Abu Dhabi Day 1: F1 Driver & Team reports from Yas Marina

There was drama at Yas Marina, particularly in the FP2 session where a couple of Red Flags were required to remove broken bits of Carlos Sainz's Ferrari, the Spaniard losing it when the car snapped out of his control and slammed the barriers sideways. It was a big impact, but thankfully the Spaniard was unhurt.

Not long after that Hulkenberg also lost it in the Haas and spun out, triggering the second stoppage. The session resumed for the final 15 minutes or so, and when the chequered flag waved to end the session Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was fastest, followed by P2 Lando Norris in the McLaren and Red Bull's triple F1 World Champion Max Verstappen in P3.

Carlos Sainz: It’s obviously not been the Friday I wanted here in Abu Dhabi. We played a bit with the set up in FP1 and I was looking forward to FP2 after making some changes to the car. Unfortunately, I went over the big bump at the entry to turn 3 and I lost the car over it, bottoming out and hitting the barriers.It was a costly mistake and I’m sorry for the mechanics for giving them extra work today. I’m sure tomorrow we will be back on track and ready to go. It looks like the field is going to be tight so we can expect an interesting Qualifying.

Charles Leclerc: "It was a tricky day. We only completed two laps on the short run and not many overall, but the feeling in the car was pretty good so far. The fight is on with Mercedes and they look competitive, so it won’t be easy. We will do everything we can to qualify in front of them tomorrow."

Max Verstappen: “We had limited track time in FP2 so we weren't able to learn as much as we wanted to. I didn't expect the balance to be so far off, there was a lot of understeer and jumping. There's a lot to figure out in tomorrow's practice session. Of course, we're still P3 so it's not too bad, I just think balance wise it could be much better. We need to make some big improvements to be good in qualifying tomorrow."

Sergio Perez: "We had to do some tweaks to the car towards the start of the session, I was struggling a bit with some front end initially. Due to the red flags, we hardly got any running, especially on the medium and then on my soft run I had traffic with people doing high fuel runs towards the end of the session. It wasn’t a very straightforward day, obviously I didn’t run in FP1 so you lose that and it means we have to be very careful on what route we take with set-up. I think we have some good potential in the car though, we just have to do some tweaks here and there, then we should be in a good place for tomorrow."

George Russell: "That was a relatively positive Friday for us. There were a lot of rookie drivers out there on track in FP1, so we didn't get a completely clear gauge of where our relative pace was. Fred did a good job for the team though, and we got a lot of useful data to look over. FP2 was clearly an interrupted session so again, we couldn't get a read on where we were stacking up against our competitors or a true picture of where our pace may be. Nevertheless, we have a lot to review overnight and that will hopefully put us in a good place to finish the last race of the season on a high. I'm excited going into tomorrow."

Lewis Hamilton: "FP2 was a very frustrating session for me, and I suspect for all the drivers out there. We got very little running in the end, and a lack of consecutive laps too, which is what we most want to achieve on a Friday. On the laps we did do, the car felt OK. The grip felt good and there are a few things we will look at overnight to see what we can improve. It was a shame we didn't get more running, but we will look to make up for that in FP3 tomorrow."

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director: "George had a clean FP1. We were missing a lot of the reference cars, so we weren't reading too much into the timesheets. We were able to get a read on high and low fuel balance and made some changes going into the evening session. The second session was badly compromised by the red flags. That was clearly felt most by all those drivers who sat out FP1, and Lewis was understandably frustrated not to be able to get more laps in. We still managed to get a bit of a read on the long run in the cool conditions, and the soft single lap pace. There is plenty to do overnight, but at least we have an idea of where we need to improve the car.

Lando Norris: "It was a messy day on track with the Red and Yellow Flags, but I think we made the most of the time we had today. We got some good laps in. I got comfortable quickly in FP2, which I was happy with. Obviously, I didn’t get a high-fuel or consistent running in my session, so maybe I’m a little bit behind on some areas but we can look at those in the data tonight. Overall, I’m confident I can find it for a positive session in qualifying."

