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Formula One / 2024 Chinese Grand Prix - Preview

« Last post by fasteddy on April 16, 2024, 02:54:09 PM »

Toto Talks China

Returning to China is an important moment for the sport. As the world’s largest automotive market and second biggest economy, China is crucial to the sport’s global footprint. The growth of F1 in recent years has been positive and China is a key market in which to continue this progress. We are looking forward to racing in Shanghai for the first time in five years and bringing F1 back to the Chinese fans. With a sell-out crowd expected, I am sure it will be a fantastic event.

It will be an interesting weekend on track. With new cars, new tyres, and changes to the track surface since we last raced in China, there will be plenty of unknowns. We have the first Sprint weekend of the year too and that brings its own challenges. The changes to the format, including a second parc fermé, will be an improvement to the rhythm of the weekend – and the single hour of practice still puts pressure on to make correct decisions with imperfect information. We are looking forward to that test, though.

The headline results didn’t necessarily show it, but we made solid progress with our car in Japan. We are looking forward to building on that this weekend.
Fact File: Chinese Grand Prix

The Chinese Grand Prix returns to the calendar for the first time since 2019 this year, having first appeared on the F1 calendar in 2004.
That 2019 race was also F1000, the 1000th race since the inception of the sport in 1950.
The 5.451km layout features 16 turns (nine right, seven left). The racing lap record from the first race in 2004 still stands today, set by Michael Schumacher.
Shanghai International Circuit holds special memories for our team too, having been the site of our first win since returning to the sport in 2010 when Nico Rosberg triumphed in 2012.
In 2005, the circuit hosted the season finale for the one and only time.
Having originally taken place towards the end of the F1 calendar, the race moved to a more permanent slot in the early stages of the season from 2009.
The first seven events were all won by different drivers.
Lewis Hamilton is the most successful driver at the track, triumphing six times to date between 2008 and 2019.
Shanghai will also host the first F1 Sprint weekend of 2024.
In a change from 2023, Friday will now consist of FP1 and Sprint qualifying. The F1 Sprint race will follow on Saturday morning, before Grand Prix qualifying on Saturday afternoon.
This is the first year that ground effect cars (introduced in 2022) will have raced at the Shanghai International Circuit.
As the circuit is built on swampland, the risk of earth movement below ground is increased, so steps have been taken to grind down and reseal areas of concern on the track to make it less bumpy.

Formula One / 2024 Japanese Grand Prix - Sunday

« Last post by fasteddy on April 16, 2024, 02:52:30 PM »

George Russell

We moved forward today and that was positive. The plan to start on the Hard tyre after the red flag was to give us the flexibility to attempt either a one-stop or a two-stop. It was good to have this freedom and ultimately, we ended up on the two-stop strategy as the one stop wasn’t working. We had a challenging opening stint but after that first stop, our pace looked competitive to those ahead.

It was an exciting race towards the end. It’s always nice to be attacking rather than defending, and it was good, hard racing. There was some contact with Oscar, which was a racing incident, but I was glad to get the position in the end. It’s close between the four teams behind Red Bull and qualifying is going to be critical at each race. Whoever starts ahead will likely finish at the front of that pack. We know we’ve got work to do and we will keep pushing. Hopefully a track like the one in China will suit us better.
Lewis Hamilton

It was a difficult day today. I did my best, but the result wasn’t a good one. Unfortunately, that is where our car is at the moment. I didn’t feel great on the Hard tyre and picked up a little bit of damage on the restart. I had lots of understeer, particularly during that first stint, which was why I decided to let George past. Once we put on the Medium compound, it started to feel a little better. The final stint was the first time in the race that I felt like I had good grip.

We need to keep working hard as today, our pace was likely only good enough for P6. If we want to move up the grid, then we will need to add more performance to the car.
Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO

It was a difficult race today. Our second and third stints were quick and were similar to those ahead who were fighting for the podium. A poor first stint cost us today though and we need to find out why that was. Our decision to take the restart on the Hard tyres was the right one I feel, and, in the beginning, our pace was stable with our direct competitors. We suddenly dropped one to two seconds a lap though and at the moment, it was clear that the tyres wouldn’t make the one-stop viable for us.

