21/02/2013
NEWS STORY
 |
Fernando Alonso topped the timesheets of the penultimate day of the first Barcelona test however, it was the times posted during the afternoon, as attention switched to race distances, that really mattered.
With much talk of heavy rain tomorrow, attention this afternoon switched to race simulations, and whilst tyre degradation continues to be a major talking point, especially the soft compound, so too is the pace of some of the cars during the long runs.
After yesterday's exhaust issue - explained away earlier by Luca Marmorini, today's programme at Ferrari was completed without any problems. The programme, which included set-up work aimed at adapting to the soft tyres, which Alonso was trying for the first time, and the hards.
"Today we concentrated on a comparison of the compounds, starting with the Soft and moving on to the Hard in the afternoon," said the Spaniard. "The track was colder than yesterday, especially in the morning, which made it harder to adapt the car and find the right grip level. We tried various aerodynamic configurations and for the first time, we made some set-up changes to get a good understanding of tyre behaviour and degradation. With every change we made, the car reacted as I expected and it was useful to try out the different settings, especially to understand which direction we need to go in next week, when there will be a greater emphasis on performance.
"Once again this year, the tyres will be one of the crucial aspects to manage," he admitted, "they are softer and quicker, but also less consistent and they degrade rapidly with every lap. We will have a lot of work to do to understand how best to balance the car, but that applies to all the teams."
After three days in the F138, Alonso hands over to teammate Felipe Massa for the final day of this first Barcelona test.
Nico Hulkenberg, was another driver to notice the high degradation on the softs, which he too was trying for the first time. Having started the day testing aerodynamic components in the afternoon he mainly concentrated on long-runs with high fuel loads.
"It was a positive day," said the German. "We got a lot of testing done with just minor problems. I ran the soft tyres in the morning for the first time to get a feeling for those, which was interesting. The car is performing pretty well, and I'm as happy as I can be."
"Overall it was a very productive day," added Head of Track Engineering, Tom McCullough, "which is particularly important as the forecast suggests rain is likely tomorrow. As in previous days, we have used the initial running for data gathering of new aerodynamic parts while the temperatures were low.
"For the first time at this test we used the soft Pirelli tyre, which performs well for the first timed lap," he added. "The high tyre degradation makes testing difficult, but that is the same for everyone and we have to adapt to it. Nico and the engineers continued to make good progress with the car set-up and he will now hand the car back to Esteban for the final day of the test."
Romain Grosjean completed the first full race simulation for the E21 during the afternoon, the Frenchman completed 119 laps in total today, more than any other driver today. During the course of set-up work in the morning, he also set the day's third fastest time.
"I think I'm ready for a sleep after so many laps," joked the Frenchman. "It's good to see reliability today to add to the pace we've already seen in the car. We're still at an early stage of development so it's really promising to see where we are. It was difficult out on track as temperatures were so low, but we've gained a lot of useful data. The 2013 tyres certainly feel different from last year's but already we're starting to understand them. I hope it's dry tomorrow so we can get some more laps under our belt."
"From our perspective it was a perfect day," added Alan Permane, the Enstone outfit's Trackside Operations Director. "We ticked off every item on the checklist and even had time to spare at the end of the session. That's your target when you start a day's testing but it's seldom achieved, and after a couple of difficult days, it's all the more satisfying.
"We completed a race distance simulation without any red flags or other stoppages, and that has helped us learn a lot more about Pirelli's latest tyres. In the cold temperatures here, the tyres do look very difficult to manage, especially with high fuel loads in the car. However, as our 'race' progressed so tyre performance stabilised and we completed a 20-plus lap stint with consistent lap times. We still have plenty of work to do with set-up but we're certainly making steps in the right direction."
For Nico Rosberg, completing his fourth day of pre-season testing, the morning programme focused on data gathering and set-up adjustments while in the afternoon he concentrated on longer runs with the hard and medium tyres.
The German ran soft, medium and hard tyres during the day's programme, his fastest lap of 1:22.611 was completed on the medium tyre on lap one of a seven-lap run.
