20/02/2013
NEWS STORY
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Sergio Perez was the pace-setter on the second day of testing at Barcelona, as gearbox issues compromise Kimi Raikkonen's running and Fernando Alonso suffers a broken exhaust... not to mention an errant rain light.
While Perez and Sebastian Vettel were around 0.5s quicker than their nearest rivals, it should be noted that both posted their best times of the soft rubber, while Hamilton posted his on hard and Raikkonen and Alonso were on medium.
Perez concluded his two-day stint by spending the morning with a series of shorter runs, aimed at gaining the engineers a better understanding of the car's track-to-wind tunnel aero correlation and its reaction to a series of mechanical set-up changes.
In the afternoon, the team ran through a number of longer runs - these were aimed at providing the Mexican with a better understanding of the methods and systems that will be used by the race team during a race weekend, including cockpit switch adjustments and understanding radio messaging.
Jenson Button kicks off his running tomorrow, his programme will pick up where Perez' left off, including further correlation and set-up work.
With poorer weather on the horizon for Friday, the team will monitor the forecast and may choose to adapt the programme in order to optimise track time over the next two days.
It was a mixed bag for Red Bull as Sebastian Vettel claimed P2 on the timesheets, but the team was forced to end its programme early when the German had to stop on track late in the afternoon.
"We had some issues with reliability today and we couldn't do as many laps as we wanted," said the German, "but I think it's better that this kind of thing happens today rather than in Australia.
"It was nothing disastrous," he continued, "just small things that hampered us today. We stopped the car once as we saw a small loss of pressure. The second stop towards the end of the day caused a red flag and it simply took too much time to turn everything around, so we couldn't get out again."
"The stops we had today weren't too serious," added Race Engineering Co-ordinator, Andy Damerum, "and we'll have everything sorted for tomorrow. We know where the issues are. However, though we would obviously much rather have had a smooth run today we still accomplished a lot and even managed to slot in some more test items in the afternoon, which we put on the car at lunch time. So, while it wasn't an ideal day, we did get through most of what we wanted to. Seb now makes way for Mark tomorrow."
A gearbox problem kept Raikkonen off track for much of the morning and part of the afternoon, and whilst the team ultimately diagnosed and rectified the issue, vital running time was lost. Once the Finn did get out on track, he immediately set the third fastest lap time, which is where he ended the day.
"If yesterday wasn't an ideal day then today was more of the same," said the Finn. "Fortunately, once we were able to get a lap in we could see that the car has good pace. We test to find any problems so in that respect we're doing a good job, but it's frustrating. It's no secret that we want to get more laps on the board and that's the target for the rest of this test and the final sessions next week."
"Our target was more laps today and we've missed that," admitted Alan Permane. "We were able to diagnose a problem with the gearbox, but rectifying this took quite a lot of time. This severely affected our plans for the day but yet again we were able to show we have a quick car. On the positive side, there were no further problems with telemetry as we experienced yesterday and the second gearbox ran reliably in the afternoon. Tomorrow we will try to rack up the laps with evaluation work and a race distance simulation."
Lewis Hamilton took over from Nico Rosberg, the Englishman spending the morning focused on comparisons between exhaust configurations, running primarily on the hard tyres. In the afternoon, he concentrated on set-up work with longer runs on the medium compound. His fastest lap was set at the start of a ten-lap run on the hard tyre just before lunchtime. Over the course of the day Hamilton completed 121 laps, more than any other driver.
"We had a good day today and it was nice to get so many laps in," said the Englishman. "We're making continual steps forward in terms of our understanding of the set-up and the tyres. The hard compound work in particular was pretty good today, although all of tyres are showing degradation so looking after them isn't easy. The guys are working really hard both here and at the factory, and it's encouraging to see the amount of work that's being put in. We're focusing on our own programme and just getting on with it."
Fernando Alonso continued for Ferrari however, the Spaniard did fewer laps than on the first day because of a problem with an exhaust pipe, that prevented him from getting through the planned programme. Nonetheless, he completed 76 laps acquiring data relating to car development and a comparison of the Pirelli tyres.
In an odd incident, at one point the rain light at the back of the Spaniard's F138 became loose and was seen trailing behind the car.
Only 24-hours after unveiling the FW35, Williams was already busy trying out updates, the most significant being a new front wing. Valtteri Bottas completed 98 laps on the way to posting the sixth best time of the day.
"I had a really strong first impression of the FW35 today," said the Finn. "Once we completed the aero work I was able to complete my first proper run to feel the FW35 and the improvements we have made.
"Straight out of the box I knew we had made a step forward from last year," he continued, "and I am looking forward to working to develop the car even further. It's great to know we have a really good base to start from but there are still a number of areas we can improve, so I'm really excited for the season ahead."
"It was a trouble-free day for us with Valtteri completing close to 100 laps," added Technical Director, Mike Coughlan, "so we are pleased with the reliability of the FW35. Valtteri confirmed the potential of the car posting some competitive times throughout the day. After initially concentrating on aero testing, our focus then switched to set-up work and the tyres this afternoon. We are pleased with the progress we are making as a team and we have a good direction to continuing developing the car ahead of the season.
