19/02/2009
NEWS STORY
Felipe Massa was quickest on the final day of testing at the Bahrain International Circuit, however, once again the session was not without problems for the Maranello team.
After eight days of testing - six if you allow for sandstorms, plagues of locusts and boils etc - it was the 2008 World Championship runner-up who brought the Maranello outfit's trip to the desert to a conclusion.
Today, the Brazilian worked various set-up options on the Ferrari F60, experimenting with several aerodynamic solutions, as well as continuing with reliability work on both the engine and gearbox.
Apart from a few minor glitches, the most serious problem occurred at the start of the day when a faulty cable left Massa stranded at the side of the track. However, the bulk of the planned workload was completed.
"Today was a good day," said the Brazilian, "apart from some minor problems, which held us up a bit. We have to work on that to avoid that they come back. And the strong wind bothered us a bit.
"We drove many kilometres to improve the car and I think that we're heading in the right direction," he continued. "We've seen during these days that there's a great balance, not just between the three teams on this track, but also with the others. We're at the start of the season and now we have to wait and see who will take the biggest step until the first race starts. We'll know much more at Melbourne.
"It was a pity that we lost almost two entire days here last week because of the sandstorm. But I think that all in all we were able to make up the lost time. I'm convinced that the decision to come to Bahrain for this long test session was very good."
Other than mechanical problems, Massa - and his fellow drivers - had to deal with the numerous stray dogs that seem to be attracted to the circuit. In the afternoon a couple of dogs went out on the track, one of them (left) having made a nuisance of himself on Wednesday. However, there was no need for red flags, instead the marshals warned the drivers with yellow flags advising them to pay attention so the session was not needlessly interrupted.
For BMW, Nick Heidfeld worked on the set-up of the F1.09, concentrating on suspension and aerodynamics. The German also did a number of practice starts and ended the day with long runs, pushing the total mileage for the eight days of testing up to 3,695 km. His work was interrupted twice due to mechanical problems.
"Today the track conditions were the best they have been all week," said Heidfeld. "We could already try a couple of improvements. The car reacts to changes as planned, so I'm confident we are working in the right direction."
"Although we lost some time due to a sandstorm last week, the long test in Bahrain was very productive," added Willy Rampf. "We could work with the cars in temperatures we would not have encountered in Europe at this time of the year, making it good preparation for the first races of the upcoming season. We worked mainly on the general set-up of the BMW Sauber F1.09, trying numerous solutions on the mechanical and aero side of the car as well as gaining experience with the three available tyre compounds. We also made good progress with KERS. Overall we reached our target of collecting as much data as possible about the car's reactions to changes in the set-up."
Despite the good weather it was a difficult day for Timo Glock, who continued his work on set-up on the TF109. After a week of near-perfect reliability the test was disrupted early on by a problem with the hydraulics system. Nonetheless, according to the Cologne-based outfit it has been a positive week and the high mileage has made up for the time lost to last week's sandstorm.
"It was a pity that our last day of work here was disrupted," said Glock, "but this has still been a very successful test for us. Today we missed much of the day's action due to a hydraulics problem so it was a shame to lose running time. But the mechanics did a good job and when we made it onto the track we put in some useful work. Overall we have put a lot of miles on the TF109 this week. We've made good progress with set-up and I'm confident that this can continue."
"This was a difficult end to what has otherwise been an excellent week's work," added Pascal Vasselon, Senior General Manager. "This morning we suffered from hydraulic oil contamination and it took time to find out which component was causing the problem. Nonetheless this test has gone extremely efficiently. The weather has been good despite the wind and the sand and we have been able to use the full mileage on the parts that we brought to Bahrain. That shows we have good reliability and we can approach the start of the season with a very good database. We are starting to get a clear idea of what these new regulations mean for set-up and the performance has been promising. So we are pleased with how these two weeks have gone."
All three teams are in action again at Jerez from March 1, when they will be joined by the majority of their rivals, for the first real head-to-head of 2009.