17/07/2013
NEWS STORY
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Kevin Magnussen topped the timesheets on the first day of the Young Driver Test at Silverstone as twelve drivers representing ten teams took to the track.
With Mercedes excluded from the test due to its controversial session with Pirelli at Barcelona, its ten rivals got their programmes underway.
Having been made aware of the fact that full race drivers are only allowed one day of testing, and are not allowed to test anything other than tyres, Red Bull have dropped Mark Webber from its schedule while Lotus has given Kimi Raikkonen an extended holiday.
Lotus, keen to let Mercedes know how much it was missing its German rivals, sported the Twitter hashtag #wheresroscoe on its car, a joke that will not have escaped Lewis Hamilton.
On the twelve drivers on duty, only two - Paul di Resta and Max Chilton - are actually competing in the 2013 championship, while a number of others were enjoying their F1 debut.
As well as being an opportunity to try new drivers and the new tyres that will be used for the remainder of the season, this is a test where teams can run updates consequently the range of sensors became increasingly complicated.
It was Magnussen's second outing behind the wheel of a McLaren, having taken part in last November's Young Driver Test at the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi.
The Woking outfit spent the morning conducting investigative work into aerodynamic car changes and evaluating Pirelli's rubber, with the 20-year-old completing a number of longer stints.
In the afternoon, the Dane undertook more long runs, continuing the team's focus on aero and tyre evaluation. He also took the opportunity to acclimatise himself to the MP4-28's cockpit controls.
"This is the first time I'd driven at Silverstone in a Formula 1 car, and it was a fantastic experience," said Magnussen. "We covered a lot of mileage - almost two race distances - and, given there isn't a great deal of testing these days, that opportunity was invaluable.
"The process of providing feedback to the engineers about the car, and testing new set-ups can only make me a stronger driver. I have to thank Vodafone McLaren Mercedes for giving me this opportunity, and I'm going to apply everything I've learned today.
"Getting a taste in the car only makes me more hungry to one day realise my ambition of racing in the highest level of motorsport. Without a doubt I learnt a great deal today."
At Force India, James Calado completed his first-ever laps in an F1 car in the morning session, with Paul Di Resta taking over in the afternoon.
"Getting to drive a Formula One car was a lifetime ambition," said the English youngster, "and even coming to the track this morning was quite emotional. It was a completely different experience from what I am used to in GP2 but it took only a few laps to get a hold of it. I was able to set some sensible lap times and to give quite accurate feedback on the tyres within ten laps, which was quicker than I expected. I am here to do the best job possible and hopefully we will learn a few things from my work that can help Paul and Adrian in the rest of the season."
"The focus of the test is to help Pirelli get all the data necessary to understand the new tyres," added di Resta. "It is very early days and we've only just started the programme so it's hard to say too much. The conditions here are perfect for what Pirelli want to do, especially so soon after the Silverstone race. This is the ideal venue for them to learn as much as they can."
Red Bull had the highly rated Antonio Felix da Costa at the wheel for the whole day, the Austrian outfit rescheduling Daniel Ricciardo's run for tomorrow afternoon.
"It was nice to get the full day's running, especially here," said the Portuguese. "If there's a circuit where you really feel that you're in an F1 car it's here at Silverstone, with all these fast corners. It something completely different and something you have to get used to but it was a great day, a great feeling.
"In terms of the work, it was a good day," he added. "Obviously, it's not the first time for me in a Red Bull car, so everything is sort of familiar. It's an important test for the team and my job is simply to drive consistently and not make mistakes. I think we achieved the goal of being consistent and working through the programme."
"Antonio did a good job today," said race engineering co-ordinator, Andy Damerum. "It's not always easy for a driver, as there's a lot to take and a lot of different demands being made of them. Antonio obviously drove for us at last year's Young Driver test, but that was some time ago and getting back into an F1 car again isn't always easy. But he did almost 350km before the lunch break and was feeling fine, which was good. In the morning we had him doing some specific things which didn't provide him with the chance to set a quick lap, but after lunch when that opportunity did arise he was able to find a rhythm very quickly, which is not always easy to do and he set a decent time.
"As for the team's work, there's always a few niggles with a test car, but we did manage to get through a lot of things on our plan, so I think we can mark it down as a successful day overall."
Williams, which earlier this week announced the recruitment of Pat Symonds, had Daniel Juncadella on duty, the Spanish youngster completing 55 laps on his way to posting the fifth best time of the day.
"From the first lap I could feel the speed of the car and it was a great experience," he said. "I'm really happy with the chance the team gave me. In the end, we couldn't complete our full programme but I think we had some good runs this afternoon. I was happy with the balance of the car and it was good to try the new tyres. Physically I feel good, it was just quite warm today but as I'm used to closed cars in DTM I can't complain really! I get on well with the engineers and team and we worked well together. The team has given me all the support I needed which has been really nice so I'm looking forward to getting another chance tomorrow."
