31/07/2020
NEWS STORY
The British Grand Prix is always a highlight of our summer and, even in its sanitised, non-fans version, there's always something special about an event here. This weekend's surprises, of course, started even before the first cars hit the ground and we'd like to send our "get well soon" wishes to Checo Perez (and a "welcome back" to our old pal Nico Hulkenberg): when faced with these things, the paddock really comes together and we hope to see the quick Mexican back in his car really soon.
Today's weather was a fine example of the aptly-named "glorious British summer": something that would get you to reach for the Pimm's and fire up the BBQ if only you didn't have two practice sessions to run. It was as hot as it was sunny, and the on-track action was pretty interesting as well - especially as our cars seemed to take a liking to the Northamptonshire track.
It's still early days and we know the road ahead is long, so we'll keep working to produce a good result this weekend. We also know that good weather doesn't tend to last long over here, and tomorrow may well be wetter than your average Glastonbury festival. We'll need to be ready for the changing conditions, even if the rain comes down in buckets.
Now, that would be a proper British summer...
Kimi Raikkonen: "It's been a busy Friday but so far, so good. The times look a bit more promising, but it's only Friday and you can't really draw any conclusion from them. What we know is that there is still work to do to get the most out of this weekend. The upgrades seem to work as expected, but it's early days: who know what tomorrow is going to bring, especially with the weather. We will just go out and do our things and hopefully we can be in a better position than we have been before."
Antonio Giovinazzi: "I'm pretty pleased with what we have shown today, although it's still early in the weekend and we cannot let ourselves get carried away. The morning was quite tricky, especially with the wind, but the afternoon was much better. I feel we made some good steps forward, both in terms of qualifying and race pace, and the upgrades we introduced for this race appear to be working well, so hopefully we can build on this. Tomorrow the conditions may be different, so we need to be ready for whatever we get: we will need to keep cool and just do our job."
Check out our Friday gallery from Silverstone, here.