Despite it being an okay Friday for Sauber at Sepang they were still at the back of the back with F1's new teams...
Sauber:
Kamui Kobayashi: "It was the first time we have used the 2012 tyres in such high temperatures and the degradation is quite significant. Probably this had an impact as well, but in any case we struggled with the balance of the car quite a lot today. We will have to improve for qualifying and the race, but I'm sure we can do that. It was a shame that I lost so much track time in the second session because of the gear box problem, but these things happen."
Sergio Perez: "It was a difficult day in terms of setting up the car and getting the balance right. It was better on long runs than on single laps. We managed to achieve some improvements for the second free practice and now we will be looking carefully at the data tonight."
Caterham:
Vitaly Petrov: "We worked through the normal Friday runplans and for me it was a pretty good day. The grip levels this morning were not good, but I think that was the same for most of the teams, but this afternoon we had found some improvements, even though the track itself had lost some of the grip from this morning. We have a couple of areas to focus on tonight, particularly looking at maximising traction, but I'm reasonably pleased with where we have ended up."
Heikki Kovalainen: "I think today proved what we suspected, that managing tyre degradation is going to be critical to performance on Sunday. This morning we tried a couple of setup options that didn't really work too well but we made some changes over lunch and straight away this afternoon the car felt better. I had more grip and was able to manage the tyres well over the second run we did so I think we've found some improvements where we wanted to today and have a base to work on tonight."
Marussia:
Timo Glock: "Today has been a pretty good day for us I have to say. This is one of the toughest Fridays of the season for the whole team and they did a great job. Our programme meant we had to do a lot of work on the car and the guys were constantly on the 'go'. We still have some way to go; the car is not perfect yet by any means. We have however made a lot of progress so we need to keep this up for tomorrow. The tyres look quite difficult over a race distance, so that could be a gamble. As for the heat, my fitness work over the winter has paid off for sure. It's been a good start and good reliability again."
Charles Pic: "It has been a very interesting day for me today. We had a big programme to work through to put the car through the track testing we are catching up with right now, but the results have been very positive and I am happy with the steps we have brought to the car. It's not easy for the team working in the heat here; it has been a long day for everybody. Now we have a lot of information to take into tomorrow and I will also have the new rear floor parts to try, so I'm looking forward to that. A very good job by everyone and my thanks to them."
HRT:
Narain Karthikeyan: "In the morning session we suffered some reliability issues, the same as in Melbourne but not as bad and we've also got some cooling issues too. In the afternoon these issues persisted on turns 13 and 14 where I wasn't able to select the gears properly but the important thing is that we're within the 107% time and can continue to improve and be in better conditions. I definitely felt the difference with regards to Australia but we need a lot more. This is one of the hardest races of the year so we're going to need to work hard to be able to have a good performance."
Pedro de la Rosa: "Today has been a positive day for us because it panned out with the normality of a practice session day, and that in itself is good news. For the first time we were able to try out different solutions on this car: the DRS is working, the power steering has improved from Australia and, although we're not where we would like to be, we've taken a considerable step forward. The sensations improved as the day wore on and the car behaved better from the morning to the afternoon. There's still plenty to do, but the general evaluation for the day is positive."
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