Overall, this weekend has been better than the final results suggest. We have lots to learn and there is no track relevant excuse we will use; we need to be quick at all circuits. But from what we’ve seen here, we can say that the car is becoming quicker. We will continue to work hard, and I am excited to head back to China in a few weeks after such a long absence from the calendar.
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

It wasn't an easy race today. We weren't quick enough in qualifying so were starting too far back to challenge for the podium. Early in the race, our pace was simply not good enough too. We'd decided to go to the Hard tyre at the red flag as we felt there wasn't much threat from behind, and it was our best way to offset and try something different. Towards the end of that stint we were really struggling with low grip. We couldn't stop early as there was too much traffic in the window, so we stayed out until we had cleared it. Unfortunately by then, we had lost a chunk of time.

The second and third stints were more encouraging, but we'd lost too much time by that point to get back into the mix. We know that we are not quick enough at the moment, so we will continue work hard to improve that. Despite the challenging result, it has been a useful weekend to learn more about our car and develop our understanding of the W15.

Formula One / 2024 Japanese Grand Prix - Saturday

« Last post by fasteddy on April 16, 2024, 02:51:30 PM »

Lewis Hamilton

Qualifying was generally a really good session. I think we’ve made some good improvements to the car and its balance so far this weekend. I was overall much happier in the car than I have been this year, although there are clear areas of improvement. We have taken steps in the right direction though. When we raced here just six months ago, we were over one second adrift and we’ve closed that gap to the front a little, and to our nearest competitors. Of course I was hoping for more and we are never going to be happy with P7, but we know our car is a work in progress.

Tomorrow’s race will be all about tyre degradation. Our long run pace looked similar to others on Friday, so we will see if that is the case on Sunday. I think it will be very close tomorrow so I hope we can maximise all the various factors and take home some good points.
George Russell

It was so tight out there between ourselves, the McLarens, the Ferraris, and the Aston Martins. After FP3, we knew there would only be one tenth or two between all those cars and so it proved. If you didn’t do a great lap you would end up P9 and that is what happened with me today. I made a mistake on my final lap; it’s a little bit disappointing but that is how it goes sometimes. It isn’t the most difficult race to overtake at though, and with tyre degradation and different strategies, hopefully we can move forward tomorrow. A lot can certainly happen.

We’ve started this season with several high-speed circuits. We know that is where our weakness is with this car, and we knew this weekend wouldn’t be our best. It is good that we are exposing these weaknesses as it gives us the understanding of the platform we are building on and adding performance to. It sets a clear direction for us to improve.
Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO

The headline result of P7 and P9 is not great. The positive though is that we are not too far off the second row, just one tenth or so, at a track that was one of, if not the worst, last year. We seem to have taken a step in the right direction with the car this weekend. Everyone is pushing so hard to understand more about the W15 and how we can build on the platform we have. To see progress is therefore encouraging.

It is difficult to predict what tomorrow’s race will look like. The pack behind Red Bull is very tight so we will see what we can do. The long run data from Friday, and today’s qualifying session, shows that it could be close. We will look to maximise everything we do and the package we have to score the best result possible.
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

We headed to Japan focused on trying to make the car more consistent and drivable over the weekend. Pleasingly, it looks like we've made some progress in that regard. We'd be a lot happier of course if we were a tenth quicker. That would have put us several positions higher up on the grid. The reality at the moment though is we are the wrong side of a tight bunch of cars and need to find some more performance.

Despite that, we have halved our gap to pole position from last year and can also be encouraged by the fact that even small steps forward will move us up the grid. The red flag and rain yesterday have meant we're short of long run data, but this is a race where you can move forward if you have good pace. We will be looking to make the most of the car we have, execute our strategy well, and hopefully can finish higher up than where we are starting.

Formula One / 2024 Japanese Grand Prix - Friday

« Last post by fasteddy on April 16, 2024, 02:50:43 PM »

George Russell

We performed better than we expected to in FP1. That was a pleasant surprise, and the car was feeling really nice to drive. Both Lewis and I were happy with the overall balance. The W15 has been performing better when the conditions are cooler though, so that is a note of caution. Our focus today was trying several test items and experiments to make the car more consistent in variable conditions. Time will tell whether these have had the intended impact and it was frustrating that we couldn’t evaluate these further in the afternoon.

