01/05/2012
NEWS STORY
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The day started off wet with a couple of drivers finally switching to slicks shortly before the lunch-break. However, further rain in the afternoon, including a thunderstorm, and reduced visibility that saw the medical helicopter grounded, meant that few drivers ventured out - much to the disappointment of the 15,000 fans present.
Alonso's programme for the day included development of new components and increasing the understanding of the behaviour of the tyres. Unfortunately, the conditions, with only a small window of dry time in the late morning, required a drastic revision of the programme. The afternoon was particularly limited, when the only work carried out was some practice starts.
"It's a shame about the rain," said Alonso, "which complicated the running of this first day of testing and a shame for the spectators who deserved to see more of a show.
"We had a pretty busy work programme, but we only managed to get through a part of it. Therefore, it's impossible to give a serious evaluation, especially as we did so little dry running.
"I can only say that, for me, it was a pleasure to be driving at this track again," he added, "the first and only other time was back in 2001, when I was testing for Minardi. It's a spectacular track and it would be nice to be able to race on it!"
Mark Webber was on duty for Red Bull, the Australian completing 24 laps on his way to posting a best time of 1:23.648.
The morning conditions led Red Bull to run a re-worked plan, which included some running on intermediate tyres. The Austrian outfit used those outings to test a number of aerodynamic and mechanical development parts, which had been brought to Italy for the test.
The brief lull in the wet weather later in the morning gave Webber a couple of dry tyre runs and the team maximised the opportunity before the heaviest rain of the day arrived.
"Obviously, the weather wasn't great today," said the Australian, "so we didn't get to do much running in the dry. Really, we only got one decent run on the slicks. Then it rained after lunch and with limited sets of wets available, you can't do that much. We're hoping for better over the next couple of days.
"It's an important test. We have a lot of information to gather and, while today didn't quite work out as expected, I'm optimistic that over the course of the next few days we'll get the information we need.
"I have to say this is a fantastic track. It's very challenging for the driver and very quick. I don't know if we'll ever race here in the future, you never know, but to see the crowd here today was very special. A lot of people came to watch and that's great."
Jean-Eric Vergne was one of a number of drivers to bring out the red flags today, the Frenchman caught out by the treacherous conditions early in the morning session.
"This is my first ever visit to Mugello," said the Toro Rosso driver, "and I have to say, despite the weather, I enjoyed my time on the circuit as it is a really fantastic track to drive.
"The car felt fine for the few dry laps I completed, but from a technical point of view, there is not much to say, because although we have a full programme to work through, the rain meant we will have to wait until tomorrow to start assessing some of the new elements we have brought here. At one point this morning, I went off the track; I was pushing a bit too hard, spun and got stuck, as the rear wheels were in the gravel. But there was no damage to the car."
Lotus opted to only run in the morning session, Jerome D'Ambrosio completing 40 trouble free laps before conditions worsened in the afternoon. Because of today's reduced running, Romain Grosjean will now drive for the next two days - contrary to the original plan of Kimi Raikkonen running tomorrow and Romain only on Thursday - due to the uncertain weather predictions for the next two days.
"It was great to finally get my hands on the E20," said d'Ambrosio, "and I'd like to thank the team again for giving me this opportunity. It's a fantastic car and I felt confident with it straight away, especially in the dry. It's a real shame we've been limited by the weather today in terms of what we could achieve, but we had known for a few days that rain was forecast so it's not a big shock. We managed to complete 20 laps in both wet and dry conditions which gives me a good knowledge of the car and will help me be a better asset to the team with this experience."
"It was not the most ideal day," added Alan Permane, the Enstone outfit's Trackside Operations Director, "but in spite of the weather we managed to get some useful laps on the board. Of course, it was the first taste of the E20 for Jerome who was very happy with the car including his seating position and all the controls. This is important, as it means he will be much better prepared if called upon again further into the season. The mixed conditions, running intermediates to start and then switching to the medium compound slicks, also gives us a good base line for Romain over the next two days. We've opted for one driver for the next two days so we can make better use of the time after losing this afternoon's running."
