult to judge how good the car really is here, so we need to look into the data tonight."
James Key, Technical Director: "Today was the first wet session of the year, and we ran the full wet tyres in FP1. Sergio had some aerodynamic test items on his car, which we plan to introduce at the next events. Kamui had some mechanical parts. From what we can tell in the morning's difficult conditions, things seem to work well on the mechanical side and we plan to continue with these updates for Saturday. In the afternoon we worked through a normal programme in dry conditions, comparing the tyres and working on the set-up of the car. Overall this was troublefree for Sergio, and we are generally happy with the car. However, we have a few bounce issues in lower speed which we have to tackle. For Kamui it was reasonable for the first outings, but on his out lap on the option tyres he suffered an hydraulic leak, and he had no chance to put a sensible lap time together. The team did a great job in fixing the car quickly, and getting it out for a longer run. We will analyse all the data from today and see if we can make further progress for tomorrow."
To check out our Istanbul practice gallery, click here.