01/02/2010
NEWS STORY
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Felipe Massa and Michael Schumacher both returned to F1 action today having been out of the sport for different reasons. Massa, was back in an F1 cockpit for the first time since his horrendous in Hungary, while Schumacher returns after three years in retirement. Both drivers finished in the top three, separated by just 0.37s.
Media attention was frenzied at the Circuit de la Comunitat Valenciana Ricardo Tormo today, for not only were Massa and Schumacher returning to F1 duty, seven cars were making their track debut, three of them being unveiled just before the session got underway.
Massa worked mainly on defining a baseline set-up for the new car and on analysing the behaviour of the new Bridgestone tyres. The Brazilian Felipe covered a total of 102 laps, his quickest time being a 1.12.574.
"I'm happy about how it went today," said Massa. "We worked very well and drove many kilometres without any problems. The first impression of the car is really positive: it is easier to drive compared to the F60, we can work better on the set up and last but not least there's much more grip, which makes it much more pleasant to drive.
"Naturally it's still very early, but it's a good start," he continued. "The fastest lap? That doesn't mean anything, but it's always good being in the lead! I'm also satisfied with myself. It's great being back on the track, together with all the others and to see that nothing has changed. I drove over 100 laps and I could have done another 100 from the physical and mental point of view.
"I tried the soft compound a lot today," he added, "and I really liked it, but it's really too early to draw a conclusion, we have to wait and see how it works with higher temperatures to see the wear. We also drove with different fuel loads and the car was very balanced under all conditions; that's encouraging!"
Second quickest, splitting the two former Ferrari teammates, was Pedro de la Rosa in the Sauber C29 unveiled at this track just 24 hours earlier.
"For me it was a very positive day," said the Spaniard. "The car was reliable right from the beginning, which meant we could follow our programme perfectly without wasting any time. Also the car reacted to our changes very well. For me it was a day to get used to not only the new car but also to the team with all the people. And, of course, driving-wise there's more to come from me as this was only my first day after a long break."
"Overall, we are quite happy with what we achieved today," added technical director, Willy Rampf. "We started with an installation lap in the morning, checking the mechanical systems, followed by a baseline run in order to stabilise temperatures and pressures. We checked the hydraulic system, the fuel system and the gearshift, and everything worked well. In the afternoon we started with some basic set-up work, also to collect various data. It was a positive day without any noteworthy problems."
Tomorrow, Kamui Kobayashi will get his first laps in the new car with de la Rosa taking over again on Wednesday.
Nico Rosberg had the honour of giving the Silver Arrow its track debut, the main focus of his programme being to work through the initial set-up of the car and ensure that he was comfortable with his seat and position. The German drove out of the garage for his first installation run at 10:34 and completed five runs over 39 laps before he finished for the day at 13:40, setting the fourth fastest time.
Schumacher took over the MGP W01 for the remainder of the day, getting out on track just after 15:30. The 7-time champion was comfortably on the pace after his first run and spent the remaining track time familiarising himself with the new car. The German completed 40 laps over three runs, with a fastest lap of 1:12.947s.
"It was a good first day of testing for us," said Rosberg, "and my initial impressions of the new car are very positive. It felt great to be in the car for the first time and to get our pre-season testing programme underway. Generally everything felt good although I was sitting too low in the car and couldn't see the track very well which we will improve for tomorrow. It's too early to get an initial impression of the competitiveness but it was very special to drive the new Silver Arrow out of the garage. I'm looking forward to tomorrow when we have a full day of testing to make further progress."
"It was a perfect rollout for the new car today," added Schumacher. "I felt totally comfortable and really had a feeling that everything was very natural. It felt just like at the very beginning of my career in 1991 when on the first lap, I thought 'wow that was really fast' and then on the second lap, I was just extremely excited. I feel like a young boy again and really enjoyed myself out there. We did a good job today, just making a few control checks, and the most important thing was that the car ran reliably. With Nico and I covering 79 laps between us, it was a superb job by the team."
"We have had a very useful first day here," said Ross Brawn. "Our priority was to ensure that the new car was functioning properly and allow both drivers to use their short window of track time to get acclimatised to the car and its operations. Today's work has provided a good basis for the next couple of days and it was rewarding to see that the car ran reliably. I would like to say thank you to everyone at the factories in Brackley and Brixworth for all their hard work in preparing the car to test here this week. And finally, it's been a very special day to work with Nico for the first time, to work with Michael once again and to complete our first active day as the Mercedes-Benz works team."
The principal focus for McLaren was putting mileage on the new car. With Gary Paffett behind the wheel for the whole day, the team completed 86 laps without any mechanical issues. The day's programme started with a number of shorter five-lap runs to establish a benchmark for the day. Into the afternoon, the team were increasingly confident with the car's reliability and conducted some longer runs, looking at a greater variety of set-up configurations.
Paffett declared himself happy with the car's balance and handling. Tomorrow, Lewis Hamilton picks up the programme, continuing the initial work and focusing on reliability and set-up.
Rubens Barrichello made his debut for Williams, the FW32 one of several cars breaking cover for the first time today. The Brazilian completed 75 laps, his best time 1.8s off Massa's pace.
"It was a productive first day testing, with the car completing 75 laps in total," said Sam Michael. "Considering everything is new, in particular the Cosworth engine installation, it was good to get through the day without any major problems. We did have a minor software issue with the throttle control towards the end of the session, but that is easily sorted out for tomorrow. We are well underway with set-up work now and tuning the FW32 around the new Bridgestone tyres.
"I enjoyed today, it was like a first day at school!" added Barrichello. "You can't predict anything from the times today; and probably won't be able to for the remainder of the tests because of the fuel loads people will run with such big tanks. It probably won't be until Bahrain qualifying that we will see where everyone is. We are working on improving the balance of the car, but it's running reliably, despite the small issue with the throttle. As everything is new, it was a good day."
It was an important day for Toro Rosso also, as the Faenza outfit was debuting its first car designed entirely in-house. However, with Sebastien Buemi at the wheel, the STR5 completed 10 laps before being sidelined with a gearbox control problem, which took most of the day to fix only allowing the Swiss to go back out on track for the final half hour.
Robert Kubica was the man behind the wheel for Renault as the French team's challenger took to the circuit shortly after 10:00.
The team's programme focussed on getting the car settled and getting Kubica familiar with the new systems. This was also the team's first opportunity to experience the narrower 2010-spec tyres. For the afternoon the team experimented with weight distribution.
Kubica will remain in the car for a second day of running tomorrow. Vitaly Petrov will get his first laps in the car on Wednesday.
"My first day of testing the R30 went well," said the Pole. "We had a lot of things to check on the car to make sure they were reliable and all that went smoothly with no big problems to report. Tomorrow we will start working on the balance and trying to understand the car a bit more. The narrower front tyres certainly had an impact on the car, but it's difficult for me to judge as this is the first time I've driven the R30. Generally I think they will make the car understeer more in the quick corners."
"A fairly positive first day of running," added chief race engineer, Alan Permane. "We concentrated on putting mileage on the car and spent time getting Robert comfortable in the car. We also started learning about the behaviour of the R30 - what it likes, and how it responds to the narrower front Bridgestone tyres. Then we looked at the brake wear, which will be a key performance factor this year with the cars running heavy fuel at the start of the race. Overall it has been a productive day."