Michael Schumacher wasn’t overly optimistic about Mercedes’ chances for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend after finishing fourteenth on Friday. The seven-time champion has been outside the points in the last four races and after today’s performance, feels an end to that run would be a good achievement.
“Today we saw what I would call a ‘normal’ Friday – doing certain programmes, changing the set-up and typical data collection work. What we saw at the end of the day is probably where we are, so a pretty realistic picture. At the moment we are driving to finish in the points, and that is what we will target for the weekend. On a different note, it really is impressive and beautiful to drive here, and to drive from daytime into the night really is special.”
Teammate Nico Rosberg fared slightly better, going twelfth quickest, but is hoping that a good strategy can take him forward from wherever he qualifies.
“That was a good testing day, and we were able to evaluate a lot of different things. Unfortunately we are still lacking some pace but I hope that we can achieve some points with a good strategy tomorrow and on Sunday. Generally tyre degradation is not as big as last year, so it will be interesting to see how the race turns out.”
