Friday: HRT is looking for itself

Daniel Ricciardo – 24th and 23rd

« This morning’s session was alright, I did my job. There were things to learn on my part but the car wasn’t to my liking so I had to get used to it and find the right balance between the car and myself. We took another step this afternoon, but it’s not enough. We can improve with the soft tires. As for the supersoft tires, it was my first time with them and I liked the grip they provide. The balance is closer to what we need, but we still have work to do with the soft tires. We’ll get to it for tomorrow ».

Vitantonio Liuzzi – 23rd and 24th

This morning I was very happy with the car, it was responding really well. We had a good rhythm and understood a number of things about the setup. So we changed some parameters for the afternoon, and it didn’t work, and we reverted to the initial settings. Despite that, the car didn’t respond like it did in the morning. We had some issues with the rear of the car, which caused oversteer. We now need to understand the reasons for these problems and work hard for tomorrow.

Colin Kolles, director of HRT

« HRT made good progress during the two free practice sessions. Neither Liuzzi nor Ricciardo encountered problems during the first session and were able to continue working according to the established program during the second session. The track was dirty this morning, so the team decided to experiment with things in order to work on the car’s setup on a clearer track like this afternoon. The weather forecast was uncertain for the afternoon, so as a precaution, the team tried a few elements in the morning that they would normally have tried in the afternoon ».