Sauber has a shortened Friday practice in Australia

Today the Sauber F1 Team took part in the second free practice session of the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, but did not participate in the first free pracice session.

Marcus Ericsson (Car number 9 - Chassis 02/Ferrari - 2nd practice 15th / 1:32.303 min 14 laps): “It was a decent start today, but a pity we had a mechanical issue that forced us to stop running in the middle of the session. I still managed to do one complete run on the medium tyres during which I could improve my lap times and got a better feeling for the car, but I did not have the chance to test the soft tyres. Overall, it is nice to be back in Australia.”

Felipe Nasr (Car number 12 - Chassis 01/Ferrari - 2nd practice: 11th / 1:30.755 min - 33 laps): “The second free practice session was important for us. As it was my first time driving the track in Melbourne, I had to catch up with learning the circuit, but in general I am quite satisfied with the session. We were able see how the car is reacting and got some good data. Even from my side as well as on the car side, there is much we can do.”

Giampaolo Dall’Ara, Head of Track Engineering: “Today we had a shortened programme. Both drivers had a longer run on medium tyres, which was meant to check the balance of the car and possibly do set-up changes, but also give them the chance to drive the car. Unfortunately, Marcus’ car had a failure which cost him half of the session, so he was not able to test the soft tyres. We are investigating what caused the issue. Felipe had a smooth session with runs on medium and soft tyres. Now we have to work on the data collected today in order to optimise the set-up.”

Sauber F1 Team