Williams experience tyre graining on dusty circuit
Both Williams drivers were obviously targeting themselves to familiarise themselves with the new South Korean track which initially was extremely dusty. As the track evolved, both men focused on set-up work and tyre evaluations.
Patrick Head, Director of Engineering:
"It was very interesting to see the track develop and the way both tyres are behaving. I think everyone is experiencing graining on the option tyre, so that may cause some different race strategies. For us, we had a normal Friday, although we’d be happier if our lap times were a bit quicker, but we think we know where that is going to come from."
Runs P1: Run 1: New Prime (1 lap, install), Run 2: Used Prime (9 laps, baseline set-up), Run 3: Used Prime (8 laps, set-up test), Run 4: Used Prime (5 laps, race set-up)
Runs P2: Run 1: New Prime (7 laps, tyre evaluation), Run 2: Used Prime (3 laps, set-up test), Run 3: Used Prime (6 laps, set-up test), Run 4: New Option (5 laps, tyre evaluation), Run 5: Used Option (8 laps, race set-up), Run 6 Used Prime (6 laps, race set-up)
"We had a reasonable day. The track is getting better all the time. We started running on a high fuel load fairly early on, so I don’t think that where we ended today’s running is entirely reflective."
Nico Hulkenberg, Chassis FW32-01, Engine CA104:Runs P1: Run 1: New Prime (1 lap, install), Run 2: Used Prime (8 laps, baseline set-up), Run 3: Used Prime (8 laps, set-up test), Run 4: Used Prime (4 laps, race set-up)
Runs P2: Run 1: New Prime (5 laps, tyre evaluation), Run 2: Used Prime (5 laps, set-up test), Run 3: New Option (5 laps, tyre evaluation), Run 4: Used Option (8 laps, race set-up), Run 5: Used Prime (7 laps, race set-up)
"The track is pretty nice, I like driving here. We had a good first session this morning but we made some changes to the set-up for the afternoon which didn’t take us forward. The car felt quite different and I struggled to get the lap time out of it. We were looking competitive all morning though so we’ll go back to what we had originally and improve tomorrow."
