10/03/2009
NEWS STORY
Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen topped the timesheets on the second day of testing at the Circuit de Catalunya, even though a KERS related problem restricted the Italian team's running time.
The day started cloudy and the track was initially damp but the tarmac soon dried out and the sun came out shortly before lunchtime.
The Finn's planned programme consisted of a comparison of various set-up options at the start of the day, followed by a Grand Prix weekend simulation (qualifying and race.)
Unfortunately, the simulation came to a premature end, because of a problem with the KERS cooling system. Up to that point, the Finn had completed 55 laps, the quickest being a 1.20.314, which nevertheless turned out to be the fastest lap of the day.
"We had a problem with the KERS' cooling system and we preferred to stop and not risk greater damage," said Kimi, who will not drive the F60 in anger again until the Friday free practice session in Melbourne. "Until then everything went really well. I think that once we've resolved these small problems with the reliability, we can say that we've got a very good package available.
"Sure, I would have liked to make a second race simulation, after the one we've done at Bahrain in February," he admitted, "but it's better that some things happen during the tests and not at a GP."
Second quickest was Kazuki Nakajima who also had restricted track time. "We had some changes to make to the car over the course of the day so a bit of track time was lost in the garage making those revisions," admitted Dickie Stanford, "therefore we didn't get in as many laps as we'd have liked."
Third quickest was Rubens Barrichello, taking over testing responsibilities in the BGP 001 car from Jenson Button. Stepping back into an F1 car for the first time since the Brazilian Grand Prix, Barrichello began the day with an installation run to ensure he was comfortable with his position in the new chassis. Once achieved, the team's focus for the remainder of the day was to complete a series of long runs to enable the Brazilian to evaluate the balance of the car in race conditions.
Barrichello completed 111 laps over the day. Jenson Button will continue the programme tomorrow before his Brazilian teammate brings the test to a conclusion on Thursday.
"First of all I would like to thank everyone at Brackley for what has been achieved," said the Brazilian veteran. "After such a long wait for news on the team and for me to have to sit out the past four months, I am so pleased that we have a reliable and fast car straight out of the box. Secondly I am pleased with my physical condition which has enabled me to complete so many laps - 111 in total - on my first day of running. As we are playing catch-up, obviously the more mileage I can do before the first race the better. I am happy that we have got off to a good start here at our first test and we just need to carry that through to the next test in Jerez and Melbourne."
Jarno Trulli was in the cockpit for Toyota again, working on set-up before long runs in the afternoon. The team also used the chance to do some pit stop practice.
"Today was my last day of testing for the winter," said the Italian. "Again, we did a lot of laps including some interesting long runs as we finalised our preparations for Melbourne. It's clear we will only find out the true picture in Australia but I'm happy with our work in the course of the tests we've done. The car has been competitive and consistent so we can head into the first race with confidence. I feel ready."
"This was another interesting and useful day," added Dieter Gass. "We did some long run evaluation and continued finalising our race preparations for Melbourne. Of course this was Jarno's last test day before then. He seems happy with the car's balance and we are happy with how it's going so it's looking good so far."
Red Bull's progress was hampered by two factors: the wet track at the start of the day and an electrical gremlin that took a while to find. Nevertheless, Mark Webber completed 66 laps, which is a race distance at this circuit and worked on final preparations for Melbourne, finalising car set-up and practicing starts.
BMW started the day with a race simulation. Nick Heidfeld completed a full race distance without any technical problems. To give the mechanics some valuable pre-season pit lane testing, the team also practiced several pit stops and even simulated a stop-and-go penalty.
After that the team concentrated on the set-up of the F1.09 and tried different aero solutions. At the end of the session Heidfeld did a couple of practice starts on the main straight.
"The race simulation was an important and valuable part of the final preparations for the Australian Grand Prix," said the German. "It was the last test for me, I'm now looking forward to the season opener in Melbourne."
Adrian Sutil continued Force India's programme. The VJM02 ran reliably over the day completing 82 laps, thereby bringing the German's total mileage in the car this week to just under 1,000km.
Today's programme included a number of set-up changes, new aero tweaks and tyre comparisons. Numerous red flags in the morning delayed the schedule slightly, but the team was able to push on with the majority of its work this afternoon and made in-roads into its pre-season planned programme.
"We could do a lot of running again today, which was the main aim of the programme," said Sutil. "I feel a lot more confident in the car now we have got some reliability and can start to look at different set-ups and making the tyres work. We know we have a lot of work to do, particularly with the tyres as we still struggle to bring them in, but we now have a good idea of how the car is behaving. I'm looking forward to Melbourne now."
"Today was a fairly productive day with no major dramas," added James Key. "The car was very reliable yet again, allowing us to run through a number of set up changes. We are better understanding the way the car and tyres react to mechanical changes, which we can carry through to the rest of the test and onto Melbourne. We also tested a few new aero components, such as different engine covers, which behaved as expected so we have a direction. We are now in a pretty good state after a week's running and look forward to completing our programme with Giancarlo over the next two days."
For Renault, Fernando Alonso took over the R29 from Nelson Piquet to continue the French team's preparations for the new season. The team made the most of the weather conditions to complete maximum mileage as various new development items were evaluated. Fernando also concentrated on exploring set-up options and worked on the mechanical balance of the car.
"It was another good day for us," said the Spaniard, "covering lots of laps as we continue to get ready for the start of the season later this month. The track conditions were good and we tried lots of things with the set-up, which has given us lots of useful data to look through tonight. We also worked on the aero and mechanical balance of the car with some interesting results."
"Another positive day with good reliability from the car," added Christian Silk. "We managed to make good progress working steadily through the programme and got a lot of set-up work done and also did a bit of aerodynamic work in preparation for the first race in Melbourne. The car seems to be behaving well and responding nicely to the changes."
For the second successive day, McLaren remains at the bottom of the timesheets as it introduces a raft of new parts just two weeks before the season opener. Today was a continuation of yesterday's programme, running the new front wing, floor and top body.
The Woking team focused on pit stop practice in the early morning while the track was still damp before continuing the set-up work conducted on Monday. Lewis Hamilton joins the test tomorrow and will run a similar programme to today.
"We are running through a big programme in Barcelona this week," said McLaren Racing managing director Jonathan Neale. "Not only have we introduced a new series of aerodynamic components to MP4-24 but we have also been working on the car's set-up and balance over longer runs as well as rehearsing our pitstop procedures.
"It's been a very productive few days with Heikki in the car and we are hoping for an equally satisfactory conclusion to the week when Lewis takes to the track tomorrow."
As for Toro Rosso, which unveiled its 2009 contender yesterday, the lack of laps tell their own story. After Sebastien Bourdais had completed just 14 laps, a problem was identified on the front suspension, which could not be solved completely without the arrival of new parts from the factory in Faenza.
Therefore, rather than continue with development testing, it was decided to put Sebastien Buemi in the car, running just "in" and "out" laps, while carrying out basic systems checks. According to the team, the reason for the driver switch is that Bourdais had already run in the new car yesterday and on two days last week at the Adria circuit in Italy, therefore it was decided to give Buemi a chance to try his seat position and get a feel for the car for the first time, prior to starting testing proper tomorrow.