10/07/2008
NEWS STORY
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Ferrari's Felipe Massa was the quickest driver on the final day of testing at Hockenheim, as The Italian team brought to a close a development programme focussed on new mechanical and aerodynamic components for the F2008. The Brazilian also worked on finding the best set-up for the car for next weekend's German Grand Prix. The car ran trouble-free and Massa was able to complete the scheduled programme an hour before the track closed for the day.
"It was a good day's work," said the Brazilian. "We did a lot of kilometres and I have to say the car felt well balanced. This can only mean that we should also be competitive at this track, which is also the case for our main rivals."
While Massa was driving at Hockenheim, his team-mate was in Brussels, taking part in the European Youth Conference for Road Safety, which took place at the European Commission Headquarters in the Berlaymont Palace.
Second quickest, having set the pace for much of the day, was Honda's Jenson Button, as the Brackley outfit continued with its upgrade evaluation programme, together with simulated race starts and live refuelling where the team addressed the issues which created a problematic second pitstop for both drivers in last weekend's
race at Silverstone.
"My day was very productive," said the Englishman, "and we did a lot of useful aerodynamic work and long run comparisons with the different tyre compounds. The new parts we tested were positive and we achieved a lot during my 121 laps. As always we won't really know how much of an improvement the developments will bring until we are into the race weekend, but I'm looking forward to coming back here next week."
Third quickest was Heikki Kovalainen in the McLaren, as the Woking team continued development work of new aerodynamic and mechanical components and evaluated a number of different race set-ups ahead of the Grand Prix. The Finn completed 123 laps on the way to posting a best time of 1:15.289, 0.300s off Massa's pace.
Mark Webber continued for Red Bull, having taken over from David Coulthard yesterday lunchtime. The programme centred on preparation for the Grand Prix, evaluating various set-ups and carrying out tyre comparison work.
"We ran reliably which was a good thing because it meant we got through a lot of work," said Webber. "It's been hard work, but productive. Now we have plenty of data to study for the next race, which I think will be as close as ever, but we will of course be trying to repeat the form we showed on Friday and Saturday at the British Grand Prix."
Toro Rosso had to end today's session early, but it was for the positive reason that having run pretty much trouble-free for the past three days, the engine in the car had reached its mileage limit. Sebastian Vettel had a full day at the wheel, continuing with preparation work for the Grand Prix. He evaluated various mechanical and aero set-ups, did long runs to compare the tyre types and also did some work aimed at improving brake performance.
"We had three good test days here in Hockenheim, managing to do a lot of laps," said team principal Franz Tost. "I think we have found quite a good set-up and have a good understanding of the differences between the Bridgestone prime and option choices we will have next week. This means we should have a good baseline from which to start the test session next Friday morning here, and we are looking forward to the German Grand Prix."
At Renault, Fernando Alonso remained in the R28 for his second day of work and benefited from the near perfect weather conditions, with temperatures reaching 30 degrees C. The team made the most of the warm and sunny weather to complete a total of 115 laps.
Having completed a successful R&D programme yesterday, the French outfit shifted its attention today to working on improving the set-up of the R28, tyre evaluation and general race preparation.
"Another busy day, covering lots of laps and getting more data, which will be useful for the race next week," said Alonso. "It was quite nice to drive with the warmer temperatures because I think it is more representative of what we will have over the race weekend. We were certainly more competitive today, so it is clear that we have improved the car and that we are going in the right direction, but we still have some further ideas to explore over the race weekend."
"We concentrated on race preparation work today," added Christian silk, "did some tyre evaluation, and completed the rest of our programme. The car was working reasonably well and so overall we are quite happy with the week's work and looking forward to the race here. It was good to run in the warm temperatures today because they are more typical of what we can expect next week."
Kazuki Nakajima took over from Nico Rosberg for Williams, the Japanese driver completing 118 laps on his was to posting the seventh best time, 0.770s off Massa's pace.
Robert Kubica tested various set-up solutions not only for the upcoming German Grand Prix but for future races as well. Opting not to concentrate on a single fast lap time he completed 490 kms while collecting valuable data on the two tyre compounds nominated for the forthcoming Grand Prix.
In the perfect weather conditions Kubica also took the opportunity - given to all the teams by the Hockenheim organisers - to conduct test starts on the main straight during the lunch-break.
Jarno Trulli took over from Timo Glock to conclude Toyota's three-day programme. Like Glock on Wednesday, the Italian used a 'dorsal fin' engine cover for his installation lap to test the stability of the configuration but then reverted to a standard engine cover as a base for the day's testing. Trulli focused on the upcoming Grand Prix, working on different aerodynamic set-ups as well as getting experience of the medium and hard tyres.
"We concentrated mainly on aerodynamic experimentation and also did some brake and tyre comparisons," said the Italian. "I got through a busy schedule and did more laps than anyone today. It will give us a lot of data to maximise the car set-up at next week's German Grand Prix. There were no mechanical issues, we completed what we needed to do and I'm happy."
"It has been a busy and varied three days with Kamui in the car on the opening day, followed by Timo and then Jarno," added Gerd Pfeiffer. "We have done a lot of aerodynamic and brake work as well as evaluating the Bridgestone compounds that will be available to us next week in quite varying conditions. We have a lot of data to work through in Cologne and I want to thank everyone for their efforts."
For force India, Giancarlo Fisichella took over for the final day from Adrian Sutil. Following on from his German teammate's progress over the past two days, Fisichella worked on aero development, tyre comparisons and establishing a set-up for the Grand Prix.
Although the Italian's quickest lap was just one second slower than the day's fastest time, he completed just 74 laps over the day. The programme was curtailed in the morning following a fuel system failure at around 10:30, and then a heavy impact in the afternoon. Both caused some down time, however the team was able to complete the overall test programme.
"It was a bit frustrating we could not do more running," admitted the Italian. "In the morning we had the technical problem and had to stop for some time, then in the afternoon I had an accident. The rear of the car went away and I just lost control through the stadium complex. The car went across the road and there's not much run off area there so I went into the wall. I'm fine, but the car was quite badly damaged. The guys did a good job to get it out again for the last 30 minutes. Overall we are making some small improvements and moving forward. We will have to see how they work next weekend."
"We had much better weather today, which was more representative of the conditions we are likely to see in the race next week," added Dominic Harlow. "The programme focussed on testing some aero development items, brakes and tyre comparisons and, despite the downtime, we were able to complete the test objectives. The two issues we had did not cause us too many problems; we had a fuel system failure in the morning and then the repairs following Giancarlo's accident took a couple of hours, but our programme was completed as part of preparations for the race here."