11/09/2020
NEWS STORY
Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance: Today was very enjoyable as we came to grips with the circuit here in Mugello. The car behaved well and both drivers did a very good job, gathering the data we wanted whilst also understanding how to get the most out of the car on this demanding circuit.
Although there were a few interruptions during the sessions, we still completed a good number of laps and generated a lot of data. We have numerous things to go through and optimise ahead of tomorrow, but following a strong team performance today, we are in a good position to improve the car in both qualifying and race trim. The top teams have already started to move ahead, but the midfield is very congested, with a couple of tenths potentially accounting for numerous grid positions.
George Russell: It was awesome out there today. It is always fun to come to a proper great circuit with lots of character, it's undulating and punishes you if you make a mistake. The speeds are very high, so it was good fun out there. The tyres are taking a pounding, so we have a bit of work to do to get on top of that. The race is going to be difficult yet exciting, as nobody knows how it will pan out. We have a good idea of how we need to get the car set up, so we shall see.
Nicholas Latifi: It was a pretty fun day. It is a very intense track with high speeds, which is what we expected. FP1 was tricky, the tyres were not working as expected and the car was sliding a lot. We managed to improve this for FP2, and the performance runs were not so bad. It will be hot over the weekend, and it is a very rough track with a lot of corners so I think tyre management will be key. It will be about weighing up how much you want to set the car up to preserve the tyres for all the high speed corners, but at the same time still have a car that you can race with if you have the opportunity to pass, which we know will be difficult at this track.
Check out our Friday gallery from Mugello, here.