15/09/2023
NEWS STORY
Liam Lawson: "Initially, today was tricky, but that was expected with this unique track. I'm enjoying it and learning a lot. It was also cool to drive at night, under the lights, and with the heat here, it's more comfortable as a driver.
"We need to make the most of FP3 tomorrow, but so far, it's been ok. We've been gradually building, and it's been going nicely, so there's definitely more to come tomorrow. On this type of circuit, it's hard to notice the differences in the updates. The gains won't be as big as on more traditional circuits, but the car has definitely improved. Obviously, with something this new, we need to figure out how to maximise it, so we'll analyse our data tonight, ready for qualifying tomorrow. I feel there isn't as big of an improvement in grip between the soft and medium compound, but we'll look into it for qualifying and the race."
Yuki Tsunoda: "Overall, today was okay. Towards the end, there was a drop in grip on the soft compound, and compared to the medium tyres, I didn't feel much of a step up, so we need to investigate what happened there. Because Singapore is a completely different, unique track compared to others, it's hard to know so quickly how well our updates are working. The car has definitely improved, especially the rear support, but we'll know more in qualifying. I'm feeling good and looking forward to getting back out there tomorrow."
Jonathan Eddolls (Chief Race Engineer): "We came to Singapore with several new aero components, and both cars were furnished with these. One of the key objectives of today was to understand the performance associated with this update and together with the data, see how best to set the car up around it. With the cancelled races in previous years, it was only the second time Yuki has driven here and the first time for Liam, so the focus of FP1 was maximising the number of laps and allowing the drivers to build up the pace step by step. It's always difficult to learn much in FP1 here with the high track temperatures and green track, but we saw enough to see the package was working, and both drivers were happy with the car. We did some fine-tuning for FP2, which is the most representative session of the weekend for quali and race prep. Performance on the medium compound tyre demonstrated the changes had gone in the right direction. Moving to the short soft tyre run, Liam found lap time, but Yuki struggled with grip and didn't really improve his time, so this is something we need to work on for tomorrow. Degradation in the long runs was manageable, and there was a mix of compounds used across various competitors, so we have a lot to go through to define the best strategy for Sunday. Our focus now turns to the short-run performance and what we need to do to maximise the potential on the soft compound. In general, it's been a positive start to the weekend."
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