13/02/2007
NEWS STORY
 |
If today's times were anything to go by, which they are probably not, we might just be getting the merest glimpse of how the opening stages of the World Championship might play out.
Yes, there are still many variables, but based on today's times, the laps covered and performance we can begin to see a basic order forming.
Clearly, it's McLaren, Ferrari and Renault at the front, ahead of BMW and Williams... the rest is anyone's guess.
Although slightly chilly early on, things soon warmed up and despite a fairly strong breeze, conditions were ideal.
Setting the pace today were the Ferrari's of Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen, between them the Maranello cars covered 262 laps, with no hint of the problems encountered yesterday.
Thanks to the weather and the F2007's reliability the day went smoothly and the planned programme was completed, with both drivers completing a number of long runs.
Third quickest was Renault's Heikki Kovalainen, who, like Raikkonen, was over 0.5s off Massa's pace. The French team enjoyed a productive session with both cars, and like Ferrari completed its entire planned programme without any problems.
Fisichella concentrated on a set- up programme during the day, in addition to completing tyre evaluation with Bridgestone. The Italian completed an impressive total of 131 laps to finish fifth fastest.
Across the garage, Kovalainen also concentrated on set-up development, as well as conducting initial evaluations of new aerodynamic components ahead of the forthcoming Bahrain tests. The Finn was pleased with his day's work after completing a total of 101 laps.
The programmes with both cars left the team both satisfied and encouraged at the end of the day. This data will be built upon during tomorrow's final day of testing at the Spanish circuit.
"We worked well today, completed lots of laps and didn't have any problems at all," said Fisichella. "In terms of performance, the times are clearly very close but we seem competitive. "It was a good day for us, and I hope we can achieve the same tomorrow."
"I managed to complete my programme today, and we achieved the team's objectives for the day," added Kovalainen. "We did lots of laps, collected plenty of data, and the overall result looks positive. We will be aiming for the same again tomorrow on our final day in Barcelona."
McLaren continued to work on set-up and aerodynamic development with Lewis Hamilton joining Fernando Alonso. The Englishman spent the afternoon conducting race simulation work, including pit stop practice, although his long runs were affected by a number of red flag stoppages.
It was a difficult day for BMW with both drivers use of the recovery vehicle making it look as though the Catalunya service was providing an exclusive taxi service for the German team.
Though the team described it as a "problem day", Robert Kubica's comment to Pitpass that they are "big problems" should be taken with a pinch of salt, after all, the Pole was laughing at the time. Or was he?
Kubica worked on dampers while Nick Heidfeld focussed on set-ups in the morning and then aero during the rest of the day. However, an engine problem for the Pole, and an unspecified problem for his teammate meant that neither car was running when the temperatures went up several degrees.
Toyota, which was represented by Jarno Trulli and Ricardo Zonta, had a fruitful day and both drivers completed around 100 laps. Trulli missed out on some of the morning session due to an electronics problem but otherwise both drivers were able to carry out a lot of work on systems and set-up. Montagny completed a good analysis of the Bridgestone tyres and he will stay at the wheel for tomorrow's final day alongside Ralf Schumacher.
"That was a reasonably good day," said Trulli, "putting more mileage on the gearbox and engine and starting work on set-up. We had one stoppage for an electronics problem so we missed some running in the morning but we had a better afternoon, putting in a few long runs.
"The team has been working hard all winter," he added, "but so far we haven't been very lucky and I haven't had a completely clear day of running. We performed well here but there is still work to do. We should begin to get a clearer picture of where we stand during the next two tests in Bahrain. Hopefully the weather will be better because what I really need is a full day of running with no interruptions to get to grips with the car's set-up."
"In order to try and understand the tyres completely we worked hard on the car set-up," admitted Montagny. "We looked at front and rear braking, degradation and how best to make these tyres work on the first lap. That was successful and we now have a good feeling about this type of rubber. This afternoon we continued to work on different car settings, trying out different parameters like tyre pressure and damping. It was also important to put some miles on the car and to understand any mechanical issues we may face."
"We made it through a lot of laps so that was a fairly productive day for us," said Dieter Gass. "Jarno lost some time this morning with an electronics problem but his afternoon's work was more successful. He was mainly doing set-up work and putting mileage on the car's systems. Franck started the morning with some long runs and we were able to collect some good data from that. He was able to keep running for most of the day doing work on set-up and the Bridgestone tyres. Like most teams we have been struggling a bit with rear end stability but in general the tyres are consistent."
A slightly tougher day for Williams, with both Rosberg and Wurz finishing over a second off the pace. The German only completed 10 laps, however, his Austrian teammate completed 56.
That said, Test Team Manager Mike Condliffe seemed satisfied with the day's resul;ts: "The work we did today was conclusive," he said, "which is always helpful in finding the right direction to make adjustments."
Honda continues to disappoint and it is hoped that in the run up to Melbourne in addition to launching a new livery the team can find some pace.
Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello concentrated on chassis set-up and aero evaluations, completing 91 laps and 87 laps respectively.
The Red Bulls, driven by Mark Webber and David Coulthard, were both over 1.7s off the pace, and the long faces in the garage suggest that there remains a lot of work to be done.
Anthony Davidson continued his planned testing programme for Super Aguri, focussing on set-up analysis. He was due to complete a targeted race distance, however a delay in the morning caused by numerous red flags interrupted his running. Nonetheless, the team was able to execute a number of pit-stop simulations.
Takuma Sato will conclude the Japanese team's programme tomorrow.
Christijan Albers took over driving duties from Adrian Sutil for Spyker, the Dutch driver completing 110 laps with a best time of 1:24.425.
Albers and the team focussed on putting in longer runs and accumulating data on the performance of the new Bridgestone Potenza tyres.
Chief technical officer, Mike Gascoyne, commented, "Our second day of testing was largely very productive. It was Christijan's first day this test, so the day was mainly spent getting him acclimatised to the car and the Bridgestone tyres. We also made some set-up changes and concentrated on working with the tyres over some longer runs. Again, we had excellent mechanical reliability and no real problems whatsoever, and now we've got a handle on how the tyres are working, we can continue with Christijan to learn about the car and get some more performance."
Albers added, "I think we had a good day. For the first time in months I was able to do over 100 laps so I was really happy. We worked hard with a lot of things to make the car quicker - it's not easy, but we're doing our best and did a reasonable time. Over the day track conditions changed a lot, particularly in the afternoon, and we saw that almost nobody was able to do a quicker time later. We'll continue our programme tomorrow and try some more set-up options, but you can't take away the amount of laps we did with no major problems."
Albers will continue the team's test programme tomorrow in Barcelona, the final day of the three-day test.
To check out our pictures from today's testing, click here
To check out our pictures from today's testing, click here