“I was quite happy with the set-up of the car on old tyres this afternoon,” expressed the man who this year is set to become the most experienced driver in
Formula 1 history, “and we achieved some good work on the long run pace. However, I am still struggling with the set-up on new tyres so we need to look at the data overnight and improve on that for tomorrow.
“We had a good weekend in Melbourne, but it is important to keep our feet on the ground and continue to work as hard as possible. The car is very driveable and, providing we get the set-up right for qualifying tomorrow, we are aiming to make it into the top twelve. If we can achieve that, then I am confident we can have a good race from there.”
Head of race and test engineering Steve Clark acknowledged the stern demands placed on all members of the team by the extreme humidity of the Malaysian weekend, but with the two drivers having completed 115 laps between them in practice he was hopeful of at least one car making it through to Q3 on Saturday.
“We came to Malaysia expecting very high temperatures,” Clark admitted, “but in fact we have not yet seen the exceptionally hot weather we experienced in Melbourne. For the car it is the temperature that is critical for reliability.
“The driver has another issue – that of very high humidity, which is more difficult than heat alone since the body's cooling is less effective. Dehydration is a real issue during the race, and they have to work hard at managing their fluid intake. The heat and the severity of the newly-resurfaced track are proving a challenge for the tyres, and we are seeing both fronts and rears overheating.
“So far the results look quite encouraging, [but] the balance of the car is not yet where we want it to be so we can still improve. However, the pace is quite encouraging, particularly on race fuel loads. Whilst it is perhaps optimistic at this stage in the car's development, we hope to be challenging for a place in the final qualifying session tomorrow.”
