British Grand Prix: Practice Recap

MoneyGram Haas F1 Team drivers Esteban Ocon and Ollie Bearman headed into the weekend with an upgraded package on the VF-25 awaiting them – the developments concentrated on the floor and sidepod inlets. For comparison data only, Ocon ran the new package in FP1 with Bearman on the previous configuration. Ocon had stints on both the Pirelli P Zero Yellow medium and Red soft tires. A best effort of 1:28.057 on the soft compound locked the Frenchman into P15 on the timesheet. Bearman, contesting his home grand prix for the first time, also sampled the medium and soft rubber in FP1 – the rookie’s fastest lap, a 1:28.147 – set on the softs, placing him P18 at the checkered flag.

Both cars ran the VF-25 upgrade package in FP2 later in the afternoon. The second 60-minute practice session saw Ocon produce a 1:26:941 best lap on the softs, good for P14, having debuted the White hard tires to start the run plan. Bearman also trialed the hard compound to kick things off before a quali stint on softs – a 1:27.226 landing the British driver P19. High-fuel distance running completed the day’s on-track program – both drivers returning to the hard rubber to gain further race pace data.

MoneyGram Haas F1 Team ran a total of 100 laps on Friday across FP1 and FP2 – 51 by Bearman with 49 from Ocon.

Ollie Bearman:

“Esteban had the new package on this morning, and it performed as we expected, so this afternoon we also put it on. With the changes that made to car balance, I just don’t think we were up to speed because I had quite a lot of understeer out there. I think it’s a good sign though, it shows the change we made is doing the correct thing, but we need to make a few adjustments now to account for that and balance the car. Rain is on our radar and could change things, it’s always a feature of this weekend, but generally our Saturday pace is always a bit better than Friday so I hope with a few tweaks we can be fighting up there tomorrow. Even if it’s been a challenging day, I’ve been in high spirits with a beaming smile – it's a pleasure to drive this track firstly, but to have the fans supporting like they do is a very special feeling.”

Esteban Ocon:

“It was an interesting day out there. We’ve changed the car quite a bit, we’ve got some new parts, so it was about trying to understand it and optimize the day. It was quite windy out there so difficult to read into things, and it might be very different again tomorrow. We need to try and find a bit more performance but it’s only Friday – it doesn’t tell the whole picture. Let’s see if we can squeeze a bit more out of it.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal:

“It was a busy Friday, but at least we got through the program. Esteban ran the new package for the whole day, and it seems like it’s doing what it’s supposed to be doing, whereas Ollie started with the baseline and moved to the updated package for FP2. We’re still looking at the data, but we do see improvements, we just need to get a bit more out of it. We’ve got a bit more to learn about the car, both low-fuel and high-fuel, but it was a decent day – now we’ll work tonight to get into a better position for qualifying and the race.”