SATISFIED VESTI AT AUTÓDROMO HERMANOS RODRIGUEZ FOR MERCEDES-AMG F1

A total of nine rookies took part when F1’s first practice session in  Mexico took place last night. Among them was  Denmark’s biggest F1 hope – Frederik Vesti, representing Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 as a reserve, test, and simulator driver. Vesti finished his session as the third-fastest rookie, with a best lap time of 1:19.689.

Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez is a special circuit due to its location 2,000 meters above sea level. It’s a challenge for both engineers and drivers since the thin air provides less downforce. Less downforce equals less grip. Mistakes are inevitable - especially for the young drivers and Vesti made a couple himself. Still, he’s satisfied.

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Everything I do at this level is about approaching the task with realistic expectations. This W16 I was given is a beast. The speed, the brakes, and the G-forces are absolutely wild. I had some solid sessions and really good laps. As a driver, you always want more. You want to be the fastest man out there right from the start! But that wasn’t the goal for my session. The goal was data collection and executing the team’s so-called run plan to perfection. Your personal ambitions take second place.

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I didn’t drive over the limit. I didn’t drive below it. I drove on the limit - and that makes it a job well done, also from the team’s perspective. Yes, there were a few small mistakes along the way, but that’s bound to happen on a track like this.

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If I’m to be faster, it takes more time in the car. My last experience in the racer was in  Bahrain back in March. Many rookies test a lot - and with testing comes experience. So that’s why I talk about realistic expectations and why I’m happy with my performance. I got out of the car with a strong, happy feeling. I set my fastest lap early in the first session on the soft tires. The fastest times are always set at the end of practice, when the track naturally gets quicker.

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For Mercedes-AMG F1, the great value of having Vesti in the car lies in his ability to correlate - to translate all the data from the track into the virtual world of the simulator, which Vesti spends much of his time developing for the team.

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Everything has to be perfect. Inaccurate data only do one thing - they mislead us. So the correlation between track and sim is absolutely crucial for a team’s performance.

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A huge thanks to George Russell for letting me borrow his car, and to Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 for putting me in the seat once again. The only thing I thought about when I got out of the car was when will I be back, so I can continue my development and my journey toward a permanent F1 seat.

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Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director at Mercedes-AMG F1, gave the following assessment of Vesti’s performance for the team:

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"The track is always low grip to start Friday practice here, which explains why nine of the 10 teams opted to run a young driver in the first session. For those reasons, George (Russell) also elected to watch from the sidelines whilst Fred did an excellent job of executing the programme in his car. He finished the session as third fastest rookie but spent the back end of the hour focused on long run work for us on high fuel; he was only bettered by drivers that stayed at low fuel throughout. As a mainstay of our development programme on the simulator, it's been very useful to give Fred a bit of mileage in the real W16." (Quote F1.com.)

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