Mercedes driver Schumacher says their car pace not good enough for a podium finish – Formula 1 news
After the Friday practice session of the 2011 Formula 1 European Grand Prix, Mercedes GP driver Michael Schumacher admitted that their car’s pace was not good during the practice sessions.
He also said that it cannot challenge other strong teams for the podium finish at the Valencia Street Circuit on Sunday, June 26, 2011.
The seven-time world champion had a good race weekend in the Canadian Grand Prix, where he finished his run at the fourth spot for the team. After that, he was aiming to achieve a race victory in Valencia.
The German took part in the morning practice session of the Valencia Grand Prix, where he finished his practice run in the 11th spot. The first practice session result did not satisfy Schumacher, as he was expecting a closer place to the top runners.
He worked really hard during the second practice session and successfully ended up at the fourth place.
Despite everything, Schumacher insisted that they are still not competitive enough to fight for a podium place in 2011 Formula 1 season due to lack of their car’s pace.
He added, “Forget the podium, we are not strong enough for that. The Ferraris are very strong and we are behind the McLarens and the Red Bulls. If we are lucky, we might catch one of those teams, but we must be lucky. That's too far away from the podium.”
The 42-year-old driver went on to mention, “I don't think that the pace is good enough. Its one thing for a lap and it looked reasonable, but that depends on how good a lap the other guys got in. The other question is long-run performance because we usually
drop off a little bit on that.”
Apart from that, his teammate Nico Rosberg said that he is not happy with the Friday practice session results. He admitted that both sessions were quite difficult for him, as the car did not play a supportive role during that.
Despite having some issues with his car’s Kinetic Energy Recovery System, he completed his run at the eighth place in the afternoon practice session.
The qualifying round will take place on June 25, 2011 at the Valencia Street Circuit.
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