French Grand Prix: Friday Practice Recap

Friday’s track time consisted of two 60-minute sessions – FP1 and FP2 – around the 5.842-kilometer (3.630-mile), 15-turn circuit. Blue skies were a mainstay of the day’s running, with FP1 seeing the air temperature reach 29.6 degrees Celsius (85.28 degrees Fahrenheit) while the track temperature peaked at 59 degrees Celsius (138.2 degrees Fahrenheit).

Mick Schumacher headed out for his first run on the Pirelli P Zero Yellow medium tire while Kevin Magnussen opted to trial the Red soft rubber. After seven laps, Schumacher swapped compounds to join Magnussen for a new set of Red softs. For their final outings, on high-fuel, both drivers utilized the used soft rubber from earlier in the session. Schumacher set the fastest time in the VF-22 lapping in 1:36.022 (P16) while Magnussen’s best was a 1:36.104 (P17) – both times recorded on softs.

The heat persisted for Free Practice 2, with both drivers exiting the garage on the Yellow medium tire. A swift baseline stint was followed by qualifying simulations for the pair, seeing Magnussen and Schumacher switching to the Red soft compound. Magnussen set the quickest time in the VF-22 with a lap of 1:33.928 (P8) as Schumacher recorded a time of 1:35.195 (P19). High-fuel running closed out the day with Magnussen back out on the mediums he started the session on while Schumacher continued on softs through to the checkered. 

Haas F1 Team ran a total of 87 laps on Friday across FP1 and FP2 – 46 by Magnussen and 41 by Schumacher.

Kevin Magnussen, Driver No. 20, Haas F1 Team

“I don’t think it was a bad day. We made a decent jump from FP1 to FP2 – it didn’t look so good in FP1 – but then we made some changes and found some pace. Hopefully that carries into tomorrow and we have a good FP3, going into qualifying. It’s very impressive how the team is finding pace in the car despite no upgrades so I’m very happy about that and I’m excited to see what the car will be like when we do get upgrades.”

Mick Schumacher, Driver No. 47, Haas F1 Team

“Sometimes you want to try and go to the limit and that’s what I did and carrying a lot of speed into that corner is helpful in terms of lap time and in that sense maybe it was a bit too much. It’s a bit unfortunate as that meant we were on the short side for tires on the long run but on the other hand you’ve got to try. The car felt good this morning, a bit worse this afternoon, so we’ll be analyzing why and trying to figure out how we can make it better but I don’t see a reason why we can’t get it back into the window tomorrow.”

Guenther Steiner, Team Principal, Haas F1 Team

“It was a solid day today. In FP1 we did some testing, aero testing mainly. In FP2, we made changes to the car from FP1 and it went quite well for Kevin. Mick never had a clean or full lap so he’s a little bit behind at the moment but I really think tomorrow we can get back to where we want to be.”

Today's Data

Event: Free Practice 1 & 2 for the French Grand Prix – Friday July 22
Location: Circuit Paul Ricard, Le Castellet
Layout: 5.842-kilometer (3.630-mile), 15-turn circuit
FP1 & FP2 Weather: Sunny
Drivers: Kevin Magnussen & Mick Schumacher 

Free Practice 1 Rundown:

Schumacher: 16th overall (1:36.022), 19 laps completed
Magnussen: 17th overall (1:36.104), 22 laps completed
Fastest: Charles Leclerc of Scuderia Ferrari (1:33.930)

Free Practice 2 Rundown:

Magnussen: 8th overall (1:33.928), 24 laps completed
Schumacher: 19th overall (1:35.195), 22 laps completed
Fastest: Carlos Sainz of Scuderia Ferrari (1:32.527)