Friday 12 May 2017.
World Copyright: Andy Hone/LAT Images
ref: Digital Image _ONZ4056
It’s time for the Spanish Grand Prix, 2nd race in a row, it’s one of our drivers home GP, this time its Sainz’s turn to be the hero and have thousands of fans cheering him on all weekend.
Thursday- Carlos had to attend the drivers press conference where he got asked many questions and got huge praise from Alonso saying “Sainz is a very talented driver one of the best and his preparation from the Red Bull junior driver program really helps young driver be ready for F1. While Kvyat was stuck answering the media questions outside in the paddock while it was raining. After that it was time for the home hero to meet his fans and sign many autographs, he also managed to get time to go the game zone and try to set the fastest lap on the F1 2016 game time trial of the circuit. And to finish the day off a group of drivers, including our two, got to meet some kids aged 7-12 karting stars hoping to be in F1 one day.
Friday- day of practice, day of collecting data. A day to show off our new enlarged numbers and drivers names on the car. FP1 started slowly for us completing 39 laps between our drivers with Sainz setting a 1.24.0 and Kvyat a +0.600 slower, then it was time for a quick spot of lunch and restroom brake maybe even a quick afternoon nap for Carlos as we are in Spain. FP2 was a bigger improvement for us doing 61 laps with our two guys in the much warming afternoon temperatures where we can collect more accurate data for race conditions.
Quotes from the drivers about Friday. Sainz- “It’s been a tricky first day here in Barcelona. I think the track conditions surprised us a bit as it was much slower compared to winter testing, but overall we end the day on a high making some improvements”.
Kvyat- ” The car has quite a few handling issues at the moment we need to be patient and try and do things overnight so the car will suit me more because it wasn’t the correct window for my driving style”.
Saturday- starts with FP3 a quick 1 hour session our last chance to make changes to the cars. We have done 33 laps in the session, now it’s time to get ready for qualifying. Q1 was a disaster for Kvyat has he struggled with the car and qualified P20. He said the car was undriveable its needs taking apart and rebuilding. Sainz managed to put his car on P12 for Sunday’s race. He said that the car still lacks engine power, but is great in the other areas.
Sunday- Raceday with Sainz lining up in P12 and Kvyat in P20 the lights went out it was go go go Sainz made a great start making up a few positions getting into P9. Kvyat was up to P14 with the cars that made contact on the first corner out of the way. Kvyat pitted on lap 1 fitting the medium tyres to the car. While Sainz made his first pit stop on lap 13 fitting another set of softs on. Both cars pitted once more on laps 33 and 34 fitting the opposite tyre on than before. Both strategies worked great allowing our cars with a bit of luck with the big teams all losing 1 car each, Meaning we could finish in P7 and P9 a double points finish great work from the boys.
Both our drivers were really happy with the performance of the car today and happy to score points, as both started outside the top 10 at the beginning of the day.
See you in Monaco guys
Richard Hindson
(Image Courtesy of Pirelli F1 Media)