24/03/2017
NEWS STORY
The first day of the season saw the VJM10 emerge in its new pink livery at Albert Park as Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon clocked up a total of 124 laps between them.
Sergio Perez: "It's always important to start the year with a trouble-free day and cover lots of miles. As usual in Melbourne, the track was very green during the first session and evolved quite a lot for the second session. We tried pretty much all the tyre compounds and we have the data we need to make improvements tonight. I think there are a few areas where we can find performance and we know where we need to focus our energy."
Esteban Ocon: "I didn't have the best start to the day with a brake issue causing a delayed start to my running, but the afternoon was easier and I managed to find a better rhythm. The priority tonight is the usual job of exploring where we need to make changes; where we can find some gains, and where I can improve too. Hopefully we can make a step forward during final practice to be ready for qualifying."
Robert Fernley: "As Fridays go, it was a fairly routine start to the 2017 season with a brake system problem on Esteban's car the only significant issue at the start of FP1. Fortunately we resolved that quite quickly allowing Esteban to get on with learning the track.
"The VJM10 has been behaving as we expected from a set-up perspective, which allowed us to push on with understanding the various tyre compounds and seeing how they perform in these conditions compared to what we saw during pre-season testing. All the information we collected today will determine our approach for the rest of the weekend.
"Sergio's programme was straightforward and Esteban took a mature approach to learning quite a difficult track. We split some test items – areo and mechanical - between the two cars to make comparisons and that will help our decision-making tonight."
Check out our Friday gallery from Melbourne, here.