30/01/2014
NEWS STORY
Kevin Magnussen made a spectacular debut with McLaren today, the rookie posting the quickest time as Mercedes power units continue to set the pace.
The German engines powered four of the six quickest cars, whilst the Renault powered cars were well off the pace and managing only forty-three laps between them.
Following Monday's problems, when McLaren failed to turn a wheel, the Woking outfit gave Jenson Button an extra half-day in the MP4-29. The Briton continued the evaluative work he began yesterday, further drilling down into the detail as he continues to understand and refine the car.
After lunch, Magnussen took over for his first run in the car. The team had devised a programme that gave him maximum time in the cockpit. This meant focusing on a series of longer runs - in order to best familiarise him with the car and its systems. Additionally, he conducted some shorter runs at the end of the day, punctuating them with a series of practice starts in the pitlane, and some practice pit stops.
"This was a big day for me," said the Dane. "I had butterflies in my stomach and had trouble sleeping last night - I'm a rookie, and I was just excited to get in the car. Equally, however, this doesn't feel like my first day at work: I know everybody at McLaren, so I really felt at home.
"Happily, everything worked as it should," he continued, "and the car felt good. I'm pretty pleased with our reliability - to have done as many laps as I did in just half a day was pretty positive. I'm not taking too much from the fact that I set the fastest time - I was pushing, but it wasn't a balls-to-the-wall lap. We wanted to get good data and learn about the car, so I think everyone is pushing out there.
"Even so, I still think we can improve the car this week. And the most important thing is to understand how to improve things when we go away from here. I think we have a good idea of the direction to take."
While Magnussen ended the day fastest overall, more pleasing to the Woking team was the fact that the car - in the hands of both drivers - completed a total of 92 laps, more than any other team, thus underlining the team's pre-season aim to focus on reliability over performance.
Second quickest was Felipe Massa, making his debut for Williams. The Brazilian completed 47 laps as he focussed on new component, systems and reliability checks.
"It was a new experience for me today," he said. "The first day with a new car is always very exciting but adding to that changing teams, all the new faces and the new place, it made it even more exciting for me.
"Unfortunately we didn't do the amount of laps we wanted to do today," he continued, "but it's pretty acceptable for the first days of testing considering all the rule changes with the car.
"The car feels very different to what we used to have in many areas. You need to understand how to drive with the engine, the chassis, the tyres and the turbo, but it's fun! There will be a lot of improvements we can make up before the first race and throughout the championship. Performance is important but I think reliability will be a key issue to think about for the first race.
"I'm happy with how I have been welcomed into the team as everyone has been very kind and professional. I'm really happy and I know we have a lot of work to do to fix the little issues we have, but I think we can have a good championship together. It's also my first experience with a different engine manufacturer and it's been really great working with Mercedes. I'm really happy with the new power unit and the way the team work so it's going to be interesting. Overall, I'm very happy with my first day."
"Felipe's done quite a bit of work in the simulator at the factory, so it was good to get his comments on the real thing as opposed to the digital version," said Rod Nelson, the Grove outfit's Chief Test & Support Engineer. "We got some really good feedback and have a clear direction to go in from both our drivers this week despite the slightly limited mileage. We are working through our system tests here in Jerez and are coming across a few issues which we are resolving. Overall, we are relatively happy with the progress we are making."
After Tuesday's dramas today was far more settled for Lewis Hamilton as he took over from Nico Rosberg. The German team completed good mileage during the morning before a transmission issue curtailed running in the afternoon. His best time of 1:23.952 from 62 laps was good enough for third position on the timesheets, and second in the lap count behind the combined total of McLaren pairing Button and Magnussen.
"At the moment we're definitely happy," said Hamilton. "We've shown the strength within this team through all the hard work that's gone into getting the car here, bouncing back from the issue on Tuesday and then going out there and following up 97 laps yesterday with a further 62 today; it's a huge accomplishment for everyone involved. Proving reliability at this stage is crucial and every lap is precious, as this is going to be a seriously challenging year for every team. I'm feeling very positive after these tests and every day on track is another step forwards, but there are so many challenges ahead of us in the coming weeks and months that we just have to take those steps one at a time.