"We are really pleased with Dani today," added Xevi Pujolar, the Grove outfit's chief engineer. "He adapted to the team and the car very quickly, and was straight up to speed with all the procedures. In terms of consistency, Dani drove clean laps and made no mistakes so we're really happy with him. We were doing some aero development work this morning running lots of sensors on the car but we had a few problems getting everything to work together which meant we didn't complete all the runs we wanted to. We now plan to do some more laps with him tomorrow afternoon to complete the programme including some longer runs to see how he can adapt."
Johnny Cecotto was at the wheel for Toro Rosso, the first of the drivers the Faenza team is running this week. The Venezuelan, who last drove for the team at the 2012 Young Driver test at Abu Dhabi, worked through a programme looking at the upcoming developments on the car.
Overall, the results were positive the team claims and with a high number of laps completed there is plenty of data in the bank. In addition, while it is the race drivers who are meant to evaluate the new Pirelli tyres later in the week, that work also began today, as the new compounds are being used throughout the three days.
"It has been another amazing experience, having another day working with Toro Rosso, who made me feel very comfortable in the team and in the car," said Cecotto. "It really confirmed my desire to try and get into Formula 1, especially as I felt the car was much more suited to my driving style than the GP2 machines. We managed to get through what was quite an ambitious programme of tests and being able to work on the car development programme was very interesting. I really enjoyed working with all the guys again during what was a very enjoyable day for me."
Daniel Ricciardo gets behind the wheel of the STR8 for the first half of tomorrow, before heading off down the pitlane to Red Bull.
At Sauber, Robin Frijns was one of several drivers who lost track time due to a range of technical issues. While the Dutchman was side-lined for the first couple of hours of this morning's running, Max Chilton lost time in the afternoon due to an ECU issue. At Caterham, Alexander Rossi suffered hydraulics failure, while Juncadella managed only five laps over the course of the morning.
Frijns is familiar with the Sauber team and the Silverstone circuit, having raced there numerous times. After driving an F1 for the first time last year at the Young Driver Days in Abu Dhabi, this was his second outing with the team.
"It was quite a busy day," he admitted. "We started with some aero tests this morning and did a lot of installation laps. In the afternoon we lost a bit of track time, but the crew sorted the car quite quickly. I was continuously in the car from 2.30pm until the end of the session. It was my first time driving a Formula One car on a high-speed track, as the Yas Marina circuit is a bit slower. It's fun at such high speed and I got used to it quite quickly. Maggotts, Becketts and Chapel are always a bit difficult, so I had to adapt to that, which went quite well at the end. I drove a lot of laps on the hard tyres, which felt comfortable. With the medium tyres I didn't feel as comfortable yet, so that is something I still need to work on. At the end of the day we did a lot of mileage and tested a lot of things. Working with the team was good fun. The boys are quite fast."
"The initial running this morning focused around gathering further aero and tyre data with additional test instrumentation fitted to the car," added Tom McCullough, the Swiss outfit's head of track engineering. "The rest of the day was spent evaluating development aero and mechanical test parts, along with set-up work to optimise the car around the 2012 Construction tyres. Having driven with us before, Robin was quickly up to speed and did a solid job in the car, performing many additional data gathering tasks as well as providing valuable driver feedback. We lost some track time around midday due to a reliability problem, the cause of which is being investigated now. Robin will continue in the car tomorrow morning before Nico takes over in the afternoon session."
For Lotus, Nicolas Prost completed the first day of running setting the eighth fastest time of the day in the E21. He ran through a programme of aerodynamic assessments over the course of a glorious day of sunshine. Davide Valsecchi takes over tomorrow with Prost returning to the car on Friday.
"It was a very positive day where we completed everything in the itinerary," said Prost. "We only ran with the hard tyres today; focusing on comparison assessments of the latest parts for the car as well as aero work which meant we didn't make any setup changes. Considering this our pace was pretty good. I'm happy that I'll be running again on Friday when hopefully we'll be able to look for a bit more performance, but the important focus of this test is to complete a programme aimed at putting Kimi and Romain in the best position to be able to win the Hungarian Grand Prix."
"Nico got our programme off to a strong start with fast and consistent laps all day," added Alan Permane, "meaning we have plenty of data to analyse overnight. We had a few niggles to sort in the morning, but were soon in our stride running with large aero-logging rakes and other data gathering equipment. We've evaluated some new updates which are looking promising and we have a good initial impression of Pirelli's latest tyres.
"Tomorrow is Davide's turn on driving duties and we expect another strong day of running. Looking to Friday, in a change to our original plan, we will now run Nico again. Once the details of what race drivers were allowed to do here became apparent, we would have only been able to conduct a very limited programme with Kimi. By running Nico again we can build on the work already carried out and hopefully be in the best position to develop the E21 ahead of Budapest."
