Die Allianz T-D-P » appy to say that our new turbos upgrades ha

ESPN rounds up all the reaction from up and down the paddock following Friday practice at the 2016 Austrian Grand Prix.MercedesLewis Hamilton: It was a tricky day getting up to speed and getting laps out on track. It started coming together this morning but then the rain in the second session meant we had to adapt our programme. Luckily, the high track temperatures meant the circuit dried out very quickly, so I was able to get more running on the ultra-soft tyre before the session finished and to get a feel for the balance and performance. We didnt have any problems today, which is definitely a positive, and theres definitely more to come. So Im really looking forward to tomorrow.Nico Rosberg: There are some changes to the circuit this year with the new asphalt and kerbing; from my point of view those changes are pretty cool and its still a really enjoyable track to drive. The new asphalt seems to be suiting our car quite well, maybe better even than the old tarmac, but tyre usage will be the decisive factor this weekend as we saw quite a lot of graining during our dry running. In the wet this afternoon, I found a good balance with the car, so overall Im pretty happy with our first day.Paddy Lowe, Executive Director (Technical): Its been a good day as we managed to do quite a lot of work despite the disruption of the rain. We had a couple of spins this morning, one for each car but no real damage was done. We needed to do a little bit of work on the balance of both cars but overall the drivers are happy with their respective performances. Its amazing how hard it can rain and yet within an hour the track can be completely dry again. Ive never seen anything like that - ever!FerrariSebastian Vettel: It was a decent day. It is not entirely clear where we stand, as we didnt have a lot of running due to the weather, in particular in the afternoon, but in general the car feels good. When I span at the end of the second session, I had an issue with brake distribution. It caught me by surprise, but it didnt matter too much, as I only lost a couple of minutes, and in the end it didnt make a lot of a difference. My plans for tomorrow? For sure I will watch the soccer match with the Team. Italy is playing stronger than expected, Germany is quite strong as well, so it should be a good match.Kimi Raikkonen: It was quite a messy day, but overall I had good feelings. In the morning we managed to have a few runs while in the afternoon, because of the weather conditions, we did not get to do many laps and never really got a proper qualifying simulation done. The day could have been a lot better, the situation now its a bit unknown, but its not too bad either. There is no point now in starting to guess where we are, we still have tomorrow morning to know, and Im sure it will be ok.WilliamsValtteri Bottas: It was a bit of a tricky day in terms of car balance. Obviously with the rain in FP2, we struggled to set-up the car, but Im sure before FP3 tomorrow we can still improve the car and our laptimes. I think it was a good idea to go out in the rain to check the balance, because theres a possibility of rain for the rest of the weekend. We now have a good idea of how the car works in wet conditions and we will know what adjustments we need to make if it does rain.Felipe Massa: It wasnt a perfect Friday due to the weather, but at least we had some laps in the wet as well as the dry to understand the car in both conditions, so it wasnt bad. We couldnt learn everything we would have liked because of the weather, but the feeling of the car was ok in the wet, with half the track very wet and the other half quite dry, so it was actually a reasonable Friday to understand the car. The track is much quicker than before because the asphalt grip is a little bit higher and the kerbs are flat, so you can use them a lot more than in the past. You can have a tricky moment if you use too much, but its up to you how much you use. Now we need to wait until tomorrow to understand where we are once everyone is on similar tyres and fuel loads.Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: It was a bit of a disjointed session because of the weather. We ran at the start of FP2 to try to beat the weather like everyone else, but it wasnt possible. It rained very heavily for a long period before we decided to go out on the intermediate tyre, where we tried different set-up options. Once we managed to get a clear lap in, we were reasonably competitive. Im quite happy with how competitive we are on the dry tyres. We were able to go out at the end of the session and learn a little bit about our set-up for qualifying and the race, and if wed been able to get our laps in before the virtual safety car we would have finished the session higher.There are a lot of unknowns going into the rest of the weekend, as there always are on disjointed days like today, but thats good because weve got some upgrades coming tomorrow which were going to try and get on the car that should move us forward. The new asphalt offers a little more grip than before, but not a huge amount. The kerbs are a lot lower and the drivers reported that the track is particularly quick because of that. Were still learning about the asphalt and its interaction with rubber, and we will continue to do so as it evolves throughout the weekend. We understood it today, but the trick with new asphalt is understanding how it evolves, what its going to be like on Sunday and therefore what the delta is going to be between tyre compounds, and the