25/07/2008
NEWS STORY
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McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen topped the timesheets on the final day of testing at Jerez, the Finn posting the fastest time of the four-day test.
As was the case for all three previous days of the test, conditions were idea, though extremely hot, with the air temperature reaching 32 degrees C and the track temperature hitting 45 degrees.
With Gary Paffett and Pedro de la Rosa running on the previous days, today was Kovalainen's first run in the car this week. The Finn continued the evaluation of the aero development work begun by de la Rosa on Thursday, which saw the car running with the 'rabbit ears' once again. According to the Woking outfit, the test's aero and set-up modifications have both proved extremely positive".
Kovalainen set his best time around ninety minutes into the session, when conditions were cooler. The team has yet to decide whether the 'ears' will be used in Hungary, which is a high downforce circuit.
In the morning, Sebastien Bourdais worked on the evaluation of Spa-spec rear wings, as well as general set-up, while in the afternoon, he switched to the 2009 slick tyres. Bourdais completed 113 laps on his way to posting the second best time of the day.
"The day went quite well," said the Frenchman. "Running the '09 tyres was very interesting, even if a combination of a very abrasive track surface and a 50 degree track temperature, meant they did not last very long! We have also come up with some useful data for Hungary and to be honest that's the most important thing about this test, as 2009 is still a long way away."
After Sebastien Buemi and Mark Webber, it was David Coulthard's turn to strap himself into the cockpit of the Red Bull RB4 for the final day. While the programme earlier in the week included long term development and assessment of the 2009 slick tyres, the Scot focused exclusively on the forthcoming races of this season, only running this year's tyres to end up third quickest on the day.
For Renault, Romain Grosjean, completed 90 laps on his way to posting the fourth best time of the day. Having tested slicks yesterday, the French team was back on grooved tyres today to complete its development programme. That involved continuing with the suspension work the team had started earlier in the week and trying to improve the behaviour of the car in the high temperatures. Grosjean continued to build his relationship with the team, working closely with the engineers and showing good consistency.
"I had a better day today as I already knew the track and I am beginning to feel more comfortable with the car," said the French youngster. "We had a really good morning when conditions were cooler, covering lots of laps and doing some long runs, and we managed to find a good balance with the car. In the afternoon we tried out a few more things with the set-up and tried to make the car more consistent in the high temperatures. So it was another good experience for me and nice to work with the team again."
"It was a good day with Romain," added Christian Silk, "he settled into the programme quite quickly. He was giving good feedback to the engineers and showed consistency on the long runs this morning. So it was another encouraging day with him. We did some work for the forthcoming races with the set-up of the car and also continued evaluating the suspension developments, which have given some interesting results that we will analyse back at the factory."
Felipe Massa was on duty for Ferrari, the Brazilian working on various different set-up options on the car and on development of new solutions aimed at the Budapest and Valencia races, this included a 'dorsal fin' engine cover (above) as tried by most other teams at some point this season.
"I am pleased with the way the day went," said the Brazilian, before leaving the circuit. "We saw some things which should be interesting for the up coming races and we carried out an intensive investigation on the set-up of the car. There is so much data at our disposal that will help us be as well prepared as possible for Hungary. The fight for the title is still very open and we will leave nothing to chance in pursuing our objectives."
Sixth quickest, finishing ahead of BMW and Toyota was Kazuki Nakajima in the Williams. The Japanese youngster completed 100 laps on his way to posting a best time of 1:19.724.
"Over the four days, the team completed some extensive testing on the latest generation of slick tyres adding to the knowledge base required to optimise the cars for the new regulations in 2009," said Chief Operations Engineer, Rod Nelson. "Back on this year's grooved rubber, we did some work on systems and set-ups in preparation for next weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix where we expect similar weather."
At BMW, Nick Heidfeld worked on the aerodynamic and mechanical setup of the F1.08. The team evaluated different setup solutions with regards the upcoming Hungarian Grand Prix, which is usually run in similarly hot weather conditions. In the morning, Heidfeld made a precautionary stop on track when one of the car's sensors failed. Once the mechanics had changed the sensor the team could resume the testing programme as scheduled.
For Force India, Adrian Sutil completed 72 laps as work continued on the new seamless shift gearbox and development of the 2009 slick tyres. Aside from a minor mechanical issue that caused downtime over the lunchtime period, the programme went to plan, with the German posting a best lap time of 1:19.965.
"Today was quite a good day," said Sutil. "This morning I was very happy with the balance of the car and enjoyed testing the seamless shift box for the first time. We had a few small problems towards the middle of the day, but overall it felt good and it seemed like a step forward. When we got going again in the afternoon, we tried the slick tyres and, although I enjoyed trying them out again, we couldn't seem to get a good balance with them. There's quite a lot of work still to do before 2009, but then we still have time to get it right."
"We got off to a good start this morning," added Dominic Harlow, "with Adrian very quickly getting used to the seamless shift gearbox. After some running however a minor mechanical issue caused some downtime, but with two good days and over 800km running beforehand, it was not a major problem for us as that is what testing is about. In the afternoon we again tested the 2009 development tyres, allowing Adrian to get some more experience of driving on slicks. Overall it's been a good test with more than 1,000km over the three days and we feel well prepared for Hungary."
Jenson Button was in action for Honda, his schedule for the day being the completion of the rear suspension and aerodynamic evaluations, alongside brake and set-up analysis.
"We ran the car with our latest aero and suspension developments today to complete the evaluations which have been ongoing all week," said the Englishman. "The new parts have made a small but tangible improvement to the stability of the car, which is particularly evident over longer runs, so it has been a positive day. It will be interesting to see how this translates over the race weekend in Hungary."
Third driver Kamui Kobayashi was in the cockpit at Toyota, continuing the work begun by Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock earlier in the week. The Japanese youngster spent the morning preparing for the coming race at the Hungaroring. He carried out further aero comparisons as track temperatures soared in the afternoon before a late run on the 2009 slicks.
"That was a busy day of testing for us and it went well," said Kobayashi. "We spent most of the day working towards the race in Budapest next week and we made good progress. Late on we switched our attentions to Bridgestone's slick tyres for 2009. The track obviously changes quite a lot during the day here, becoming more difficult for testing in the heat of the afternoon, but we weren't looking for lap times. We had a lot of different aero parts to try, we completed our programme and we collected some useful data."
"This has been another positive week of testing here," added Gerd Pfeiffer. "It is of course helpful to have stable weather, even if the extreme heat means we have pushed to maximise our running time in the morning sessions. Today Kamui did further work on aerodynamics for the Hungarian Grand Prix and a run on next year's slick tyres. We made it through a lot of useful work with no major issues. Now we will push for a strong result next week in Budapest."
With the summer testing ban now in force, the teams will not test again until August 27, when all ten teams begin a three-day programme at Monza.