26/02/2010
NEWS STORY
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Williams Nico Hulkenberg topped the timesheets at Barcelona today as the eleven teams on duty continued their preparations for the season opener in Bahrain, which gets underway in two weeks.
Once again, conditions were almost ideal with sunshine throughout and far less red flags than witnessed on Thursday.
While Hulkenberg had been on the pace for much of the day, it was a late charge which saw the young German take the top spot from local favourite Fernando Alonso. On his final day in the car before Bahrain - Rubens Barrichello is on duty tomorrow and Sunday - Hulkenberg focussed on aero evaluations together with starts practice & set-up work with the FW32.
"We've had a good test here," said the German. "P1 today is nice but means nothing, to be honest. We're not in Bahrain yet! It's positive for the team, and for me, to know what the car can do though. We did a lot of set-up work today and have found some interesting things so I feel ready and confident to go to Bahrain now."
"Nico finished his last day of winter testing today with a good run of laps," added Sam Michael. "Our programme included the evaluation of a new sidepod, starts practice and some additional work on the set-up of the FW32. We're making progress, but there's still plenty to do."
Alonso's programme consisted of set-up testing and an assessment of new aerodynamic components, as well as a race simulation, which was completed successfully. The Spaniard, who covered a total of 133 laps, the most of the eleven drivers on duty, stopped out on track at the very end of the session.
"We set up the programme for these winter tests in January and we brought them to an end," said Alonso at the end of the day's programme. "In all it was seven days and I really do have a good impression. I'm calm for the first races, because I know that we've done some great work.
"I think there are still some unknown factors, because the tests were limited," he continued, "we'll see what will happen in Bahrain. The key will be how the tyres will be used in the races.
"Maybe the afternoon was a little quicker so I've got a better feeling," he added, "but I think that the situation won't be that different in the end. It's always difficult to judge the others' times: today's classification doesn't mean anything. It's important to be on top of the classification after the last race."
It was another good day for Sauber which continues to impress. Pedro de la rosa, who had been near the top of the timesheets all day, running a simulation of free practice, qualifying and a race distance in one day with no technical problems.
"Today was a very good preparation for the season's start in Bahrain," said the Spaniard. "The reliability of the car was perfect and I think the performance was also good, especially in the race simulation. It was a very good exercise and I feel we have now done everything possible to get ready for the first Grand Prix. It was also a big day for me because it has been a while since I last completed a race distance. I feel very well and also really confident now."
"Overall it was a good test day for us," added Willy Rampf. "We improved the car's balance significantly compared to yesterday by doing some set-up changes. We then simulated an entire race weekend with free practice, qualifying and a full race distance without any technical problems. We are quite happy with the overall pace and reliability."
Tonio Liuzzi worked through an intensive programme for Force India that included a full race distance. After completing shorter runs in the morning, where he clocked a fastest time of 1:21.056, the fourth quickest of the day, the Italian started a race simulation after the lunchtime break. Aside from a red flag period shortly after his second stop for tyres, the VJM03 performed reliably throughout the day.
"We can be quite happy about today's programme," said the Italian. "We completed everything without any issues and the car showed very good reliability, even when we did the race simulation. Again it is responding very well and we are improving day by day so everything is looking positive. We still don't know where we are relative to the others, and we will only see in Bahrain, but overall we can be really happy. We now have two more days of testing to try and get as much information as possible.
"Tonio covered more than 400km today," added chief race engineer, Dominic Harlow, "with some performance work in the morning and long run evaluations in the afternoon. Good conditions today mean that the testing has proven very useful for data collection and analysis of the performance of the car in a race situation. Other test items today included some suspension components, fuel system and control systems testing."
Sebastian Vettel was back in the RB6 as the Austrian team undertook its second race weekend simulation of the week and by the end of the session the German had completed 125 laps.
"It was good today, we didn't have any major problems," said the German. "We had to stop in the afternoon for a minor issue, but it's quite normal in testing. When you're testing, you don't want to risk any damage so it's best to switch the car off and stop if you don't have to push when there's an alert in the background. We had a lot of rain in Jerez so we still have a lot to do over the last two days here, such as finding out more about the tyres and doing some set up work."