degradation.Red BullDaniel Ricciardo: I think weve had a pretty good day and didnt fight the car too much today. This morning we got up to speed pretty quickly, which was important. Then this afternoon was crazy. The level of rain was really high during the session, but it was actually good to experience two different conditions. The rain was so local and came in really hard at Turn 8 and 9 so that part of the track was especially tricky. If in the race you get that part of the track first before the others then you could be quite unlucky. Its been a track where we struggled a bit in the past, but I felt pretty comfortable from lap one so I think we are more or less there and wont be here until midnight tonight trying to find a set up. We are pretty close to where we need to be so thats a good start. If it rains tomorrow then anything is possible. Itll be very interesting.Max Verstappen: The first session today was a bit shorter than I would have liked, so we lost a bit of time there and also at the beginning of the second session. The car wasnt quite ready due to the damage we suffered in the first session so that put us on the back foot a bit. We would have liked to run more but Im pretty happy heading into Saturday with the laps I did, it wasnt too bad. I actually didnt expect to be that close so Im quite happy. The kerbs are pretty high and can cause damage as we saw, but its up to us to stay off them and respect the track limits. I didnt know they would be so hard on the car, perhaps one longer kerb instead of lots of smaller ones would be better. Looking ahead at the weather for the rest of the weekend I hope it rains because our car is really good in the wet, so lets see what happens in qualifying.Force IndiaNico Hulkenberg: Definitely a solid day. The car feels okay, but we still have some homework to do tonight to improve the balance. It was quite a strange day with the changing weather, especially this afternoon when the big storm arrived, and the knock-on effect means we dont have very much long-run data - but its the same for everybody. We were able to do some laps on the intermediate tyres, which is important because we dont know what the weather will do tomorrow and whether the rain will return. Overall, I think we are in good shape heading into the weekend.Sergio Perez: It was one of those days when the wet weather really limited our programme. I didnt drive this morning so the wet session this afternoon was not ideal. I feel that Im a little bit on the back foot and its going to be important to maximise what we can get out of final practice tomorrow. Nico has shown that the car is competitive here and hopefully I can find some more performance in the morning to be ready for qualifying.Alfonso Celis: It was a straightforward session for me and Im pleased we had a smooth day. I only ran on the soft tyres, so there was definitely extra performance to be found on the supersoft or ultrasoft, but the teams programme was to focus on understanding the soft. We also did a few test items and procedural checks, and everything went to plan.Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal: An encouraging day despite the changeable weather. We knew rain was expected this afternoon so we focussed on understanding the soft tyre this morning alongside some aero and mechanical tests. The storm arrived very early into the afternoon session and meant the track was constantly evolving and it was difficult to learn much, even when we switched to dry tyres. The drivers are relatively happy with the car, but there is room for improvement on a track where we typically see a very tight grid.RenaultKevin Magnussen: A pretty good day. We made some positive improvement with the car and now have better traction, better braking and more grip. It feels a lot more stable in the high speed corners so thats good too. Weve still got some work to do but I feel much happier with the car than I have recently.Jolyon Palmer: It got a bit fruity out there with the downpour even if there was a surprising amount of grip in the wet right up until the point the car spun! The car actually seems pretty good here and it was a solid day for us. It feels like were making some good steps forward.Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: Despite being interrupted by some pretty heavy showers in the afternoon, it was a reasonably productive two sessions for us. The new track surface is impressively smooth, free of bumps and gives good grip. Both drivers were happy with their cars today. The rain interruption does mean we are short of long-run data which is something we hope to rectify tomorrow.Toro RossoDaniil Kvyat: We can be satisfied with today, our practice sessions were very useful and Id say we have enough data to be in good shape tomorrow. There was a lot going on in both FP1 and FP2 - we had some dry running, then it rained, then the sun came out again... So its been interesting! Im feeling okay in the car and I think we can be positive for tomorrow.Carlos Sainz: I think today was a very good day for us. Obviously its a bit difficult to make any conclusions as its only Friday, everyones run plans were different and we even had some rain, but we can be happy. It seems like every tyre is working well on this new tarmac - theres a lot of grip and lap times are very quick compared to last year. It feels nice to drive here, its one of the smoothest surfaces Ive ever driven on and the car feels great around here! Tonight we will continue to work hard and prepare for the rest of the weekend.Phil Charles, (Chief Race Engineer): There was definitely