07/03/2024
NEWS STORY
MoneyGram Haas F1 Team drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen opted to start on different tires to start FP1 - the session commencing at 16:30 local time.
Hulkenberg began his day sampling the Pirelli P Zero Yellow medium rubber, with a fastest time of 1:31.411 achieved on his second set of the medium compound. Magnussen saw his VF-24 equipped with the White hard rubber - the Dane recording a 1:32.692 lap before his switch to mediums. A best effort of 1:31.577 placed him P20 directly behind his teammate, with both drivers using the session to work on their set-up.
Second practice was delayed by 10 minutes due to further checks needing to be done in the pit lane. Once underway, a full 60-minute session ensued under the lights around the 6.174-kilometer (3.836-mile), 27-turn circuit seaside circuit. Hulkenberg ran a baseline stint on the White hard tire to begin with before bolting on a set of soft tires for a qualifying sim - a 1:30.077 lap securing P18.
Magnussen started FP2 on the medium rubber before he too switched to softs. A 1:29.985 lap landed Magnussen P17 on the timesheet. Both drivers wrapped the session with long runs on high-fuel - Magnussen remaining on the softs with Hulkenberg moving to hards before returning to red rubber for the final minutes of the session.
MoneyGram Haas F1 Team ran a total of 87 laps on Thursday across FP1 and FP2 - 45 by Hulkenberg and 42 by Magnussen.
Nico Hulkenberg: "It's very different to Bahrain - a different circuit, different sensation and feeling, but ultimately it's still very quick here. I think from a running perspective it was fine, a day with no problems so that was good. The feeling in the car isn't amazing, there's room for improvement - especially over one lap - although I think we're really close together in the midfield. Small things can make a big difference. It's the normal learning process on the first day where we learn things and hopefully can put it all together tomorrow. Right now, I think it looks more challenging than seven days ago but you never know, there are very small margins."
Kevin Magnussen: "I think we had a decent day - nothing spectacular on pace - but again the car seems okay on long runs, more so than low-fuel. We need to pick up the pace a little bit there, so hopefully we can do that but it's very tight, so even finding two-tenths and you're close to the top 10. It's so close, I think we could get close to the top 10 with an amazing lap and we hook up the balance in the car. We want to get a decent qualifying position, but the race is the important one so that's still what we're focusing on. It's all to play for tomorrow."
Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: "In Saudi we have a different level of downforce and a different speed of corners, so we expected a different challenge. Today went more or less as expected, I think we've got decent straight-line speed, we struggled a bit in the high-speed corners, but then the tires are working okay. As you can see the midfield is really tight so I think qualifying is going to be pretty challenging. We have to put everything together but with the temperature and everything else it's not easy - it's right on the edge - so that's going to be challenging. The encouraging thing is Kevin's high-fuel run was really good in FP2, so that's a good baseline. I think if we can qualify in a decent position, we've got good race pace."
Check out our Thursday gallery from Jeddah here.