"Today was almost a repeat of the race simulations we did with Mark yesterday," added Ian Morgan, the team's Ian Morgan, head of race engineering, "and it all went pretty much to plan. We stopped the car again during the race simulation, which was precautionary to check a couple of things, but it was only a minor problem and we quickly got running again. Sebastian finished the race simulation completely before the end of the session; we did a lot of laps and we're pretty happy with the car."
The was a race simulation for Red Bull's 'sister' team also, with Jaime Alguersuari enjoying his last day of winter testing, prior to the Bahrain Grand Prix. The race distance was duly completed, including one pit stop and one further unscheduled trip down pit lane, when another car caused a red flag stoppage. The STR 5 ran reliably throughout.
Having practiced pit stops at the factory on a daily basis over the winter and also at the three previous tests in Valencia and Jerez, this morning the race crew tackled their first "real" pit stops, using the new pit-stop gantry designed to accommodate the lack of race refuelling. After completing the full programme for the day, the team stopped testing prior to the official end of the session. Sebastien Buemi takes over at the wheel for the final two days.
"Today was very useful in that it is a good confidence boost to have completed a race simulation on my last day of testing before the start of the season," said Alguersuari. "It is still too early to talk about where we are in performance terms, but with a good mileage achieved over these four test sessions, I feel much better prepared than when I made my debut in the middle of last year."
Michael Schumacher was back at the wheel for Mercedes, the seven-time champion continuing the development programme which Nico Rosberg began yesterday. The German worked on developing the balance and set-up of the car over longer runs along with further practice of the team's race weekend procedures, including pit stops and practice starts, in preparation for the first race.
"We had a positive day," said the German, "but it was quite stop-start with some changes on the car and then the red flags towards the end of the day. We are working hard and even if the programme doesn't run as smoothly as we would have liked, there is much more to come from the team both here and in Bahrain. We are working very well together and there is a good atmosphere within the team."
Lewis Hamilton took over from Jenson Button, continuing the development work his team-mate began yesterday: refining set-up and evaluating tyres. The morning was spent conducting shorter runs, attempting more experimental set-ups - changes that Hamilton found beneficial to the car's balance.
The different set-up changes caused several lengthy turnarounds in the morning before Hamilton could concentrate on a single long-distance run in the afternoon - which was punctuated by several late red-flag periods. The Englishman completed 93 laps on his way to posting a best time 1.538s off Hulkenberg's best.
At Renault, where Robert Kubica was on duty, the team spent the morning focussed on shorter runs and set-up work, but ran limited laps in the afternoon due to a suspension problem.
"It's frustrating to lose track time this afternoon because of a problem with the suspension," said the Pole, "but I'm sure the team will get on top of the issue so that we can have a good weekend. We have some new aero parts coming for the car on Saturday and Sunday, which will help improve the pace of the car."
"We spent the morning doing some set-up work," added Alan Permane, "but in the afternoon we had a problem with the suspension, which limited our running. We're still looking into the issue and will have the car fixed and ready for tomorrow morning."
Jarno Trulli put another 70 laps on the clock of the Lotus T127, though the Italian lost track-time with two stoppages in the late afternoon.
"It was a productive day in terms of set up direction with Jarno," said Mike Gascoyne. "We were able to identify some problems with the set up in the car and establish clear direction to improve it. We still have a long way to go, and a lot of time to come from the car.
"We had a couple of minor hydraulics issues which stopped the car on track, but nothing major," he added, "so all in all it was a productive day and we're aiming to continue in the same vein tomorrow."
Timo Glock spent much of the morning kicking his heels as his team worked on the car damaged in yesterday's accident. Finally, following the arrival of spare parts from the team's HQ in England, the German was able to take to the track for his first serious run in the VR-01 in the dry.
The day wasn't entirely without issue but with just two more days of pre-season testing to go before the team's debut race, the opportunity to continue debugging the car at the same time as conducting valuable race preparation work in more representative warm and sunny conditions was much appreciated.
At the end of the day the team conducted its very first pitstop practice session, putting the pit crew through their paces in preparation for race day in Bahrain.
"Our recent hydraulic issues, plus yesterday's crash, have required us to focus the remaining pre-season track time on procedural preparation for Bahrain," said Nick Wirth. "The crash rebuild postponed the start of today's programme to midday, nevertheless it was quite satisfying to see us complete the day with no reoccurrence of our hydraulic problems. Timo took over the driving duties from Lucas today and we never really got him happy with his throttle pedal, which is something we're addressing tonight."