The track conditions were very tricky at the start of FP1 and unfortunately I got caught out on a damp section of the track. I had completed just 8 laps, which was very frustrating because this is a new circuit for me and we also had a busy aero programme to get through this morning. I’m pleased that I have been able to recover the ground we lost and happy with how we end this first day of running. I really like my first taste of this track, so it’s a shame that it wasn’t such a smooth start but I think we are back in a good place for the rest of the weekend.

So far so good on my first outing at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. It’s a great track; I love it. This morning our running was subject to the steadily improving conditions. We had some aero work to do on the prototype tyres so that we could press on with preparing for the race this afternoon. We managed to condense that so that we achieved everything we needed to and we end the day’s running with plenty of data to look over this evening. These are never the best conditions to get your first taste of a new track but I’m comfortable with where we are so far and looking forward to the rest of the weekend.

We came to Canada with a number of mechanical updates to try on the car in FP1, along with a desire to understand as much as possible about the prototype tyres which Pirelli have brought here. Unfortunately, the weather conditions in FP1 curtailed a lot of this work, including some of the evaluations of the revised exhaust parts we have introduced. This means that much of this work has now been delayed until Silverstone, owing to the fact that the dry running in FP2 needed to be devoted to evaluating the tyres and brakes for this event. Jules obviously missed a significant proportion of running in FP1, which was far from ideal. His crew worked well to change his gearbox in time for FP2 and he had a very productive session. Max had a great Friday, covering the majority of his programme and he seems to be fairly happy with the balance of his car. With both cars we are pleased with our progress so far. As is always the case in Canada, brakes will form an important part of our data analysis work tonight and decisions on what specifications we will run going forwards, however we feel relatively confident that in all areas we seem to be on top of things.