Ferrari: « This is not the car you’ll see tomorrow »
The Italian team arrived in the United States eager to demonstrate that it was capable of doing much better than in Japan. But the first day of testing was fraught with difficulties.

Sebastian Vettel stood out during the morning session by improvising as a temporary mechanic with his right mirror coming loose, following a piece of the wing that broke off after his slightly wide run over a curb.
This event cost him valuable laps and minutes of testing. He acknowledges that it was a difficult session as always and that he was unable to follow his schedule or adjust the balance of his car as he wanted.
To be fair, it was a difficult day. This morning, we had issues with a small piece of the fin that came off, so we lost track time, which cost us in the afternoon because we couldn’t re-balance the car.
Nevertheless, the four-time world champion remains optimistic and is putting everything on the third part of the tests to fine-tune his car and thus try to catch up with the very in-form Red Bull.
Usually on Fridays, you don’t see all the cards, so hopefully tomorrow we will be much stronger. (…) Today, the Red Bulls were very fast, there’s no doubt, but I still think we have a chance. (…) It’s certain that it will be very tight and difficult to compete with the speed they showed, but I think the Ferrari you saw today is not the Ferrari you’ll see tomorrow.
Kimi Räikkönen shares his teammate’s opinion: « It was a tricky day ».
During the first session, the Finn struggled to find the right settings. And during the second session, he couldn’t deliver the full potential of his car with the new tires due to an error during his timed lap on super-softs.
However, Kimi Räikkönen remains reassuring and looks towards the next day by stating that it was nonetheless a Friday like any other.
« It was a normal Friday. It sounds more serious than it is. »
He continues, reassuring himself that he hasn’t had any major problems with the car.
« We did not have a major problem; we are simply trying to make sense of what we are doing to get exactly what we want. »
« We still have work to do on the settings for tomorrow. The Mercedes cars seem very strong as they’ve been all year, but we’ll do our best. »