It’s such a shame for those here and watching at home that we couldn’t do much running in FP2. I hope we can find a solution for these moments and conditions. It’s not the first time it has happened, and it won’t be the last. Looking at tomorrow, Qualifying will be interesting as it’s a clear single lap tyre. Most drivers may only have three or four sets of the Soft compound so you will have to ensure you nail each and every lap.
Lewis Hamilton

FP1 was a great session for us. It was the best session for us so far this year and the best the car has felt. I felt very positive and excited heading into FP2 as this is a circuit that every driver loves to drive. It was a shame not to get much running in, therefore. In the last two years here, we’ve struggled with a car that has had an inconsistent balance and has been difficult to drive. The team has done a lot of great work since Australia, and we seemed to hit the ground running today. The car was definitely in a sweeter spot. We’ve got a better baseline to start from this weekend and hopefully we can build on that.
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

We've done a lot of work over the last week focused on making the car more consistent. We've seen across the first three races that we have sessions where we look strong, but when it comes to qualifying and the race, we've fallen short of our expectations. It's too early to say whether we've made the progress that we are hoping for, but it is encouraging that the drivers are happier with the feel of the car. The data also suggests that we have got the tyres in a better window. It was a shame for the fans that weather reduced the amount of running in the afternoon session, but there is plenty of opportunity to get laps in tomorrow morning.

Formula One / 2024 Japanese Grand Prix - Preview

« Last post by fasteddy on April 16, 2024, 02:49:49 PM »

Toto Talks Japan

After a difficult weekend in Australia, it’s good to get back racing in Japan this weekend. Since Melbourne, we have been focused on improving the consistency of the W15. The car has shown signs of strong performance on occasion, but we’ve struggled to deliver this at the critical moments across the first three races. Suzuka, with its famously fast sweeps mixed with some low-speed content, plus elevation change, will provide a different challenge to the circuits we’ve raced at so far. It is therefore another good opportunity to build on our learnings and analyse the work that has been undertaken since Australia.

We head to Japan at a slightly earlier time of year than usual this season. Whilst it is unlikely to have a major impact, it will be important to understand any differences that this causes in terms of track conditions. One thing that won’t change is the remarkable support from the Japanese fans. It is always a fantastic atmosphere at Suzuka and I am sure it will be the same once again this weekend.
Fact File: Japanese Grand Prix

Suzuka holds the distinction of being the only circuit we race at that is laid out in a figure-of-eight configuration.
After the Degner Curves, the circuit passes under the straight leading to 130R. Owing to this, it's the only F1 track that runs both clockwise and anticlockwise.
This figure-of-eight layout is beneficial for tyre wear. It creates a more even balance between left and right-hand corners (10 being right-handers and eight to the left), distributing load more equally between tyres.
The first corner doesn't require any braking on entry. In Qualifying, drivers don't hit the brakes until the car is cornering at close to 5G.
That helps to generate some of the highest steering wheel torques of the entire season.
The vast majority of the first sector at Suzuka is spent cornering. From Turn 1 until the exit of Turn 7, the steering wheel is moving almost continuously for nearly 2km of the lap.
Just 1.2 km of the lap is spent driving in a straight line. Most of the 5.807 kms sees some lateral g-force going through the car.
The lack of straights also means that Suzuka is just one of a handful of circuits on the calendar that has a solitary DRS zone. This is found between Turn 18 and Turn 1.
130R is one of F1's quickest corners, taken at 295 km/h. Turn 11 meanwhile is one of the slowest at 60 km/h.
The braking zone for Turn 11 is particularly challenging. Drivers must hit the brakes midway through the fast Turn 10. They are cornering at close to 3.5G while turning right before the hairpin left. Lockups are therefore common.
Brake duty and wear are among the lowest we see across the year.
Suzuka has one of the highest mass sensitivities of the season. That means that carrying more fuel is more penalising in terms of lap time and performance.
This will be the first time the Japanese Grand Prix has taken place in April, moving from its traditional slot in the latter half of the season.
The team claimed six consecutive wins at Suzuka between 2014 and 2019.
In 2019, a 1-3 finish saw the team clinch its sixth consecutive Constructors’ title.
Suzuka is one of two circuits to host the Japanese Grand Prix, along with the Fuji International circuit. The Okayama International circuit (Formerly TI Aida) hosted the Pacific Grand Prix in 1994 and 1995.
Suzuka has played host to the final round of the World Championship on six occasions and has seen numerous world champions crowned over the years.

