Sahara Force India F1 Belgian Grand Prix practices review 26.08.2016: 2016 Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix: Free Practice Sahara Force India enjoyed a positive first day of action in Spa-Francorchamps

2016 Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix: Free Practice
 





Sahara Force India enjoyed a positive first day of action in Spa-Francorchamps, closing the final Friday session with both cars inside the top five.
 

Nico Hülkenberg       VJM09-03

FP1:     1:50.088       (P8)           21 laps
FP2:     1:48.657       (P3)           30 laps
 


Nico: “It was a good start after the summer break. We didn’t have any issues and we were able to work through our programme as planned. We collected the usual data and we made some very good steps between the sessions.


I wasn’t too happy with the balance in the morning, but we were able to improve it for the afternoon: it’s still not perfect, so there’s a bit of work to do overnight, trying to use the information we got today, but it’s a decent starting point.”
 
 



Sergio Perez              VJM09-02

FP1:     1:49.274        (P4)            23 laps
FP2:     1:49.100        (P5)            27 laps
 


Sergio: “The first indications are positive, but there’s still a lot of work to be done on the car to solve a few little issues. We need to understand the car balance a bit more and develop our set-up from there.


The weather is going to play a big role: it will affect tyre degradation strongly, but I am sure we will be able to make the changes we need for the race.”
 
 



Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal


“It’s only Friday, so there is no getting carried away with the practice results. It’s not easy to read the relative performance levels of the teams around us, especially when teams are experimenting with different wing levels or running development tyres.


Today we simply focussed on our work: we collected all the data we needed and we got some good feedback from the drivers. They are happy with the car balance, but there is still room to improve.


We will need to make some adjustments based on the weather, which is unexpectedly warm, although the forecast for the weekend is a bit cooler. It’s been a productive day, but what really matters is our performance tomorrow and on Sunday. ”

- Sahara Force India  - also photos