Haas F1 Team
Romain Grosjean
“We tried a few things today, taking the time to assess the track as a new venue for us. We focused on understanding how the tires work here. Unfortunately, we had our issue in the afternoon so we couldn’t do a long run, which is a bit of a shame. There’s plenty of work to be done tonight, including a few things we’re still investigating. We managed to try a few setups. Hopefully for tomorrow, we’ll pick up the best option.”
Esteban Gutierrez
“It was a productive afternoon. We managed to complete our full program and got the most out of the time we had on track. Considering that Romain couldn’t go out, it was good that we switched the plan to run the two compounds on longer runs which gathered important information for the race. We’re happy with the mileage and tests we carried out and now we need to analyze all the data in order for us to optimize everything we can for tomorrow.”
Charles Leclerc
“It’s always amazing to be back in the Haas Formula One car. It was a good session. We did many laps with two new sets of softs and then a race simulation for 15 laps. So, it was many laps and a lot of experience. I learned a lot, so all good.
“Every time I jump in the car I have more confidence. It’s only the third time I go in it. The car that feels less and less normal is the GP3 car because getting back to the GP3 car is a really big difference.
“Haas F1 Team is doing a great job. It’s only their first year in Formula One. It’s crazy what they’re doing for their first year in Formula One. I’m really impressed by them. They will just keep improving, I’m sure.”
Guenther Steiner, team principal
“A very solid and standard FP1. Charles did a very good job in his third FP1 for us and we would like to thank him for that. Romain completed everything we needed to do this morning and we got all the data required. In the afternoon, Esteban was back in the car and was quickly up to speed working with the data collaborated earlier from Charles. We were going to split the work on the tires but, unfortunately, we had a water pipe break on Romain’s car and we had to stop him from going back out. Esteban stepped in and ran the test for both types of tires. Overall, we managed to get all the data we needed for tomorrow for FP3 and qualifying. Hopefully, we’ll come back stronger in the morning.”
