18/02/2011
NEWS STORY
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Despite a problematic day, which saw the German complete just 37 laps, Sebastian Vettel topped the timesheets at Barcelona as the penultimate pre-season test got underway.
A damp start to the day gave the teams a chance to test the intermediate Pirelli tyres, before conditions began to dry mid-morning.
Vettel had a couple of minor offs during the morning session, and as a result the Austrian team opted to complete some precautionary checks over lunch.
"Unfortunately, we didn't complete many laps today, as we had a long break," said Vettel, "longer than expected. It wasn't anything big, nothing broke, but at the test if you think there might be a problem then you'd rather take the car apart and check. The boys did their best and we still got some runs towards the end of the day - not as much as we'd like, but the car feels good and hopefully we'll do more tomorrow."
"It was frustrating today, as we lost some time making checks to the car during lunch," added head of race engineering, Ian Morgan. "It's what testing is for, but we would have liked to complete more laps today."
For much of the day it was Fernando Alonso who headed the timesheets as Ferrari continues to show strong pace and reliability. The F150 is still in the same configuration seen at Valencia as the Maranello outfit continued to focus on understanding the Pirelli tyres and working on the overall reliability of the car.
The day went smoothly with no technical problems and by the end, a total of 101 laps had been completed. "Overall, it was a positive day," the Spaniard told the team's website. "We did a lot of laps and brought home much valuable information. It seems that, on this track too, there is a certain level of tyre degradation, but it is only the first day and we have to see how the track evolves between now and Monday."
Toro Rosso made good use of the damp start to proceedings, Jaime Alguersuari putting in a 20 lap run on Pirelli's intermediate tyre, thereby gathering useful data for team and the new tyre supplier.
Once the track had dried, the slicks came out and two runs were completed before the lunch-break - which is compulsory at this track. The afternoon's work included a brake system evaluation.
Sauber - which had Kamui Kobayashi on duty - lost track time due to a powertrain problem, but was still able to gather data. The Japanese driver completed 78 laps on his way to posting the fourth best time of the day.
"We couldn't complete the whole programme due to a technical problem," said Kobayashi. "We had wet conditions in the morning so this was fine to collect some information on wet tyres. In the afternoon we couldn't do everything we planned, so we have some work left for tomorrow."
"It was a wet start this morning, so we decided to do a wet tyre programme," explained technical director, James Key. "Pirelli brought the wet race spec tyre here and, as we had already tried the intermediate race spec, we decided to use the opportunity to get to know the wet tyres. This was useful because the track started to dry up by mid-morning, and we were able to learn how both, the wet and the intermediate tyres behave on a drying track, which is always useful.
"We then suffered a problem with the powertrain," he continued, "which delayed us a little bit this morning, but after this we recovered in the afternoon. We did another fuel system check test by running out on the track, and then worked on the tyre compounds we have here - the hard, the medium and the soft.
"We finished the day with a long run. Kamui did a good job on this and was fairly consistent, which is good for the medium tyre on a track which is hard on tyres. It wasn't really until this afternoon that we were able to start to set up the car for Barcelona. We found some useful directions and we will carry on with that work tomorrow."
At McLaren, Jenson Button continued development work on the MP4-26, the Englishman - who continues here tomorrow before handing over to teammate Lewis Hamilton - completing 77 laps.
"We learnt a lot from running the MP4-26 for the first time in Jerez last week," said test team manager, Indy Lall, "and, as a result, we've been able to set ourselves a very clearly defined programme for this week's test.
"We'd planned to begin by conducting a number of aero-mapping runs, but these were slightly disrupted because the track was still damp from last night's rain. As a result, we'll repeat that test tomorrow morning - weather permitting.
"Still, we didn't lose too much track-time, and quickly switched our focus to a series of shorter runs towards the end of the morning. These were used to evaluate set-up and establish a general direction for the afternoon's long-run programme, which gave us a very solid understanding of the behaviour of the Pirelli tyres over the course of a stint.
"We also satisfactorily ran our drag reduction system for the first time in anger, and continued work with the F1 hybrid. It's been a very solid day and we're pleased with our progress."
Paul di Resta put Force India VJM04 through its paces in the afternoon after a delay on some parts arriving gave only limited running in the morning. However the Scot completed 26 laps of the Barcelona track, setting the sixth quickest time.
The Indian team's programme focussed on putting more miles on the car to gather more information on performance and balance, plus conducting aero and tyre testing in the latter stages of the day. Di Resta will remain in the car tomorrow before Adrian Sutil takes over for Sunday and Monday.
"The guys did pretty well to get the car out on track today," said the Scot, "and towards the end of the afternoon we did some productive running to get a good baseline set-up for tomorrow when we'll have a much more extensive test programme to carry out. I definitely feel there is more to come from the car and I'm looking forward to getting back out there to help the team get as much out of this test as possible."
"We didn't run this morning as we were waiting for some parts to arrive at the track," explained circuit engineering director, Dominic Harlow, "and the knock on effect of the turnaround from Jerez meant there was a lot to do to complete the car build.
"The track conditions weren't good anyway," he continued, "with wet, cold and slippery conditions so we felt we did not miss too much. The afternoon's session was much better and we started our testing with some aerodynamic tests and tyre comparison looking at the new soft.
Rubens Barrichello was on duty for Williams, the Brazilian responsible for one of four red flag periods over the course of the day, stopping out on track at Turn 9.
