21/02/2008
NEWS STORY
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Kazuki Nakajima set the pace on what, for most teams, is the final day of testing at Barcelona this week.
After two days of difficult weather conditions, things were much improved today, with drivers able to post some competitive times. Although the session got underway with the track still damp from overnight rain, a dry line soon emerged, allowing the teams to begin their programmes in earnest.
Williams had three drivers on duty, with Nico Rosberg and Nico Hulkenberg in action this morning, before the former A1 GP star handed over to Nakajima in the afternoon. Between them, the Grove trio completed 195 laps, with Rosberg finishing the day fourth quickest, just 0.095s off his teammate's pace.
"We've had plenty of running in the wet this week and we looked pretty good, which was positive," said Rosberg. "It wasn't that easy to drive in the conditions, it's hard to keep the tyres in the working window, especially without traction control, so you're always quite on the limit. The last day was dry and so we managed to cover a lot of laps with no problems at all. Over the three days, we got some important reliability issues sorted out. We seem to be progressing well with the new car and I am happy with the improvements we're making.
"Initially it was a bit of a difficult test because of the weather," added Nakajima, "but it was good for me to get some experience in wet conditions. The car is feeling good, but we couldn't do as much work with it as we wanted to because of the bad weather. It was still a good week for us though overall."
"Although the first two days were wet, the final day was predominantly dry and that allowed us to work on chassis set-up," said Sam Michael. "All three drivers were on hand and the mileage they covered was important for us to get race signoff before the Australian Grand Prix."
After watching from the sidelines on Tuesday and Wednesday, McLaren finally opted to join in the fun today, as Heikki Kovalainen and Pedro de la Rosa got to work.
The Woking duo completed 156 laps in total, both drivers within 0.055s of Nakajima's pace-setting time. That said, Kovalainen experienced a couple of minor problems, stopping out on track twice, once on his installation lap. The main focus for the team today was aerodynamic development tests.
Once again, Felipe Massa and Luca Badoer were on duty for Ferrari, the Maranello outfit continuing with the development work it began yesterday, centred on reliability, electronics, set-up testing and development of new aerodynamic solutions. Between them, they completed almost 200 laps, the Brazilian finishing just 0.060s off Nakajima's pace.
The Italian team will be back in action tomorrow, the only team on duty here.
The damp start to the day allowed Red Bull to practice pit stops, while in the afternoon Mark Webber and David Coulthard were able to continue their Melbourne preparation work. The Australian was sidelined by a minor problem around midday, but was able to continue after a brief spell in the garage. That said, he encountered a further problem about an hour before the end of the session.
Coulthard completed his planned programme, which went very well, his only interruption being the red flag brought out when his team-mate stopped on track!
"This has been a very useful three days, despite the weather," commented Chief Test Engineer, Ian Morgan. "It was the first time this season that we have had the full race crew personnel all attending a test to operate as a team and, as such, it was excellent preparation for Melbourne."
Renault had Fernando Alonso and Nelson Piquet on duty once again. Having only completed limited running over the previous couple of days, both drivers were keen to run busy programmes. The Spaniard spent the day carrying out set-up work, while his teammate also completed a set-up programme in the morning and then simulated a race distance in the afternoon.
"We have been waiting for a long time to do some dry running," said Alonso, "and we made the most of it. The track conditions were not perfect, but they were good enough for what we wanted to test and they remained consistent for the whole day. We tested some small things with the car and I was happy with the performance and behaviour of the car. Now I'm looking forward to next week for our last three days here in Barcelona."
"Finally the weather improved," added Piquet, "and we were able to do a full day's work. The track conditions were reasonable, and we were able to learn some things about the performance of the car in the morning. We did long runs in the afternoon and simulated a race distance with pit stops, which went well and the car showed good consistency."
"The only day of dry running this week, so there was a big push to try and get as much done as possible," admitted Christian Silk. "We were reasonably happy with the balance of the car, and just a few small reliability issues. With Nelson our priority was to continue accumulating miles to get him settled in the car, and we continued with our usual set-up programme with Fernando. But overall a frustrating week due to the weather and hopefully we will have a better time next week."
For Toyota, Timo Glock spent the day working with the new package of aerodynamics, putting, while Kamui Kobayashi carried out work on the engine, cooling and set-up. There were no technical problems for the Japanese team, but Glock was one of just two drivers to bring out the red flags as the result of a spin - Massa being the other.
"We made it through a lot of aero work today," said the German, "so we collected good data for the guys back in the factory. There were a few red flags but I was happy with the car by the end of the running. Overall it's been a productive two days but we still have to work on the balance over long runs. It would help everybody if next week's test stays dry because it would be good to collect more information from consistent conditions before the first race."
"I had another quiet morning," added Kobayashi, "because the track was still damp and we wanted to wait for it to dry out before we used our mileage. We had a much busier afternoon of work on set-up and various systems including the engine and cooling. We completed the programme successfully and we collected some useful data as we look towards the last winter test, also at this circuit, next week."
"Finally we had a day of running in the dry," said Dieter Gass, "so we could at last begin meaningful work on our new aerodynamics package. It was still a difficult day because there were many disruptions for red flags. But on Timo's car we made it through the programme of work that we had pencilled in for the first day of this week's test. Kamui also made it through his programme and collected some useful data. We will now have to go back and analyse the findings in order to decide which direction to follow up next week. Both cars will have the new aero package so we will be able to make quicker progress. But the weather is still a question mark, with a mixture of sun and rain forecast."
While Ferrari is the only team testing here tomorrow, all the teams are back on duty again on Monday, the last major test before the season kicks off in Melbourne.