Friday quotes: Haas, Force India, Sauber, Williams

Haas surprisingly didn’t feature inside the Bahrain top ten, neither did Force India, Sauber or Williams.

Haas:
Romain Grosjean: “It was a decent day for us, but I think we can be better tomorrow. The afternoon pace was not as good as the morning. My fastest lap was compromised by traffic in the last corner, so I guess there’s a little bit in there. We didn’t do enough for the night, but that’s where practice is good. Now we’ve got a good delta. We can work in FP3 to get ready for qualifying.”

Kevin Magnussen: “We’ve had a bit of a tricky Friday, but the car didn’t feel bad. There’s lots to learn about the tires, though. It wasn’t easy with the change of temperature from morning to the afternoon. At the moment, we have a lot of stuff to go through just to understand the tires and how to get them up to temperature and by how much, which is a tricky thing here with the tarmac being very rough and the temperature varying as much as it does. I’m still hopeful that we can make up some time tomorrow.”

Force India:
Esteban Ocon: “The team worked really hard today. It’s not easy to change the floor quickly during a session, but the guys did a really quick job and it didn’t cost us too much time on track. All the aero work we did today will give us valuable information for the future. The second session was pretty normal. We did lots of laps and I’m feeling quite happy with the car. We made improvements each time, but we are still missing a little bit of pace to be right at the front of the midfield.”

Sergio Perez: “The first session was very busy with lots of aero work. It’s given us lots of information to help us understand which parts are giving the best performance. We were evaluating the new front wing and will decide tonight if we will continue using it for the rest of the weekend. The evening session went smoothly and we did all the usual things to prepare for the race. Our long run pace is still stronger than our qualifying speed and I think we can come away with some points this weekend.”

Sauber:
Charles Leclerc: “In general, it was quite a positive day for us. The qualifying performance was good and the car felt good to drive. At the end of the second session I completed a red flag practice. We will be looking at what we learned during today’s sessions, and build on that for FP3 and qualifying. I look forward to being back in the car tomorrow.”

Marcus Ericsson: “It was a busy session today. FP1 was quite good – I focused on mechanical set-up work. During FP2 I lost the rear of the car, which was not ideal, but as the session progressed the balance improved and the car felt good towards the end. It seems that we are moving in the right direction. We will be analysing the data tonight and will see what we can do for tomorrow’s qualifying.”

Williams:
Sergey Sirotkin: “It was quite a good session. I think we completed, learned and collected quite a lot of information. We also tried very different compounds for tomorrow on short and long runs, so I think it was a very productive session. That’s what we needed, some clean running which we can use later on in the year, so I think we have to be happy with today. I was on the hardest tyre for the first run. I think where we are is not too far off what we were expecting. The main thing is we’re not talking about results, we’re talking about the data and information we collected. In these terms, it was quite productive. Realistically, we have some things to work on, but I think we will improve a little bit, just the same as others will, so let’s see who does the better homework tonight.”

Lance Stroll: “It’s been a tricky day in terms of where we are on the time sheets. There is a lot to improve on, that’s for sure. The car feels better than last year, but its’s still not where we want to be. Melbourne was a little bit better on Friday than the Friday we have experienced here in Bahrain, but it is another day tomorrow. We have a meeting tonight to discuss the car and where we can improve our pace, so hopefully we can get on top of things and come back better tomorrow. I think we can improve in many areas, so there is a lot that can be better. I think I could make my lap a tenth or two better than where it is, but still that is not enough as we need to be looking for big gains and not just minor details.”