29/01/2014
NEWS STORY
Following Tuesday's farce, when the assembled teams managed only 93 laps between them, F1 put on a slightly better show on day two of pre-season testing.
In the wake of overnight rain, and with the threat of more to follow, Pirelli, with the agreement of the teams, decided to shift Friday's planned wet test to today, necessitating the use of water tankers to artificially soak the track. Consequently much of the morning was spent using the intermediates and full wet tyres however, by lunchtime, the track had dried completely, thereby allowing teams to begin longer runs as they explored power unit behaviour.
While some teams continue to experience problems, mainly those running Renault power units who completed just 19 laps between them, today saw a lot more action, with Nico Rosberg alone completing more laps than were achieved in total yesterday.
One of the teams that encountered problems yesterday was McLaren, the Woking outfit's 2014 contender not turning a wheel due to "electrical issues". Today however, Jenson Button, his helmet sporting a 'Papa Smurf' tribute to his late father, completed 43 laps on the way to posting the best time of the day.
"For our first day of actual running, we were able to get a good understanding of the car, and the way the engine and turbo behaves," said Button. "It's tricky, and very different to what we're used to, but I could feel that these cars will be enjoyable to drive.
"Of course, it's still early days," he continued, "and there's a lot of work ahead of us. We need to work on both braking and traction; but that excites me, because there's a lot of potential to adjust those parameters. The new braking system is very complicated, and getting it right will be tough. But these are all things we can work on: there's nothing about the car that unsettles me, and there's plenty of scope to explore the set-up. It will just take time.
"Our main aim this winter was to field a reliable car that would give us a good baseline. These cars will develop so much over the next few months, so it's essential to have a solid base to build upon; and I think we have that good base."
In a change to the Woking outfit's schedule, Button will extend his running into tomorrow morning, passing over to Kevin Magnussen later in the day.
Yesterday's pace-setter, Kimi Raikkonen, was second quickest, 0.647s down on the McLaren but giving the Maranello outfit further cause for some early optimism. The Italian team was soon able to assess the intermediate tyres, thus making the most of the time remaining and the progressively drying track to begin work on the car in preparation for the afternoon programme.
By close of play, Raikkonen had completed 47 laps, as he continued the task of checking the car's functionality as well as trying a few set-up changes.
"Every time we go out on track we learn something new," he said. "This week the times don't matter and the only thing that does is to do a good number of laps without any problems and fortunately, we have managed that on both days. The team is working hard and at the next test in Bahrain, we will continue to improve."
For the second successive day Valtteri Bottas finished third, the Finn putting another 35 laps on the FW36 as the Grove outfit focussed on component, systems and reliability checks.
"Testing this week is about checking all the new systems more than outright performance so problems are expected," said the Finn, who topped the timesheets at one stage, "but we've been solving each one as it has come up. We completed some running in the wet this morning to gather some data on the intermediate tyres and then clocked up some more laps in the dry this afternoon and my first impression of the car is positive.
"Unfortunately we had to finish the day slightly early," he continued. "I felt something different with the rear of the car so the team called me straight back in to check it over. We are much wiser than we were yesterday and have a better understanding of the car already and so I'm looking forward to the next time I can get behind the wheel."
"We started the day doing some work on the new Pirelli intermediate tyres as it wasn't wet enough for the full wet tyres," said Rod Nelson, the Grove outfit's Chief Test & Support Engineer. "We were then doing some development work on our braking system and making some changes over lunch and we were going well on the hard tyres this afternoon as the track dried out. However, we had to stop early due a problem with the rear suspension. Valtteri radioed in to say he felt something strange with the rear and we could also see something in the data, so we brought him in as a precautionary measure to check the car over. Obviously we'd like to do more laps but we are happy with the progress we are making."
It was a positive day for Mercedes also. Despite having to wait on parts following the wing failure that caused Lewis Hamilton's crash yesterday, Nico Rosberg was able to complete 97 laps. Emerging for his first run at 11:35, completing just two install laps before the lunch break, he went on to complete a series of longer runs, the longest being a 24-lap stint on the hard tyre.
At a time the Renault powered teams were clearly hurting, Mercedes powered teams completed a total of 212 laps between them.
"That was a great team effort today," said Rosberg. "We had to fix a problem on our car overnight. The guys worked through the night back at the factories and flew in the parts just in time this morning, so we were able to do a lot of mileage today which is great for our learning process.
"It was a great feeling to put some good miles on the new Silver Arrow and there's a lot of new stuff to clear because it's very different to the old car. It's heavier, you have less downforce and the steering wheel is completely different; it's almost like a smartphone with all the information on it! Every lap is important to get used to the new systems and it helped a lot that I have worked on this already in the simulator.
"We don't know yet where we are compared to the other teams," he admitted, "but we can be quite happy after the first two days of testing here in Spain. Now I look forward to getting back in the car on Friday.
