With the FIA World Endurance Championship’s Prologue pre-season testing event now over, it’s all eyes on race week. But, let’s look at what the drivers said after the 14 hours of on-track time at the Prologue had concluded, and how they’re approaching the race.
#12 Cadillac’s Will Stevens
“All of us working together for the first time generally has worked really well so far. I think we had a positive start to the week.
“We rolled off the truck with a good racecar and I feel quite comfortable with everything we have at the moment. It’s still early in the race week. We have a lot of things we want to cover in the Prologue and then we have time before next week starts for us to go in and analyze everything.
“The six of us are giving similar feedback and that’s positive point that we’re going to push in the same direction.”
#38 Cadillac’s Jenson Button
“I’m happy. You always wish there was more testing, but there is still quite a lot more before the race.
I”’ve watched the Cadillac racing the last couple of years, whether its’s in IMSA or WEC, and loved the way the car looks in high-speed corners, the way it rides curbs, the sound of it. It’s awesome. I think the car suits my style a little bit more than what I was driving last year. I’m enjoying the process and obviously it’s a big learning for the team to be working with the Cadillac.
“But I think everyone has worked so well together – all the engineers from Cadillac and JOTA. We’ll have moments, some stumbling blocks along the way, but I feel the atmosphere is really good and everyone is gelling.”
#20 BMW’s Robin Frijns
“I think it went alright. We had a test programme before arriving to Qatar, we followed it pretty much and everything feel fine. Now we need to put the puzzle together and prepare ourselves for the race weekend which is a bit different.
As we don’t drive at night during FP1 and FP2, today was our only opportunity so that was quite important for us. Now it’s all about discussions and see how we can improve the package we have for the race.”
Toyota team principal and #7 Toyota’s Kamui Kobayashi
“We tried to get the best out of these two days to prepare ourselves well for the race week. Generally, we had no problems through the two days and managed to complete a lot of laps on both cars. Obviously in terms of pace we seem to be lacking a bit at the moment.
“But we will work on that in the next few days and try to find more performance. There is a lot of work still to do so let’s see how it goes next week.”
#8 Toyota’s Sebastien Buemi
“I’m happy to be back in Qatar, although this is not an easy track for us. We had two long days of running but, like last year, we seem to be struggling a little. We have a few days before free practice so we will work hard with the data that we gathered here and the experience of last year.
“The race is long, but it looks like it might not be easy. We will have to do a perfect job to maximise everything.”
#009 Aston Martin’s Alex Riberas
“This has been an absolute dream the last couple of days, to be able to drive around with the Aston Martin Valkyrie, such a spectacular track like Qatar where you get a fair share of high speed corners where you can really test the extra down forces that we get to experience with the Valkyrie inthe Hypercar class, it’s just incredible.
“So definitely two of the best days of my career, just to be able to drive this car around. It’s an absolute pleasure and on top of it I think we can be really happy as a team, because we created the foundation to build upon
“We came here with with two cars that are brand new and we know what that’s like, where you have to go through the motion of getting both cars ready to operate and with the help of engineers with the help of WEC I think we are now ready for race day.”
Aston Martin’s and Heart of Racing’s Ian James
Very happy. I think it was a really constructive Prologue for us. The car ran pretty much without any major issues, did a lot of laps, improved the performance step by step. It’s the first step on a long journey, so very happy. The team executed really well, drivers did a great job. We look forward to next Friday.
If you could say there’s one thing that you’ve progressed on or learnt, what would you say it would be?
I think just the general systems needed for WEC, to be in compliance with everything and just the operating systems on the car. Until you get into this situation and you have all the live FIA sensors going and what the weight requirements are, you don’t really know what that need is until you’re here.
So just learning all about that and operating that in a controlled environment like we are now. That’s a relief that we’ve been able to tick all those boxes off. These cars are very controlled electronics dependent, and I think that’s the journey we’ve got to go on and just keep improving that side of the car right now.
Aston Martin’s head of endurance, Adam Carter
“Really pleased to be here. It’s taken a lot of effort from everybody involved. The Heart of Racing team have done a fantastic job to get here well prepared, to see the momentum we’ve built during testing to continue here with logging a really high count of laps, car running faultlessly, team coming together, starting to work together as a race team, jelling. And starting to develop the car on track performance. Really looking forward to starting to compete next weekend.
‘Its a very kind of visceral experience to watch a Valkyrie on track. Seeing track Valkyries on the road or seeing them on the racetrack, there’s something very special about it and seeing the Valkyrie here today is no different.
#36 Alpine’s Mick Schumacher
“These two busy days were positive as we got a lot of laps done and I think we are now understanding the car better and better. There are always some things to fine-tune, but I think we are now getting into a good rhythm to do it pretty quickly. Having a season of experience behind me also makes a huge difference, so I am ready for it and happy to get started!”
Alpine team principal, Philippe Sinault
“We had a busy but essential programme for this Prologue, where we finally met up with our competitors again. It allowed us to get the team back up to speed on an operational level while getting some answers to our questions.
“We identified some important areas for improvement, particularly the tyres. Everything went well, as we had no major issues and could work calmly and establish a good foundation ahead of this first race of the year. We have two days to analyse everything and learn the right lessons for this long ten-hour race, where strategy will be paramount.”
