BMW Sauber F1 Istanbul Park Friday Practices review

Turkish GP – 1st/2nd Free Practice –
 Thursday, 28.05.2010
 Weather: Sunny and dry, 26-30°C air, 32-52°C track

 Kamui Kobayashi and Pedro de la Rosa enjoyed two troublefree practice sessions in the heat up for the Turkish Grand Prix in Istanbul Park. On a very hot and dusty track they both completed their race preparations according to plan.



Kamui Kobayashi:
C29.01 / Ferrari 056
1st Practice: 11th / 1:30.615 min (20 laps) /
 2nd Practice: 13th / 1:30.053 min (34 laps)

 “To me the balance of the car felt fine but we do have two areas to look at. We have a lack of grip and we are too slow on the straights. If you work on one issue you tend to increase the other one. But we will find a good compromise. I enjoyed driving a lot and as we had no trouble with the car it was a productive day for us.“   



Pedro de la Rosa:
C29.03 / Ferrari 056
1st Practice: 15th / 1:31.238 (18 laps) /
 2nd Practice: 14th / 1:30.176 min (34 laps)

“In the afternoon we had a very good test with comparing the race tyres – the harder prime compound versus the softer option compound. We did a lot of race preparation today which went very well. The long runs were good and pretty consistent. What we still need to work on is to find the right balance with new tyres.“



James Key, Technical Director: “It was a fairly standard Friday where we ran through the programmes on both cars looking at setting up the car for the circuit and the tyres. There are significant balance changes with different fuel levels and tyre compounds we need to consider for the qualifying and the race.

Otherwise no technical problems, the drivers are fairly happy with the conditions they found the cars in. I think the race pace looks reasonable, we got some work to do for lower fuel levels but we have some clear directions to pursue for that. It’s obviously very close in the midfield, so we have to make sure we get the best out of the cars.”


-  Hanspeter Brack, Heike Hientzsch