02/03/2013
NEWS STORY
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Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes left the competition for dust at the Circuit de Catalunya today as the Briton posted the fastest time of the year at the Spanish track out-pacing his nearest rival by 0.708s.
With weather conditions much improved, as anticipated, today was all about fast times, race simulations, upgrades, driver debuts and exploding wheel nuts.
In the morning, of what is his last day in the W04 before FP1 in Melbourne, Hamilton worked through a series of short runs, using the soft compound tyre. The programme included aerodynamic evaluations alongside different set-up options.
After the lunch break, the focus switched to longer runs looking at aerodynamics and tyre wear. The Englishman completed 117 laps today to take his total pre-season mileage to 1606 miles (2585 kms).
"It was great to have a dry track today," said Hamilton, "as we were able to get through all the test items that we wanted to achieve by the end of my programme. There's still a lot of work ahead of us to get to where we want to be but the team is doing a great job. The guys are working so hard at the factory and here at the track; it's been really nice to get to know everyone in the garage and how they work together over the past few weeks. The reliability, the mileage and the step-by-step improvements that we have achieved during the three tests are all very encouraging.
"Whilst we've been focusing on our own performance, we definitely haven't seen the full potential of our competitors yet," he admitted, "so it's difficult to predict where we might be. I'll be back at the factory next week doing some final preparation work on the simulator and with my engineers, and then it's off to Melbourne for the first race of the new season with my new team."
It was also the final pre-season appearance for Felipe Massa, the Brazilian having been involved in an incident which will be the centre of paddock speculation in the hours and days that follow.
In the morning, the Italian team got through all its planned programme, centred mainly on evaluating some aerodynamic components over short distances, featuring constant speed runs. Massa also began a tyre comparison, which continued through into the afternoon.
After the lunch break, the job list included assessing various set-up changes on the car and some full speed pit stop simulations, including out laps and, for the first time, the team also tried the super soft compound. With less than half an hour remaining, the scarlet car ground to a halt in Turn 10 minus its left front wheel. TV replays appeared to show the wheelnut exploding off of the car as opposed to falling. Initial reports from Ferrari suggest a "problem with the left front upright" however, the investigation is sure to continue into the night... and possibly beyond. Had the failure happened in Turn 9 the end result could have been altogether different.
Adrian Sutil gave a good account of himself at Force India, the German posting the third quickest time of the day, albeit 1.069s off Hamilton's pace. On the other hand, his best time was posted on soft tyres whereas Massa's was on the super-soft compound.
"A busy day of race preparation, which all went to plan," beamed the German. "There was a lot of pit stop practice throughout the day and it's good that we managed to do a race distance without any disruptions. It was less windy today, which made things easier, and the higher temperatures helped give us ideal testing conditions for understanding the tyres and the degradation."
"Blue sky and sunshine was a welcome sight this morning after two days of unsettled weather in Barcelona," added Chief Race Engineer, Jakob Andreasen. "This gave us a chance to run through our race procedures as part of a dress rehearsal before Melbourne in a couple of weeks' time. We pretty much worked through a race weekend programme with performance runs and pit-stop drill. After lunch we managed to cover a race distance, which gave us information on tyre performance and proved very valuable for Adrian's race-craft as he gets ready for his return to racing."
Not for the first time, Williams had both its drivers on duty, the result of changing the schedule yesterday to allow Valtteri Bottas some dry running. The Finn ran in the afternoon and his Venezuelan teammate in the morning as the Grove outfit focussed on tyre testing and aero evaluations.
"We brought our updated core bodywork for the first race here this weekend," revealed Mike Coughlan. "Pastor spent the morning doing system checks with it before Valtteri went through new sets of each compound tyre this afternoon. Tomorrow we aim to do more performance runs with some further upgrades ahead of Australia."
"We were running quite a few new parts this morning so our focus was on learning more about them and how they make the car behave," said Maldonado. "It felt very different, but it's too early to say how much performance gain they will bring. We have some good data for the engineers to analyse now, so we will see. I was able to do a good time despite the limited running which shows that we are still improving."
"I could really feel the difference today running the updated bodywork," added Bottas. "We saw some improvements immediately but we still need to work on the car balance to maximise the potential. Overall, we learnt a lot and it's nice to see the work everyone has been doing at the factory having a positive influence on the car. It's now up to us to get the lap time out of it."
