11/02/2010
NEWS STORY
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Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi popped in a controversial 1:19.950 to go quickest in the final moments of testing at Jerez de la Frontera today. Toro Rosso's Sebastien Buemi, who had been the pace-setter for much of the day, finished second quickest ahead of Jenson Button and Nico Hulkenberg.
Conditions were much improved and while the track was still damp this morning following overnight rain this soon dried out thanks to the strong winds and the sun making a number of regular appearances.
Kobayashi was one of five drivers to complete over 100 laps, the Japanese driver enjoying a busy and productive day. His best time was posted right at the end of the day on a low fuel load, having spent much of the session running a much heavier car.
However, one particular team was outraged, claiming that the Sauber driver's time was posted after the session had ended and the lights were red. After thirty minutes of deliberating it was ruled that the time would stand because even though the session had effectively ended the lights at the end of the pitlane were not red at the time.
"It was a good day as we managed to complete our programme," said Giampaolo Dall'Ara. "In the morning we did some aero tests and after the lunch break we concentrated on set-up and tyre evaluation. For most of the day we were running with a high fuel load prior to a run with a lighter car before the end of the session. For tomorrow the weather forecast is not really promising, but we will cope with what we get."
On the agenda for Toro Rosso was an evaluation of a few aero parts, an assessment of different mechanical set-ups and runs with different fuel loads. Sebastien Buemi also tried all three compounds brought here - the soft, medium and hard.
"I am pleased with how the past two days have gone," said the Swiss, "and although rain is never ideal, yesterday's damp conditions meant we could try the wet weather tyres. Today, in the dry, we were able to do a lot of laps, as the car ran reliably. We tried various set-ups and ran with different fuel loads, so we are beginning to get a better understanding of STR5 in general."
Today was the second and final day for Jenson Button as McLaren began the day with a continuation of the early-morning aero mapping it started yesterday. After a successful number of aero runs, the morning's running centred on finding suitable mechanical and aero set-ups.
In the afternoon, the programme focused on longer running, evaluating tyres on a number of varying fuel-loads. At the conclusion of his test, Button declared himself much happier with the seat and installation and was clearly happy with the progress the team is making with the new car despite having made a precautionary stop late in the day when a warning light came on in the cockpit.
Although Nico Hulkenberg finished fourth quickest for Williams, the day was not without its problems, the German suffering a technical fault shortly after the session got underway which compromised his running for much of the morning. Then, in the afternoon, the reigning GP2 champion suffered another technical failure.
"Today was quite a difficult day as we had some technical problems, but I'm still feeling positive about the car," said the German. "Of course, I would like to have had more running time, but that's sometimes the way it goes. Overall, it's been a good two days and the car feels good."
"We had some mechanical problems with the hydraulic system and the driveline today," said Sam Michael. "We had a leak first thing this morning, which we identified relatively quickly, but it took us a long time to correct because the clutch was covered with hydraulic fluid. That effectively ruled us out of most of the morning session. We encountered a smaller issue this afternoon with a driveshaft component. It was quicker to rectify, but obviously wasn't ideal in terms of track time. We still made our way through three or four set-up changes and we'll just have to target higher mileage tomorrow with Rubens."
Tonio Liuzzi continued Force India's programme putting the VJM03 through its paces on its second official test day. The morning programme concentrated on aero development while the afternoon's running included comparison runs of the new tyre compounds available this year.
Adrian Sutil takes over for the second part of the test tomorrow and will conclude running on Saturday.
"I think that we can be pretty happy about today," said Liuzzi. "We covered a lot of laps and a lot of the test items we wanted to. For sure we still have to look into a few more areas but overall the car is responding well and reacts to all the changes. We tested different settings and different conditions and overall it was always positive, so I have to say we can be really satisfied about how it's going. The team did a good job and now we have to keep pushing for the next days of testing as we still have to extrapolate the best out of the car."
"We used the morning for various aerodynamic measurements and made some comparisons of the 2010 dry tyres in the afternoon along with getting a balance in the VJM03," added chief race engineer, Dominic Harlow. "Since it was the first time the car has run in the dry we have a fair amount of new data to analyse, but so far the car appears to be performing as we expected. Adrian will continue work tomorrow as he takes over the car for the remainder of this test."
Michael Schumacher joined the Mercedes team today, the German team completing a comprehensive test programme with the W01. He spent the morning evaluating the different tyre compounds alongside some chassis set-up work, before working through a race simulation programme in the afternoon. In total, Schumacher completed 124 laps, making the most of the available dry track time.
"I am very happy with how the day went today," said the German, "even if we could not finish our schedule completely due to red flags. However I managed to complete a lot of laps which is very precious to me. A new car, a new team and new conditions, therefore our first goal has to be to make the car reliable. Days like today help massively in that respect, especially as the weather forecast for the next few days isn't looking quite so rosy. I felt very comfortable driving the car and it was good fun today."
For Ferrari, Fernando Alonso worked mainly on the overall development of the car, its performance over a long run and, in the afternoon, on a comparison between different types of set-up.
"We worked on different fronts, trying to understand how the car behaves under different conditions," said Alonso. "It's important to find the right compromise for the set up so that everything works well during qualifying, when the tank is pretty much empty, and in the race, when we'll start with a full load.
"We're really satisfied with what we've done during these two days," he continued. "We've driven many kilometres without any reliability problems, which is something that makes me really happy. We put many components under pressure over these five days and we didn't have any problems at all. Furthermore the car is really easy to drive under all conditions.
"As far as the tyres are concerned I think that the indications we've received these days have to be treated carefully, because the temperatures are very different from the ones we'll have in Bahrain at the first race. Until now the work we had to do, we've done. Next week and even more when we're in Barcelona, we'll work on the performance."
The dry conditions allowed Renault to complete good mileage, making full use of the dry tyres saved from yesterday. The French team's technical programme was focussed on set-up work and continued assessment of the narrower front tyres.
"We started the day with a damp track," said Robert Kubica, "so we had to wait for conditions to improve before we started our main programme. We made good progress with the workload and did some set-up evaluation and tried to understand how the changes influenced the balance and behaviour of the car. We saw some nice results and learnt some interesting things so overall it was a good day."
"Another very productive day as we completed over 100 laps and did a lot of set-up work," added Alan Permane. "We had made a lot of changes for Robert since the last test in Valencia and he's now much more comfortable and happier in the car. We steadily improved the balance and grip throughout the day and hopefully we can continue with this tomorrow if the rain holds off."
The improved conditions allowed Mark Webber to give the RB6 its first real chance to run in the dry. Once the track had thoroughly dried, the team began working though its large development programme, concentrating on set-up work.
"It's been a very productive two days," said Webber. "We've had a few little niggles here and there with reliability, but despite that we've managed to complete quite a few laps with the new car. We've had one wet and one dry day and learned a lot on both. We've still got quite a bit of testing to go before we get to Bahrain, which we're going to need to continue to understand the car and keep finding performance. But I'd say we're off to a pretty solid start and we've got a great base to build on."
The team will continue testing tomorrow when 2009 runner-up Sebastian Vettel will get his first chance to drive the RB6.
As reported earlier, Virgin brought its programme to an early halt following a front wing failure, the British team now waiting on new parts to arrive from its HQ in England.
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