"It was good to get Lewis back in the car today for his first real opportunity to drive some good laps and explore the performance of the W05," added Paddy Lowe. "We made a relatively strong start to the day and completed two medium length runs before lunch.
"We began running again at around 14:30, completing a couple more runs before a transmission issue brought our day to an early close. Nevertheless, we achieved reasonable mileage overall with a total of 62 laps and learned a great deal more about the car. The target for tomorrow will be to continue making progress in our understanding of the car and put more miles on what is still a very new technical package."
Fernando Alonso made his first on-track appearance of 2014 at the wheel of the F14 T and it didn't take long for him to get to grips with the new car. In the morning, he worked on a programme centred on aerodynamic mapping measurement, while in the afternoon work on development continued with particular attention paid to car set-up. The Spaniard was the cause of one of the day's several red flags, stopping out on track at T10 around ninety minutes into the session.
"It's always nice to be driving again, especially in front of your home crowd," said the Spaniard. "I've missed it for a few months now, even if I've spent hours in the simulator in Maranello and the feeling I got from the track was as exciting as ever. Now we have a lot of work ahead of us, but we have a very big potential to make progress and that's encouraging."
Nico Hulkenberg made his (2014) debut with Force India, but it wasn't the easiest of days for the German. A number of different issues severely restricted his running. The German, who didn't post his first timed lap until shortly before lunch, the cause of one of several red flags.
"It's difficult to give a lot of feedback after my first day in the car because most of my time was spent doing mapping and data collection with some constant speed runs," he said. "So I've yet to really get a feel for the car. My first impressions are that the new era of Formula One feels very different to the car I drove in Brazil last year. It's a very different sensation, but you have to remember this is very early days and there is a lot more to come. Things will evolve quickly over the next few weeks because the car is very much a work in progress and we still have lots to learn."
"We've definitely had more downtime that we would have liked today," admitted Technical Director, Andrew Green, "but ironing out reliability issues is the priority during this first week of testing. We are still working through operational checks with the car and it's a slow process with both physical inspection and data analysis every time the car runs.
"Each issue that we resolve represents progress and in that regard we've taken several more important steps on the road to getting the VJM07 ready for the first race of the season."
Things were slightly better for Toro Rosso today, though far from perfect. While Jean-Eric Vergne at least managed to complete 30 laps his best time was over 6s off the pace. The Faenza outfit was able to complete some work on checking systems on the STR9, even if it is still too early to assess the overall performance of the package.
"It was still a difficult day," said Vergne, "but I'd say a lot more positive than the previous two, in fact it was a massive step forward. Towards the end, we were able to complete a few laps with the power unit running well. I am pleased with the work done by the team, especially on the Renault side. After yesterday, everyone stayed calm and identified the problem. I believe we now have a good basis on which to work overnight so that tomorrow we can make even more progress."
It wasn't the most auspicious of debuts for Adrian Sutil, the German hitting the barriers at T6, necessitating repairs to the front of the Sauber and said barriers. While the barriers were soon repaired, the damage to the car brought the team's day to an early conclusion.
"It was nice to be back in a car, as well as in a different team for the first time," said the German. "It was a pleasure, and the team has done a fantastic job to get the C33 ready. It is very different to drive, as it has much more torque and sounds different. It's very quiet, but the power is definitely there. It's early on, so the systems are not always working exactly as they should. But we did a few decent runs.
"Our biggest issue was the brake-by-wire system," he revealed, "so we still need to work on that. Also to get a feeling for the tyres is quite tricky. The hard tyre is very hard, so it is going to be a big challenge to make them work.
"Towards the end of the session we did a few installation laps. On the last one the tyres lost a lot of temperature, it caught me by surprise when I accelerated out of the corner, shifting up from third to fourth on a straight line, and suddenly the car snapped and I went off. It's all repairable but it will be a long night."
"There is always a lot to learn when a driver who is new in the team jumps in the car for the first time," admitted Giampaolo Dall'Ara, the team's Head of Track Engineering. "Adrian was no exception, so on one side it was enjoyable to start the work on track with him, and on the other it was another busy day with its highs and lows.