"We didn't have a perfect morning and it was tough out there with the low temperatures," said Rosberg. "They were causing a lot of tyre graining, which made it difficult to do much useful testing. It was a few degrees warmer after the break and that gave a completely different picture.
"In general, I'm pleased with what we've achieved this week - I did a lot of mileage and the team has done a good job over the winter. I feel more comfortable in the car and the balance is quite good, but we still need to work in a number of areas. That's why I'm looking forward to testing next week and to see what progress we can make."
Focussing on set-up work, tyre testing and race simulations, Williams ran two drivers, Pastor Maldonado in the morning and Valtteri Bottas in the afternoon, the team aiming to run a similar strategy - albeit reversed - tomorrow.
It's been a very good day for us," beamed Mike Coughlan, the Grove outfit's Technical Director. "We've completed two race simulations and both drivers were happy with their individual programmes. We're really pleased with the reliability we have shown this week, having completed 147 laps with the FW35 today, 331 laps in total so far this week. We feel we have got a good car to now start developing and we look forward to continuing tomorrow."
"It was a good morning for me," said Maldonado. "The track was still very cold when we did our first run on new tyres, but the time still looked competitive. We then moved into a race simulation and our race pace looks consistent. We completed our full programme without issue which is positive. The FW35 feels very comfortable to drive so I'm feeling happy."
"We started the afternoon with some shorter runs but we still haven't seen the full potential of the FW35," added Bottas. "I have been able to improve some things in my driving since yesterday, but there are still things I can work on compared to Pastor. We then completed a race simulation. Unfortunately it was cut a little short due to the red flag at the end, but we were still able to try all the tyre compounds and I was able to get a good feeling for how the tyres behave. Overall, the car feels really nice on the longer runs, which is promising."
At McLaren, Jenson Button spent the first three hours of the day focusing on mechanical set-up work and the evaluation of tyres. The Woking team then elected to carry out some larger mechanical changes over the lunch break, meaning the Englishman didn't return to the track until 3pm. Thereafter, he focused on longer runs with a number of simulated pit-stops.
Hopeful of a full race seat alongside Paul di Resta was in action for Force India, the German completing 78 laps on his way to the eighth fastest time.
"It was a good day and nice to be back in a Formula One car once again," said the German. "We started off by doing some aero work this morning when the track was quite cold and green. Later on we moved to some performance work and tyre testing, and feeling all the different Pirelli compounds was something quite new for me.
"It's been almost a year and a half since I last drove, but I found that I was able to get back up to speed quickly and set some good times before lunch. In the afternoon we did some long runs and also introduced the hard compound tyre, which feels quite different to the soft and mediums."
"It has been a long time since Adrian last worked with the team," added Chief Race Engineer, Jakob Andreasen, "but he did an excellent job of getting used to the car and was on the pace straight away. His feedback was good and it was interesting to hear the thoughts of a driver who has not been in a Formula One car for a while. He was very detailed with his comments and provided some good direction for us.
"The programme was similar to the previous couple of days with aero work, long runs and performance work using the hard, medium and soft tyres. For tomorrow the weather forecast is looking uncertain, but we will design our technical programme to be ready for every eventuality."
Mark Webber took over from Sebastian Vettel for the final two days, the Australian getting through 108 laps including a number of well-paced long runs in the afternoon.
"We had a pretty good run today, we're learning plenty, so a positive outing for us," said Webber. "Overall the car ran smoothly and once again we amassed a huge amount of data for the guys back at the factory to go through. We'd like to get a bit more mileage tomorrow in the dry, but that doesn't look like it's going to happen, it looks like it will be wet.
"As usual at tests, the question of the pecking order comes up all the time," he added, "but, honestly, I have no idea. There are a few quick cars out there, but in winter testing it's so hard to say if anyone's better than anyone else, especially with the tyres going off the way they are - you're losing four or five seconds over the course of a stint, so figuring out who's doing what is pretty difficult. All we can do is keep pushing, keep developing and keep our eyes fixed on the first race."
