Brendon Hartley has had a successful Friday practice in his F1 debut with the Scuderia Toro Rosso team competing at the US Formula One Grand Prix at the circuit of the Americas at Austin, Texas.
“A steep learning curve today,” commented Hartley! “It all went pretty smoothly and I kept the car on track without making too many mistakes, so I’m quite happy. I didn’t really know what to expect from today because I just had so much to learn! I think I made quite a big progression throughout the day.
“The biggest difference from what I’m used to is the high-speed grip, it’s incredible here in Formula 1…it was quite an eye-opener! Another challenge are the tyres, which are also quite different to what I’m used to. On the other hand, the long-run looks quite positive and I did a good job managing the tyres there – the biggest thing I need to work on now is the new tyre pace, and I’ll get another crack at it tomorrow morning before qualifying. All in all, I’d say it’s all coming together. We’ll now work hard and go through plenty of data tonight and hopefully I’ll make another step forward tomorrow.”
“A very busy day. We started off with three completely different drivers to the ones we had at the last race, which was interesting and exciting,” commented Jonathan Eddolls (Chief Race Engineer). “It’s been fantastic to welcome Brendon to the team – he’s settled in straight away.
“The target was to give all of the drivers lots of laps. FP1 started off damp, which gave us the opportunity to test a new prototype inter tyre here, so we gave them that to learn and gather some data – it’s the same construction but a different compound. From the first run Brendon suffered from significant helmet lift, so we had to make quite a few changes throughout the day to the helmet, as well as adding a windscreen to improve that.
“At the start of FP2 we reached the point where he was comfortable in the car but we’ll do some small modifications again for tomorrow, but all in all he’s happy and performed very well.
“Regarding the fact that Brendon will have a 25 grid position penalty, this is something that affects our decisions for tomorrow; especially in terms of tyre selection. Because we had to choose the tyres for this event several months ago, prior to knowing about the engine penalty, it even affected our choice for today.
“For Sunday, we’re saving more tyres of the harder type for Brendon, to give him maximum flexibility in the race. The focus for him is on long-run performance and giving him a car that he can overtake with in the race, whereas for Daniil, it’s a more conventional weekend, so the focus is on pure qualifying performance and not forgetting that he needs good long-run pace as well… The philosophy and set-up across the cars might be different to reflect that.”
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