Friday: Understeer at Caterham but nothing dramatic

Alexander Rossi – 20th [Free Practice 1]:

« It was nice to be back in an F1 and to do it in Canada, on a track where I have raced and won in the past in Formula BMW, was a pleasant feeling. We have kept an eye on the weather forecasts since last week, so we knew it was going to rain, but it was still a good experience to drive with wet tires, intermediates, and dry tires, which gave me the chance to try the entire range of tires that I hadn’t tried yet in F1. After the installation lap, I wanted to go back out immediately because, for me, coming from the GP2 grip levels to F1, even if the track was wet at the start, there was still much more grip than what I’m used to, so I wanted to take advantage of it, but the main thing today was to work according to the plan, and that’s exactly what we did.

From now on, I will head back to Europe for my next ‘first’ this year, Le Mans. The plan is to be fully focused on F1, but I’m excited to add endurance racing to my driving CV and I’m with an experienced team, many people from Caterham whom I know and have worked with before, so I know we can achieve a good performance. It’s a new learning experience, but, like today in dry and wet conditions, I know how to adapt to what awaits me, and this is very good for my experience at Le Mans.

Charles Pic – 20th [Free Practice 2]

I was quite pleased with the progress of Free Practice 2. On my first stint, the car had too much understeer, so we made several aerodynamic and mechanical changes on the following stints, and by stint 4, with the super-softs, we found a good balance, one with which I could start pushing. We may have gone a bit too far with the front because the car was turning well in the last sector, but we lost some mid-corner stability, so we’ll need to study that tonight and see where we can improve tomorrow. On the long runs, the degradation levels and pace seemed good on both compounds, but it should be much hotter on Sunday than Friday or Saturday, which should suit us better. So even if we don’t find a significant improvement by Sunday, I think we can maintain the race pace demonstrated since Bahrain.

Giedo van der Garde – 18th and 22nd:

The free practice 1 was a bit like a return to Monaco! Rainy starts, then a switch to intermediates, and finally to dry tires, and I must say it was very enjoyable to drive here in such changing conditions.

The two sessions were dominated by understeer for me, but towards the end of free practice 2, we found very good settings for the long runs. I wasn’t able to do a performance run, but on both compounds with a lot of fuel, the car’s handling was really enjoyable. There was a bit of understeer but it didn’t damage the tires too much, so it seems we’ve found a good direction for Sunday.

We also got to try our new pit stop light system for the first time today, and it’s another sign of how the whole team is progressing. In the last races, I’ve been able to show how much confidence I have in the car and in my own performance, and as a rookie, when you see the team investing in something like a light system for pit stops, something that will help us be even better during races, it adds confidence. Keeping in mind that it was the very first time we used it, the system worked very well, and speaking to the guys, it’s clear they’ve found something that will help them be better on race day – it makes it a great place to work now!