17/11/2008
NEWS STORY
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Toro Rosso topped the timesheets at Barcelona today as testing for the 2009 season got underway, just two weeks after the 2008 season concluded in such dramatic style.
With a whole raft of changes being introduced next season, many of the cars looked entirely different to how they looked in Brazil, giving fans a first glimpse of what they can expect next year.
Among the changes in 2009 are the return of slick tyres, a heavily revised aero package and KERS, and while not all the (nine) teams present were running with all the various options it was clear that this is a test with 2009 very much in mind.
Today marked a sensational return to the F1 cockpit for Takuma Sato, who lost his drive with Super Aguri earlier this year when it withdrew from the championship after just four races. The Japanese driver is one of several keen to prove their worth in the weeks ahead and thereby hopefully secure a drive next season.
Sato and Sebastien Buemi, another hopeful for a Toro Rosso seat next season, both completed a high number of laps, making no mistakes, which is commendable, given that both of them only have limited experience of driving the STR3.
However, at the same time, the fact they finished the day fastest and second fastest means even less than usual. Testing times are always hard to evaluate, but today, there was a bigger discrepancy between the car configurations used by the teams and in the Faenza outfit's case the only concession to the new 2009 aerodynamic rules was to run with less downforce. Bridgestone brought its two hardest 2009 slicks and Sato and Buemi spent the entire day on the softer of the two.
According to the team, the results were "encouraging", with both drivers performing consistently, allowing the team to try various mechanical set up changes to see how they affected performance.
Buemi continues testing all day tomorrow, while Sato will run in the morning, before handing over to Sebastien Bourdais.
This week's test will see Honda run two programmes. Alex Wurz and Jenson Button will focus on the development of the 2009 car whilst the team is also evaluating Brazilians Lucas Di Grassi and Bruno Senna.
Wurz kicked off the main test programme evaluating various aerodynamic components for next season and running the Bridgestone Potenza slick tyres. Button will take over the car tomorrow to complete the final two days of the test.
di Grassi was the first of the young drivers to complete his half-day familiarisation programme this morning. He went out for an initial run on grooved tyres to acclimatise to the car before the team fitted used slicks for the remainder of the session. In the afternoon, Senna took to the track for his first ever drive in an F1. He followed the same programme as his fellow Brazilian, starting on grooved tyres before moving to used slick tyres midway through the session.
di Grassi will complete a full day of running tomorrow with Senna taking over the car on Wednesday.
McLaren had Pedro de la Rosa and Gary Paffett on duty, the Woking duo finishing fourth and fifth on the timesheets. Both drivers undertook used cars fitted with slicks and modified to simulate '09 levels of downforce. However, it was the Spaniard, the quicker of the two, who ran with KERS.
BMW, which had Robert Kubica and Christian Klien on duty, worked with two F1.08B interim cars featuring a modified 2008 chassis with some of the bodywork complying to the 2009 regulations. In addition, Klien's car was fitted with BMW's KERS device.
During the first of the three days in Barcelona the team's main goal was to collect data in preparation for next season. Both drivers tried different mechanical and aerodynamic solutions as well as sampling first impressions of the 2009 slick tyres.
"We are gaining more and more experience with the KERS system," said Klien, "but we still have a lot of work to do to fine-tune the system."
Tomorrow Kubica will again be at the wheel of the F1.08B, along with Nick Heidfeld. On Wednesday Heidfeld and Klien will conclude the test.
As part of the "thank you" from Red Bull for winning the World Rally Championship yet again, Sebastien Loeb was in action for the Austrian team. Having had a shakedown at Silverstone last week, the Frenchman had a better idea of what to expect today and produced an excellent performance throughout the day finishing seventh overall.
After spending most of the morning settling in and finding a good balance on the car, Loeb was put to more "serious" use in the afternoon, evaluating the slick tyres that will be used in 2009 and providing the team with data.
"I don't think I'd like to take this much horsepower into the forests!" joked the Frenchman. "It was a great experience and I had fun, although I have to say that driving one of these cars is tougher physically than driving my rally car. Towards the end of the day, I began to get a good feel for the car and enjoyed the sensation of it moving around on the track. I have to say that the level of grip in the high speed corners is very impressive."
Tomorrow, Sebastian Vettel takes over for the remaining two days of the test.
Renault was represented by Nelson Piquet and Giedo van der Garde, who was handed the test as part of his reward for winning the World Series by Renault title. The team spent the day running two R28s, working on 2009-type set-ups and evaluating the slick tyres.
Piquet clocked up 80 laps during a productive day, while the Dutch driver completed a further 32 laps during his afternoon run as he acclimatised to the R28 which he was sampling for the first time. The youngster adapted well to the team and its way of working, which should allow him to build on today’s technical programme when he gets another run in the car tomorrow morning.
Piquet will continue working with the team tomorrow and Wednesday, while Van der Garde will complete his test tomorrow morning.
“It was a constructive day," said Piquet, "although obviously we are right at the very start of winter testing and the cars will be very different next year. Still it’s nice to get a feel for how things are going to be with the sort of set-ups we will be running next year and with slick tyres. The car felt quite different today with these new settings, but the track conditions were good which helped us.”
“It was a great day," added Van der Garde, whose session came to an early end when he crashed out. "The last time I was in a Formula 1 car was over a year ago, so I had to get used to the speed of the car again. We improved every time we went out, working on getting a better set-up and hopefully we can continue like this tomorrow morning. It’s been nice to work with the team - they are a good bunch of people and I’m really enjoying the experience.”
“It’s nice to be back testing again," said Christian Silk. "Obviously with new rules coming into force next year, it’s going to be an interesting winter test period. We had a good first day of the programme with no major problems and we learnt what we needed to as we worked on 2009-type set-ups with slick tyres. Giedo had had a good first day with us: he has limited experience of Formula 1 and so it was a learning process, but it was a positive session and he worked well with the engineers. We’ll debrief with him tonight and give him another run out tomorrow morning.”
At Williams, Nico Hulkenberg was in action as the Grove outfit looks to improve on a relatively poor season. "Running the interim FW30, we concentrated on running slick tyres and testing the 2009 rear wing," said Test Team Manager, Dickie Stanford.
Luca Badoer and Marc Gene were on track for Ferrari, both men at the wheel of F2008s modified to give similar levels of aerodynamic downforce to that predicted to accommodate next year's technical regulations. Weights were added to Badoer's car to simulate the situation when KERS is used, which was only partially on the car today.
Both drivers worked on different programmes: Badoer began a lengthy engine and gearbox reliability programme, that took up the entire day, while also trying a few new components; Gene, who only had limited mileage available, concentrated on set-up work. Both were on slick tyres.
Ahead of its switch to Mercedes engines and McLaren technology next season, Force India continued with its Ferrari power-plants today, Tonio Liuzzi and Adrian Sutil finishing twelfth and thirteenth on the timesheets.
Other than the red flag which followed Van der Garde's crash, there were stoppages also when Kubica and Hulkenberg experienced technical problems.