Oscar Piastri: "It felt good out there, the car’s looking competitive which is a pleasing start to the weekend. There were a few mistakes to tidy-up but overall, I feel like we’re in a competitive place. We’ll work hard with the data and see what we can do tomorrow on track."

Andrea Stella, Team Principal: "Overall, it’s been a productive day, even if the sessions have been largely affected by Red Flags, and so the time available has been significantly restricted. However, we were able to look at the behaviour of the tyres, and we have good data to analyse in order to maximise the performance of the car. So far it looks like we are more competitive than we were in Las Vegas, but the field looks once again very compressed."

Valtteri Bottas “It is definitely quite nice to finish both sessions in P4, although it’s quite difficult to say where we really stand at the end of today. We had a couple of unusual sessions today: the first one featuring several rookie drivers, and the second one affected by two red flags in a row – therefore not allowing everyone to get good laps in. Still, we went through the full programme for the day, and the feeling in the car is pretty good, which is promising for the days ahead. Of course, there is still a long way to go, and we need to be at our best for Qualifying and for Sunday’s race as well. Our target for Saturday remains Q3, and if we do our homework right overnight, we have a solid chance of achieving that tomorrow.”

Zhou Guanyu: "It’s been a good day, I am glad I was able to get up to speed right away, despite the red flags that disrupted FP2. We had good rhythm out of the box and I felt comfortable with the balance, so it was a smooth day for me. Effectively, we had 18 laps at full push, but the car felt in the right place and that’s the start of the weekend we needed. It’s good to see we were able to gain confidence right away, and that the upgrades we brought seem to be working well. It’s only Friday, but we are in the right window: still, we will need to improve tonight if we want to stay competitive, because everyone else will.”

Daniel Ricciardo: “I think it was a solid day. I definitely felt the positives from the upgrades immediately in FP1, and we could see the benefits from it. We made some changes for FP2, trying to exploit it and get the best all-round package. It was a slightly disrupted session, so we were a little compromised with our programme, but I'm sure others were too. Looking at us, I'm confident we can find even more performance, so I’m not too concerned about our positions in FP2. We did look like we had a decent pace on the medium tyres, so I think we’ll be a top-ten car if we get it right."

Yuki Tsunoda: “Overall, today was a positive day. We collected a lot of data about the upgrades we brought here and learnt a lot of things. I feel a clear difference and we’ve definitely made a positive step in performance. There are still a couple of things to do and finetune to put it all together, but I already noticed the steps we made between FP1 and FP2. This will hopefully let us fight in Q3 tomorrow, and I think it’s possible. We’ll use this opportunity and maximise it.”

Jonathan Eddolls, Chief Race Engineer: "With the continuous development of the AT04 and to help gather useful information for next year, we brought a few updates to the season finale here in Abu Dhabi. The focus of FP1 was to evaluate that these were working as expected and then start to understand how to balance around them. With 10 rookie drivers in other cars in FP1, it wasn’t as straightforward to know where everyone was in terms of performance, but the signs were promising for us because, from the data, our updates appeared to be working as expected. Running was very limited in FP2 because of the multiple Red Flags. We managed to get the short-run data on the medium and soft compound tyres but not the usual long-run tyre information across the two cars. This will make the tyre choice for Sunday’s race a little bit more difficult than usual. A positive factor is that this is a track where we test, so we still have good data from last year to help our choice. With the way the weekend has panned out, the final classification in FP2 doesn’t exactly represent where we expect to be in qualifying tomorrow, but we have enough data to understand the limitations and to work on changes to the setup overnight."

Alex Albon: "I feel a little bit on the backfoot this weekend but I’m obviously not alone in that, with a group of drivers all in the same situation after sitting out of FP1 and the disrupted FP2 session. Realistically, the long run pace is okay and we’re feeling up to speed with this, however the setup direction is also not easy, so we’ll have to look at Logan’s side of the garage to see what they’ve learnt from today. I feel confident in ourselves when it comes to the fight for 7th, so we’ll just focus on our own race and see how we go."

