01/12/2009
NEWS STORY
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Formula 2 championship winner Andy Soucek topped the timesheets at Jerez today, the first of three days of rookie testing.
The Spaniard, who was awarded the drive as part of his prize for winning the inaugural championship, completed 87 laps, was one of the main pace-setters for much of the day, and his time of 1:19.158, posted with an hour of the session remaining, was never bettered.
Second quickest was Paul di Resta, one of two drivers on duty for force India. In the morning, JR Hildebrand was on duty for the Silverstone-based outfit, with Scot di Resta taking over in afternoon.
The American, who focussed on baseline runs and circuit familiarisation in order to prepare for the coming two days, completed 49 laps with a best time of 1:20.537, the fifth quickest time of the morning. As track conditions improved overall times dropped and his lap was eventually the 10th quickest of the day.
di Resta similarly worked through a programme to get fully comfortable in the car. With weather clear and good mechanical reliability, the 23-year-old from West Lothian was able to complete 46 laps with a fastest time of 1:19.369. The Scot will continue in the car tomorrow morning before Hildebrand takes over in the afternoon.
"I was really impressed with the ability of the car," said the American. "It is different in every way to what I'm used to, both in terms of the outright speed, but also in terms of the characteristics of the car and how it behaves, brakes and drives through corners. Having raced on ovals I'm used to a high top speed, so that wasn't too much of a shock, but the amount of load it runs and how much speed you can carry through the corner took some getting used to. The track was clearly improving throughout the morning, so based on the program we were running, in terms of relative pace we were doing pretty well. I felt I was getting there and was starting to get the most out of the car, particularly towards the end of the morning. I think we still had some free time in the car. I lost my best lap by using a bit too much of the road and on my last run I just flat spotted the tyres straight out of the pits, which made a drastic difference in how good the car was and I really couldn't get the ultimate lap-time from it. It was a little bit frustrating from the standpoint of losing the last two runs, but we were fifth quickest when my day was effectively done so I was pretty happy with my first outing."
"Today was very constructive," added di Resta, "and we achieved what we wanted to achieve, which was to get familiar with the car and build up to speed slowly to fully prepare for the rest of the test. We tried a few different things, worked on a few set-up items and certainly went forward. That was the main goal, just building up on my side, learning more and moving forward together with the team. The VJM02 is certainly impressive and although I am still learning, I felt I could get to grips with it fairly quickly. I've driven the McLaren twice before and this experience has helped me today, but for sure there's a lot of difference between the last time and today. It's obviously a new circuit and the car is built to the new regulations with slick tyres and less downforce but it behaved as I expected and we didn't have any issues at all. We were quite fortunate in that we got a lot of time and there weren't many stoppages. I wasn't trying to go for a time as such, just to get the most out of the car and myself to set up for the coming two days. In the end I could set a good time, but this wasn't the overall goal for today. The team will have a different approach tomorrow and we will be testing some 2010 development parts but the aim will be to get as much track time as possible and see how it goes. I'm looking forward to getting back in there and working with the team again."
McLaren had Gary Paffett and Oliver Turvey on duty. Paffett kicked off the day's programme, conducting a number of aero configuration evaluations before focusing on tyres, and how they will perform in 2010 with higher fuel-loads.
In the middle of the afternoon, he ended his running and the team switched the MP4-24 over to Turvey. The afternoon run was primarily an acclimatisation for the 22-year-old, who will be able to spend tomorrow learning from his initial run before he undertakes a longer stint on Thursday.
Tomorrow, Paffett will return to the cockpit as the team starts a more in-depth analysis of fuel-load and how it is expected to affect car behaviour in 2010.
Red Bull Racing fielded this new British Formula 3 Champion, Daniel Ricciardo. Although the Australian suffered a spin early on in the session he was soon back on track and ended the day with the fourth fastest time.