At Toro Rosso, Daniel Ricciardo had his second and final day at the wheel of the STR8, continuing the programme he began yesterday. One of the key requirements of the STR8 was to give the drivers a more user-friendly car with a wider range of settings than its predecessor: with this in mind, today's programme centred on experimenting with that wider range and evaluating different suspension set-up options. So far the Faenza outfit has not experienced any reliability issues with the new car.
"A very productive day," said the Australian, "testing various suspension options, which was very interesting and has provided us with plenty of data to look at. Therefore it was not a day for the time sheets, but one during which we learned a lot. It's been interesting evaluating the Pirelli tyres, which have different characteristics to those from last year, but we will need some higher temperatures before we get an accurate picture of how they perform.
"Now it's down to Jean-Eric to carry on for the next couple of days, before I get my final two days of testing when we come back here in just over one week."
Force India continued with Paul Di Resta, the Scot, who completed 62 laps, handing over to Adrian Sutil before Jules Bianchi gets his chance for the final day on Friday.
"We stopped a little bit early today," said di Resta, "but we still got plenty of running under our belt and we're learning more and more about the car as we go along - that's what winter testing is all about. Understanding the tyres is always a priority and we're getting a feel for the degradation rates, which have been quite high, although we have to remember that the track temperatures here are lower than we can expect at most races. We've run most of the tyres apart from the super-softs so far. Learning about the tyres and a new car at the same time is never easy, but we're pretty pleased with how things have gone during the first couple of days."
"Another routine day of winter testing," added Jakob Andreasen, the Silverstone outfit's Chief Race Engineer, "starting with the usual aero work this morning, short runs before lunch, and longer runs this afternoon. We had a few small reliability issues with the car, which meant we were a bit short on our lap count for the day, but overall we covered off a lot of test items and tried some different set-up directions with the car. The track conditions have been reasonable with the temperatures in the mid-twenties for most of the day, and we've concentrated on understanding the tyres as much as we can. The new compounds are a challenge for all the teams, but we're getting the information we need to be ready for Melbourne."
Nico Hulkenberg was one of several drivers concerned by tyre degradation, Pirelli, acting on the instructions of the sport's powers that be, looking to provide compounds that will require a minimum two-stop strategy in races this year.
"We got a lot done, but also had some issues today," said the German. "I did quite a lot of running, but it was difficult because the tyres degraded quite quickly. In addition, it was not easy for us today to use the full potential of the tyres on a single quick lap. There is definitely room for improvement."
"Today we tested some new aero and mechanical components and were also working again on the hard and medium tyre compounds," added Tom McCullough, the Swiss outfit's Head of Track Engineering. "Even though we had some downtime due to small mechanical problems, we achieved the majority of our testing plan including many pit stop simulations in the afternoon."
Once again, Max Chilton out-paced Charles Pic, signalling that we might be in for some interesting fights between the two back of the grid teams this year.
Marussia programme for the day was a slow and steady exploration of practice starts and other work to evaluate the various systems and procedures. The short runs this necessitated meant that Chilton was laps-limited and was unable to progress into the performance programme. In light of this, the engineering team may restructure the plan for the next two days.
"The work that we have been doing today is very important for improving some of the on-car systems," said Chilton, "but we've focused more on shorter runs and we weren't able to get into the tyre evaluation and set-up work that were part of my programme.
"I did have the chance for one quick lap right at the end," he added, "which moved us ahead of Caterham on the timesheet, and that's why it would have been good to complete that part of the programme. It's been a good day in terms of what we have learned though as all data is good data at this important phase of our development."
"Today has been one of those days where the benefit of our efforts is perhaps more evident within the engineering community rather than to the outside world looking in," said John Booth. "On paper, we have obviously completed less mileage than some of the other teams and we haven't been able to focus on outright performance. Max was only able to begin this work right at the very end of the day and his lap was good for P9, which is a nice reward for what has been a rather laborious programme for him. We have ticked off some important items on our pre-season checklist but we do have some set-up work that we need to complete with Max, so we will likely restructure the remaining two days of the test. We are pleased with the information we have been gathering and how this is being rolled back into the development programme for the next test and beyond. It's good to be exploring all facets of the new car in a testing situation and to be making clear progress with any issues or areas for improvement."
Pic completed 102 laps in the Caterham, the CT03 proving its reliability if not its pace. "My second day in the car was a positive step from yesterday," said the Frenchman, "but we still have work to do to get the car's performance to where we want it to be by Melbourne. After losing some time on day one it was important to get as many kilometres done as possible and completing 102 laps gives us a lot of data to work through and will help us progress over the next two days of this test, and to prepare for next week.
"There are definitely positives to take from my two days on track this week, and with every lap I'm getting more comfortable in the car and with the whole team. There are a few areas for us to look at to extract more performance, but this week hasn't been about times, it's been focused on working through various setup options and understanding the tyres which are going to be as important this year as they were in 2012. We will continue that work next week and I'm sure we'll make more progress there."
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