Report: A tricky Friday in Singapore

The team are reflecting on a tough first day in Singapore but will be working tirelessly to give us the best chance of progression ahead of the weekend

The main talking point of FP1 was several yellow flags caused by local monitor lizards venturing onto the track, probably wondering what all the commotion was in their neighbourhood as 20 Formula 1 cars pounded around the updated circuit.

Alex ended the opening hour in P13 with 19 laps to his name, with Logan in P20 clocking up 24 tours on his first taste of Marina Bay.

FP2 saw less lizard action and, sadly, less Albono action too. A suspected ERS issue limited his running in the most representative practice session to just five laps.

Logan recorded the most lap of any driver in the second hour of practice, with 28 to his name and ending the day in P19.

Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance, offered insight into our first day of running immediately after FP2, saying: “A tricky day for us, especially on Alex’s side of the garage.

“We opted to do some testing with Alex in FP1, expecting to complete the race preparation during FP2.

“Unfortunately, an issue within the ERS system of the PU meant that we had to end his FP2 after just a couple of laps on the Hard tyre.

“We’ll fit a different module to Alex’s car overnight and look to make up for lost time during FP3.

“Logan had a more successful day and completed his plan without any issues. He got some good experience of this tricky circuit under his belt and he was able to get a good sense of how to trade low and high fuel performance at this track.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do to improve the car, but we know what we are looking for and we’ll certainly be able to make some progress.”

Whilst frustrated with the lack of running, Alex looked for the positives going into the rest of the weekend.

“We think the issue is battery related; I started my lap and it felt okay but then I just started to lose deployment as I went on the straight,” our No23 said.

“I think we already know the problem so it shouldn’t be too long to fix but around here you want the mileage because it’s such a confidence building circuit.

“Aside from the issue, the car hasn’t felt too bad and I don’t believe we’ll suffer from any penalties, but we’ll have a proper look tonight.

“With the temperature of the car here this weekend and the lack of running time, we’ll have to do a little bit of guesswork tomorrow, but it should be fine going into FP3 tomorrow.”

Logan, driving on a new circuit to him, concluded our reaction by saying: “FP2 was much better than FP1 so that was a good step forward.

“I was on a semi-decent lap on the Soft tyre but made a mistake in the last corner which cost us the lap time, but still a lot of good learning from today.

“We have a couple of different bits coming tomorrow that should help me out. As a team, we knew it was going to be a tough weekend feeling those limitations that we haven’t really experienced in the last couple of races.

“We just need to try and find a way around them the best we can.”