Haas left the first day of activities of the Monaco Formula 1 GP with a positive assessment and the expectation of evolving for the qualifying session. After facing initial difficulties, the team believes that the adjustments made throughout Friday put its drivers in a more competitive position for the rest of the weekend.
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Oliver Bearman highlighted the evolution achieved between FP1 and FP2, especially in the car’s behavior. The Briton stated that the team managed to take a step forward during the day, and believes that there is still potential to gain positions with new setups before the qualifying session.
“I am quite satisfied with the progress we made today in Monaco, because we know how important this weekend is. FP1 was challenging, but in FP2 we took a step forward and I was happy with the balance we had,” Bearman said. According to him, there is still work to be done overnight, but the goal is to move up the grid on Saturday.
The Haas driver highlighted that the qualifying session will have a decisive weight on the final result of the event: “With some fine-tuning, I believe we can move up a few positions, and that is the goal for tomorrow, because we know that the most important part of this weekend is the qualifying session,” he said.
On the other side of the garage, Esteban Ocon preferred to treat Friday as an information gathering phase. The Frenchman explained that the main focus was to understand the car’s limitations and gather data that could help the team find more performance for the rest of the schedule.
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“Today was just practice, but we know that tomorrow is what really matters. The day served to understand the car’s limitations, and now we have good data. It’s up to us to improve the car,” he stated. Ocon also said that the team intends to increase the level of attack on Saturday: “Tomorrow morning we will start getting closer to the walls, pushing harder and finding out exactly where we are,” he added.
Team principal Ayao Komatsu assessed that FP1 was particularly complicated due to track and tire conditions, something he described as common in Monaco. Still, he highlighted that the operational work was efficient and allowed the engineers to use driver feedback to improve the car before FP2.
Komatsu also said that Bearman ended the day satisfied with the car’s behavior, but admitted that Ocon faced a small problem with the steering system. According to the director, the team believes it has already identified the cause of the failure and intends to solve it before Saturday’s activities: “We need to focus on getting the tires into the ideal window for the qualifying session and executing everything precisely. We still have points to improve tonight, but overall, it was a positive Friday,” he concluded.
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