"We did some laps in the wet this morning which was good as it allowed us to get a feel for the car on intermediate tyres," said Barrichello. "Unfortunately, we didn't get much running in the dry. I had a short run after lunch, but we had to make a precautionary engine change so my day was cut short."
"We didn't have enough set-up time today," added Sam Michael. "The track was moist to start and didn't start ramping up until late morning, at which point we encountered an issue with the engine. Over the break, we changed the engine and did just one proper run at the end of the session. All of our running was carried out on the medium compound tyre. Despite the downtime, we actually tested and measured quite a few aero and systems items in the background. Tonight, we will re-activate KERS in preparation for tomorrow's running."
Michael Schumacher was on duty for Mercedes, the German first heading out midway through the morning to complete aerodynamic evaluations and balance checks. Following the lunch break, he completed a race simulation including pit stops.
"We had a good day," said the seven-time champion, "and it is certainly satisfying to finish a race distance with all of the systems operational and to have everything working fine. Now we have to turn our focus to performance and it was important to complete today's simulation to understand how the car and tyres behave going from a heavy to lighter fuel load."
With Tonio Liuzzi due to test for Hispania tomorrow, Narain Karthikeyan was on duty today for the Spanish outfit, completing 116 laps in the 2010 car and posting the ninth best time of the day.
"Today was a very productive day for me because I got a lot of laps in," said the Indian. "I was able to use various types of Pirelli tyres; the morning was damp so we started with intermediates and as it dried up we moved on to medium, soft and supersoft tyres. The most important thing was to get the mileage done, a few more days like this and we will be ready for the start of the championship."
"We did a lot of laps today, 116 in total, more than any other team," added Colin Kolles. "The good news is that the car got through the sessions without any problems. Today was a great opportunity for Narain to get to learn more about the new Pirelli tyres. I'm delighted to see that Narain is growing accustomed to the car, the progress is clear for everyone to see with his improving lap times."
Heikki Kovalainen's day was brought to an early end thanks to a gearbox lubrication problem. Stopping over ninety minutes before the end of the session, up until that point the Finn had completed 54 laps.
"It was good to start the day," said the Finn, "with some runs on the intermediates in proper damp conditions. There wasn't a lot of standing water on the track but it was pretty damp all round - we needed to try out the inters in these conditions so we've now amassed some very useful data on those. After that we wanted to do a race distance but the gearbox problem meant we couldn't complete that part of the plan.
"Despite this I'm still finding that the car has good balance," he continued, "and is basically a decent package - we'll sort out the problems and tomorrow we'll try the race distance again and see where we are after that."
"It was a reasonably productive day," added Mike Gascoyne, "although we had to stop slightly earlier than planned due to a gearbox lubrication issue. This morning we were able to run on the inters on a damp track for the first time and we have obtained some useful data from those runs. We worked through the rest of the compound choices throughout the day on high fuel loads which is helping us learn more about how to maximise the performance of the Pirellis with the car."
Jerome D'Ambrosio was behind the wheel of the Virgin MVR-02 today, and thanks to the early conditions was able to get the team's first impression of the PZero intermediate, as well as trying out different gearbox settings.
In the afternoon, the Belgian completed a full race distance, including pit stops, during which the car ran flawlessly. Only red flags elsewhere on the circuit hampered the team's progress.
"Today was another very productive day in the car," said D'Ambrosio. "It was good to be able to feel what it's like to drive in the wet and use the intermediate tyres for the first time today. I felt very comfortable driving at a track I like. I'm quickly getting used to the car and the team are doing a fantastic job. Now I can't wait to jump in the car again on Monday."
"It's always good to be back in Barcelona," added team principal, John Booth, "as the characteristics are such that it provides us with the perfect opportunity to work on race simulation and hone car set-up. We also have the full range of tyre compounds here again, which will provide us with the chance to thoroughly evaluate the car's behaviour in highly representative conditions.
"We continue to be encouraged with the level of reliability we are seeing," he continued, "and this is enabling us to gather a vast amount of data that is being fed back into the development programme all the time. All in all, things are looking promising."
It was a difficult day for Lotus Renault GP which lost track time due to a KERS problem. Nick Heidfeld got the session underway for the British team before handing over to teammate Vitaly Petrov, and while the KERS problem - which took most of the day to solve - prevented the team from completing its scheduled programme, both drivers were able to carry out some pit stops practice as the team got up to speed with its new traffic light system which has been developed over the last year and will be used at the first race.
"I was in the car for just an hour this morning to do some pit stop practice," said Heidfeld. "It was a bit damp to begin with, so we started on the wet tyres and I got my first feel for them. I didn't do a proper run, just one timed lap and then came in and out for pit stops. It was the first time I have used the new traffic light system and it worked okay, but we found some small things to improve for next time."
"A difficult day for us because we lost a lot of time finding the problem with the KERS," added Petrov, "but at least I got out for the final 40 minutes so that we could do the practice pit stops with our new lighting system. Because we didn't manage to do much running today, the team will give me some more time in the car tomorrow morning before Nick takes over."
Our day was blighted by a KERS problem, which was quite difficult to understand," admitted Alan Permane. "However, we eventually solved the issue and, as a result, we have learned quite a lot. We're confident we won't face these problems again. On the positive side, we did complete our pit stop practice with Nick, Vitaly and all the mechanics from the race team."
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