For Ferrari, Davide Rigon was at the wheel of the F138, working on a series of tests that were mainly aerodynamic in nature. He completed a total of 76 laps, making him the third busiest driver.
"We got through a lot of work today," said Rigon, "starting off mainly with me adapting to the car, because apart from a filming day in Barcelona, I hadn't driven it on track. I had raced here at Silverstone in a GT car before, but Formula 1 is a completely different world! We weren't looking at the lap times, but worked mainly on acquiring data from comparing different aero configurations, which is a very important part of my work on the simulator.
"There were no particular problems with the tyres, although we didn't do any particularly long runs. Compared to last year's test at Magny-Cours, the demands are different and the programme is longer, but I am happy to deal with this responsibility and I am grateful to the team for the faith they have shown in my efforts. I really hope it is of use to them."
Alexander Rossi's aforementioned hydraulics failure cost the American a quicker time and a fair amount of track time, nonetheless he was able to complete 69 laps over the course of the day.
"It's been a productive day and I think we're all pleased we've completed such a good number of laps," said the Caterham tester. "Obviously for me today was another piece of the F1 jigsaw, adding more experience of the 2013 car on top of the Canadian GP FP1 session I did in June, but really my main priority was helping the team continue the push towards the cars ahead.
"After the installation lap we were straight into the program, running through a number of test items in both the morning and afternoon sessions that will help the team in the coming races. We didn't have any reliability issues until late in the day when we had a hydraulics problem and that unfortunately meant I didn't have a chance to put in a really quick lap, but we were still able to complete most of the day's plan and that's good, for the team and for me as it means we have both got pretty much everything we could from day one of the test."
GP3 Series leader Tio Ellinas, who drives for the Marussia Manor Racing GP3 squad that is part of the F1 Team's Young Driver Programme, was at the wheel of the MR02 in the morning. This was his second outing in a Formula 1 car, the first occasion being the team's straight-line test at Kemble last month.
It was however his first taste of the MR02 on a more typical racing circuit. In hot and sunny conditions, he had a clear run at his programme, which began with some acclimatisation runs to familiarise him with the car's systems before building up to the deployment of KERS and the DRS, and further systems and controls tasks.
In the afternoon, an ECU problem gave rise to a longer than anticipated break in the run plan. Max Chilton, scheduled for the full afternoon, commenced his programme of tyre testing with only an hour of the session remaining.
"Without doubt, today has been the best moment of my life," said Ellinas. "It was a fantastic experience that I know I will remember forever. I feel very proud to be representing my country and to have so much support from the people back home in Cyprus. I have driven the car once before, at the Team's straight-line test at Kemble, but this was my first time out in a Formula 1 car at a proper circuit and so it felt like the first time all over again. There was a lot of familiarisation to do at the start of the day. I obviously have some experience of things like the very complex layout on the steering wheel; it's still so much to take in though. I was also using KERS and DRS today for the first time and there is such a lot to think about over the course of a lap. I soon built up my confidence though and after a few single lap runs I was building up to longer runs and I was really able to start putting a lap together. I am happy with my performance today and the Team seem pleased with me. I have received some great feedback and support from them so I can't thank them enough for that. Everything has gone according to plan so I can't ask for any more than that right now. Now I will try to refocus on the GP3 Championship and my ambitions for that this season."
"My afternoon programme has been very brief due to a problem with the ECU," added Chilton, "so I didn't get much time in the car - just 58 minutes. At least we were able to complete some of the planned work with the tyres though and any running is always useful. It has been another long break between races but Hungary holds such special memories for me from my GP2 win there last year, so I'm really looking forward to returning next week. In the meantime we have the important occasion of Moscow City Racing this weekend and I will be heading there tomorrow."
"It has definitely been a day of two halves," admitted John Booth. "The whole team was pleased to see Tio in the car this morning as just reward for his very positive debut season in GP3 last year. He got off to a good start, conducting some aero measurements similar to those he ran through in Kemble and then he set about completing some timed laps. It is clearly a huge amount for the young drivers to take in, stepping up from GP3 to F1 and working with not only many more people but more complicated systems on the cars.
"However, Tio took all of this in his stride and achieved the objective of improving every run, running two good qualifying simulations on the soft tyres. The plan for lunchtime was to switch the drivers over and start a tyre test for Pirelli in the afternoon but unfortunately we experienced several issues with ECUs on the car. The Team has worked hard with MESL to try to solve these issues, however there is still a lot to understand. Unfortunately all of this meant that we severely compromised Max's tyre test this afternoon, although we were at least able to provide Pirelli with some information on the new prototype hard tyre."
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