Hungaroring, Friday 17 July
Hear from McLaren Formula 1 drivers Carlos Sainz, Lando Norris, and Racing Director Andrea Stella after Free Practice in Hungary.
CARLOS SAINZ, #55
| FP1 | 1m17.675s (+1.672s) | 32 laps | 11th | |
| FP2 | 1m41.784s (+1.320s) | 6 laps | 3rd |
“It’s been a challenging Friday for us here at the Hungaroring. In FP1 we struggled with the balance more than we wanted to, and putting good laps together was quite tricky compared to our performance in Austria. We’re finding different challenges and we need to make sure we adapt to these, just in case it’s dry tomorrow. In the wet we did very little running, but otherwise had a decent feeling with the car.
“We had a specific test programme for FP2 to try different set-ups and improve our performance in dry conditions, but we obviously couldn’t do it. So, if it’s dry tomorrow, we’ll need to work hard to pull it all together and get it right for quali.”
LANDO NORRIS, #4
| FP1 | 1m17.523s (+1.520s) | 26 laps | 9th | |
| FP2 | 1m46.000s (+5.536s) | 5 laps | 12th |
“Today was quite tricky. We’re in a very different situation to Austria in terms of car balance and what we’re suffering with. This was a good track for us last year, but after the feeling this morning it wasn’t looking quite as good. We’ve got some work to do if it’s going to be dry tomorrow.
“I think the weather conditions tomorrow are still a bit unknown, so it’s all still to play for. I think we can probably make some progress and go again tomorrow.”
ANDREA STELLA, Racing Director
“This morning wasn’t the hot Hungaroring we’re used to seeing, but even though it was cold, we could work during FP1 like any normal practice session and go through the programme. We learned where car performance has its limitations, and what we have to work on. We also ran the Soft tyre on consecutive laps and discovered that it is quite fragile.
“We made changes to the car during the break and wanted to test them in FP2, but the session was consistently wet and all we could do was assess the level of grip for the Intermediate and Wet tyres. This year the grip in the wet seems to be very low, and we’ll have to adapt to this as well in case it’s wet in qualifying or Sunday’s race.”
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