a bit of everything today: we changed our plans slightly this morning, as we saw there was a chance to have some rain in FP2. In the end, I think this was probably the right thing to do as the rain did come. It meant we used the Ultrasoft in FP1 instead of FP2 as we usually do. As anticipated, the new tarmac has certainly given faster lap times than last year and this has given the tyres a much harder time. To that end, the long runs we did in FP1 look quite tricky for the tyre. We saw quite a bit of rear graining and this will need some careful consideration regarding the set-up for the rest of the weekend. In the wet both drivers took quite a measured approach, building up their pace lap by lap and they were quite happy with the car.SauberFelipe Nasr: In FP1 we were able to cover a decent mileage. I was able to see how the car behaves on the new surface on soft and supersoft tyres. It was important to understand the new tarmac and how much it is affecting the tyres. In terms of the car set-up, I am satisfied with the balance so far. I ran the practice engine, so I am sure there is more to come when I go back to the race engine from tomorrow on. In FP2 the heavy rain compromised our programme as we could not do high-fuel runs as planned. It is a bit of an unknown for us, but other teams were compromised as well. We will have a busy FP3 session ahead of us.Marcus Ericsson: It was a decent day. Its Friday, so we needed to run as many laps as possible in both practice sessions. The track is quite different with the new surface as well as the new kerbs. There was a lot to learn today. We were able to test three different compounds - the soft, supersoft and ultrasoft tyres. It was good to see the steps between them. FP2 was not ideal with the rain interrupting our programme. Nevertheless, we gathered some data today, and I am sure we can optimise things for tomorrow.McLarenFernando Alonso: I quite like the new track surface - its very smooth and there are no bumps. We were also able to exploit the grip, which was quite good. This afternoon, we had the opportunity to run on the track after the rain - it only took 30 minutes for the circuit to dry out enough for us to fit dry-weather tyres. I think we need to be ready and focused for any opportunity if it rains on Sunday like it did this afternoon - we should try and take advantage of that.Jenson Button: Even with the new asphalt, the camber changes in the corners make it tricky to drive around here. Plus, there are a lot of big, wide kerbs that you can use, but they wear the floor, which makes it difficult for everyone. We use all three different types of dry-weather compound today - and I still think its a bit up-in-the-air about which tyres will be best in the race. Then, on the Inters, we were one of the quickest cars, which was a positive. There are a lot of fast cars out there, so itll be tough for us to get into Q3 tomorrow, but theres rain forecast for the rest of the weekend, which should give us some useful opportunities.Eric Boullier, McLaren Racing Director: A tricky day for the team as we juggled our programme to adapt to the changing weather conditions. This afternoons mid-session shower was quite incredible in its suddenness and sheer intensity, but, happily, it quickly dried out and we were able to get some running under our belts before the end of FP2. Nonetheless, the wet conditions robbed us of the opportunity to gather as much useful long-run data as wed normally like, so theres still a bit more work to do tomorrow - weather permitting - to best prepare us for qualifying. The mornings session was spent undertaking a number of aero tests as we work to introduce new components. Both drivers were satisfied with the cars balance, despite the lack of running, but we still need to make some improvements if were to challenge for Q3 tomorrow and points in Sundays race.Yusuke Hasegawa, Honda R&D Co Ltd Head of F1 Project & Executive Chief Engineer: Today as a whole became a busy Friday for the team due to the sudden rain in FP2. From a power unit point of view, we have carried over almost all components from the European GP, so we focused on our set-up for the weekend as well as support the teams run plans. Last year, we were hampered by lack of deployment on the final straight and the steep inclines of Turns One and Two, but I am happy to say that our new turbos upgrades have been working well this weekend. The weather forecast still shows instability and rain for the weekend, so we hope to be prepared for whatever nature throws at us.ManorPascal Wehrlein: Well, we were expecting it; the forecast was pretty accurate. Everything was okay for me. Of course, we wanted to drive more and work through more of the test programme, but at the end of the day its the same for everyone. We didnt manage to complete a run on the ultrasoft tyre but at this stage Im happy with the car, particularly at the end of the day. Ive known this track for some time and I like it. Its high speed with fast corners and good opportunities to overtake, so in general its nice to drive.Rio Haryanto: Yes, this morning we tried a few different set-up changes and everything was going well but then unfortunately I made a mistake, spun off and that destroyed the tyres. On the positive side we knew we had a reasonable balance and we were confident in the direction for FP2. This afternoon the weather changed and conditions were very tricky, but 20 minutes before the end we had a reasonably dry track to play with and we could start to make good progress again. For the last run I took on the ultrasoft tyres bu