Logan Sargeant: "Most importantly from today, we have a car that seems okay on high fuel but is quicker than where we are on low fuel, so we need to try close this gap tomorrow in FP3. The car feels like we’re in a good place and I feel good, so I’m looking forward to getting some more runs in tomorrow ahead of Qualifying. AlphaTauri seem to have strong pace in low and high fuel but hopefully our pace is good enough to challenge our competition ahead of the weekend."

Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance: "Just when we wanted a quiet, easy FP2, we got two red flags in quick succession. This led to compromised run plans throughout the pitlane and cost several drivers – Alex included – valuable track time having given up FP1. Notwithstanding the compromised evening session, there were still positives to take from the day. Zak drove very well, completed 28 valuable laps and helped us collect some very useful data. We got some of the high fuel work completed in FP1 and FP2, which has given us a good indication of how the tyre behaviour will be on Sunday."

Esteban Ocon: “The last Friday Practice day of the year has not started on the best terms. Unfortunately, I’ve been quite ill since Wednesday and was not feeling great coming into the paddock today. We had Jack [Doohan] in the car for Free Practice 1 where he tested various different items. He had a good session and then followed that up with pole position in Formula 2 just after so well done to him! Free Practice 2 was disrupted with two red flags and therefore a very limited number of laps. We did the best we could with our programme and I am already looking forward to having more laps in the bag tomorrow to be as ready as possible for the last Qualifying of the year. There is more to come from us.”

Pierre Gasly: “We started our Abu Dhabi weekend here at Yas Marina with an interesting day’s Practice where running was shortened due to the two red flags in Free Practice 2. Firstly, I’m glad Carlos [Sainz] is OK as it looked like a big impact. From our side, with the running we were able to do, we’ve had a fairly standard day in the car. I think we’re in a good position and now it’s important we take the time and do our work overnight to find some improvements ahead of Qualifying. I’m feeling comfortable and we will see what tomorrow brings.”

Julian Rouse, Interim Sporting Director: “It’s been a busy day here at Yas Marina where we had Reserve Driver Jack Doohan in the car for the second mandatory rookie practice outing of the season. He did a solid job in the session and then had to adapt quickly back into Formula 2 where he took a very good pole position. On that front, it was great to have an Alpine Academy 1-2-3 with Victor [Martins] and Kush [Maini] in the top three. After missing FP1 and then with the two red flags in FP2, it means Esteban is slightly on the back foot in terms of track time. Despite feeling unwell he did a good job to be on the pace right away in FP2. Pierre had two good sessions and we will work hard overnight to analyse the data and aim to put ourselves in a good place with both cars ahead of Qualifying tomorrow afternoon.”

Kevin Magnussen: “In FP2 we didn’t get a lap on the soft tire, so prior to the red flag I was P4, so not too bad. It’s hard to tell where we truly stack up until tomorrow, so we’ll see. We didn’t learn anything on the soft tire since we didn’t run it, so we chose to go out for a longer run on the medium compound whereas others went out on a short run on softs, so at least we got more laps than others on the mediums.”

Nico Hulkenberg: “It was a mistake on my side – driver error – I just wanted a bit too much, too soon. I lost the car, it wasn’t a big impact, but it ended my session, so it’s been a very short day in general with only one lap on the board as I didn’t drive FP1 either. FP3 is in the daytime with much hotter track temperatures, so it’s not really representative and not great in terms of learning for the car, but it will be useful for me to feel comfortable in the car.”

Guenther Steiner, Team Principal: “In FP1 we went through our test program and Oliver did a good job like he did in Mexico, it was a very solid, very stable drive. FP2 was a little bit of a disrupted session with two red flags, one caused by us with Nico being a bit too optimistic going into Turn 1 on new soft tires. This meant Kevin couldn’t put a lap in on his new softs and therefore we chose to put him on a long run. There’s still a lot to do for tomorrow before we can be ready for the race. As usual, over one lap I don’t think we’re too far off, but on the long runs, we’ll struggle.”