2023 Spanish Grand Prix Practice

Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance: It’s always good to come to Barcelona and get a reference for the car. It’s clear that we weren’t very quick today, which isn’t too surprising, but there is still a lot to learn about where that deficit stems from.

We completed some setup tests in FP1 and got some useful direction. We reverted to a more normal Barcelona setup for FP2, which the drivers preferred. We took the opportunity to look at the new tyre construction, which we will race from the British GP onwards.

It will be difficult tomorrow, but there are still a few things to look at that may allow us to extract a bit more pace from the car in qualifying. There is also the possibility of some variable weather, which may also present a useful opportunity.

Alex Albon: This track never really suited us but I don’t think our car feels that bad. There’s not a fundamental issue with it that we have to try to fix for tomorrow, but that’s also not a great feeling because the car is where it is. We can find a couple of tenths here or there if we get everything right, which we’ll go for, but not much more as this is just where we’re at. We’re sort of a normal gap from the top but there are some of the midfield teams like Haas, Alfa Romeos and McLarens doing a very good job, only a tenth off the Mercedes, which makes it look a bit worse. The changes to the last couple of corners of the track feel nice. It’s made it a bit more physical which is always a challenge which makes it fun for the drivers.

Logan Sargeant: We reacted well from FP1 to get the car in a reasonable window for FP2. Honestly as a team it’s not where we want to be on pace, so we have some work to do for sure. I think we have the car in a reasonable place for the quali and race sims, so we just need to get more out of it tomorrow.