"After the small problems we had yesterday, we had a very satisfying day today," added Race Engineering Co-ordinator, Andy Damerum. "The car was reliable throughout and we got through the full programme. We concentrated on test items in the morning and then obviously, looking at the times, got through some long runs in the afternoon during which we tried to get as much information as possible on the tyres.
"It's a tricky business because it was pretty cold today but that's the nature of the beast here. We don't often get temperatures like this during the season but it can happen at places like the Nürburgring. Silverstone and Spa, so all the information is valuable. As for tomorrow, well, the weather forecast looks pretty bad, so we'll see just have to see what greets us in the morning and go from there."
The Toro Rosso STR8 completed its highest number of laps so far here, as Jean-Eric Vergne stepped into the cockpit for the first time this week. The job list included a continuation of the set-up evaluation on the car, as well as running the soft tyres for the first time at this track.
Therefore the main theme of the day was to work out the most appropriate set-up options on the car to match the different compounds. The car ran reliably and the aim was to pack in as much work as possible, as it is expected to rain tomorrow for the final day. If the track is wet, then having a first look at the rain tyres, which have also changed for this year, will be a useful exercise and the team will also start looking at race procedures such as pit stop drills.
"We did a solid day's work on a track that is definitely more demanding than Jerez and that gives you a better picture of what your car can do," said Vergne. "We did a really good job with a lot of laps, so I am very happy about that. Everything we test seems to give us more tools to work with, for when the time comes to start looking for the best set-up and balance and getting performance out of the car. I'd say the car shows excellent potential, which we will begin to exploit at the next test."
Max Chilton was back in the MR02 for a continuation of the set-up and aero evaluation programme which began late yesterday. As with all the teams, the cool weather means the mornings are given over to systems and procedures work while the track conditions improve, therefore Chilton was only able to begin the performance programme after lunch.
A planned suspension change delayed the start of the afternoon's running but once he was out on track, the British youngster was able to achieve some longer runs than he has been getting for the past two days. A red flag towards the end of the session (Van der Garde) frustrated all of the teams.
Given the stop-start nature of the running, it has made sense to keep Chilton in the car for consistency and he will therefore continue into tomorrow, a day where the weather is likely to intervene in proceedings.
"It's been good to be able to pick up from where I left off yesterday," said Chilton. "As we've had such a stop-start programme it's important to try to find a rhythm when we can, to ensure the engineers are getting some consistent feedback on this aero before we move to the new configuration next week.
"Once again, it's been the case that much of the benefit will have been felt behind the scenes rather than on the timesheets, especially as we had a red flag at the end of the session when we were hoping to explore more of the outright performance. Having said that, it's good that we still find ourselves ahead of the Caterham again."
"Another good day's work in which we've been able to steadily step through a busy checklist of testing items," said John Booth. "This afternoon was our chance to explore the car's performance a little more and though we are pleased with our position relative to Caterham, we would have liked more laps to keep pushing in that direction. The delayed start to our afternoon due to a planned suspension change and a frustrating red flag towards the end of the session meant that our window of opportunity was abbreviated rather more than we would have liked.
"Max has done a great job over the last three days," he added, "and we've certainly benefited from the consistency this has provided."
Despite a KERS issue in the afternoon, it had been a good day for Giedo van der Garde in the Caterham, and he looked set to improve, until his car ground to a halt in Turn 3 just fifteen minutes before the end of the session.
"We've had a pretty productive day and completing 93 laps meant we were able to run through the whole plan we'd set out for today," said the Dutchman. "We had a technical issue in the afternoon which meant we were running without KERS for the whole session after lunch but despite that we were still able to try a number of different setups that give us more to work on tomorrow and several options to work through at the next test.
"One area we are focusing on is improving the rear stability of the car," he revealed. "It definitely has a sharper front end than the 2012 car but we need to take a more detailed look at that tonight and, assuming the rain stays away tomorrow, we can keep working on that on day four of this test."
Check out our Thursday gallery, here.