08/02/2012
NEWS STORY
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Driving the 2011 Mercedes MGP W02, Michael Schumacher topped the timesheets on the second day at Jerez, though Australian duo Mark Webber and Daniel Ricciardo were the quickest drivers in 2012 cars.
The Brackley-based outfit's morning programme focused on comparisons and evaluation of the soft and hard compound Pirelli tyres, while in the afternoon the German concentrated on a set-up programme with the new tyres in preparation for the debut of the 2012 car in Barcelona.
"We made the most of a reliable car today to do lots of laps and learn a lot about the new tyres, and how they perform on longer and shorter runs, and with different set-up configurations," said Schumacher. "It was a good and productive test, full of lots of useful information for the season ahead, and I am now looking forward to driving our 2012 car for the first time at the next test."
Ominously, second quickest, but quickest of the 2012 runners, was Mark Webber in the new Red Bull RB8, the Australian completing 97 laps on the way to posting a best time just 0.623s shy of Schumacher's.
"It was pretty good today," said Webber. "I think we're making good progress although, as I keep saying, it's still very early days in the concept of the car and we have a lot to get through before we race it. But it's the same for all the teams."
"We did well on the mileage today," he added. "I guess we could have done a bit more, but it was positive overall and the conditions were good to test in."
"After yesterday's brief delay we had a pretty full programme to get through today," admitted head of race engineering, Ian Morgan, "and I'm pleased to say we got through the majority of it. There were a couple of minor niggles, but nothing major, so we didn't really lose any time. Mark did some work evaluating the available Pirelli tyre compounds.
"Sebastian is in the car tomorrow and we have a large programme to get through with him. We will get Seb settled and up to speed and then work through some more aero and tyre evaluation. So, there's another busy day ahead."
There was another Australian at the top end of the timesheets, with Daniel Ricciardo completing a hundred laps on his second and last day of driving. The car ran faultlessly throughout, allowing the team to get through its programme split between short runs this morning and a longer one this afternoon, while acquiring plenty of data.
Tomorrow, Jean-Eric Vergne will be behind the wheel of the STR7 for the first time, which means that the first part of the day will be spent getting him comfortable and adapted to the new car.
"I am happy with what we did today," said Ricciardo. "One hundred laps is around twice the distance we did yesterday. So we achieved our aim of getting plenty of miles for me and the car with a mix of short and long runs, trying three different tyre compounds. I also did some practice starts and pit entry tests, just about as much as one can do in one day. We have made progress and were even able to do some back to back runs to start finding out how the car reacts to set-up changes."
Force India had Jules Bianchi on duty this morning, before handing over to Paul di Resta this afternoon. Between them the pair completed 115 laps, finishing fourth and sixth quickest.
The programme saw a continuation of yesterday's work as the team continued to collect data and evaluated test items. As well as systems checks and further set-up evaluation, the team also carried out some aero work.
"It was a really good morning and great to get my chance in the new car so early on," said Bianchi. "There was a lot to get used to, especially the steering wheel and remembering where all the switches are, but it didn't take too long before I felt happy in the car. It may only have been half a day, but the team asked me to do quite a lot of things and we managed to complete almost 50 laps before lunch. For me this year is all about learning and helping the team as much as I can, so today was important for that and getting to know the team. It's great that I am back in the car tomorrow and I will try and get closer to the limit, because it's important preparation for my Friday practice running this year."
"Half a day, but quite intense," added di Resta, "69 laps in just over three hours, which is a really good effort. But it was also one of the more difficult days because the wind seemed to get very strong from midday onwards, which made driving the car very tricky. However, we managed to get a clear direction on a couple of set-up changes so that's given us an indication of the areas we should explore over the coming weeks. After 101 laps yesterday and 115 today, we've clearly built a good, strong car, but now it's about getting into the detail, going over the data and getting ready for Barcelona."
"This morning was our first chance to work with Jules, so we focussed on getting him comfortable and familiar with all the systems on the car," said Andrew Green, the team's technical director. "He acclimatised quickly and soon found his rhythm, which meant we could push ahead with the aero work we had planned for this morning. He did an excellent job, worked well with the engineers and has settled into the team.
"In the afternoon session, Paul evaluated some set-up options while running with different tyre compounds: soft, medium and hard. The windy track conditions made that quite challenging, but we made the best of it and managed to get an early indication of where we should focus our efforts to extract performance from the car."
Yesterday's pace-setter, Kimi Raikkonen, could only manage fifth today at Lotus focussed on system checks, temperature monitoring, data correlation and evaluation of the performance of the car with its initial aerodynamic package.
"There was a small issue with damage to the floor this morning when I went off and came back on to the circuit," said the Finn. "An edge on a kerb caused the damage and we lost some time as it was repaired. Apart from that it was a good day and we completed some long runs and good mileage. Physically, I felt fine after 117 laps. Conditions were quite windy on track but despite this I got a better feeling from the car. There was a lot of difference between the tyres. We used three compounds, but it was hard to get all of them working with the cooler temperatures today. When the tyres are working we seem to have a good car and I have a positive feeling from this first test."
"We had an interruption this morning with a slight off from Kimi which caused some damage to the car," added Alan Permane. "This gave us an opportunity with the car in the garage to change the specification of steering rack, so we lost a reasonable amount of time in the morning. The E20 ran reliably for the rest of the day, meaning we were able to complete most of our planned programme. We looked at set-up, using the medium and soft tyres. We ran long runs in the afternoon, including a final run on the hard tyre, to gain mileage and everything worked very well. The balance is good which is encouraging from a performance perspective and the E20 was reliable again. All specifications of tyres are behaving as we would expect with the E20 so this is another area of encouragement."
