News Summary
- Rafael Câmara finished 18th in FP1 and 16th in FP2 on his first day of practice as a Haas race driver.
- Hoagy Nidd singled out Câmara’s feedback, progress behind the wheel and work on procedures, including practice starts.
- Oliver Bearman finished 10th in FP2 after Haas cut short his hard-tyre race run and switched to softs with rain possible on Saturday.
Rafael Câmara gave Haas enough feedback in his first hour of Formula 1 practice that Hoagy Nidd joked it was almost redundant. By the end of Friday at Interlagos, the Formula 2 leader had completed 60 laps, rehearsed his starts and cut 1.135s from his best time. What stood out to Nidd was how Câmara used those laps to work through the basics and improve as the day went on.
Câmara finished 18th in FP1 with a 1:13.696. He improved to 1:12.561 in FP2, moving up to 16th and cutting his gap to Haas teammate Oliver Bearman from 0.859s to 0.570s. This is his first Grand Prix weekend as a Haas race driver.
What impressed Haas about Câmara’s first Friday
“It wasn’t bad at all. For Rafa, of course, it was a day of learning a lot. It’s very intimidating, but he was brilliant,” Nidd said.
“He built up his preparation through first practice. It was almost redundant, he gave us so much feedback in FP1. And in FP2, he was improving all the time, making progress through his feedback and his driving.”
“He did a lot of work on procedures, did a few practice starts, things like that. The bread-and-butter stuff we almost forget about with most drivers. It was a strong day and we’re very happy with him.”
Câmara also received a driving reprimand after impeding Charles Leclerc at Turn 15 in FP2. Leclerc had to take evasive action on a flying lap, and the stewards found that Câmara had moved well into the racing line despite repeated warnings that the Ferrari was approaching. The reprimand carries no grid penalty.
Why Haas cut short Bearman’s hard-tyre run
Bearman was 12th in FP1 and 10th in FP2, setting a 1:11.991 in the afternoon. Haas brought some of its planned Saturday work forward because rain could disrupt final practice. That meant switching Bearman to softs early in FP2 after a short race-pace stint on the hards.
“We were much quicker on the soft tyres than on the hards, obviously. Oliver was struggling on the hard tyres in FP2 at race pace, but we quickly switched to the softs because nobody knows what the weather will be like tomorrow,” Nidd said.
“But the complaints about the car so far are the same: it turns in abruptly, there’s some understeer, the usual things with these cars. We’ve got work to do tonight, but hopefully we’ll get there tomorrow.”
Fresh asphalt and rain leave Haas with questions for Saturday
Two sections of Interlagos have been resurfaced. Nidd said the surface looked better than he had expected from earlier photographs. The team still had to find out how the new asphalt would behave if it got wet, and how a drop in temperature could affect the car on Sunday. The forecast for Interlagos points to a risk of rain around qualifying and cooler conditions on race day.
“It’s a big unknown. As for the resurfacing, we’d been led to believe it would be a big challenge. I think they’ve done a lot of work here over the past two weeks to improve it,” Nidd said.
“It looks better than the photos I’d seen beforehand. But there are still a lot of unknowns that we’ll have to deal with as they come up.”
GRANDE PRÊMIO is following every session of the São Paulo Grand Prix in Formula 1 live from Interlagos.
