What the F1 teams learned about the Madring after their first day of running

Formula 1 drivers and teams finally had their first proper taste of the Madring in Friday practice, and it proved to be every bit as challenging as had been anticipated.

Simulation can only do so much, so there was a great deal for everyone to learn, and so many unknowns around set-up, power unit deployment, and tyre management. It was the last item that became a major talking point of the day, with tyre graining cropping up early in the first session.

Overall the verdict from the drivers on the new venue was positive.

“I actually really loved it,” said Pierre Gasly, who finished the day in P11. “It was very exciting. It's a track with a lot of adrenaline. At all the corners you kind of see the walls coming at you very quickly, and you’ve got to be extremely precise in your lines, how much you commit to the corner.

“It definitely has this type of like adrenaline element, which you don't always find, but usually find on a street track. So, pretty cool.

“A lot of high-speed, which is unusual for a street track, and it's kind of a mix between like Jeddah and Monaco all combined together. Always exciting to find a new track, and definitely very exciting driving-wise. Now, hopefully, in the race, we can still find opportunities to overtake.”

“I would say honestly it’s more difficult than some tracks,” said Oscar Piastri, who was P7 in FP2. “There's a lot of sections where you're not really brushing up against the walls, you're kind of turning or heading at them, and then you need to avoid them.

“So it makes things quite challenging. Definitely I think everyone is still getting up to speed. But when you get into a decent rhythm over one lap, it's pretty enjoyable. In race running, it's been a nightmare to try and manage the tyres with graining.

“So a lot of corners have been very difficult. It's been an interesting day. I think we are struggling a little bit for pace. But yeah, hopefully we can find a bit more tomorrow.”

Teams had anticipated that graining might be an issue, but the scale of it came as a shock to the system in FP1, which led to set-up tweaks for the second session.

“We thought it was a possibility,” said George Russell. “It's often a possibility on new tarmacs. The grip is very high, but you're sliding quite aggressively. With the deg we had in FP1, a six-stop race would have been the fastest way!

“FP2 was slightly better, and I'm sure the race on Sunday will be better again. But that's the biggest question mark.”

It was interesting to see most teams saving two sets of the C2 hard tyres – only Audi deployed them on Friday – which indicates that they will feature heavily in the race.

Inevitably teams had lots of work to do on setup given the need to find a compromise that works on a track that has so many different types of corners.

Ferrari looked competitive from the very start of FP1, although Team Principal Fred Vasseur cautioned that what matters is how the car behaves in Saturday’s Qualifying session.

“I think the good setup is the setup that will work in in quali, not in free practice,” he said. “We know that we'll have a huge track evolution even during the session. The most important is to anticipate the grip in Q3, and to be ready for Q3. It makes no sense to do the best in free practice, and not in quali.

“It's a challenge that you have approximately all the types of corners of the season, and it's a good exercise for the engineers. But at the end, it's also difficult to estimate what will be the grip evolution between FP3 and quali, and even during quali. It means that energy deployment is complicated with the high-speed section, and I think what will be key is to estimate the pace in Q3.”

While Ferrari looked good, with Charles Leclerc finishing FP2 in second place, Red Bull drivers Max Verstappen and Liam Lawson were less satisfied with progress.

“I think it's better to not be happy during Friday!,” said Pierre Wache, echoing Vasseur’s suggestion that what matters is getting it right for the grip level come Qualifying.

“And there's a lot of work to do on car setup, for sure. Mechanical grip, I think the ride is more challenging than what we thought. It's not as smooth.

“On energy deployment, it's clear that we have a lot of work to do there also. And the tyres grained maybe as expected – I think in FP2 we were a little bit better than FP1, and I think we have to continue in this route.”

Wache agreed that it won’t be easy to get it just right: “I think compromising between corner and deployment, some corners are full throttle, and putting some sliding on the tyres. That's something we have to see. But yeah, it is a challenging one.”

And one of the biggest compromises is finding a set-up that works for the places where you have to jump kerbs and is effective throughout the rest of the track.

“It very difficult,” said Audi sporting director Inaki Rueda. “So the main set-up trade that we have here is between running low and stiff for aero, because you have lots of high-speed corners. And usually these cars, the more stiff and low you get the aero platform, the better it is.

“But you have the trade-off of jumping the kerbs, like jumping the kerb in Turn 2. It's a lot of lap time.

"We cannot not jump it, and of course for that you want a higher car, and more of a rolling car. And so that is where the trade-off is, and the answer is going to be difficult.”