31/10/2014
NEWS STORY
The free practice sessions for the United States Grand Prix in Austin went smoothly for both drivers. In the morning Esteban Gutierrez and Adrian Sutil tested several set-ups on the car, whereas in the afternoon they concentrated on tyre allocation and long-runs.
Esteban Gutierrez: "It was quite a tricky day, but it was positive that we completed our programme well. On the other hand, I had some issues which we are trying to solve. The car's balance is overall reasonable, as we were experimenting with the set-up in order to find a suitable one. The conditions were not easy today, because it was very windy. We need to consider this for tomorrow. In general, the tyres were working well. The soft compound is degrading more than the medium tyre. It looks like both compounds are a good choice for this track."
Adrian Sutil: "It was a normal Friday. We went through our planned programme without having any issues. We tested several set-ups on the car, as well as the soft and medium tyres. Tomorrow we will try to get more out of what we have."
Giampaolo Dall'Ara, Head of Track Engineering: "It was a smooth day on the operational side. We were able to fulfill the programme and gained knowledge for the weekend. We are pleasantly surprised by the usability of the tyres, as we were expecting to struggle a bit more, but they seem to fit the track. They were degrading during the long runs, so there will be more options for different strategies."
Check out our Friday gallery, here.