Kimi Brasil

It’s been a comparison kind of day for Kimi as he talks us through his Friday in Abu Dhabi, the trials between the new and old exhaust, and just how he prefers speed over comfort.

How was your first day in Abu Dhabi?

We were good in India on Friday and we’re strong here in Abu Dhabi today. We tried a few things on the car in both sessions and we have some things to go through before tomorrow. Our lap times seem to be pretty okay so far, and hopefully we can find a little bit more pace for tomorrow in practice and then again for the qualifying session.

What was today’s programme?

We tried the new exhaust and spent most of our time on comparisons between the new and older system, so we didn’t spend a lot of time on set-up. The car didn’t actually feel that nice, but the lap times were good.

Do you think there’s more to come from the car?

Hopefully there’s some improvement to come with the car being nicer to drive and faster, but of the two I’d settle for it being faster. For sure there are more tenths to come from the car, and the track will probably improve further too. Hopefully we can improve more than the other teams.

How were the two tyre compounds?

Both felt okay with everything we did today so we have no concerns there.

Why did you finish the first session early?

I got a puncture on my right rear tyre. It was almost the end of the session anyway so there was no need to go out again.

You spent quite a bit of time in the garage in the second session. Any problems?

We were just changing the exhaust so we could run comparisons and it takes a bit of time to do. We still completed a good number of laps and we have lots of data to decide if the latest exhaust gives us a lap time advantage.

Fonte: Lotus F1 Team