Formula One / 2024 Australian Grand Prix - Sunday

« Last post by fasteddy on April 16, 2024, 02:48:44 PM »

George Russell

I’m OK after the accident fortunately. I don’t really know how to explain what happened. I was half-a-second behind Fernando (Alonso) 100 metres before the corner and then suddenly he came back towards me extremely quickly. It was clear that he braked earlier than he had done on previous laps and then got back on the throttle. I wasn’t expecting that, and it caught me by surprise. I hit the wall and had a dramatic few seconds after that.

It was a disappointing end to a difficult race. Our pace wasn’t where we wanted it to be. We showed spells of good lap times but ultimately we’ve got work to do to catch those ahead. We will be focused on how we can make improvements ahead of Japan in two weeks’ time.
Lewis Hamilton

My race was going OK up until the point we suffered the Power Unit failure. It’s quite tough to overtake here but we had gained some positions early on with the Soft tyre. It was unfortunate that we had to retire as there was still a long way to go. I was beginning to press on, but the Power Unit just stopped. These things happen and I know we will bounce back.

We will also improve the car as the season goes on. We have done so in previous years, and I am confident we will do so again. It is tough that we are not as competitive as we would like at the moment, but we will keep working hard. I am focused on doing that with the team. In the short term, I expect we will still find it difficult to challenge further up but we will see what we can do in the medium term.
Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO

That was a disappointing race to end a difficult weekend. After taking a brave decision to start on the Soft tyre, Lewis had made good progress initially. Unfortunately his race came to an end shortly after. We will send the Power Unit back to Brixworth and investigate what caused the failure. For George, it was clear that Alonso braked earlier than he had on previous laps. It is now with the stewards to determine what caused that. Nobody feels positive about where we find ourselves right now, but we are focused on turning this around. It is tough to take but we will remain calm and composed. We have seen others who have shown that when you get it right, things can turn around quickly. That is what we are aiming to do.
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

That was a very disappointing end to a tough weekend, with a significant amount of accident damage to remedy ahead of Japan in two weeks’ time. We went into the race hoping to make progress forward from our grid positions: with Lewis, that involved starting on the Soft, which helped him gain positions on the opening lap, and George on the Medium. Lewis’s race was cut short by a sudden and unexpected Power Unit failure; we had no warning of it and will need to investigate further when the PU returns to Brixworth. For George, he knew he had to complete two long stints on the Hard and find the right balance between pushing the tyre and stretching out its life. It was clear that we were unable to fight with the three teams in front, and he was racing for P6 after Alonso had pitted under the VSC for Lewis’s retirement and gained track position. George had an opportunity to get the place back on the final stint and was clearly caught by surprise by the unexpected deceleration in front on the penultimate lap.

It has been a bruising weekend for us, during which we were unable to compete on a single lap or the long runs, and we will be continuing to trawl through the data in the coming days, to see what isn’t working and why we are only currently able to deliver flashes of performance from the car. It’s clear that we have much to work on, to give both drivers a better tool to work with at the race weekends. We now need to get our heads down, work through the challenges one by one, and aim to deliver a stronger showing next time in Suzuka.

Formula One / 2024 Australian Grand Prix - Saturday

« Last post by fasteddy on April 16, 2024, 02:45:54 PM »

George Russell

It wasn’t the qualifying session we were hoping for today. It was challenging to get the tyres in the right window, and it is so tight out there that a few tenths can have a major impact. The car felt strong in FP3 but unfortunately that feeling didn’t quite translate into the afternoon.

We know where we need to improve the car and that is in the high-speed corners. Unfortunately, there are a decent amount of those here in Melbourne, so this circuit is definitely not playing to our strengths. I do think we’ll be in a better place tomorrow though when everyone has the fuel in their car. There are also many unknowns heading into the race. Nobody has run the Hard tyre, and that will be the compound that is primarily in use throughout. We may also see some graining. I think it will be a more exciting race here than we usually see. And ultimately, it is the Grand Prix where points are scored.
Lewis Hamilton

The car felt great in FP3. It was much improved from yesterday and we were right there at the front. Going into qualifying, the inconsistencies within the car showed up though, unfortunately. The wind typically picks up here in the afternoon and I think we suffered with that today, similarly to how we struggled in FP2. The car is on a knife’s edge, and it is difficult as a driver to work around these inconsistencies.

