Japanese Grand Prix: Practice Recap

MoneyGram Haas F1 Team drivers Ollie Bearman and Esteban Ocon kicked off FP1 running baseline stints on the Pirelli P Zero Yellow medium tires – Bearman making his debut F1 laps at the famed venue running a new-spec floor on his VF-25. A switch onto the softer Red tire followed with Bearman recording a best lap of 1:30.077 for P18 while Ocon landed P19 with a 1:30.123.

FP2 was disrupted by no fewer than four separate red flag stops – less than half the session executed under green flag conditions. With the interruptions ensuring most run plans were negated, Ocon finished the session P14 having set a fastest lap of 1:29.507 on soft tires. Bearman clocked a 1:29.654 on the medium compound for P15.

MoneyGram Haas F1 Team ran a total of 61 laps on Friday across FP1 and FP2 – 27 by Bearman with 34 from Ocon.

Ollie Bearman:

“FP2 was tough, not getting many laps in with such an interrupted session. The track is tough with this wind, so it was no surprise that things happened – it was very gusty and inconsistent. I felt pretty good out there, so I’m annoyed that I couldn’t do a proper lap and show what we could do. I had a decent feeling in the afternoon, this morning was a bit more difficult, but we made some changes and we’re making small steps. The new floor seemed okay – we haven’t got a full read on it yet – we have to look overnight to make sure it’s all correct, but so far there’s nothing that has caught us out by surprise which is good.”

Esteban Ocon:

“It was a difficult session; it was interrupted by many red flags so we couldn’t complete the run program we wanted. It’s more difficult compared to China currently, we’re lacking a bit here and there, there are things we need to work on, and there are things we’ve tested across cars. We need to dig into it overnight and choose the best for us, it’s all on us to find more performance. I think we’ve made progress with the floor; I think it’s going in the right direction.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal:

“In FP1, in terms of the car balance window, we weren’t quite there but in terms of the issues we had in Melbourne, we didn’t see them. In FP2, we pushed the car a lot further, much closer to how we did in Shanghai and actually that gave us answers on the new floor which is pretty good – so it’s definitely better for the problem, and it was a good job done by the aero team and the design office to improve that. We improved the car balance as well, but with four red flags in FP2, it was a disrupted session so we didn’t complete the run program. I think especially on Ollie’s side, his car configuration is better, so we’ll look at the data and update Esteban’s floor to Ollie’s spec tonight, we just need to find a bit more performance.”