Formula 1

“It’s far from certain what the weather will do tomorrow or Sunday” – Otmar Szafnauer

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Sergio Pérez - SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team at the 2019 Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix - Hungaroring - Free Practice 2
Credit: Octane Photographic Ltd.

Racing Point F1 Team did not find the amount of mileage they were after over the course the two Free Practice sessions on Friday for this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix.

Rain had affected the afternoon running, thus a lengthy stay in the garage for the cars was the suitable option before meticulously coming back on track on intermediate tyres for both of their drivers.

Sergio Pérez was fifteenth fastest overall in both sessions, less than a tenth quicker than team-mate Lance Stroll at the end of today.

“We did limited running today due to the wet weather. It’s hard to learn a huge amount, but we did what we could,” the Mexican added.

“The difficulty is predicting where the track will be tomorrow, but I think we can be competitive whether it’s wet or dry. I think if it’s wet again it will open up more opportunities for us. There’s definitely a lot of work to do tonight to go through the data and pick out the best bits.”

Stroll was happy with his running in the morning despite being over two seconds off the pace to the fastest time. He finds that all the other teams are in the same position in terms of the level of uncertainty of what qualifying and the race will bring this weekend.

“We did some good running this morning, but then the rain came this afternoon which limited our programme,” Stroll said.

“It means we are missing quite a lot of information, but it’s the same for everybody. It was good to get a few laps on the intermediate tyres under our belts in case the rain continues into the weekend.

“I was exploring the limits in FP1, but I ran a bit wide into six and got caught out in seven. It’s hard to assess where we stand because the sessions were so disrupted. We are still fine-tuning the car and I think we can make some progress overnight to improve before qualifying.”

Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer mentioned that his team gathered as much data as possible in Free Practice 1 before the rain came down later on in the day. Like Pérez and Stroll, he is convinced that is unpredictable what the rest of the weekend will bring to the grid.

“We made the best of the relatively dry conditions this morning to continue learning about the car,” Szafnauer added. “We used some aero measurement devices and also applied flow viz around the rear of the car. 

“When the rain came this afternoon, we fitted the intermediate tyres and did a few runs to learn what we could, but it’s far from certain what the weather will do tomorrow or Sunday.”

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Currently, a Journalist at The Checkered Flag, writing articles most especially within the single-seater categories of motor racing including F1, F2, F3 and Formula E. I've recently graduated from the University of Lincoln with a Masters in Sports Journalism and a Bachelors in Media Production. Also a Regional Edward R. Murrow Award winner by the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA).
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