Williams get through Friday programme despite rain
Williams F1 have worked their way through the Friday practices even though the rain slightly hampered progress. As well as setting a baseline set-up for the rest of the weekend, new aero parts were also tested in the morning, while tyre simulations rules the afternoon.
Rod Nelson, Chief Operations Engineer: “As usual, we covered our standard Friday programme; looking at car balance, qualifying set-up and some longer race runs with heavier fuel. Obviously, the first session was somewhat upset by the rain. There was more rain in the morning session than we expected and then less than we had anticipated this afternoon, but it didn’t affect us too much.”
Nico Rosberg, FW31-03, Engine H474:
Runs P1: Run 1 new prime (1 lap) install, run 2 new prime (9 laps) baseline, run 3 scrubbed prime (2 laps) aero component test (red flagged), run 4 new option (12 laps) tyre compares and systems checks.
Runs P2: Run 1 scrubbed prime (6 laps) baseline with set-up changes, run 2 scrubbed prime (7 laps) overall stiffness test, run 3 scrubbed prime (8 laps) aero set-up, run 4 new option (5 laps) qualifying sim, run 5 scrubbed option (7 laps) race balance, run 6 scrubbed option (9 laps) aero set-up / safety car test.
“Today was all about tyre testing for qualifying and the race. We know roughly what we will do but it’s not entirely clear for the race; that will depend on how much the track improves. We also spent time looking at our downforce level but it’s always difficult and sometimes you need to compromise because, on the one hand, you want to find the quickest lap possible but, on the other, you need to be careful that people are not able to overtake you on the straight. Set-up wise, we just carried out some fine tuning. I don’t think there’s much to improve on that front for this track. Overall, we’ve had a good day’s work and we are where we need to be.”
Kazuki Nakajima, FW31-04, Engine H456:
Runs P1: Run 1 new prime (1 lap) install, run 2 scrubbed prime (10 laps) baseline, run 3 new option (10 laps) tyre compare and systems checks.
Runs P2: Run 1 scrubbed prime (7 laps) baseline with set-up changes, run 2 scrubbed prime (7 laps) weight distribution test, run 3 new prime (12 laps) race balance, run 4 new option (5 laps) qualifying sim, run 5 scrubbed option (10 laps) race balance / safety car test.
“The weather was quite tricky today but, fortunately, we still managed to get some running in under dry conditions. We worked through quite a lot of things and we know in which direction we want to head for tomorrow now. Whenever I was out on my new tyres, it started to drizzle so I didn’t get to record a good lap time today.”
