11/03/2011
NEWS STORY
Michael Schumacher topped the timesheets on the fourth and penultimate day of testing at Barcelona, just two weeks before the first round of the 2011 Formula One season.
Although sunny for most of the day, there were a few times when the sky clouded over and rain threatened, indeed, the general consensus is that there will be rain tomorrow.
Schumacher completed the majority of Mercedes programme with Nico Rosberg taking over for the final hour of the day. The team added a number of new aerodynamic parts to its upgrade package today as Schumacher focused on aerodynamic evaluations and qualifying exercises. Rosberg took over the car at 16:00s to experience the new developments on a dry track ahead of tomorrow's expected rain.
"We have been developing the car step-by-step this week with new parts arriving each day," said Schumacher. "So our focus today has been on understanding how to get the best from the car now that it is pretty much in its final configuration for the first time. The car has behaved as we expected and it's been a very productive day. We completed our programme and I should also be able to get some experience of the expected wet conditions tomorrow."
"First of all, it's super that I was able to do some laps today," added Rosberg, "given the forecast for tomorrow. It was a good few laps, and obviously now that we have most of the developments for the car, it was handling much better and I had a good feeling. So I'm pretty pleased with the situation and would like to thank the whole team for getting everything onto the car that we wanted. We've made good progress over the winter."
Ferrari continues to impress in terms of pace and reliability, Fernando Alonso completing a massive 140 laps and posting a best time just 0.346s shy of Schumacher's.
The Spaniard ran an identical programme to the one brought to a close yesterday by Felipe Massa, centring mainly on a comparison of various aerodynamic elements and then a race weekend simulation.
"Once again, the car has proved to be very reliable, which is always good news," said the two-time champion. "The updates that the team prepared for this last test have improved the handling of the car and today we managed to do a good simulation of a Grand Prix weekend, with reasonable lap times.
"Where are we compared to the others?" he continued. "Today, we are all together here in Barcelona... but joking apart, we will only discover the truth in Melbourne. Tyres used, fuel loads, test programmes: there are too many parameters in play and they can make a big difference in terms of outright performance. Right from the start of these tests, we have always concentrated on our own work, trying to improve the car and be reliable: how clever we have been, we will see in two weeks time."
Nick Heidfeld concluded Lotus Renault GP's pre-season preparations, the German completing 67 laps on his way to posting the fourth best time of the day. High fuel running allowed Heidfeld to improve his understanding of the Pirelli tyres, maximising lap time while looking after the tyres.
According to the team the data confirms the R31 is nicely balanced in terms of tyre wear, with both the front and rears wearing at a similar rate, however, a gearbox problem in the afternoon compromised track time.
"For our final day in Barcelona we started by working on car balance to be ready for Melbourne," said the German. "The set-up work was useful and taught us quite a few things. We would have liked to do more laps and I was hoping to do a race distance later in the day, but the problems with the gearbox after lunch meant we spent a bit too much time in the garage. However, we managed to get out for the final hour and did some running on heavy fuel."
"We had a good morning," said Alan Permane. "The car was working well and showed good pace. The programme involved the continuation of our set-up work from earlier in the week. For the afternoon we had planned a race distance, but unfortunately we had to change the gearbox at lunchtime. In the end we opted to do a very long run on high fuel."
It was a day of mixed fortunes for Williams. Running in the morning, Rubens Barrichello had a fairly trouble free race simulation however, problems in the afternoon meant that Pastor Maldonado only completed 11 laps.
"We lost some time while we changed the engine and then during the installation lap we had another minor engine problem," said the Venezuelan. "In the end I only did one long run but the most important thing was that I got to drive the car with the new aero package which does feel better. Hopefully we will get a full day of running in tomorrow."
"I did a race simulation this morning on some new tyres," added Barrichello. "The car felt OK but we are still not quite where we want to be just yet."
"Rubens completed a race distance this morning, which marked the end of his winter test programme," said Sam Michael. "The mileage and input he has given towards setting up the FW33 has been invaluable to the team. We had an oil leak on the engine at lunchtime before Pastor took over for the afternoon. As it was high mileage, we chose to change it. We achieved most of our programme today and it looks like we'll be into some wet running tomorrow. We will continue to run in Barcelona without KERS, but everyone's pushing to ensure we have it on the car for Melbourne."
