Williams team and drivers report from the first day of practice for the Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park in Melbourne, Round 1 of the 2013 Formula 1 world championship.
Mike Coughlan, Technical Director: We did some aero evaluations this morning comparing the two packages that we brought to Melbourne. We’ll be running our FW35 launch aero package for the remainder of the weekend as it has proven better around the Albert Park circuit and in the conditions we have here. This afternoon we ran through a fuel level and tyre programme. We’ll now look at the data and be ready for tomorrow.
Pastor Maldonado: We ran some different tests today on the car and the tyres, so we haven’t got the maximum pace out of the car yet. We have a lot of work to do before tomorrow, but we have another practice session to focus on the set-up needed for qualifying and we’ll be analysing all today’s data this evening.
Valtteri Bottas: It felt good to be back on track today. It’s a new circuit for me so it took a few laps in the first practice to get to know it a little better. The track improved a lot going into the second session with much more grip, so I felt like the car could still improve further. We will analyse all the data tonight and keep working on the car in FP3 to get everything ready for qualifying.