14/01/2008
NEWS STORY
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Ferrari dominated the first day of testing today, as nine of the eleven teams that will contest the 2008 championship got their preparations underway in earnest.
Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa, who each had an F2008 at their disposal, topped the timesheets almost a second clear of the next quickest driver, Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel.
After heavy overnight rain, the test got underway in the wet, with several drivers opting not to run until conditions improved in the afternoon.
The Ferrari duo began work on the development of the F2008,completing a total of 102 trouble-free laps. Both continue here tomorrow.
Toro Rosso had Bourdais and Vettel on duty, the damp conditions meaning that both got to experience a Formula 1 car in the wet, without the aid of traction control and engine braking, for the first time. Other new elements on the car were also introduced for the first time to comply with 2008 technical regulations: gearbox components adapted to run for four race weekends and the cockpit modified to meet new safety standards. Evaluating all these elements will form the main part of the agenda for tomorrow.
Fourth and fifth quickest was the McLaren duo of Pedro de la Rosa and Heikki Kovalainen. Due to the conditions in the morning, the Woking team limited its programme in the morning to carrying out sign off tests on some of the new components on the Finn's car with the Spaniard not leaving the garage apart from his installation lap first thing. Once the track dried out in the afternoon the focus moved to longer runs, working on general set ups for the MP4-23. Lewis Hamilton will join Kovalainen tomorrow.
Rosberg and Nakajima were on duty for Williams, running in one of six liveries the team will run pre-season as the Grove outfit celebrates a number of landmarks in 2008. The German ended the day seventh quickest while his Japanese teammate could only manage twelfth, over 3s off the pace.
Toyota gave its new TF108 car its official testing debut following a successful roll-out here yesterday. Jarno Trulli completed 67 laps at the wheel of the TF108 during yesterday's trouble-free roll-out in ideal conditions but the new car's first full day of testing was hampered by this morning's conditions.
Trulli's task was to put as many laps as possible on the new car to test systems and begin to understand set-up changes while his new team-mate Timo Glock drove a modified version of the TF107, working on the new gearbox and standard ECU, as well as making some set-up comparisons.
Soon after lunch the German spun into the gravel at turn 8, damaging his front wing against the tyre barriers. But quick work by his crew saw him back in action after a short delay and he completed his programme with no further trouble. Trulli made good progress understanding the TF108 and, thanks to impressive reliability from the new car, he completed 87laps. Glock takes over at the wheel of the new car tomorrow, with Kamui Kobayashi alongside.
"Everything went smoothly today," said Trulli. "We were competitive all day, in the wet and in the dry. We pushed our performance forward and also gained more experience with this new car, which is very important and we are understanding more and more how it works. The roll-out yesterday was successful and we were able to complete a lot of laps without any trouble. The car seems to be running well and there are no major problems. I was happy to do so many laps with a new car today - it was a positive day."
"Today has been reasonable," added Glock. "I did quite a few laps in the TF107 and even though it is last year's car we can still get more information about the new gearbox and also how the car behaves without traction control, especially in the wet conditions this morning. We ran through our programme with no reliability problems but unfortunately I had a spin early in the afternoon when I touched the damp kerb and lost control which was a bit frustrating. I am excited by the chance to drive the new car tomorrow. The car has a totally new aerodynamic concept and so far everything has gone well with Jarno driving. Now I am really looking forward to getting the chance to drive the TF108 myself, it should be an interesting experience."
"We can be pleased with our progress so far with the TF108," said Pascal Vasselon. "The roll-out yesterday went well and we ran through several system checks with no significant problems. Today we started to look more at set-up and I believe we made a promising start but at this stage it is still too early to be comparing lap times. The main target today was to get information and data about the new car, how it behaves and how it reacts to changes, and we achieved that in both wet and dry conditions. Timo continued to drive the TF107 and he worked on refining the new gearbox and the standard ECU. He did some set-up work as well but the track conditions this morning did not help. In the afternoon we sent him out in challenging track conditions but this was a valuable learning opportunity now traction control has been outlawed. We are happy with our progress and looking forward to continuing the good work tomorrow."
Nelson Piquet Jr was in action for Renault, behind the wheel of the R27 and making his first appearance for the team as a race driver.
The programme for the young Brazilian involved set-up work to improve the behaviour of the car, although the damp conditions hindered the team's efforts for the first part of the day. In addition, the team carried out engine-mapping work to gain further understanding of the new electronic regulations.
At the end of the day, Piquet was happy to have returned to the cockpit after the winter break. At the end of the session he ended up with the ninth fastest time having completed 41 laps, totalling 182 kilometres.
"I would have certainly liked the chance to get more time in the car today," said the Brazilian, "but the conditions this morning were not ideal for either wet or dry tyres and so we had to wait for the weather to improve. I'm still happy to get back on track for the first time this year and get my preparations underway. I am aware that there are lots of things that need to be done, and there is a lot of hard work ahead, but that is why we are here."
"A good day for the team overall," added Christian Silk. "The programme for the coming weeks means that the team will be very busy, but that is necessary as we prepare for the arrival of the new car. Nelson was back behind the wheel today for the first time as a race driver, but the wet weather this morning reduced his running. But, the conditions improved throughout the day, and he did a good job which enabled us to complete the programme that we had planned. We have a good basis on which to build for the remaining two days of the test."
David Coulthard was Red Bull's sole representative, this week's test marking the swansong of the RBR3. The Austrian outfit's technical programme centred mainly on the continuation of validating engine and gearbox operation with this year's common ECU.
Mark Webber takes over in the cockpit tomorrow, before Coulthard gets to debut the team's new 2008 car on Wednesday.
Tonio Liuzzi completed his first official day of duty for the Force India team. After the wet start, the team - again running in its interim burgundy and white colour scheme - pushed on with its programme of getting to grips with the new 2008 electronic package. Liuzzi completed 47 laps, the small number a knock-on effect of the numerous red flag periods that punctuated the day. The Italian was also hampered by minor hydraulic issues in the morning and the afternoon's running, which again limited the mileage the team could achieve. His best lap was a 1:23.035, set in the afternoon.
Giancarlo Fisichella will take over from Liuzzi for tomorrow's running, with Adrian Sutil getting behind the wheel for the final day of testing on Wednesday.
"A reasonably productive day of testing," said Mike Gascoyne, "and good to shake out the cobwebs and start again in 2008. As the morning was wet we did some running in both wet and dry conditions, but we had a couple of hydraulic issues throughout the day that limited the lap count. Overall though a reasonably useful day and it was good to start working with Tonio, who did a very good job for the team."
"We have improved from the last test we did here," added Liuzzi, "and the car seemed to respond better than last time, so that was already better. It was quite a difficult day though as we had a few mechanical problems and we had to wait in the garage for a while, so we didn't put in too many laps, but the few laps we did I think were pretty positive. It was just unfortunate that the issues stopped us doing some more, but it is a three day test and we can look forward to some more development. We are going in the right direction and still have a lot of work to do."
It was a difficult day for Super Aguri. During the morning the team's schedule was to evaluate cooling options for the interim car to find the optimum solution. Unfortunately, an issue occurred and running was curtailed until the spare parts are available tomorrow to resume the planned testing programme. Consequently, Rossiter completed just 10 laps.
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