Sauber used its final day of pre-season testing i for a simulation with Kamui Kobayashi. The qualifying practice was completed before lunch time with the race simulation following in the afternoon.
"The morning was very productive with the track conditions for the qualifying practice quite cold and difficult compared to yesterday," said technical director, James Key. "In the afternoon we did a race simulation, first using old tyres and then a new set at the end.
"Unfortunately we suffered a drive shaft problem which stopped us some laps early. The problem still has to be investigated. Today we reached the end of winter testing and are now looking forward to the season's opening race in Melbourne."
"I ran through the scheduled programme with a qualifying practice and almost a race distance today," said Kobayashi. "But now all my thoughts are with the people in Japan. My country has suffered an enormous catastrophe. The news is depressing and I'm very sad. I can't really put in words what I feel."
At Toro Rosso, Jaime Alguersuari spent the morning evaluating a number of new aerodynamic components while in the afternoon, he looked at race set-up work, completing all the planned programme.
"Overall, these final four days have been productive," said chief engineer, Laurent Mekies. "We did a lot of laps, including a couple of full race simulations and we practiced pit stops extensively. Compared to the first three tests, we also acquired much more data regarding tyre performance and degradation, given that we did many more long runs with high fuel loads. Now, we must wait until Melbourne to see the true level of our performance."
"I would sum up all of the pre-season testing as reasonably positive for our team," added the Spanish driver. "We have learned a lot about the new parameters we have from this year's rules and obviously understanding the new Pirelli tyres has been an important element of these tests. It has been very different to the previous year, so now we start a new championship in Melbourne, with a new philosophy. I think we have a good car, which shows potential. However, we still need to improve a lot and that will involve plenty of hard work in the coming weeks."
Reigning champions and 2011 title favourites Red Bull brought their pre-season preparations to a conclusion today, leaving Sebastian Vettel pleased with the way things have gone.
"The preparation has been good," said the world champion. "It was a long winter and we did a lot of kilometres, I think more than we ever have done before during testing, which is positive. Now we are just looking forward to Melbourne. If you ask me about performance, all I can say is I think we are there or thereabouts, and, as I keep saying, it's impossible to know until we get to Australia. But am I in a positive mood? Yeah, I think I am!"
"We have a reliable car, that has been good out of the box," added Ian Morgan, the Austrian outfit's Ian Morgan, head of race engineering, "and the performance looks good too. "You never know how things will shake up until the end of Q3 in Melbourne, and while there are things you could always do better, I think we've done our homework well."
Heikki Kovalainen and Team Lotus wrapped up their test in style, the Finn completing a massive 138 laps and posting a best time ahead of the McLaren and Force India duo.
"That is obviously a fantastic end to the test," beamed Kovalainen. "Everyone in the team has put in a lot of hard work and days like today are the reward. Completing a double-race distance has given us the chance to make a lot of progress on track and we have accumulated a huge amount of data that will be very helpful in Australia, Malaysia and China. I'm not only pleased with the mileage we've done today, I'm also pleased with the pace we've shown. It's too early to make predictions but I think we'll go to Melbourne and have a good chance to taking the step forward we want to. A good day!"
"An excellent last day of the test," added Mike Gascoyne, "and a very good way to finish the four pre-season tests. We completed our full programme today, worked through a lot of set-up options and also completed two race distance runs which is very satisfying. To have finished with a double-race distance is a great effort from the team who have worked extremely hard. It is clear that compared to this time last year we have made a huge step forward so this a great way to finish and now we can look forward to the action in Melbourne."
Force India was another team bringing its pre-season testing programme to an end with Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta splitting the day and covering a full race distance between them as they worked on gathering further information on the new aerodynamic upgrades and performance-related items.
"Twenty six laps for me today," said Sutil, "working on getting more information on the new aero parts we introduced yesterday. We wanted to do a qualifying sim as we missed this yesterday but in the end we only managed one run on the soft tyres as we had some set-up changes that took a bit longer than expected. It gave us an idea of where to go, but unfortunately we ran out of time to do a run on the supersoft, which ultimately would have put us further up the final classification. We've identified some areas we can improve on the car and a general direction so we're going to concentrate on this between now and Melbourne."
