Chinese GP: Driver Preview Quotes - Haas

DRIVER PREVIEW QUOTES - HAAS F1 TEAM

Romain Grosjean - “I think there are a few more parts coming in China and then a few more after that. I’m very much looking forward to trying the first updates to see if they’re working as they should. We’re not a hundred percent with the car yet, so there are still a few things we can do without adding the updates. Again, in China, we have some aggressive tire options, so hopefully they will work as well as they did in Bahrain.

Shanghai is a fun track. The first corner is probably the best known one. It’s a very long, right-hand turn corner. This circuit is very hard on the front tires. There’s also the very long back straight with big braking at the end. It’ll be a good test for us to see, on a very different track layout, if we’re as good as we were in Bahrain.”

Esteban Gutierrez - “We still need to manage our expectations because our car at the moment has reacted pretty well in Melbourne and in Bahrain, but we need to learn how it will react now in China. I think China will give us a good indication of how the season will be, and also the fact that all the other teams are pushing really hard to develop their car during the season. And as the season advances, it will get more and more competitive, so we need to be ready for that. We can still extract more speed and performance from our car, and China gives us an opportunity to do just that.

Shanghai is a very front-limited track, which puts a lot of front load into the tires. Turn 1 is very fast and a very long corner - one which is very different to other corners of the season. It’s quite iconic to Shanghai. You arrive full speed, and when you enter into the corner, you have to wait very long into Turn 2. You have Turn 3, which has a very long exit, and it’s quite tricky on traction as you put a lot of lateral on the exit. You go through Turns 4 and 5, which is a very high-speed section, and then into Turn 6 and 7, one of my favourite parts of the track. You really come into Turn 6 with full speed and then change direction into Turn 7. You have to prepare for Turns 8 and 9 because this sequence is very important not to lose the rhythm. Then getting into Turn 10, it’s a small 90-degree corner which exits to a very, very long straight into Turn 11, which is the beginning of a very long corner. You go from very low speed to increasing the speed through the corner, and it’s a part of the circuit where it’s easy to hurt the front tyres. It’s an important part of the circuit when it comes to the car’s race setup. Then one of the longest straights of the season is the back straight, were you’re at maximum speed. You arrive into a very high-braking corner - the hairpin Turn 14. Then the last corner is 90 degrees - a medium-speed corner - which is quite tricky on the exit because you have the curb which you can use quite a lot but, obviously, it has its limits. You’re always trying to maximize the track. It’s quite challenging.”

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Article Posted By: Amy Hawk

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