It’s not a great feeling for anyone in the team at the moment but we will keep working away. George did a good job today to get the car into Q3. I’ll be focused on coming back tomorrow and trying to do a better job.
Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO

It was an underwhelming qualifying session today, particularly as we were only a few tenths off the fastest time in FP3. The conditions were different between the sessions, and we suffered from that. We have a car that is difficult and small changes can cause it to be outside of the working window. There is no simple solution as it is about the complex interaction between all the constituent elements of the car.

It is frustrating that we are still saying this, but we will continue to keep working on it. It is not because of a lack of trying that we are where we are, and we will push to get better. We will keep our heads down and work through this. The car has potential, as can be seen by our performance in FP3. It is tricky to consistently get it into this place though and improving that is what we are focused on doing.
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

It felt like we'd made good progress overnight and the car was working well across FP3 this morning. However, that pace didn't seem to carry into qualifying and we finished a disappointing P7 and P11. The track was a little hotter and it was a little windier in qualifying, but that does not fully explain why the car was well behaved in one session and such a handful the next. The work to understand those issues will carry on in the background as we turn our focus to the race.

We've hopefully improved the long run since Friday, but we need to be realistic as to what we can achieve from our starting positions. Managing the tyres is a challenge here. They can be fragile, but we will be a few laps in before we can start to see how we are performing in terms of degradation. It's also a race where the strategy is normally dictated by incidents on track. We'll be on our toes and hopefully we can still take away a decent number of points.

Formula One / 2024 Australian Grand Prix - Friday

« Last post by fasteddy on April 16, 2024, 02:45:02 PM »

George Russell

We were pushing the limits today and I had a few moments out there. It was all under control in the end though. It was very tight out there in the first session with FP2 slightly more spread out. I was on for a really good lap on my last push on the Soft tyre, but just ran wide in the last two corners and picked up some minor damage to my front-wing. Without that, I think we would have finished the session P3.

We are trying to understand this car further and made some changes after Saudi Arabia. Every single lap is so valuable as you learn more about the car and try to get it into the sweet spot. We will have the team back at the factory working hard in the simulator to get more performance out of it. Let’s see what tomorrow brings. When you arrive the next day, it can often be very different.
Lewis Hamilton

It didn’t feel great out there today. We began the day on the front foot and in FP1, the car generally felt good. The first run was actually the best the car has felt so far this year. To continue our learning, we made some big changes into FP2 and unfortunately, that made the car worse. It was tough but there are positives we can take from the first session. We will be working hard overnight to make improvements ahead of tomorrow.
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

We had a good FP1 session. The changes we made to improve our high-speed cornering performance and reduce the bouncing after Saudi Arabia seemed to be a good step in the right direction. Overall, the car was feeling quite good.

Unfortunately, FP2 wasn't as strong. Lewis felt that we had gone in the wrong direction with our changes. Frustratingly, they weren't quick to unwind so he had to live with that throughout the session. George found the car a bit trickier in the windier conditions of FP2 compared to earlier in the day. We could have ended a bit higher up the time sheets had he not had a bit of damage. Overall though, it’s clear that we've got work to do overnight to improve the car.

Formula One / 2024 Australian Grand Prix - Preview

« Last post by fasteddy on April 16, 2024, 02:42:13 PM »

Toto Talks Australia

We’ve been hard at work since Jeddah building on the learnings from the first two races. It’s encouraging to see the potential in the W15 but there are also clear areas of improvement. We have looked competitive in low and medium speed corners but high-speed has been a weakness so far. We have been working hard to understand why our performance hasn’t reflected our expectations. Improving that is a major focus. We hope to make some initial progress for Melbourne, and that work will guide our development in the weeks ahead. It’s great to feel the energy and determination running through the factories as we work to unlock the potential of the car.

