The Sauber of Pascal Wehrlein is suffering from engine problems for the second weekend in a row, having been blighted by power unit gremlins during qualifying for the Austrian GP last weekend.
The German driver was way off the pace in Q1 last weekend, qualifying in last place several tenths off the pace of his team-mate Marcus Ericsson at the Red Bull Ring. He looks to be in trouble once more at Silverstone, going three tenths off the pace of his team-mate in Free Practice 2 on Friday.
“I had issues with the engine today, as was the case in Spielberg last week,” Wehrlein explained. “We still managed to run through our programme and tried out various car set-ups. In the afternoon we focused on short runs and a long run. I hope that things will go better tomorrow and on Sunday.”
On the other side of the garage, Ericsson had a much calmer day, running without any technical issues, but without any semblance of pace to challenge the midfield ahead either.
“Overall, it has been a relatively productive day of testing for me,” he said. “We were able to complete the planned programme without having any issues, tested different downforce levels and did other set-up work.
“I had a lot of fun driving, especially in the high-speed corners. On the other hand, our performance is surely not satisfying, so I hope that we can find more performance for the rest of the weekend.”
