What the teams said – Friday at the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Mercedes

Each drivers seemed fast in FP1, repeatedly buying and selling quickest lap instances. They have been bumped down the order late on by Norris and Leclerc, however it was nonetheless a stable opening bar one second the place Hamilton appeared to impede Norris – the stewards taking no additional motion. Whereas Hamilton additionally seemed fast within the night session, Russell dropped again after working broad on his flying lap. He complained about his rear tyres, saying the automotive was sliding round so Mercedes might want to analyse the information in a single day to try to repair that challenge heading into qualifying.

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Lewis Hamilton – FP1: 1:24.806, P3; FP2: 1:24.119, P5

“It’s all feeling very surreal being my final weekend with the crew. I’m making an attempt to be as current as I can and revel in each second. I’ve loved driving the automotive, working with everybody within the storage, with the engineers, and I’m simply making an attempt to seize the moments as a lot as I can. I’m aiming to channel all of my feelings into the automotive and the crew as a result of I’ve a lot love for them and as all the time, I wish to do very well for them. This weekend I’ve one final likelihood to go for it and check out to take action.

“I’m not planning on altering an excessive amount of on the automotive tonight. We clearly have some work to do because the McLarens are nonetheless quick and the Ferraris are additionally inside that blend too. So, we do want to seek out a while. Total, although, my feeling with the automotive has been good at the moment. It’s by no means simple to find out what our future tempo appears like, however it didn’t appear too unhealthy at the moment so hopefully that’s a constructive for us. In the end, we’ve some work to do on our single lap tempo and I hope tomorrow we might be nearer to these forward of us.”

George Russell – FP1: 1:25.165, P4; FP2: 1:24.534, P13

“As we speak was a little bit of a wrestle, however it’s solely Friday. We have been additionally making an attempt loads of various things at the moment in preparation for subsequent 12 months as clearly that is our final alternative to take action. We subsequently wished to go just a little extra radical with the set-up choices, see if there’s something extra we will study, and check issues to develop our learnings and understanding for 2025.

“As we noticed, Lewis did some nice laps at the moment. Nonetheless, as a crew, we don’t appear to be on the tempo of the very entrance runners on a single lap. McLaren specifically look to be in a league of their very own in the mean time and their tempo in each classes confirmed that once more at the moment. Tomorrow, I anticipate the Ferraris to be again within the combine however I’m hoping we will make some enhancements in a single day and have a extra aggressive displaying than at the moment.”

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

“We have had robust single lap efficiency on the final two races however at the moment we have discovered the Comfortable tyre fairly tough. McLaren have been clearly very quick at the moment and they are going to be laborious to beat this weekend, however for those who have a look at Lewis’ lap then you may see how with a number of enhancements he may put himself simply behind.

“George has a bit extra to seek out however we have been experimenting with some new setup instructions and the vehicles have been fairly totally different for the low gasoline work. We will unpick that work on the simulator in a single day, however I would anticipate we’ll discover a good route by way of which George can enhance for tomorrow. The long term image was higher; Lewis a bit forward of George and like the one lap, we will see some areas that we ought to have the ability to enhance that ought to put us nearer to the entrance. We’ll use FP3 to proceed the work on low gasoline and hope that tomorrow we’ll shut the day a bit nearer the highest of the timing display screen.”