We left points on the table in both Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. We started off each weekend strongly, running our usual practice programmes, but couldn’t deliver on that initial promise. With the chasing pack being so close, maximising the potential of the car each weekend is key. Albert Park gives us another chance to show what we can do. It is a great circuit in a great city, with a passionate and vocal fan base, and we look forward to returning.
Fact File: Australian Grand Prix

The Albert Park Circuit, modified prior to 2022 and thus shortened to 5.278 km, is a temporary track partially run on public roads. As part of the modifications two years ago, new tarmac was laid.
In a change from last year, Pirelli will be bringing the softest tyres in their range to Australia this year: the C3, C4, and C5.
Last year, the tyre selection was one step harder with the C2, C3, and C4 compounds being used.
Melbourne has the second shortest pit lane on the calendar at just 281 metres. Cars therefore spend only about 13 seconds at pit lane speed – that is the least amount of time spent in the pit lane of any across the year.
Formula 2 will join Albert Park’s support race schedule for the second consecutive season. We will therefore see junior driver Kimi Antonelli in action Down Under, racing for PREMA as he continues his debut season in the series.
There is a considerable time difference (11 hours) between Melbourne and the team back at Brackley and Brixworth supporting remotely, adding another level of challenge to the weekend.

Albert Park is one of two venues to host the Australian Grand Prix, along with Adelaide.
Our team has tasted success four times in Melbourne (Nico Rosberg in 2014 & 2016, Lewis Hamilton in 2015, and Valtteri Bottas in 2019)
The season-ending 1995 Australian Grand Prix and the season-opening 1996 Australian Grand Prix is the only time in F1 history that consecutive races have had the same title.
Albert Park is a unique, rare combination of street circuit and permanent racetrack.
The fast-flowing Turn 9, Turn 10 sequence is a crucial part of the lap for the driver, and is where plenty of time can be gained and lost.
With 72% of the lap time, and 79% of lap distance, spent at full throttle, Albert Park ranks third highest of any circuit on the calendar judged on both these metrics.

Formula One / 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix - Saturday

« Last post by fasteddy on April 16, 2024, 02:41:04 PM »

George Russell

It was a long evening out there. I spent nearly 40 laps within 1.5 seconds of Fernando Alonso but couldn’t get past. I had a slippery car on the straights, but I couldn’t get close enough in the high-speed to give him any real pressure. P6 was likely a fair result in the end and it’s clear that we haven’t found the sweet spot with this car just yet.

Overall though, we need to find a bit more performance. We’ve seen potential and pace in the car, but we haven’t shown it when it’s mattered. We need to understand why that is and improve ahead of Melbourne. As we’ve seen, the pecking order behind the Red Bulls is very close so we need to get on top of it. There’s lots of work to do but I believe in the team.
Lewis Hamilton

We tried our best to go long today and were hoping that we might benefit from a safety car or a VSC. Unfortunately it never came to us, and we ended up finishing slightly further back than we started. It was worth trying something different though. We gave it everything we had, and that was likely the best result we could get today given how the race played out.

There is potential within this car, but we still need to add a good amount of performance. The car today was pretty good in the medium and low-speed corners, but we were losing out in the high-speed. These next few races will be tricky but we will be putting in a great deal of effort to improve as much as we can. I know everyone at the factory will be getting their heads down and working as hard as they can.
Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO

Today was not a good day for us. It is clear that we are struggling with the car in the high-speed corners. We are competitive elsewhere but in three corners here, we were losing about half-a-second. It was therefore incredibly difficult for the drivers to attack with. We tried something different on the strategy but unfortunately, with the low levels of degradation we saw across the field, it didn’t work out for us. Congratulations must go to Ollie Bearman; he jumped in the car at such short notice and drove a great race, particularly in that final stint. It shows just how high the level is in Formula 2.

There is so much learning we can take from these first two race weekends. We need to get our heads down to analyse, understand and improve. It’s clear that we’ve got a lot of work to do but these tough days make you better. Everyone is committed to getting the car into a better place and we look forward to coming back stronger in Australia.
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

We've not performed well this weekend. Our high-speed performance has been weak, and the car is bouncing in those corners. That contributed to our poor qualifying but also meant we couldn't challenge Aston Martin and the McLarens in the race. We were losing so much time in sector one that we spent the rest of the lap clawing it back.

Overall, it has been a very frustrating weekend but ultimately one of our own making. We've seen glimpses of strong performance, but it's not been easy to land the set-up in the right place and we've clearly got some weaknesses that still need ironing out. We are going to have to work hard between now and Melbourne to improve. The tracks are similar and we don’t want another weekend like this one.