Weug identifies little margins needed as she chases top spot in Qatar testing

Maya Weug has a one-track mind in Qatar, with the Ferrari driver hungry to finish the third and final day of in-season testing top of the timing sheets.

Another competitive showing across Day 2 saw her earn the third-fastest time of the morning session, 0.413s off Doriane Pin’s leading pace.

Finding more pace in the afternoon, Weug put together a 1:57.224, which was good enough for second. With less than five hundredths covering the top three, she was left satisfied by performance but knows she has to play close attention to the smallest details going forward.

“We’re trying a lot of stuff and made some progress from this morning to this afternoon,” Weug explained. “Also, the track is changing a lot with the wind. It was very windy in the afternoon, so the track was not so fast as yesterday evening for instance, where it was a bit colder and there was no wind. It's changing a lot depending on the temperature, the wind and so on.

“Overall, we made a lot of progress, a lot of things we tried. Then in the evening, it was all very close, but we managed to put quite a good lap together. Not far off Abbi, I think we're all more or less there. We're talking about very little margins, so that's good. It's about these little things, but I'm enjoying the track and we’ll see what we can do tomorrow.”

Crucially, her task will be aided by her and PREMA Racing’s approach to maximise track time during testing after clocking in 240 laps in Abu Dhabi and 123 so far in Qatar — the third highest total in the field.

“In Abu Dhabi we did a lot of laps, maybe even a bit too much,” she joked. “But now, it’s a different track here so we can’t do as many laps as in Abu Dhabi considering the tyre life. I enjoy driving, so I can’t complain!

“It’s good, especially with both tracks being new to me in Qatar and Abu Dhabi. The more laps you do, the more you can learn from the driving and so on. There are lots of things you want to test, so that’s why we have to do this many laps.”

READ MORE: Pin goes quickest once again on Day 2 in Qatar

Although Weug was the strongest of the field in Sector 3, she was only sixth-fastest in Sector 1 and fifth in Sector 2. With her teammates also finishing inside the top seven in the second session, the Dutch driver says she’s hoping to benefit from their combined strength in their last testing opportunity before the final two rounds of the 2024 campaign.

“Sector 3 was strong,” noted Weug. “We went purple this afternoon, but in Sectors 1 and 2 we’re still missing a bit. We’ll have to check the data (to see) where we can improve. We have good teammates where we can see where we can improve in Sector 1 and 2. There’s still a bit for tomorrow, so definitely that will be our main target.”

She added: “There are a couple of corners where we need to be more consistent through Sectors 1 and 2. I think in the high-speed section we are pretty strong, so I’m confident there.

“In Sector 1 and Sector 2, I need to be more consistent and try to find those little hundredths here and there. We’ll try to see what we can do on the data and push tomorrow. Finally, I want that (to go fastest). P3 this morning, P2 now, so tomorrow we have to do it!”