03/02/2010
NEWS STORY
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Fernando Alonso, making his debut for Ferrari, topped the timesheets on the final day of testing at the Circuit de la Comunitat Valenciana Ricardo Tormo.
Over thirty thousand fans packed the grandstands to watch their hero make his track debut for the legendary Maranello team, and it seemed almost as many journalists and photographers were in the pitlane attempting to get that all important picture or quote.
However, the Ferrari crew, with the assistance of circuit security, held the mob at bay and the Spaniard was able to get to work.
Having completed a couple of installation and acclimatisation laps the two-time world champion got down to the serious work and it wasn't long before he was topping the timesheets. Indeed, it wasn't long before he'd eclipsed the exceedingly quick time posted by his Brazilian teammate on Tuesday, furthermore, it was posted at the beginning of a multi-lap run and therefore not on fumes as some might suggest.
The Spanish driver, who worked mainly on finding the best set-up on the F10 and assessing its handling with various fuel loads, completed a total of 127 laps, his best time of 1:11.470 being the quickest overall lap at this test.
"I've been waiting for this moment for months and finally it's here,” said Alonso at the end of the day's programme. "We worked a lot at the works over the last weeks, but I was still missing the experience on the track. Today I concentrated mainly on getting to know the car. There were many new things for me here, such as the Schubert helmet and the Brembo brakes I had never used before.
"I must say that I felt at ease immediately thanks to Felipe's work during the last days," he continued, "the car went well and it was fast; it had a good set up, too, which is positive. It's absolutely impossible to say where we stand compared to the others: I didn't watch them closely, because I had too much work to do with my team. Anyway it's far too early to say anything. There are so many unknown factors and it's a bit like training for football teams, you never know if they're playing with two goalies or only with their second team.
"It's true, we drove many laps over the last three days. To be competitive you need a reliable car and we're on the right track. The technicians have lots of data now to prepare us the best possible way for the next tests. It's important that the data we had before we came here has been confirmed on the track. We need to continue like this and in the last tests, we need to try to find the car's limit."
Asked how he felt on seeing the thousands of fans packed into the stands, Alonso said: "I knew that many fans had been expected here, but this was something else. We're in the middle of the week and it's incredible to see so many people in the stands. This was a very special day for me. Not only because I finally had my debut in red, but it's also my father's birthday, who was here with me. I enjoyed every single one of those 127 laps."
Sauber continues to show good pace, the Swiss team never out of the top three over the course of the three-day test. Today saw Pedro de la Rosa back behind the wheel of the C29.
"After the roll-out on Monday this was my second day with the new car and I'm happy it was another positive one," said the Spaniard. "We learned a lot about the set-up of the car with these tyres, and also about the direction we have to go in with our work for the future."
"We are quite satisfied with the first test," added technical director Willy Rampf. "We did exactly 1001 km in total. As well as being reliable, it was important to see that the car responded to changes in the way we expected. The drivers' comments on the car basically were in line with that, which also helps the team to work in the right direction.
"In the morning we lost around one and a half hours of track time because of an incident with another car," he continued, referring to a 'misunderstanding involving Nico Hulkenberg. "We had to change the floor, the front wing and the engine cover and to prioritise our programme afterwards. But still it was a good day on the track. Again we were lucky with the weather, which gave us very good and consistent track conditions."
Following his first experience of the Mercedes on Monday afternoon, Michael Schumacher spent the early part of his first full day working on the set-up and developing the balance of the car. In the afternoon, the focus switched to long runs before a hydraulic problem brought the day to a close one hour early.
"I'm very happy to have been back in a Formula One car this week," said the German. "We had a short run on Monday and then almost a full day today which has been good.
"The experience has been very positive and the car is running smoothly," he continued, "with just a small hydraulic leak which stopped us slightly early today. The main focus is on reliability and doing as many laps as we can so we're not too worried about looking at the lap times right now. It's a new challenge and a new experience for me this year but knowing Ross so well and working with him again has made it very easy and I feel at home in the team already.
"I'm feeling fresh and motivated and very positive about the season ahead. I can't wait to be back in the car to continue the programme in Jerez next week."
Finishing the day fourth quickest, Toro Rosso's Jaime Alguersuari almost made it a clean sweep for the partisan crowd as he finally got his hands on the new STR5.
Once the youngster's installation in the car had been checked, he soon got down to quick and consistent lap times over long runs. The technical programme included a repeat of yesterday's systems checks, an aero evaluation, scans of running on different fuel loads and an assessment of the soft and supersoft compounds.
"It felt good to complete my first ever Formula 1 test session, as last season I was never able to do any testing," said the Spaniard. "I was able to concentrate on understanding the car, without having to think about it in terms of a race weekend. Personally, I felt much stronger in the car, as I have been training hard in the three months since I last drove in Abu Dhabi.
"Today was a positive experience," he added, "and I'm looking forward now to next week in Jerez. It's too early to say much about the car's performance, but it felt competitive."
While the crowd and the international media concentrated on Alonso, and to a lesser extent Schumacher, the British contingent focussed on Jenson Button who was making his debut with McLaren.
The world champion spent the morning fine-tuning his seating position and sight-lines as he got used to the all-new cockpit of the MP4-25. In the afternoon, the team was able to concentrate on a series of longer runs, using the opportunity to find a balance and a set-up that suited the Englishman.
After three days of testing, the Woking outfit leaves Valencia extremely satisfied with the performance and reliability of the new MP4-25. Like most of its its rivals it will be on duty in Jerez de la Frontera next week - a circuit that will enable all teams to begin a more meaningful assessment of relative pace.
At Renault, Vitaly Petrov was making his debut and the team focussed on getting him acquainted with the car as he experienced F1 power for the first time. The day went smoothly and the Russian successfully completed the technical programme to round off a productive week.
"I really enjoyed my first day in the car and everything went well," said Petrov. "The car is very impressive compared with a GP2 car and I enjoyed experiencing the power and braking performance. After about 30 laps I was starting to feel comfortable and understanding the limits of the car. It was also my first chance to work with my engineers and so far everything is going really well so I'm happy with the day."
"This was Vitaly's first day in the R30 and we concentrated on getting him comfortable and familiar with the car," added Alan Permane. "There's a lot for him to get used to in terms of the brakes, power and the extra downforce, but he adapted well and did a good job. Overall our first week with the car has been successful and we've come away with a lot of valuable knowledge about the car. We're now looking forward to building on this work in Jerez next week."
At Williams, Nico Hulkenberg, getting his first taste of the FW32, focussed on systems checks and long run race simulations. The German youngster finished the day seventh quickest, 2.199s off the pace.
"We covered a lot of mileage today, which is good and allowed me to get used to the car, and my first impressions are all positive," said the German. "We did a lot of long runs on heavy fuel loads which have given us a good baseline, but we need to keep on working."
"Today, with Nico, we worked on putting as much mileage as we could on the FW32 and achieved over 500kms at the end of the day, bringing us to a test total of 1,213.5kms," added Sam Michael. "We spent the three days working on set-up and long runs; the main systems on the car are proving reliable and are cooling sufficiently. There are the inevitable minor teething problems to resolve between now and Jerez, but it's been good to get out on track and start work with our new engine partner, Cosworth.
Testing resumes next Wednesday at Jerez, when Red Bull, Force India and Virgin Racing will also be present.