The French driver, Ocon, got a new floor for his car, which was originally meant for Miami. They hurried to make the new floor in time for the Chinese Grand Prix.
This new floor has changes to the bottom part of the car, called the diffuser, and some changes to the front part. There’s also a new wing at the edge of the floor with a slot at the back.
Even though these changes should make the car faster, Ocon said that the way his car was set up didn’t work well during the sprint qualifying. He thinks they need to make many changes before the real qualifying starts.
“I feel like we didn’t use the car’s full power today. Unfortunately, it’s the first time this year we’ve had this problem,” Ocon said.
“I think we could have done better today. But we only had one practice session, so we couldn’t test everything.
“We left some speed behind. It’s good that we can make changes before the next qualifying. We’ll try our best in the race tomorrow with what we have now. After that, we’ll change the car’s setup and see if it works better.
“We’ll change a lot of things. Until we try, we won’t know if it’s the right thing to do. But it’s worth trying.”
Ocon’s teammate, Gasly, will have to wait for the new floor until Miami. But he’s not worried about it.
Gasly had a problem with part of his car’s engine during practice. They fixed it before qualifying, but Gasly could only do a few laps during practice.
“We had a problem with the engine this morning. We only got to do a few laps. On a weekend like this, every lap counts.
“But the team fixed it, changed the engine, and I got to qualify. I’m happy with my lap time. It was better than we expected.
“It’s hard without the new floor, but we did well. We almost made it to the next round of qualifying. It’s a good sign. I’ll get the new parts in Miami, and that should help us do even better.”
