C44 Progress Cheers Bottas; Zhou's Perez Scuffle

Bottas and Zhou show confidence in C44 upgrades, despite Zhou’s skirmish with Perez on the track.

F1 Stake Team Experiences Solid First Day at Hungaroring; Bottas and Zhou Complete Practice Sessions for Hungarian Grand Prix

The team successfully tested a series of upgrades introduced for this race, garnering valuable data while assessing single-lap performance.

The team will now analyse the data and explore ways to further enhance the performance of the C44 ahead of Saturday and Sunday.

“Today was a productive day for learning about our developments,” Bottas revealed, after clocking the 11th fastest time in Free Practice 2.

“It took a while for the new parts we’re introducing this weekend to perform as expected during FP1, but that’s what free practice is for. After some adjustments during FP2, we managed to extract a bit more performance and found a positive direction to work on for tomorrow.”

“Overall, I feel we may be in a better position than at recent events, but there’s still work to do tonight and more to extract in tomorrow’s final practice session to be ready for a crucial qualifying.”

Zhou began FP1 with the 5th fastest time but dropped to 20th in FP2 following a close call with Sergio Perez.

“Checo was not in the right place during my lap, and I spun! I was in his dirty air at the worst spot, it’s not like I made a mistake in that corner. I was on the curb, about to go left and then saw the Red Bull ahead.”

“I was in his dirty air, and that was that. It was a major hot moment; I’m glad I managed to save my car. But honestly, in that turn, it’s better to stay on the left side.”

Perez, however, stated that he did everything possible to clear Zhou’s path after being informed by his team’s radio that Zhou was on a fast lap.

“I knew he was coming, so I moved aside. When I saw him spinning, I had to quickly veer left to avoid him. Fortunately, I managed to avoid any damage.”

Zhou also remains positive about the developments.

“The car handled quite well from the start today. I still want to be cautious since it’s only Friday, but it feels like we’re in a much better position than in previous weekends.”

“This could allow us to challenge our rivals in qualifying and fight for a top-10 finish on Sunday if we have a good race. Everything went smoothly this morning, and this afternoon, my lap time could have been good for 10th place if not for that moment in turn 4.”

“Overall, it’s fair to say we’ve had some positive sessions so far, especially considering how our testing programme was structured. This track certainly suits our car a bit better with its medium-speed corners and smooth surface: there’s still work to do tonight, but we are heading in the right direction.”