2021 Austrian Grand Prix – Free Practice "We'll keep chipping away to find a few more tenths overnight"

Red Bull Ring, Friday 2 July

Hear from McLaren Formula 1 drivers Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo, and Executive Director, Racing, Andrea Stella after practice for the Austrian Grand Prix.

LANDO NORRIS, #4

 FP1 1m05.880s (+0.737s)  28 laps  10th 
 FP2  1m05.466s (+0.943s)  34 laps  9th 

"A positive day because we tested a lot of different things, but we just haven’t put everything together really. Of the things we tested, some were good, some not as good, and we now have a better understanding of the car than we did last weekend. Hopefully we can choose all the best things from the work we did today and progress tomorrow to make sure we’re that little bit quicker than we were last week. Today was a productive day and let's see what we can do tomorrow."

Austrian Grand Prix Red Bull Ring

Austrian Grand Prix
Austrian Grand Prix
Austrian Grand Prix
Austrian Grand Prix

DANIEL RICCIARDO, #3

 FP1 1m06.181s (+1.038s)  31 laps  12th 
 FP2  1m05.698s (+1.175s)  32 laps  15th 

"It’s been an interesting day – from the classification it doesn’t look like a good day, but we actually made some progress in a few areas. We’ll just try to make another step tomorrow and maybe that puts us in the fight. If I didn’t know the classification, I’d be more optimistic with the day, but I think just some fine-tuning is needed. We’ll keep chipping away to find a few more tenths overnight and I think that’ll put us where we need to be. We’ve got some work to do, but we’re looking alright."

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ANDREA STELLA, Executive Director, Racing

"A busy day today, with a programme containing lots of running and lots of tests. The tyre allocation this weekend is softer than it was for the Styrian Grand Prix, and it was important to understand the degradation and behaviour of the softest tyre, which we haven’t run at this circuit before. There was also a change in conditions, with a much cooler track today, when compared to last weekend.

“We also had Pirelli’s new prototype tyres to test today, plus, as usual, we had a few new parts and wanted to do all the normal set-up work to improve the pace of the car. So, a very busy day. We’ve gathered lots of information and tonight we’ll look at what we’ve accumulated, with a view to capitalising on it in our qualifying performance tomorrow and our preparation for Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix."

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