Sahara Force India gets off on the right foot for Austin weekend

During the morning session, Alfonso Celis was once again in Sergio Perez’s car, as has been the case several times this season. Unsurprisingly, the gap with Nico Hülkenberg is significant, as the young Mexican’s best reference is nearly two seconds off that of the future Renault driver.

In his defense, Alfonso Celis doesn’t have as many sets of tires as his teammate since they have to be preserved as much as possible for the main driver for the rest of the weekend, as he states: “I only had two sets of super softs. So I had to be smart in the way I used them. You’re never at 100% on a lap during the first attempt and by the end of the stint, the tires are no longer in top condition. Taking that into account, I’m satisfied with what I achieved.”

The impact for his compatriot Sergio Perez does not seem to have been too significant since his best time in the afternoon was in the same tenth as his teammate: « I was only in the car this afternoon but I got into the rhythm very quickly. I’m happy with my laps. I think we are in a promising position. The car was behaving well and I think we found the setup window quite quickly. »

However, the two drivers were not on the same program. The team will therefore have a lot of data to prepare for the rest of the weekend: « Nico tried a different approach from mine and that should help the team to have all this information to make the right decision for tomorrow. »

The German, for his part, could therefore be satisfied with having spent a quiet Friday, very promising for the rest of the hostilities: « It was a trouble-free Friday, exactly the way you want to start a weekend. We didn’t have any major issues with the car and we were able to do a lot of laps. We tried different things with our setup during the afternoon. Our evening’s work is therefore to understand which is the best direction to take. »

While Williams was clearly behind, hopes of increasing the gap in the Constructors’ Championship seem high.