"The team worked very hard overnight, both at the circuit and in the UK, to recover from yesterday's wing failure," said Paddy Lowe. "We had a slow start to the day, waiting for components to arrive from base, but we are happy with the solution that we found. The car left the garage just before midday and after resolving some minor issues, we began our planned programme at 1300.
"Our objective was to put mileage on the car and we achieved a total of 97 laps without any major issues, which is a great credit to the teams at both factories and those trackside here at Jerez. We have a lot of data to analyse overnight and look forward to continuing our learning tomorrow."
It was a solid day for Force India also, Sergio Perez completing 37 laps on his way to posting the fifth best time of the day, albeit 2.7s off the pace of the fourth quickest driver.
"Today was a lot more productive than yesterday," said the Mexican, "so in that respect we are making progress as we learn about the car. We still have a long way to go with understanding the complexity of all the systems so it's important that the next two days with Nico and Daniel give us the information we need before we arrive in Bahrain. It will be only then that we can hopefully start to work on performance."
"Our second day in Jerez has been positive as we have continued to build on the work we completed yesterday," added Andrew Green. "We remain on a very steep learning curve, but I'm encouraged with the progress we have made so far and every lap we complete gives us more valuable information. With each run we've taken a step forward and been able to build up to doing longer and longer runs. The focus tomorrow will be for more of the same as we give Nico his first day in the car."
At Sauber, Gutierrez continued assessing the reliability of the C33, the Mexican, the cause of one of today's three red flags when he went off into the gravel at T6 this morning, completing a total of 53 laps.
"Today we were able to do a lot of laps, which is very positive," he said. "Considering the circumstances, it is very important to put in this mileage. We found some issues in the systems, which is something to work on and part of the process. Obviously at this stage I was not able to push. Before we can take it to the limit our priority is reliability. We had some issues with the braking system, where it was better to go easy in the braking zones, figure out how the system reacts, get mileage and sort it out."
"Today we continued assessing reliability and performed a number of functions checks," added Giampaolo Dall'Ara, the team's Head of Track Engineering. "At this stage of the development progress follows a steep curve and, while we keep working hard, we are rather pleased with our achievements."
Having completed just 1 lap yesterday, Marcus Ericsson added another 11 to his tally, Caterham the busiest of the three Renault powered teams on duty.
"11 laps today and our first couple of full runs in the new car, so we are starting to work through the program," said the Swede. "I'd obviously like to have had more time in the car, but we knew we'd have the sort of issues that have limited our running today so it's nothing to be down about for me.
"The more time I spend with the team, in and out of the car, the more comfortable I'm feeling. Everyone's being really helpful and I'm starting to build a good relationship with my engineer, so even with the technical issues that we and every team are having, I've learnt a huge amount already in the last couple of days. Now the aim is to put some more laps on the board tomorrow and Friday and then I'll be back to the factory for more sim work before heading to Bahrain and my next run in the car at the second and third tests."
"Obviously the plan for today was to put some mileage on the Power Unit and check the behaviour of all the systems step by step," added Cedrik Staudohar, Renault Sport F1's Track Support Leader. "Unfortunately we were a bit delayed this morning by software issues but once we started we were able to follow our programme with some initial power unit map adjustment and then some work with the ERS system in the following couple of runs. The car stopped on track in the afternoon and it was the end of the day for us as we didn't have time to charge the battery and send the car back out before the flag. In the end it was a productive day as we were able to test a couple of things which will be very useful for us for tomorrow."
Red Bull called an early halt to its second day after Renault reported an energy store issue on the RB10. Focusing on tomorrow's running, the team opted to suspend today's outing in order to fully investigate the problem.
"Obviously we've not had a lot of running and have a few problems to sort out," said Sebastian Vettel, who remained at the circuit overseeing the efforts of the Renault technicians, "but with such big rule changes it is usual to have some teething problems. That's what tests are for, to sort those issues out. The next two days will be important to get some track time to prepare for the tests in Bahrain."
"It's obviously not ideal, but it's better to take the time to get to the root of the issue, so the decision to stop early today is probably a good one," added Race Engineering Co-ordinator, Andy Damerum. "We did get some track time this morning, however. As I said yesterday, even though it looks brief, the amount of useful data we're getting back is impressive. We cured the issue we had yesterday and ran that reliably this morning and it will be the same process this evening. It's a massive learning curve for everyone and it's simply a case of working through it step by step."
There was little such positivity from sister team Toro Rosso where Daniil Kvyat didn't turn a wheel.
"The STR 9 was unable to do any running today, because of electrical problems that could not be repaired in time," read a brief statement from the Faenza outfit. "Therefore, at a certain point, the team decided to cut its losses and concentrate on preparation for tomorrow's session.
"Jean-Eric Vergne will be driving tomorrow," the team added, though it's unclear whether the author had their fingers crossed at the time.
Late in the afternoon, the Marussia transporter arrived from Banbury bearing the MR03, the Russian outfit's crew facing a long night ahead as they prepare the car for its early morning launch.
Chris Balfe
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