Today's team representatives press conference with James Vowles, Frederic Vasseur and Andy Cowell.

Q: James, can we start with you, please? I know it's only FP1, but Carlos took testing a couple of weeks ago, he's repeated it in FP1, and Alex Albon is up there as well. Are you starting to believe in the FW47 and its potential?
James Vowles: I believe in the work we've done across the winter, but it's just practice, and we're running, I'm sure, a slightly different programme to some of our colleagues. We've done a good job, there's no doubt about it, and Carlos is in a great state. With Alex, we didn't have a great session due to an issue around the brakes and we didn't give him a great session as a result of things. But we also have to be realistic. The top four giants of the sport now, and that includes McLaren in that. I'd love to say we'll break into that, but that's not the reality of where we are today. Our job is to make sure we keep progressing. I think you're going to see the field as the closest it's ever been, and it'd be great to be scratching on that door, being irritating from time to time.

Q: And you think you can do that?
JV: I think you'll find the grid is such that a lot of people can do that. It doesn't take much to make a small mistake and drop back a few tenths. But I think what we have is a good foundation to build from, which is what I've been building towards as a team.

Q: Tell us about Carlos - quickest at the test, P2 in FP1. What impact has he had on the team so far?
JV: First of all, he's been to a number of organisations, so he understands different elements and he's been across a number of drivers we would all consider world championship material. That's made him into the driver he is today. His ability to communicate what's going on in the car is fantastic, his ability to understand what's going on in the team around him and how to bring them forward, what excellence looks like, what winning looks like, and how to elevate our state from where we are is his strength. That's part of the reason why I wanted to make sure he was with us this year and beyond. In terms of his pace, we knew he was quick, but I've been really impressed with his ability to interact with our aero team or our engineers and bring them on a journey as well.

Q: Thank you very much. I'm sure there'll be more questions for you in a minute. Fred, on the subject of Carlos, does anything that James has just said surprise you?
Fred Vasseur: Nope.

Q: Well, let's bring it on to Ferrari's session. How clean was it? How much potential has the car got for the remainder of this weekend at Albert Park?
FV: Yeah, but I think we all said the same this morning, you want to draw conclusions after FP1. When we were in Melbourne last year, after two races, you were asking when Red Bull would be champion, and they weren't champion at the end. I think we have to build up the pace, build up the weekend. There's still a long way to qualifying and a long way to the Sunday race. Stay calm. I'm sure that will apply to everybody, but it's far too early to draw any conclusion about who will be champion or win on Sunday. We've been doing this job for years, and we always get the same questions after FP1 of race one.

Q: Fred, I asked James about Carlos. Can I just ask you about something Lewis said in here? He said this is the most exciting period of his life and that he's really enjoying it. Is it rewarding for you to hear him say things like that?
FV: It's the word of Lewis... Don't ask me if I'm thinking the same! But for sure, I think it's a good journey for him. He enjoys what he's doing, and we enjoy working with him. But you know, we're all in the same situation. During the winter period, we're all world champions, we're all best friends, and then we have the first qualifying session and we're back to reality. Now, it's the start of the season, and we have to be focused.

Q: Thank you for that. Andy, we'll come to you. Very different conditions here at Albert Park compared to Bahrain a couple of weeks ago. How is the car performing here, and what's your potential for the rest of the weekend?
Andy Cowell: Yeah, Bahrain provided a good backdrop for doing lots of experiments, although the weather got in the way a little bit. We've crunched all the data, worked out the best set-up for this track, but again, this morning, we were doing a few experiments across the cars. We managed to run both tyre compounds. I guess everybody lost a little bit of track time because of the red flags. Just trying to get ourselves ready for qualifying and the race.

Q: Let's talk about something that's just happening at Silverstone. The new wind tunnel is now online. Tell us about the advantages it gives you that you weren't getting using the Mercedes tunnel before.
AC: Yeah, it's been a big project with lots of people working on it, so it's great to see it finally come online as our nominated wind tunnel for development work. It's got some great technology, great technology in the measurement systems and within the model that goes in the tunnel. Having everything in one location... The aerodynamicists don't even need to put a coat on to go to the wind tunnel now! Before, it was about loading the model into a van, driving it down a bumpy dual carriageway, and hoping it was still in the same condition at the other end. From an efficiency, but, the challenge everybody has of trying to understand what goes on with the aerodynamics on track, compared with the wind tunnel, compared with CFD - those three worlds that the aerodynamicists battle with, we believe this new wind tunnel gives us greater understanding and greater mechanisms for understanding the flow physics and the streams going over the car.