"I don't think I stopped smiling all day," he said at the end of the day. "Working with the team was great and they let me go at my own pace until I built up some confidence. After that, we began working on things that will be useful for next season. This was the first time I've ever driven a Formula One car round corners, having previously only done a straight line test and I have to say, it's got more grip than anything else I've ever driven."
Jules Bianchi was on duty for Ferrari, another youngster making his F1 debut. The Frenchman covered a total of 91 laps, his quickest time of 1.19.626 being good enough for fifth quickest.
For Brawn - soon to be Mercedes - Mike Conway completed 58 laps in the morning as he acclimatised to the car and then worked through an aerodynamic evaluation.
2009 Japan F3 champion, Marcus Ericsson took over for the afternoon session for his first outing in an F1 car, enjoying the opportunity to familiarise himself with the BGP 001 and the circuit over 50 laps.
At BMW, Alexander Rossi enjoyed a smooth day with ideal track conditions. In the morning the 18-year-old from California, focused on familiarising himself with the track and the car. After each stint the driver and engineers exchanged information and talked about their respective impressions. In the afternoon the team made several changes to the car's set-up - both aero and mechanical - in order to give Alexander the opportunity to evaluate the changes and get a better feeling for the car. The team was very happy with Alexander's feedback and how he coped physically with driving an Formula One car. Also the team decided not to send him out with an extra low fuel load.
"I very much enjoyed this day," said Rossi. "It is impressive what the car does, how predictable and precise its reactions are, and how high the overall grip level is. But I have to admit I am also a little bit disappointed because being a racing driver you always want to be the fastest! I think in the afternoon we didn't manage to find the perfect balance. Physically I have to say it was as demanding as I expected it would be. The power steering is a great help compared to GP2, but the g forces obviously are higher."
Belgian driver, Bertrand Baguette, began Renault's programme with a full day in the car as his prize for winning the World Series by Renault 3.5 category earlier this season.
The programme today focussed mainly on evaluating the Belgian, but the team also tried some new development items in preparation for 2010. The 23-year-old covered 105 laps behind the wheel of the R29 as he completed a trouble-free first day in an F1 car.
For tomorrow morning young Chinese driver, Ho-Pin Tung, will take over driving duties before handing the R29 over to the team's third driver, Lucas di Grassi, for the afternoon.
"This was my first time in an F1 car and I really enjoyed it," said Baguette. "There's a huge difference between the F1 car and a World Series car, especially the efficiency of the brakes, which is incredible, and the speed you can carry through the quick corners. Also, it's a completely different world and I've been getting used to working with five or six engineers instead of just one. We started the day with a long run so that I could get used to the car and then we started the technical programme as I worked on improving the set-up of the car. It was an amazing experience for me and I hope to do this again in the future."
"It was a good day for Bertrand and he quickly got used to the car and the systems," added Alan Permane, the team's chief race engineer. "To begin with we spent a bit of time adjusting the set-up to make him more comfortable in the car, but he suffered a bit with understeer throughout the day. However, he was very focussed, sensible and didn't make any mistakes as he steadily improved his lap times. He reacted well to the changes we made to the car and worked well with the engineers by giving good feedback. Overall it has been a positive day for us and of course for Bertrand who had his first experience of driving an F1 car."
Propping up the timesheets, 2.15s off Soucek's paces was Kiwi, Brendon Hartley at the wheel of the Toro Rosso.
His programme did not get off to the best of starts, as he spun at the fast right hander, following the chicane, having just switched to different aero settings on the car. The damage was repaired in time for the New Zealander to get back on track by the end of the morning.
His programme had three main elements: aero measurement testing in view of 2010, running the car with ballast to simulate the weight of next year's cars on full tanks, as refuelling is banned, and carrying out some brake testing.
"Apart from going off the track early on, I was generally happy with the way the day went, as I had not driven an F1 car for a while, so now I'm looking forward to making the best of Thursday when I get another run," said Hartley.
Tomorrow, the STR4 will be entrusted to 2008 Italian F3 champion, Mirko Bortolotti.