Formula 1 | McLaren, Alonso on strategy: “Important difference between ultra soft and soft”

Tenth and fourteenth positions for Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne in the first free practice in Shanghai, scene of the next Chinese Grand Prix. The Spaniard completed several runs on soft tyres, collecting a lot of data from a race perspective. Also not to be underestimated were some laps with intermediate tires at the end of the hour and a half in the afternoon. Slightly more difficult day for Stoffel Vandoorne, blocked by some problems during FP1 and a bad tire in FP2.

Here are the words of Fernando Alonso: “We dedicated this morning's free practice to testing some new components, while in the afternoon we concentrated on the tyres. Since the degradation here is quite high, especially on the front tires, it was important for Stoffel and me to test both compounds. We also managed to complete a couple of laps on intermediate tyres, a useful check for the engineers in case of rain. For the race we expect good weather, completely different conditions compared to today, which is why we will have to experiment a bit. We have completed the entire work program and now it will be up to us to put together the best possible package for tomorrow and Sunday."

Here are Stoffel Vandoorne's impressions: “It wasn't a very quiet Friday for us. We had some problems during today's free practice, not managing to put together a good number of laps. The feeling, however, seemed good to me and so we are optimistic ahead of tomorrow. We learned something about the tires and the set-up, managing to find the key to the problem when it comes to race pace. There is a big difference between soft and ultra soft, which is why it will be important to study a good strategy. We are leaning towards using the harder tyres, but we will analyze everything tonight. We need to carry out some checks on the flying lap, but nothing that we can't solve for tomorrow.

“It wasn't the quietest Friday for us. We had some issues in FP1 and FP2 wasn't perfect either with the pit stop issue, but I felt a lot more confident in the car this afternoon. Overall, we learned a lot and FP2 was a much better session. The most positive thing about today, as we have learned over the last two weekends, is that our race pace looks promising and there is a lot of effort put into our race preparation. Our performance in qualifying we still need to work a little bit and understand some things, but overall I feel good.

“As regards the unsafe release, however, I noticed the tire in turn three. We had to park the car for safety reasons. It was a shame, but these are things that unfortunately can happen” he added