In the round-up: Pirelli’s Mario Isola says that the company were not informed about the work done to the Shanghai International Circuit before Formula 1’s return.
In brief
Pirelli “not informed” of track modifications
Pirelli’s head of motorsport, Mario Isola, says the tyre manufacturer were unaware that Shanghai International Circuit management had approved an application of liquid treatment on the circuit’s asphalt prior to the Chinese Grand Prix weekend.
“What’s new is this layer of bitumen they put on top of the track,” Isola said in Friday’s team principals press conference. “There was no resurface, no changes, a few changes to the kerbs but not to the track.
“As usual, we measure the track roughness and the level of grip with our system and we found some, let’s say, inconsistencies in the grip around the circuit. I believe that also drivers highlighted this. The most important information is that I believe the track is going to change quite a lot during the weekend, because this layer of bitumen is disappearing, especially on the race line, and not on the other lines.
“When they run over this layer, the level of grip is good. So I’m expecting that on the race line it will be a bit worse compared to the other parts of the track. But it’s just an assumption, because we were not informed of this kind of work on the track. So, we are trying to understand ourselves what is going to happen, but a lot of track evolution is expected.”
Ocon relieved he can change set-up
Esteban Ocon intends to take advantage of the opportunity to change his car’s set-up after today’s sprint race having not got the most out of his upgraded Alpine so far.
“I feel like we didn’t maximise the potential of the car today, unfortunately,” he told the official F1 channel. “That’s probably the first time this year that this is the case.
“I think there was probably more in it today. With only one session unfortunately we didn’t put everything together. Some performance left on the side, which is a good thing that the parc ferme opens again so we can change for the next qualifying.
“So we’ll try and race tomorrow like this early in the morning and after that try again with a different set-up in the car and see what we get”
Ferrari fastest in WEC practice
Ferrari set the pace ahead of Porsche Penske in the first day of practice for this weekend’s Six Hours of Imola.
The number 50 car of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at RaceFans…