McLaren
Fernando Alonso: “We knew this circuit would be tough for us – but we tried some changes with the car in order to learn things, so let’s see how things go on Saturday.
“If it rains tomorrow, that ought to mix things up, particularly for the cars at the front. For us, it shouldn’t make too much of a difference, as we both have grid penalties for making an engine change, so we’ll start towards the back.
“We’ll do minimal laps tomorrow in order to save the engine, and, hopefully, recover some places in the race.”
Jenson Button: “It’s always nice coming to Monza. This is a circuit we love, and the fans are so passionate – and, as racing drivers, it’s fantastic to go racing with that sort of atmosphere around you.
“It’s been a tricky day for us. My car lost coolant at the start of FP2, and we couldn’t change the ERS pack with enough time to get out for the end of the afternoon session. So I did one timed lap – which isn’t great – but at least we can learn something from Fernando’s data.
“We knew this was going to be a tough weekend for us, and this just makes it more difficult, but hopefully we won’t have any problems tomorrow.”
Eric Boullier, Racing director: “We knew that both here and Spa would present a steep challenge for us, but Formula 1 is not supposed to be easy, and we’ll come away from these two character-building weekends feeling stronger and more unified than before.
“Today has been tricky for the team, particularly for Jenson, who didn’t get too many laps under his belt in this afternoon’s session owing to a leak on his car.
“Last but not least, I want to say a big thank-you to our hard-working mechanics: they made planned engine changes on both cars between FP1 and FP2, and will change them both again ahead of FP3 tomorrow. Their industriousness, commitment and positivity are to be applauded.”
Satoshi Nakamura, Chief engineer, Honda R&D Europe: “FP1 proceeded according to today’s run-plan, setting both cars up with new ICEs. After fundamental checks were completed with the aero and power unit data, we finished the session early to start the planned power unit change for this afternoon’s FP2.
“Fernando’s FP2 session ran smoothly, but, unfortunately, Jenson’s data showed signs of a water leak; therefore we were forced to bring the car back into the garage. After investigating, we found that the water hose had been dislodged, which we were able to fix during the session. However, there wasn’t enough time remaining in the session to get the car back out onto the track, but fortunately the incident didn’t affect the ERS, and we’re duly preparing for tomorrow’s sessions.
“We’ll be using all of today’s data, including Fernando’s long-runs in the afternoon, to set up the car for tomorrow.”