Esteban Gutierrez made the berst of the improved conditions, the Mexican youngster spent the morning doing aerodynamic tests and then made several runs in qualifying conditions. In the afternoon he did a race simulation which was interrupted by a suspected water leak.
"It was an interesting experience to do a qualifying and race simulation," said the youngster. "It gave me the opportunity to see how the car feels in qualifying and race conditions. The understanding of the tyres was a very important point, especially here in Barcelona where we know graining of the front tyres is a big issue. However, we were able to manage the degradation of the tyres quite well. Unfortunately we were not able to complete the race simulation due to a suspected water leak."
"Today was Esteban's final day of winter testing," added Head of Track Engineering, Tom McCullough. "Our plan was to simulate qualifying and the race. Unfortunately we had a few reliability issues which we are still investigating. Nevertheless, we completed 99 laps and Esteban's performance today was good."
Mark Webber's final day of pre-season testing got off to a slow start as the team was delayed in the garage with overnight changes to the car. Once on track, the Australian concentrated on evaluating the changed items and ended the day with seventh-fastest time.
"I would obviously have liked to get a few laps in today, but that's the way it goes sometimes in testing," said Webber. "We had a few small issues with the car today which delayed us a couple of times and while it wasn't ideal I think we still learned plenty.
"In terms of the overall feeling at the end of my spell of testing, I think we've done well and we have made a step forward. As I've said before it's very difficult to see a real pecking order. We've just always been focused on what we have to do and not really looked too hard at anyone else. The important thing now is just to get out to Melbourne and get on with the racing. We have some work to do, for sure, and we have a few things we need to iron out, but that's the same for everybody.
"Looking at the first race, I think it's going to be a tight grand prix. There are a lot of quick cars out there and hopefully we have one of them. However, Melbourne is a very particular race, with very specific demands, so we'll treat it as one race, then go to Malaysia and see how things shake up there. The season moves fast and you have to prepare for every race."
"It wasn't the easiest day for us today," admitted Race Engineering Co-ordinator, Andy Damerum. "We had quite a bit of work to do overnight with some changes we wanted to make and that delayed us a little bit in getting out in the morning. We had quite a few things we wanted to evaluate today. However, we had much better weather today so when Mark was out we were able to get through quite a lot of work. The guys in the garage did a phenomenal job in getting everything right. Seb's back in the car tomorrow for the final day of testing here in Barcelona."
At McLaren, the morning was devoted to evaluating a number of different mechanical set-ups. The Woking team then committed to a series of system changes over the lunch-break before kicking off with a long run in the afternoon. Some live pitstop practice was also included - allowing Sergio Perez to get a feel for racing with the team.
With Jean-Eric Vergne back behind the wheel, Toro Rosso continued to work through a list of test items, focussing on suspension settings. In the afternoon, the Frenchman completed a full race simulation, with the STR8 running trouble-free throughout. During the simulated race Vergne used no less than three different tyre compounds to pull in as much useful data as possible. Daniel Ricciardo will drive tomorrow, on a similar programme, with test items in the morning and a race sim to round off the day.
"We got through a lot of work and it was a positive day, after the difficulties of working in the cold and wet conditions on the previous days," said Vergne. "We can ignore the lap times, because, unlike some other teams we did not do a qualifying simulation. However, our race simulation this afternoon went well. On the tyre front, we saw a lot of degradation here in Barcelona, but I think it will be a different story when we get to Melbourne.
"In general, the testing has gone well and even though we still have work to do before the first race, we tested a lot of items this week. Our performance? We are definitely looking better than last year, but where we are compared to the others is still difficult to say."
Lotus went one better than Williams, the Enstone outfit effectively had three drivers on duty. Kimi Raikkonen was originally scheduled to drive but pulled out with a suspected stomach bug. He was replaced in the morning by Davide Valsecchi before Romain Grosjean took over in the afternoon, the Frenchman having flown back from Paris.
The programme for the day included system checks, temperature monitoring, data correlation, assessment of the performance of the car with its initial aerodynamic package, new rear suspension set-up evaluation, new rear wing evaluation and driver orientation.
Provided he is fit to return to the cockpit, Kimi Raikkonen will take the wheel tomorrow for the final day of pre-season testing.
