Sebastian Vettel says the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team have a decision to make to what specification they will use across the rest of the French Grand Prix weekend after both he and Lance Stroll ran different spec cars during Friday practice at the Circuit Paul Ricard.
The German, who drove a one-hundred-year-old Aston Martin Grand Prix car ahead of the event, ended fourteenth fastest in the morning session in France, before taking thirteenth in the afternoon despite the temperatures soaring.
Vettel hopes to see Aston Martin back in contention in Q2 after both drivers were eliminated at the first hurdle in the past two Grand Prix, but he hopes the team make the right call with the set-up, particularly with how the close the midfield has proven to be so far this weekend in France.
“I went a little faster than I did yesterday in the 100-year-old car!” joked Vettel. “We ran with two different specs on the cars today.
“It was good to compare but now we have to pick and choose what works best for FP3 and qualifying tomorrow. The key for us will be to try and make it into Q2 tomorrow so we have a good starting point for the race.
“The midfield is really tight so I hope we can be a bit more in the mix. Our race pace always seems to be slightly better, so hopefully we can find more of an edge for Sunday. Whatever happens, it is going to be hot.”
“It is tough to predict where exactly we will be in qualifying” – Lance Stroll
Team-mate Stroll said his car ‘felt okay’ during the day at the Circuit Paul Ricard, even if he could not quite match Vettel in the afternoon session.
Stroll had outpaced Vettel in the morning session in twelfth, but he slipped to fifteenth in the afternoon session, although he was less than two-tenths of a second down on his four-time World Champion team-mate.
The Canadian says it is hard to predict where Aston Martin will be in Qualifying on Saturday with the midfield as tight as it is, so he knows he will need to be on the top of his game to get through into Q2.
“It was a good day today,” said Stroll. “The car felt okay – particularly on the long runs we did in FP2 – but it was definitely hot out there for everyone this afternoon.
“We will look at the data tonight and what we can work on for tomorrow. It is a tight midfield so it is tough to predict where exactly we will be in qualifying.”
