Friday: A lot of work ahead for Williams
After two rather disappointing Grand Prix races, the Williams team evaluated a new exhaust system, inspired by Red Bull, on Rubens Barrichello's car. The engineers will now analyze the collected data to determine if this system will be used in the race or not. Pastor Maldonado primarily familiarized himself with the track, which he did not know before, before working on the setup for the race and qualifying during the second session of the day.
Pastor Maldonado; 8th and 12th:
The day went well and we learned a lot. I covered a lot of kilometers, which is useful because it’s my first time on this circuit. The car feels good, especially on the long runs. We don’t know where the others are or how much fuel they were running with, but I think we are better off here than in Malaysia.
Rubens Barrichello; 17th and 16th:
We tested new parts on my car today. They seemed to lose a bit of performance at the end of the last session, which means we will have to work hard to evaluate them properly. We need to look at the data to see if we continue in this direction or if we go back.
Sam Michael; Technical Director:
After a positive morning with both cars, we encountered some problems with the new exhaust system we were using on Rubens’ car during the second session. We will now analyze the data to decide whether to use it in the race or not. Setting that aside, we covered quite a few laps with the soft tires, giving us solid data for the race. We will install new engines in both cars for tomorrow.