"This morning was quite a rush to get everything ready as the call only came late," said Valsecchi, "but the team were fantastic getting the car prepared for me. I only completed short runs today so I have a limited impression of the E21, however it's clear that it's a very good racing car. For me to be able to get immediately on the pace means that the car is certainly fast and competitive. It was a fantastic opportunity; I sat in the seat of a former World Champion so I knew that I'd be fast for sure."
"I certainly didn't expect to be in the E21 again today," added Grosjean, "so it was an interruption to a day off, but as interruptions go it was a pretty good one! The weather was definitely an improvement from what I've experienced so far and I was able to assess the new rear front wings; both of which feel improved over the initial versions. We ran with high fuel today so it wasn't about lap times in the afternoon, but it's all valuable data we're getting for the car. I hope that Kimi is feeling better for tomorrow, but I don't mind driving again if I have to."
"Obviously, our day was rather compromised because of Kimi being ill," admitted Alan Permane. "We changed the car for Davide to gain valuable experience in the morning, then changed it over lunchtime to Romain's settings. Despite the disrupted running, we still completed a Grand Prix distance worth of laps and were able to put valuable miles on our latest rear wing concept as well as evaluating a new front wing. Both look to be a step in the right direction so it's likely we'll use them in Australia.
"Davide did a great job at short notice and we know we can rely on him if he's called upon again. If Kimi is well enough tomorrow, we will run him in the car, otherwise it will be Romain in action once more."
Less than 24 hours after joining Marussia, Jules Bianchi had completed 74 laps in the car he will race in Melbourne in just over two weeks. He ended the day twelfth out of of thirteen drivers with a best time of 1:24.028.
Much of the morning was given over to acclimatisation work, but it wasn't long before the Frenchman was up to speed and performing evaluation runs with which to familiarise himself with the MR02 in Melbourne spec aero configuration.
Bianchi will be back in the car tomorrow morning before handing back to Max Chilton to complete the afternoon session. The conditions are expected to be similar to today so the Englishman can look forward to his first full evaluation of the new aero upgrade package on a dry track.
"The past 24 hours have passed by so quickly," said Bianchi, "having signed for my new team and tested our new car in such a short space of time. Today has been pretty busy but we have been very fortunate to have dry weather, warm conditions, a reliable day and plenty of mileage, so in many ways I couldn't have asked for more on my first day in the MR02.
"Perhaps the only disappointment is not getting a clean shot at my run on the supersoft tyre at the end as the Red Flag frustrated things for us. That would have put the whole day's work into context I think and I could have brought everything I have learned together into a single lap. However, I have learned such a lot about the car and the team, so I am happy and looking forward to another half day in the car tomorrow morning. My thanks to the team for a big welcome and for working so hard into the night to create the seat and have everything ready for me today. I feel very positive for Australia and the rest of the season. "
"It was certainly a very good start to Jules' career with Marussia," said John Booth, "albeit one that came at rather short notice. The whole team was incredibly well-organised last night and got Jules comfortable in the car quite quickly, which resulted in a seamless day of testing. Jules hit the ground running this morning and was quickly giving us good feedback to help with the development process with the new car and we have achieved a good day's running.
"We are rapidly coming to the end of our winter testing programme with the MR02 and we have made good progress over the last few weeks with both car and team. However, there is still much to do to ensure we are as prepared as we need to be before the first race. Tomorrow morning Jules will get an opportunity to work with the whole race team on honing pit stops and Max will get his final opportunity for more mileage in the MR02 with a similar programme in the afternoon."
At Caterham the timesheets don't tell the full story. Though Giedo van der Garde finished thirteenth of thirteen, the Dutchman completed an amazing 126 laps, though a technical problem early on was the cause of the first of the day's three red flags.
"For my final day of testing it's really good to put 126 laps on the board," said the Dutchman. "We took full advantage of the weather today, running through the final tyre and setup evaluations this morning and then running a full race simulation after lunch. We only had one minor issue with the car this morning, but apart from that it ran well all day and it was good to get a full race distance done, both for me and the whole team.
"Even with the amount of laps we got through I feel really good. I've worked hard all winter to prepare for the season and today was a good test for how I feel physically and mentally, so it's good to finish off the tests feeling prepared for the race season to start."
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