Ferrari continues to point out that at this stage times are unimportant, as Felipe Massa posted a best time 1.893s off Schumacher's pace. The Italian team, which will have Fernando Alonso on duty tomorrow, continued working on data acquisition relating to car's behaviour.
Jenson Button's second day in the P4-27 was spent getting used to the new chassis and evaluating a series of braking, set-up and software changes made to the car - particularly the effect on balance and stability at both high and low speeds.
"Despite the cold and windy conditions, Jenson was able to log further mileage today," said team manager David Redding. "It's still early days, and this was very much an exploratory day, but we were able to get a useful understanding of how the car behaves and reacts out on the track.
"It's satisfying that Jenson's been able to complete more than 600km of trouble-free running over the past two days; that puts us in a good position for the rest of the week."
Sergio Perez got his first taste of the Sauber C31, the Mexican completing 68 laps on his way to posting the ninth best time of the day, a day on which the pit crew were kept busy implementing new aero parts and fixing a fuel system problem in the afternoon.
"For me it was a positive day," said Perez. "It was great to be back on track after the winter break and so far I'm happy with the new car. I feel confident. It was a shame that we lost track time due to the fuel system problem in the afternoon, but I think we can catch up tomorrow. We have a huge programme for Thursday and I'm looking forward to it very much. Compared to yesterday we have already learnt a great deal more about the C31."
"It was Sergio's first day of testing with the new car," added Giampaolo Dall'Ara, the Swiss outfit's head of track engineering. "To start with he had to familiarise himself with the C31 and he did a bit of set-up work in the morning. During the lunch break we implemented new aero parts on the car. They are working well and as expected which is important and good news. In the afternoon we unfortunately lost track time because of a problem with the fuel system. So far we have only used the medium tyre compound."
Pastor Maldonado continued for Williams, the Venezuelan posting a best time 2.636s off the pace and finishing tenth quickest.
"We ran through our programme and covered everything we needed to," he said at the end of the day's action. "We did some long runs this afternoon and the car is looking good. We will now spend some time analysing all of the data we have gathered. It's good to put more mileage on the FW34 and we now aim to continue that throughout the next two days.
"We successfully completed the majority of our planned test programme today," added Mark Gillan, the Grove outfit's chief operations engineer. "We performed a mixture of mechanical and aerodynamic set-up tests, in addition to continued engine and KERS systems checks. Bruno will have his first outing in the car tomorrow as we switch driver for the final two days of the test.
Busiest man today, but appearing to love every minute of it, was Heikki Kovalainen, the Finn completing 139 laps as he closed the gap to Williams.
"I feel very happy with the work we have completed today," he said. "Yesterday we had a problem that was nothing to do with the car so today was our first real day of testing and we had a trouble free day, completing most of what we wanted to on day one and day two and working through a variety of setup changes. We ran on each of the tyre compounds and I'm really starting to get a feel for the car. Basically it's good news because it confirms what I thought yesterday. This car is a lot better than the 2011 car, it's quicker and everything works as we want it to. We've made very solid progress and I feel really good physically, so I think there's a lot more to come."
"I want to congratulate Heikki and the whole team for the job we have done today," added Mike Gascoyne. "We ran KERS for the first time and completed everything we had planned with that system, so thank you to Red Bull Technology and Renault Sport F1 for helping make that part of the program run so smoothly.
"Today we were concentrating on the setup program, using long runs to really start understanding what this car can do, so having completed 139 laps we have made a huge amount of progress, particularly compared to last year, and now we have to make sure we keep up this sort of momentum for the rest of the tests."
Rounding off the timesheets, and like Schumacher in a 2011 car, was Pedro de la Rosa in the HRT. The Spaniard completed 64 laps and posting a best time 1.5s quicker than his fastest lap time yesterday.
The cold conditions in the morning meant that the team opted for a conservative strategy and waited for the track temperature to rise. The programme consisted in continuing testing with the new hard, medium and soft compound tyres, and also carrying out tests which were more orientated towards driving, such as engine mapping and race start simulations.
Only here for the first two days of this test, HRT will next appear at Barcelona in two weeks time.
"Today we've progressed quite a bit as the day wore on," said de la Rosa, "we've got more out of the car without having changed practically anything. Above all, today served me to get to know the tyres better. We all got to know each other a bit better and worked well together. I got rid of the rust yesterday and today I refreshed myself. On the first day the objective was not to go to the limit, but to get to know the people and for all of us to start working together. And the team did a good job. Today was more about seeing how far I could go, and that is why I think we improved on our times so much. Today I'm even more satisfied than yesterday, but on a personal note because I drove better. I'm leaving with a smile on my face and very much looking forward to Barcelona."
"The two days of testing have served as good practice for the team," added Toni Cuquerella, the Spanish outfit's chief race engineer, "the majority of which is new, the equipment, which is also new, and also as a chance for Pedro to try out last year's car and regain feelings at the steering wheel. We haven't experienced major problems and completed the test programme with both the systems and the team working well. We've also extracted enough data from the new compound tyres with this car to be able to compare it with the data regarding 2011's tyres and reach conclusions that will help us for the next tests. Therefore we can say that we've met our targets for these tests. When we arrive in Barcelona with the new car, everything else will be in place so we can fully concentrate on the car."
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