The Marussia F1 Team got their Singapore Grand Prix weekend underway today at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, with the first two practice sessions for Sunday’s 61 lap race.
As usual the FP1 session began in near daylight, whilst FP2 was conducted in the fully floodlit conditions. The air temperature peaked at 29°C, the track at 40°C and humidity ran at a high of 83%, which conspired to create a tough day for the Team and drivers.
Jules Bianchi
“I think it has been a good day overall. In FP1 we did not quite have the set-up but we made some adjustments during the break and the car was better balanced in FP2. I think we showed this improvement during the option tyre run. It’s good to be back at this track. It’s such an interesting challenge, made even more interesting by the change to the rules regarding use of radio. It was something new and felt quite different; not as much chat as usual. Generally though, a good first day here.”
Max Chilton
“In FP1 I wasn’t so happy with the set-up and there seemed to be a bit of work to do, but I’m quite happy with the progress we made from session to session. Towards the end of FP2 I was happier with the car but then suddenly we experienced a powertrain issue and I was forced to pull over to protect the car. Hopefully that’s an isolated problem that we can resolve and which shouldn’t affect us through the weekend.”
John Booth, Team Principal
“A tough day for all the team and the drivers today with the heat and humidity of this circuit however overall the hard work seems to be paying off. This morning we ran a fairly standard program and worked on developing the set-up, which of course is very different to that required in Monza. Overall the starting set-up seems to have been a good baseline and the engineers step through a few planned set-ups which had been developed in conjunction with the factory last week. These were again positive and so it seems we are heading in the right direction. Jules is confident and happy with the balance and put in a good lap on the option tyres. Max has been suffering a little with the ride of his car throughout the day and at this circuit this needs to be good in order to give the driver the confidence. We will be looking into this tonight and see what we can do to improve it. Max unfortunately stopped with a powertrain issue towards the end of the session, which did limit his long run. Another busy night ahead but hopefully a rewarding one once we run tomorrow.”