"The experience we are accruing, mostly on the power-unit and brake-by-wire system side, is very valuable in preparation for the season. However we had some delays, and eventually an accident left us short of the planned mileage. It was a number of factors coming together that led to this incident. We will work hard overnight to repair everything and be ready for more testing tomorrow."
At Caterham, another Renault powered team that is clearly struggling, Robin Frijns was on duty, the Dutch driver putting another 10 laps on the CT05.
"Even though we had limited running today it's still good to be back in an F1 car, especially with a team where I already feel like part of the family," he said. "Since we made the announcement last week everyone's been really good with me, integrating me into the whole setup at the factory and here in Spain much more than I've been with my previous teams, so it's a good feeling.
"We started this morning on time and ran through a few installation laps so we could keep working through all the systems we need to get right before we can start to push on performance. The car was behaving pretty strangely, mainly down to the way the power's being delivered, and it was pretty stop / start as we kept having to make adjustments for each run. After lunch we had a power unit problem that meant the guys had to take the floor off and replace a couple of parts, and that's a big job with how complicated everything is - in the end the clock beat us and we couldn't get back out before the end of the session, and while that's obviously not ideal, it's what testing's for."
"Another tough day but one where we continue to learn important information about the 2014 Power Unit and what we need to do to improve reliability and allow the team to start working on performance," added Cedrik Staudohar, Track Support Leader for Renault Sport F1. "Robin was sent out in the car early and we started working through a number of programs but just after lunch we found a problem with the Power Unit that required us to change a part which, unfortunately, ended our running early. We have identified the source of the issue and will work overnight to ensure it does not occur again, giving the team the chance to add to the lap count tomorrow."
Late in the afternoon, the Marussia MR03, which arrived in Jerez only 24-hours earlier, finally left its garage and took to the track. On what were essentially a couple of system check, installation runs, Max Chilton completed a total of 5 laps.
"Today has been a real demonstration of the step forward we've made as a team," said the youngster. "After the biggest rule change in F1 history, and for a team of our size and resources, I think we've done an exceptional job. Congratulations to the whole team and our new Ferrari colleagues for a superb reward today.
"We got a good clean run on our installation lap and completed four further laps without issue, so I'm really pleased. Five laps today are far more important than you can imagine, as every detail of the data will be pored over tonight and in the weeks ahead of the Bahrain tests to ensure we can continue making good progress."
"After a huge effort by the whole team, the five laps we have achieved today may seem scant reward," said Chief Engineer, Dave Greenwood. "However, as has been seen up and down the pit lane over the past few days, the first day of testing with this very sophisticated level of technology has really been all about ensuring the systems are reliable and also to give the engineering teams initial track data and the necessary time to aid their understanding of the car.
"The laps we were able to complete were without issue, so we are pretty pleased with the start we have made to our testing programme. As a team, together with our new partners at Ferrari, we have worked diligently through our planned programme of checks and tonight we will evaluate and digest all of the data collected. Tomorrow is likely to be another challenging day, so we need to be as prepared as possible to make the most of it, but we are very much looking forward to achieving further track time with the MR03."
As previously reported, it was another sorry day for Red Bull, the team throwing in the towel early in the afternoon as the problems continued. Things were bad from the outset, Ricciardo stopping out on track on his installation lap, smoke pouring from the back of the car. When the car eventually reappeared things were little better, the Austrian outfit calling a halt to proceedings shortly after lunch.
"We worked hard yesterday to make the changes it was felt were necessary to overcome the problems we identified and we were hopeful of a more successful day today," said Race Engineering Co-ordinator, Andy Damerum. "Unfortunately, the measures we took only partially solved the issue and, as with yesterday, it's more sensible to stop and dig deeper into finding a solution. It's obviously not where we want to be and naturally the whole team is frustrated by these issues. However, we're pretty good at bouncing back from this type of thing. This is where the whole team pulls together and I'm sure we will get these problems fixed."
As Adrian Newey returned to the team's Milton Keynes HQ it was clear the team has a major issue, a subsequent tweet suggesting that the RB10 might be a no-show tomorrow, the final day of the test.
"We're trying to get the car ready for tomorrow," it read. "If things don't go to plan then, we have 2 weeks until the next test so time's on our side. Adrian's gone back to the factory to work out the next best step. These guys know how to win. She'll be right!"
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