06/11/2012
NEWS STORY
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Kevin Magnussen, son of former F1 driver Jan Magnussen, topped the timesheets on the first day of the Young Driver Test at the Yas Marina in Abu Dhabi.
Seven drivers were on duty for six teams just 48 hours after the circuited hosted the eighteenth round of the 2012 season, said by many to be one of the best.
McLaren had Magnussen on duty in the morning before putting test driver Gary Paffett in the car for the afternoon session.
The morning was spent acclimatising Magnussen to his first run in an F1 car. That meant a focus on a suite of gradual set-up changes, firstly to introduce him to the behaviour of a grand prix car under different mechanical influences, but also to fine-tune the car's set-up to his personal preference. The team is said to be impressed with the Dane's progress and aptitude.
Paffett undertook the afternoon's running, undertaking a challenging programme primarily focusing on evaluating a wide number of aerodynamic and suspension developments - either for imminent use in the final two races, or for future development for next year's car.
Paffett's large workload also required a consistent baseline, meaning he drove without the benefit of DRS and some way below the limit in order to eliminate unwanted variables.
Paffett concludes his running tomorrow morning after the team completes a number of larger mechanical changes overnight, with Oliver Turvey starting a similar programme in the afternoon.
Red Bull Junior driver Antonio Felix da Costa was at the wheel of the RB8. Running during daylight, rather than the day/night schedule of the Grand Prix, the Austrian team split the allotted time between mechanical work in the morning and aero-mapping during the afternoon. The full programme was completed, with Antonio completing 79 laps.
"This was my first time driving an RB8 at a proper test, with proper tyres on a real circuit, and… wow!" said the Portuguese. "I was perhaps a little anxious beforehand, but ultimately the pedals and the steering wheel are in the usual places.
"There's a lot to learn," he added, "particularly with the buttons on the steering wheel, and it took one or two runs to get completely comfortable with all of that - but I think we had a good day."
Having previously only enjoyed a demo run, today, newly crowned 2012 Formula Renault 3.5 World Series champion, 21-year old Robin Frijns got his first taste of F1 proper, the youngster covering 78 laps, almost one and half times last Sunday's race distance.
"Gosh this was hard work!," said Frijns at the end of the day's running. "Not in the beginning but then suddenly I felt it, especially from the brakes. I am really tired now and know I have to go and exercise more. In the morning we started with installation laps so that I could get used to the car and the steering wheel, which isn't that easy.
"In the afternoon I found it hard to understand the tyre compounds," he admitted. "I had only driven on Michelin tyres before, and with the Pirelli medium and soft compounds it was difficult for me after only one lap. I had the feeling the more careful I handled them the worse it became. There is obviously a lot to learn. On my fastest lap with the soft tyres I made a mistake, so there was more to come. The team did a great job during the day and I want to thank them for that."
"We had a good day with Robin. He did fine," added head of track engineering, Giampaolo Dall'Ara. "Physically he coped well and also, for his age, gave us good feedback. The mileage is a lot and the lap time is also good. We started with hard tyres and did some aero work in the morning before actually working on his lap time. Towards the end of the day we gave him an idea of different tyre compounds and went with a set of medium and a set of soft. But we never sent him out with a qualifying fuel level."
For Abu Dhabi Grand Prix winners Lotus, Nicolas Prost (pictured) was on duty, the French youngster completing a full engineering and aerodynamic programme during a trouble-free day, an gaining valuable data for the team in the process.
The day included pressure logging and aerodynamic testing in the morning while in the afternoon attention focussed on evaluation of the rear drum configuration and further aerodynamic testing.
"Today was my first real experience of a Formula 1 car," said Prost, son of four-time world champion Alain. "I had driven the R30 before, however it's now two years old and uses different tyres so it's quite different to my experience today. I'm obviously very happy and I'm impressed by the car; it's a massive step up even from the R30.
"For me it was like a real test driver's day and we trialled a lot of parts. We only worked on the hard tyres, so were obviously not looking for pace, but we have been analysing the data and I have been comparing myself with Kimi and Romain's telemetry. Obviously I'm missing a bit in some corners, but others are quite good. For my first day I think it's very positive and I did the job the team asked of me, so it's been a very good day."
"For the first day of testing we mainly focused on running some new aerodynamic developments," explained Simon Rennie, the Enstone outfit's race engineer. "It was therefore quite a demanding programme for Nico in terms of procedures, but he managed them all very well. We worked our way through the programme and completed everything we hoped to get out of the day; Nico did a great job.
"We only used three sets of hard tyres; as we had discovered from the race, the degradation at this circuit is very low and they were therefore ideal for completing our aero work. We focused on testing parts that take quite a while to change, meaning it is impossible to gain good data on them during a race weekend. We have not done a huge number of laps, however they have been laps where we have gathered very good data. We were not looking for performance, rather consistent runs from Nico which he did well, so all in all it's been a very good day."
At Toro Rosso, Luiz Razia was at the wheel of the STR7, chassis No3, last raced in the Italian Grand Prix, back in September. The Brazilian completed 67 laps on his way to posting the sixth best time of the day.
"I enjoyed my first experience working with Toro Rosso today, on a track I know well, having driven here in 2010 and '11," said Razia. "In the morning, the team had various test items it wanted to work through and in the afternoon, we looked a bit more at establishing a base line on the car. As far as the tyres are concerned, I found it relatively straightforward as they seemed quite similar to those supplied by Pirelli in GP2. As for all the buttons on the steering wheel, I had some time before driving the car to get used to them, so I soon got the hang of it. Overall, it was a good day as the car ran trouble free and I was able to do a lot of laps."
"This was Luiz's first day working with us and he acquitted himself well," added Laurent Mekies, "quickly getting into a rhythm and running at a good pace. He appeared to be physically fit enough for the work, completing 67 laps with no problems. This meant we got plenty done, on a day when the track conditions were nice and stable throughout the session. In the morning we did some aero testing, switching to brake system evaluation in the afternoon.
Today's Times - All Times Unofficial
| Name | Team | Laps | Time | Gap |
| Magnussen | McLaren | 40 | 1:42.651 | 121.034 mph |
| Da Costa | Red Bull | 79 | 1:42.717 | 0.066 |
| Paffett | McLaren | 44 | 1:43.407 | 0.756 |
| Frijns | Sauber | 78 | 1:43.775 | 1.124 |
| Prost | Lotus | 55 | 1:44.194 | 1.543 |
| Razia | Toro Rosso | 67 | 1:44.691 | 2.040 |
| Van der Garde | Caterham | 57 | 1:45.936 | 3.285 |