"We had a busy programme lined up for Jerome including a fair amount of aerodynamic work, sensor measurement work and of course preparing foundations for Romain over the next two days," revealed Technical Director, James Allison. "We've been able to do some of that work in the limited dry running that was available, but there is now a lot more we need to fit in to Wednesday and Thursday. The important thing is we now have base line to build on, so the next two days should be much more productive."
Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher were both on duty for Mercedes, the Chinese Grand Prix winner completing 49 laps in the morning during which time the team was able to use the time to work on set-up with the intermediate tyres, switching to dry hours for the last hour.
Schumacher was only able to use the wet tyres for limited data collection work in the afternoon, completing only 5 laps before the team opted to finish the programme early in order to prepare the car for tomorrow.
"It was a good session for me this morning and a positive start to our testing programme," said Rosberg. "It's nice to see that we have some new parts for the car and that the ongoing process of in-season developments is working well. We were able to learn some things in the wet conditions this morning which is always useful, and we picked up a few lessons. Mugello is an impressive track which is very fast and good fun to drive. It's also good preparation for the next race in Barcelona with the high-speed corners. I'm looking forward to getting back in the car again on Thursday and continuing our programme."
"Unfortunately we were not able to achieve much productive work on the track this afternoon as the weather made it nearly impossible to drive," added Schumacher. "Therefore it's good that we collected some data this morning so that we can prepare the car in the best possible way for tomorrow. This afternoon, I was literally able just go out to check if it made sense to run - which it did not - and at least I could show the spectators who were waiting in the rain a running car for some short moments. Still, it was nice being back in Mugello after so many years, and I must say it was also nice being welcomed back by the tifosi so warmly."
At Sauber the programme for Kamui Kobayashi related to the new aero package the C31 is equipped with for this week's test. The package includes a new front wing, new rear body work, a new diffuser and numerous other parts.
In the morning track conditions required full wet tyres, but later allowed for some base line running on intermediates and even for a comparison of the new body work on a set of dry weather tyres, which were medium compound tyres that had been used at a pre-season test.
After the lunch break when the weather conditions changed for the worse, Kobayashi managed to carry out baseline runs and did some practice starts in the wet before race control had to red flag the session due to a heavy thunderstorm shortly after 3pm. Later, when the cars were allowed out again, the team decided not to continue testing. Its data will now be evaluated for tomorrow.
Like Mercedes, McLaren had two drivers on duty, Oliver Turvey in the morning and Gary Paffett - a DTM winner at the weekend - in the afternoon. Turvey began the week's programme with a number of short, data-collection runs on slicks. The heavy rain at lunchtime meant that the scheduled driver changeover to Paffett was less productive: the wet weather, coupled with circuit closures due to the low visibility, rendered meaningful running pointless. As a result, the team opted to end the day early and start preparations for tomorrow.
Jules Bianchi was in the hot (wet?) seat for Force India, the Frenchman completing just 18 laps.
"This morning we had to wait a long time for the track to dry," he said. "We did some runs on the intermediates just to check the car's systems and when the conditions improved I went back out on the dry tyres [medium] to get confident with the car and to feel the track conditions. There was a chance to do some aero checks and we got some good aero data, but it was difficult to test all the developments so that will need to be done later this week."
"We expected the wet weather conditions today," said Chief Engineer, Jakob Andreasen, "so we tried our best to work around them and made sure Jules was out on track when the track was at its driest. After some installation laps on the intermediates, he switched to the medium compound just before lunch and did a couple of runs to get a dry baseline and measured some of the aerodynamic pressures on the car. With the rain intensifying in the afternoon we opted to run a very limited programme and prepared the car for tomorrow. Jules got out towards the end of the session to do a final systems check, which leaves us well placed to maximise tomorrow when we expect much drier conditions."
