Following my F1 paddock debut on Thursday, practice day at the Red Bull Ring kick started with a 6:00am alarm.
I was not only able to cover sessions from the race circuit for the first time, but I also got the chance to watch the cars from the side of the track and hear the new V6 Turbo power-units.
The early wake-up call proved to be a good choice, as we managed to reach the Red Bull Ring car park without much trouble.
However, a poor night’s sleep meant I was tired from the get-go. Fortunately there were plenty of energy drinks to choose from in the media centre. The first thing that I did was post a piece on Fernando Alonso’s comments about racing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans after his F1 career.
I then edited my interview with Esteban Gutierrez from Thursday, you can read about how that went here, and got it ready for posting at lunch time.
First practice was an eventful session with plenty of off-track excursions. Conditions were considerably cooler in comparison to the previous day, with the air temperature being just 13 degrees at the start of practice.
Nico Rosberg was fastest for Mercedes with a best time of 1m11.295, finishing 0.140 seconds clear of his team-mate Lewis Hamilton. The championship leader’s car was fitted with titanium skid blocks (as was Kimi Raikkonen’s) to test if they would produce sparks. Fernando Alonso, Felipe Massa and Jenson Button completed the top five.
Despite the threat of rain, only a few drops fell. Sebastian Vettel’s 720 degree spin at the final corner, after running onto the grass, had the media centre all gasping. His team-mate did almost the same thing a few minutes later.
After posting my report for Richland F1, I then sorted out my Gutierrez interview and transcribed my chat with Marcus Ericsson, which will go live tomorrow. Luke Smith and I then grabbed some lunch before returning for the second session.
I had to post the session report but that didn’t stop us heading outside to listen and watch. It was my first time hearing the new power-units and I must say, they sound quite nice. They are still loud, but now you don’t need to wear ear defenders and can appreciate the sound and its different layers more.
It has a lot more texture and all three engines sound distinctive. I don’t really understand why people have been complaining so much. It sounds a lot worse on TV, but it certainly isn’t quiet and the sound was even better when cars were running together.
We had a wander through the support paddock before finding a spot to watch the cars at the fast, high-speed chicane of turns six and seven, which was a great spot to spectate. I managed to snap a few photos, but they weren’t very good to be honest.
Hamilton was fastest, from Rosberg and Alonso. We got to see the cars running on the super-soft tyres for the first time. Drivers continued to struggle in the heavy braking zones, with turns one and three being popular places to go off.
After posting the session report on the website, I then headed down to the paddock to collect some quotes. Some teams don’t host media sessions after Friday practice, so it wasn’t quite as successful in terms of getting recordings as Thursday. McLaren’s press session was for broadcast media only, but Silvia – one of the team’s press officers – was kind enough to email me the audio.
I then headed to the Lotus motorhome to hear from Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean, who both had difficult days. As I was heading back to the media centre to transcribe and get some of the quotes online, I noticed Sky Sports F1's Natalie Pinkham waving at me. It was great to catch up briefly before I then went off to complete a few final pieces - including news articles and the reaction round-up.
We had official confirmation that Sergio Perez will still have a five-place grid penalty despite sharing his thoughts on the Canadian Grand Prix incident with Felipe Massa in a meeting with the stewards at 4:00pm.
After downloading some of Leanne Boon’s great images from the Octane Photographic website, we all headed back to the car and travelled back to the hotel to get some food. It was been another successful day in the F1 paddock and I am learning all the time.
It was a long but enjoyable day, as I get to grips with working at the circuit, but it is all going very quickly. I can’t wait to get to work tomorrow on third practice and qualifying.
The early wake-up call proved to be a good choice, as we managed to reach the Red Bull Ring car park without much trouble.
However, a poor night’s sleep meant I was tired from the get-go. Fortunately there were plenty of energy drinks to choose from in the media centre. The first thing that I did was post a piece on Fernando Alonso’s comments about racing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans after his F1 career.
I then edited my interview with Esteban Gutierrez from Thursday, you can read about how that went here, and got it ready for posting at lunch time.
First practice was an eventful session with plenty of off-track excursions. Conditions were considerably cooler in comparison to the previous day, with the air temperature being just 13 degrees at the start of practice.
Nico Rosberg was fastest for Mercedes with a best time of 1m11.295, finishing 0.140 seconds clear of his team-mate Lewis Hamilton. The championship leader’s car was fitted with titanium skid blocks (as was Kimi Raikkonen’s) to test if they would produce sparks. Fernando Alonso, Felipe Massa and Jenson Button completed the top five.
Despite the threat of rain, only a few drops fell. Sebastian Vettel’s 720 degree spin at the final corner, after running onto the grass, had the media centre all gasping. His team-mate did almost the same thing a few minutes later.
After posting my report for Richland F1, I then sorted out my Gutierrez interview and transcribed my chat with Marcus Ericsson, which will go live tomorrow. Luke Smith and I then grabbed some lunch before returning for the second session.
I had to post the session report but that didn’t stop us heading outside to listen and watch. It was my first time hearing the new power-units and I must say, they sound quite nice. They are still loud, but now you don’t need to wear ear defenders and can appreciate the sound and its different layers more.
It has a lot more texture and all three engines sound distinctive. I don’t really understand why people have been complaining so much. It sounds a lot worse on TV, but it certainly isn’t quiet and the sound was even better when cars were running together.
We had a wander through the support paddock before finding a spot to watch the cars at the fast, high-speed chicane of turns six and seven, which was a great spot to spectate. I managed to snap a few photos, but they weren’t very good to be honest.
Hamilton was fastest, from Rosberg and Alonso. We got to see the cars running on the super-soft tyres for the first time. Drivers continued to struggle in the heavy braking zones, with turns one and three being popular places to go off.
After posting the session report on the website, I then headed down to the paddock to collect some quotes. Some teams don’t host media sessions after Friday practice, so it wasn’t quite as successful in terms of getting recordings as Thursday. McLaren’s press session was for broadcast media only, but Silvia – one of the team’s press officers – was kind enough to email me the audio.
I then headed to the Lotus motorhome to hear from Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean, who both had difficult days. As I was heading back to the media centre to transcribe and get some of the quotes online, I noticed Sky Sports F1's Natalie Pinkham waving at me. It was great to catch up briefly before I then went off to complete a few final pieces - including news articles and the reaction round-up.
We had official confirmation that Sergio Perez will still have a five-place grid penalty despite sharing his thoughts on the Canadian Grand Prix incident with Felipe Massa in a meeting with the stewards at 4:00pm.
After downloading some of Leanne Boon’s great images from the Octane Photographic website, we all headed back to the car and travelled back to the hotel to get some food. It was been another successful day in the F1 paddock and I am learning all the time.
It was a long but enjoyable day, as I get to grips with working at the circuit, but it is all going very quickly. I can’t wait to get to work tomorrow on third practice and qualifying.
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