06/05/2023
NEWS STORY
Nyck de Vries: "Of course, we always want more but looking at FP1 and FP2, we as a team are satisfied and happy with the performance gains we made.
We found ourselves on the backfoot, but the progress we made overnight helped us reach Q2 for the first time, which is a great accomplishment for us. We are lacking long run experience here and overtaking is difficult, but it will be a long race and maybe there will be opportunities, which we can capitalise on. Grip levels are low, especially if you are off-line it can become very slippery, but it's a new day tomorrow and the race is on!"
Yuki Tsunoda: "It's definitely not the result we wanted. We didn't have the pace from the early stages and struggled a lot. The midfield is as close as it has been over the past few races, but tomorrow is a new day, so we will see how it goes. We changed the setup a lot, still it didn't seem to work well, but we have to move on and remain focussed. The balance itself was alright, however the grip was poor. We have to accept it's difficult and it's not my best qualifying, but we'll analyse all the data tonight, trying to find some more performance for tomorrow."
Guillaume Dezoteux (Head of Vehicle Performance): "Since yesterday's Free Practice sessions, we have been struggling to extract grip from the tyres straight out of the box. The overnight analysis led to interesting discussions between the engineers and we decided to change significantly the setup for today, targeting more aerodynamic load. Unfortunately, FP3 was still difficult and both drivers were unable to extract the performance from the Soft tyres in the opening laps. We did some further analysis and fine tuning for the qualifying session, which we were expecting to be very tight between the midfield cars.
"In Q1, we witnessed a huge track improvement from lap to lap. Traffic was well managed and both cars were able to do clean laps. That was enough for Nyck to get through to Q2, which is a nice reward for the hard work from everyone on his side of the garage. Back on track, Nyck had two attempts, one on a used tyre and the last lap on a new set. Again, we could locate ourselves in a good traffic window, but it wasn't enough to progress in the rankings. As for Yuki, he couldn't put the three sectors together and missed the cut by less than half a tenth, which is frustrating.
"With the starting grid a little bit mixed up at the front, we can expect some action tomorrow. We will analyse the various strategies tonight to be ready to take advantage and get closer to the points. The weather could also play a role and create opportunities. When you start from the back, it's easier to take some risks and we're up for the fight!"
Check out our Saturday gallery from Miami here.