01/03/2007
NEWS STORY
For the third successive day, Felipe Massa topped the timesheets as Sakhir. And as pre-season, at least as far as the majority of teams are concerned, came to a close, the Brazilian signed off in style, posting the fastest lap of the year at the Bahrain track.
Massa and Kimi Raikkonen both ran with a new 056 engine today, completing all the F2007 development programme which the Italian team had defined prior to arriving in Bahrain.
The Brazilian finished his work before the lunch break, which meant that, in the final part of the day, his teammate was able to go back to using the aerodynamic package that he first tried on Tuesday. Both drivers worked mainly on finding the best set-up for the car.
With its Winter testing programme now at an end, Ferrari will now concentrate on the trip to Australia. On Thursday March 8 at Fiorano, Luca Badoer will carry out a shakedown of the cars that will take part in the first Grand Prix of the season.
Having previously opted for reliability as opposed to pace, today Renault proved that it too can bang in fast lap times when needed, with Heikki Kovalainen and Giancarlo Fisichella finishing second and third quickest, thus setting up the prospect of a real battle in Melbourne.
The World Championship winning team concluded its final test of the 2007 pre-season, with both race drivers running through the day and completing their planned work in spite of the numerous red flags.
Fisichella completed the set-up work that has been his primary focus this week, as well as practicing race weekend procedures ahead of the season opener in two weeks' time. A mechanical problem in the middle of the day cost him track time, but the parts involved had exceeded their target mileage when they failed. Overall, the Italian enjoyed a positive day, and was encouraged by the performance of the R27.
Kovalainen also worked hard to complete his planned programme for the week. Completing his sixth day of running in eight days at Sakhir, the Finn continued to accumulate mileage ahead of his Grand Prix debut in Melbourne, while simultaneously fine-tuning preparations for the third race of the season at the Bahraini circuit. The Finn also demonstrated a strong level of performance in spite of interruptions owing to mechanical difficulties, and he rounded off his pre-season preparations with second-fastest time.
"We concentrated on practicing procedures this morning," said Christian Silk, "which was handled without any major problems. Then continued working on set-up testing with both cars.
"Heikki and Giancarlo experienced some mechanical problems in the middle part of the day," he admitted, "but the team worked hard to fix them and make the most of the remaining track time. We have concluded our pre-season test programme on an encouraging note. Both drivers completed their programmes, and demonstrated promising performance. It has been a long, demanding winter for the whole team, and we are now looking forward to see how the R27 performs in race conditions. We have a competitive package, and we are feeling confident, but we will be working hard through the rest of the season to develop and improve the car."
Renault will pursue its on-track development at the next test, in Sepang, from 27 to 29 March. For logistical reasons, this test will be conducted by the race team. The team will run a single car, in line with the 2007 test agreement.
McLaren had its two Spanish drivers on duty, with Fernando Alonso joining Pedro de la Rosa as the Woking team continued its preparatory work for Melbourne, working through the test plan of aero development, Bridgestone Potenza evaluation and set-up programmes.
For Honda, Jenson Button began with race start and qualifying simulations before completing aero and electronic controls systems work. Meanwhile, Rubens Barrichello continued to work on general set-up aimed at improving the car's performance over short and long runs. The Brazilian spent the afternoon completing long tyre runs on the different Bridgestone compounds available.
"We can now look forward to the first Grand Prix in Melbourne," said the Englishman. "The car has proved reliable throughout pre-season testing and we have made improvements since the RA107 ran for the first time in January. However, we still have some work to do off-track to ensure we can get the most from our package in the first few races."
"The test has gone well," added Barrichello, "although we had a much better day today than yesterday. I have been able to complete some good long
distance running with the car and the reliability is there, which is positive. It is difficult to predict where we are in relation to the other teams, and although I am comfortable with our results, we do still have some development work to achieve. I am really looking forward to the start of the season as I feel very much at home with the team and the car this year and I think we can do a good job together."
As on previous days, most of the fastest laps were posted in the morning, and much like yesterday, at the lunch-break a Toro Rosso was in the top ten, with Scott Speed in seventh. By the end of the day, the American had slipped to eighth, 1.511s off the pace. However, with a further 125 laps under its belt, the STR2 is giving the team something to smile about.
"Last week was a shakedown for us really," said Chief Engineer Laurent Mekies, "and every day, more and more parts have arrived here from the factory, which have helped us to improve reliability and performance,"
"It really kept our guys busy and they worked very hard," he added. "Looking at today's performance especially, with a respectable lap time and 125 laps, it is clear we are working in the right direction, even if there is a lot to do."
