22/09/2023
NEWS STORY
Liam Lawson: "Singapore and Suzuka are very different circuits, so it's tricky to say much about the upgrades at this stage.
"As I said before the weekend started, it takes a bit of time to really maximise the change, and we're continuing to learn about where we can improve. FP2 wasn't as strong as this morning, so it's been a little tricky so far, but we don't know what other teams are doing exactly. I think it helps to know the track from Super Formula, especially this early in the weekend, because we can spend more time on car performance. By qualifying and the race, you've had enough time to learn. It's a more traditional circuit, and although it's been a tricky day, we still have FP3 tomorrow morning."
Yuki Tsunoda: "We've felt the effects of the upgrades we had brought to Singapore, but so far, we haven't been as competitive as we would've liked, so we have to look through the data. I feel like there's margin for improvement, so we'll do some analysis tonight. I'm looking forward to qualifying tomorrow because it's the fastest time of the weekend, and especially at Suzuka, you feel the true Formula 1 performance. I'll enjoy it, hopefully make it into Q3, and make the fans happy."
Jonathan Eddolls (Chief Race Engineer): "It has been a quick turnaround between events, but the welcome we've received from the Japanese fans in support of both our drivers has been fantastic and given everyone in the team a well-deserved boost! The focus of the day was to continue to learn about the new package we introduced in Singapore, but this time at a more typical track, one which favours a car with good overall load and efficiency. In FP1, we started with a rake fitted to Yuki's car and then tested removing some mirror vanes on Liam's car. The package continues to behave as expected and has brought a step in performance. Each driver was given two extra sets of development tyres, which we could run at our leisure, so it was a busy Friday programme with plenty of new tyres! Yuki was struggling more in the high speed and Liam in the low speed in FP1, so both cars made changes to the setup for FP2 to address these issues. The balance improved on both cars, but we still weren't completely happy, and it looks like Sector 1 will be our main focus for tomorrow. Tyre degradation is very high at this track, and quickly, we were thermally limited. In preparation for Sunday, we'll have to investigate additional management techniques to help make the target stint lengths work."
Check out our Friday gallery from Suzuka here.