"I got a chance to get back in the car this afternoon for my final laps before the Australian Grand Prix," added his Scottish teammate. "We got some reasonable running and tested part of the aero upgrade package for the start of the season. We've still got some fine-tuning to do for Melbourne so we'll go back to the factory to work on this. It's been a really useful time for me, I've learnt what we need to focus on so I'll spend the time between now and the first race making sure we're running to our full capabilities to be fully ready for my Grand Prix debut."
"Both Adrian and Paul shared the driving today in order to complete their respective programmes," revealed Dominic Harlow, the team's circuit engineering director. "We continued to look at some aerodynamic test items as well as further set-up changes. Both proved useful and we head to Australia with over 5,500km covered during the pre-season testing.
"As ever there is more to do to improve the performance of the car and there will be some further developments for the first race. Our reliability over the race distances here has been good and we've collected a lot of data on the tyre performance that we feel will be useful as we prepare our race strategies at the coming events."
After a one-day hiatus, McLaren got back to work, Jenson Button spending the morning going through pitstop practices and completing some flow-vis aerodynamic tests. The focus then switched to a number of evaluation runs using the 'porpoise nose' measuring equipment mounted to the nosecone. Despite stopping just before lunch to effect a precautionary engine change, the team was able to complete its morning run programme.
Making a late return to the track, the Woking team carried out a number of short runs as it continued learning about the Pirelli tyres, during which it acquired further positive data.
"As today was my final day of testing, it was disappointing not to be able to put more mileage on the car," said Button. "But I think we learnt some positive things: today was never about pace, as we weren't running lower fuel-loads, but there is pace in the car - it's just been masked by reliability issues.
"Now, I'm looking forward to Melbourne," he added, "you can't under-estimate a team as determined as McLaren: we're all pulling together and we've got some interesting developments in the pipeline.
"Finally, I just want to add that today's events at the track are really put in their perspective by the terrible tragedy in Japan. Right now, my thoughts go out to everybody in Japan, particularly in the worst-affected area of Sendai. My heart is with them."
For Virgin, Jerome D'Ambrosio completed his fourth consecutive day of running. In the morning he worked through an aerodynamic evaluation with developments for Australia and in the afternoon he was able to complete further set-up work and a tyre evaluation programme.
"I have had an incredibly enjoyable and rewarding week here in Barcelona," said the Belgian, "and I feel we are now as prepared as we can be for the season opening Grand Prix in Melbourne in two weeks' time. Over the course of the past four tests we have achieved a great deal of mileage, learned a lot about the new car and how to get the best from the current package and how we can develop it from here through the early part of the season. Aside from some time in the simulator next week the track-oriented work is done and I will now switch focus to the mental and physical preparation for my racing debut.
"It has been a long time coming since I signed for the team," he continued, "but to be honest I haven't had time to worry or think about it because we have been so busy with testing. I guess now I can start to look forward to it properly. I know that taking to the track for the first time in Melbourne is going to be something really quite special. I would like to thank everyone in the team for an incredible push to get us ready for the season. Everyone has done a great job throughout testing and I really do feel very much at home with a great team of people. I hope the hard work pays off for us all in Australia."
"Today we conclude not only the Barcelona programme but our entire pre-season testing programme," added John Booth, "and what I think we take away most from this experience is just how far we've come in the space of 12 months. The difference between our 2010 and 2011 programmes is huge and whilst there is still some way to go in terms of performance, I think we can feel justifiably proud of how we have grown into a professional racing operation. The mileage differential in itself speaks to that fact; last year having achieved just 1985kms versus an impressive 4642kms with the 2011 package over the last four tests.
"With regard to today it was a little frustrating to lose valuable track time due to a faulty sensor on the engine side, which had to be changed, but we were at least able to complete an aerodynamic programme this morning which appears to be a step forward thanks to a new rear wing. This afternoon we also completed some useful set-up work, although the temperatures fluctuated quite a bit so we ended up chasing the track rather a lot.
"On the whole we have to feel very pleased with what we have achieved this week and we head to Australia in good spirits and eager to see where we stand with the usual barometer of outright performance that Friday Free Practice at the opening race typically provides. On a final note, congratulations to everyone in the team for a fantastic job so far this year. We look forward to continuing this trend."
To check out our Barcelona gallery, click here.