The Italian team now heads back to Europe and the second chassis will get its shakedown at Mugello next week, before setting sail for Melbourne.
David Coulthard was the quicker of the two Red Bull drivers on duty, the Scot outpacing teammate Mark Webber 0.25s.
The Austrian team's final day in Bahrain ended with signs of progress as Webber completed a race simulation and Coulthard also did several long runs.
"This has been a very useful six days here," said Christian Horner, "during which time we have been able to see how the car responds in the conditions we faced out here, while also fine tuning our race preparation work for Australia,"
"The test has not been trouble free and a few elements still need fixing," he admitted, "but we have made some progress. Next week, we will run at Magny-Cours for two days when, as planned, the RB3 will run with the new aerodynamic package that will be used in the first race in Melbourne."
BMW has not shown the same sort of pace this week as witnessed during the first week at Sakhir. Today, both drivers were over 1.7s off the pace.
Despite the lack of pace, on its final day of pre-season testing the German team enjoyed a trouble free and productive morning session in which Nick Heidfeld carried out an aero programme, damper and set-up tests. Robert Kubica focussed on long runs, cooling option tests and some aero testing.
In the afternoon, the Pole continued to do long runs while his German teammate worked on set-up testing. Since January the team has clocked up 11,680 test kilometres with the F1.07.
"We are pleased with the pre-season testing programme," said Technical director, Willy Rampf. "The double test in Bahrain was particularly important because of the consistent weather conditions. We were able to confirm the cooling system and to test the tyre characteristics in high track temperatures and test the entire car under conditions which will be similar to those we expect for the first three races. Last week's race simulation, which was trouble free with both cars, brought positive results as well. By being careful to prepare in every detail we hope to be able to show the same reliability in Melbourne as well."
Ralf Schumacher was in the driving seat for Toyota, Franck Montagny replacing Jarno Trulli. Both drivers concentrated on different set-ups as preparations for the first race of the season. The German spun harmlessly in the morning and lost a little time in the afternoon with a gearbox control issue while Montagny's trouble-free day meant he brought in useful information after completing more than two Grand Prix distances while trying various set-up and differential options.
The Japanese team now moves to Jerez next week for its final test before the start of the season.
"Today Franck had a productive day," said Pascal Vasselon, "and he was able to put a lot of laps on the car. He carried out the programme of long runs as planned and we are pleased with what he achieved.
"Ralf's day was disrupted by a few issues unfortunately. For sure his programme did not go as expected and we were not able to do all the work we had planned on his car, but we still have one test remaining before the season starts so we will push hard to arrive well prepared for the Australian Grand Prix."
"Today we saw some improvement in the car which is positive," said Schumacher. "I had a bit of trouble in the morning when I spun but I was still able to do a lot of laps and that gave us the chance to do quite a bit of work on the last day here. It has been a pretty successful test. We looked at a few different areas and I think we have made some important steps forward. Obviously we have some issues to sort out but we will work hard at that next week and then off we go to lovely Melbourne."
"It was quite a good day," added Montagny. "I did over 120 laps so once again we have put a lot of miles on the car which is good news. We have some little things to work on but more or less we are doing well. We were concentrating on long runs which I did more or less all day, without trying any qualifying runs. We have found some really interesting information and we looked quite competitive on long runs.
"I think we were able to lap as fast as many of our rivals so that looks promising," he added. "The next thing to work on will be qualifying speed but I am sure we will get there. Also, I would like to say my mechanics and all the team did an outstanding job during these 10 days. It has not been easy but everyone worked hard and kept their focus which is important."
Propping up the timesheets was Takuma Sato in the Super Aguri, who brought the Japanese team's session to a premature close when he damaged the monocoque on one the unforgiving Sakhir kerbs.
"With this being our final test prior to the first 2007 race it was important to ensure that Takuma enjoyed the balance of his car and his engineers understand how to maximise the benefit of the Bridgestone Potenza tyre," said sporting Director, Graham Taylor. "I am satisfied that this was achieved. Additionally a number of aero developments were analysed prior to the launch of our 2007 car."
"It was another productive test for us," added Sato. "We tried various set-ups and made good progress and improvements. The first 2 days here were quite windy, so it was difficult to do our planned aero tests. But this morning the conditions improved and we were able to complete a lot of aero work and collected a lot of data for our Melbourne package. We still have a lot of work to do, but we have completed some good preparation work and have a good understanding of the Bridgestone Potenza tyres."