"The weather played its part today in limiting the running we had planned for Rodolfo," admitted Caterham Sporting Director, Steve Nielsen. "Despite that he still did a good, solid job for us this morning, making no mistakes and putting in consistent lap times on every run he completed. His is developing as a driver and we can measure his progress over the last couple of years against the data we accumulated from his previous outings with us, at the Abu Dhabi young drivers' tests in 2010 and 2011, and in the way he conducts himself in and out of the car. He responds well to the instructions he is given and his technical feedback has improved markedly since he first drove for us in 2010, so overall we are pleased with the job he has done for us today, in what have been obviously frustrating conditions, and now we want him to take what he's learnt back to his GP2 season with Caterham Racing and continue to develop his skills every time he is on track.
"Tomorrow we have Vitaly back in the car," he continued, "and he will be spending the day evaluating several new parts on the car, including a new spec rear wing, new bodywork and a number of revisions to the exhaust system. Hopefully we will have a better day with the weather so we avoid losing too much more valuable track time at this test."
"Despite the weather, which was obviously frustrating this afternoon, I've had a good day with the team here at Mugello," said Gonzalez (above). "I love this track - I've won here in the past in International F3, so getting back out in an F1 car this morning was a great experience. Obviously I'd have preferred a lot more dry running, but today wasn't about setting the fastest times I could, it was more about making sure I ran to the plan we'd set with the engineers, not making any mistakes, and continuing to learn as much as I could. After the morning session I was happy with my performance, particularly considering how stop / start the session was, and while the running was pretty much meaningless this afternoon it's still been another very valuable day for me. Every minute I'm with the F1 team helps me develop as a driver, so even though everyone at the test was affected by today's rain, for me this has still been another step in the right direction for my career."
Charles Pic was on duty for Marussia where the objective for day one was an evaluation of the latest aerodynamic upgrades, set for introduction in Spain, as well as a tyre programme designed to facilitate a deeper understanding of the Pirelli P-Zero rubber.
As the track started to dry late morning, Pic conducted much of his running on the intermediate tyre before switching to the hard slick compound later in the session. This afternoon the rain intensified and the team elected to conclude the day's running early in favour of making some planned changes to the car for tomorrow.
The engineers were at least able to gather some useful data with which to evaluate the aerodynamic package but the emphasis on this aspect of the plan will now move to later in the test, when more conducive conditions are expected.
"Today it has been difficult to find any kind of rhythm as the weather was changing all the time," said Pic. "All running is good for us because there is always more we can learn about the car, but it will be good to spend tomorrow morning focusing more on the tyre work in the drier conditions. The aero developments look good, but there is plenty more to explore in the next two days to help us prepare for Barcelona. A short day, but useful."
"The rain has rather intervened with our plans today and it goes without saying that we would have been a lot happier had we been able to knuckle down to our full planned programme," admitted John Booth. "Nonetheless, we have seen encouraging early signs from the new aero developments and we have some data to start working with. We did not run the DRS or work with the tyres this morning, so we don't have any representative lap times with which to gauge the true benefit of the package. Hopefully we'll get closer to those conclusions in the next couple of days, weather permitting. Charles has done a solid job for us and the car has been working well, so we look forward to more progress from tomorrow onwards."
It was a similar story at Williams where Valtteri Bottas was on duty. "Unfortunately our programme was compromised by the rain, which at one stage was heavy enough to red flag the session," said Mark Gillan. "Valtteri drove well in what were very difficult conditions. Despite this limited running we managed to successfully complete a number of our planned test items. Thankfully the forecast for the next two days looks better and we hope to recover some of the lost time with both Bruno and Pastor scheduled to be driving the car on Wednesday and Thursday respectively."
"It wasn't ideal weather for testing unfortunately," said Bottas, a masterpiece of understatement. "However, we completed some aero runs this morning when the track dried out a little and gathered some useful data. I feel we made the most out of the conditions and got as much out of the day as we could. The track is really great so it's a shame I didn't get more running in the dry."
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