Q: Final one from me. What was Adrian Newey's reaction when he saw it for the first time?
AC: Yeah, we went for a wander, without needing to put our coats on,. into the wind tunnel, and it was great to see him stood in the section, having a look at it, the technology and the model and the measurement equipment. But then he was very quickly back in the engineering office, looking at the 2026 regulations and working out the compromises needed to create a fast race car under the new rules.

Questions From The Floor

Q: (Ian Parkes - Racing News 365) Question for you, Fred. Charles Leclerc yesterday described it as his obsession to become a Formula 1 World Champion. Do you understand that desire within him? And do you feel this might be his best chance this season to address that obsession?
FV: I'm not sure 'obsession' is the right word, but for sure, when you do this job, that is racing, he started when he was three years old, that was 23 years ago, he's spent his life on track, so for sure to have the goal, the target, or the dream to become World Champion is the normal approach. To know if it's for this season or not, I don't know. It's the same reply as before - we have to stay focused. He's putting everything into doing a good job this season, and I'm sure he'll continue to improve.

Q: (Oliver van Bronswijk - The Roar) James, just how positive is the feeling in the team? Spirits surely must be high considering Carlos's integration into the team and the pace shown, no matter how early it is.
JV: Yeah, you summarised it well. It's a team that's been through so much pain, and when I joined a few years ago, you could feel it. I know I'm a man of science, but you really could feel this sort of difficult period that the team had been through. That's not the case now. One item we didn't talk about in there is our future. It's great what's going on now. This is what I would call the most low-hanging fruit that we're picking up on. There are some great things happening back in Grove and there will be more coming online over the next few years. You can see it in individuals, it's just building momentum and positive energy. What you see today is just a little bit of a fallout from that. As Fred described, this is FP1. it's great, nice to see, but it's FP1. Let's wait until qualifying, the race, and a few races in. That's also why I'll bring everyone to our future and the destination we're going towards.

Q: (Scott Mitchell-Malm - The Race) James, Alex said yesterday that the simulations showed the car was going to be a decent step faster, but when it actually ran in Bahrain, it seemed to invite more confidence from the drivers than last year's car. Does that imply the car is maybe even faster than expected? And are those gains in any way related to the updated Mercedes suspension you've been able to adopt this year?
JV: First of all, I think we need to reassess where the car has moved to, based on a few things, but it's about where we expected it to be. What Alex was talking about is that from a driving perspective, it gives them a lot more confidence than last year's car. Formula 1 is a strange business, there's no silver bullet, no one thing that suddenly switches a car on and makes it better. So, the Mercedes rear suspension helps a tiny bit, but what we've done over the last few years - developing our tools and systems to produce better vehicle dynamics, better aero, and a better way of combining the car together - is all coming together now. That's what makes the package better. It's really not one area; it's a combination of a team that's starting to get stronger by working together.

Q: (Ben Waterworth - The Roar) Fred, how impressed have you been with Lewis fitting in with everything that comes with being a Ferrari driver? He seems to be really relishing it. And how good does he look in red?
FV: We had two months of marketing - it was a huge wave at the beginning. The most important thing is to be able to turn the page and get back to business as usual, to do FP1, FP2. It's a long way. We have something like 150 sessions over the year, so this is just the beginning of the story, as James said before. We just have to focus on it and forget about the world around us and work as a team. But honestly, when he's in the briefing room, he's fully focused on the objective and he knows the job perfectly, and he has to build relationships with the team. That's not a long process, but it's a process we have to follow. We are on that path. We shouldn't expect too much from the first session - that's not the target. We know we have a long way to go, and honestly, we did a good step compared to last year and I have a good feeling.

Q: And does he look good in red?
FV: I saw a picture of Lewis in red last year in Abu Dhabi, so... yeah.

Q: Different shade of red.
FV: Yeah.

Check out our Friday gallery from Albert Park here.