14/05/2014
NEWS STORY
Lotus' Pastor Maldonado topped the timesheets on the second, and final day, of the second in-season test.
With ideal conditions from the outset there was plenty of running, while the warmer temperatures meant we saw quicker lap times than those seen yesterday or over the Grand Prix weekend.
Pastor Maldonado ended the second day fastest by almost a second after 102 trouble-free and extremely productive laps. He set a time of 1:24.871s using super soft tyres late in the afternoon after completing numerous aero and set-up evaluations under glorious blue skies.
"That was a complete day for us and my first normal day of testing this season," said the Venezuelan. "We didn't have any problems and we gained a lot of good running with good track conditions compared to yesterday's. We ran to plan and completed everything we wanted to do. We learnt a lot more about the car, the set-up and performance is improving all the time so I'm feeling more comfortable to push too. It's been a big step forward today which hopefully means we'll be much better for the rest of the season."
"We completed everything we set out to do today including aero assessments, mapping work, energy recovery scenarios, evaluations of set-up and ride height, tyre usage programmes and so on," beamed Trackside Operations Director, Alan Permane, "and I'm pleased to say the E22 didn't miss a beat.
"We completed over 100 laps today so it's been very good to see what is possible when we have good reliability. With the data we have collected over the last two days and the progress we've made, we're in much better shape heading to the next races. There is plenty of potential in the E22."
Second quickest was Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes, the German team the centre of much of the attention today. Sadly, the interest in the team wasn't so much down to its dominance in the opening stages of the season but rather the much Brackley-based outfit's much talked about solution to the lack of noise from the 2014 spec engines.
Today's programme began with a trial run of the 'megaphone' exhaust tailpipe as requested by the FIA while the remainder of running time focused on aero, braking and control systems evaluation, in addition to practice starts. The hard and medium tyres were used in the morning, the medium again in the afternoon.
"Days like today are so valuable as you can't really test anything effectively during a race weekend," said Rosberg. "No one run is the same as another, whereas here you can keep certain variables stable and properly compare things back-to-back.
"Everyone was talking about the exhaust but to be honest I didn't notice much difference in the sound. Of course, we're happy to try these things if that's what the FIA and the fans want us to do. But perhaps this was not the right solution.
"One of the main things we looked at was braking," he added. "This is an area where I haven't felt 100% happy yet this year, so we're continuously assessing ways to improve on that. We also worked on starts as this has been a bit of a weakness for the team this season. It's not easy as it's such a sophisticated procedure and there are some highly complex parts involved like the clutch, for example. But we definitely learned some interesting things.
"Other than that it was the usual setup and engine management work that you'd expect at a test. Our aim is to keep increasing any advantage we can find over our rivals and the team is doing a great job of that. Of course, Monaco is up next and that's a very different, special race. But our car is strong in all areas and I see no reason why we won't be just as competitive there."
It was an altogether better day for Ferrari, Kimi Raikkonen more than four times as many laps as he completed yesterday. The Maranello outfit focussed on constant speed runs for aero measurement work and set-up testing, the Finn making up for some of the time lost yesterday.
Today's running was trouble-free and most of the running was done on the medium tyres, ending on the softer one.
Although Sauber, which had Esteban Gutierrez on duty, lost an hour due to a problem with its powertrain, the Swiss outfit was able to complete its planned programme. In the morning the main focus was on aerodynamic testing in order to fine tune the development package, while in the afternoon the team worked on suspension development parts as well as different set-up configurations.
"We had a good day," beamed Test Engineer, Paul Russell. "In the morning we did short runs and worked on the aerodynamics in order to fine tune the development package which we brought to the Spanish Grand Prix. We definitely made some good progress there. Late morning we had a problem with the powertrain, which caused us to postpone a bit of work to the afternoon. It took us an hour, but it didn't really hold us up.
"After lunch we tested several suspension parts on longer runs and higher fuel loads in order to identify how these are working in race configuration. Besides that, we also worked on the set-up of the car.
"It's been very positive as we got some good results. We achieved a good correlation from what we measured and what Esteban told us. We are quite encouraged with today's outcome."
At Williams, Susie Wolff was getting her first experience of the FW36 which she is scheduled to drive in FP1 at Silverstone in July. She completed 55 laps as the team focussed on aero evaluations and mechanical tests, finishing the day fifth quickest.
"This was my first opportunity to drive the FW36 and I learnt a lot about how to drive these new look cars which are very different to previous seasons," said Wolff. "With last year's car the harder you pushed the faster you went, but now you have to manage certain elements a lot more. The cars also have a lot more torque which was a steep learning curve, and this caught me out at the beginning of the session.
"Overall today was a productive day for the team and we worked very well together to quickly complete our planned aero and mechanical evaluations. I was then able to get some good mileage under my belt to understand the characteristics of the car and how to get the most out of this new style of power unit."
At Marussia, Jules Bianchi took over from yesterday's pace-setter Max Chilton. The team‘s checklist began with some baseline runs on the hard tyre combined with an aerodynamic evaluation, after which Bianchi progressed to the medium tyre for further set-up evaluations. The morning's running was promising and the team achieved 48 laps.
In the afternoon however, after completing just two further laps, the team experienced a mechanical problem, which necessitated taking the rear end apart. The mechanics pushed hard to get the car back out on track before the end of the day in order to achieve a verification of the set-up work on the softer range of tyres and this target was achieved with only ten minutes of the session remaining.
Time was tight, but Bianchi channelled all his frustration into a single timed lap on the soft tyre to achieve the 6th fastest time of the day. He then started a run on the supersoft rubber but was forced to abort his lap and return to the pits, therefore he was unable to improve on his time.
"We had a very positive morning," said Bianchi, "exploring some of the work completed yesterday and making small steps in the right direction ready for the performance tests this afternoon.
"It's a real shame that we had a mechanical problem, as this lost us pretty much the whole afternoon session and in the end I just had one lap at the end on the soft tyre. Needless to say, I put everything I had into the lap to try to make up for lost time, as the conditions today were perfect to bring everything together. In the end, I am pleased with my lap on the soft and the big picture from today.
"The team have done an incredible job over the whole time we have been here in Spain - the race and the test - and credit to the technical personnel back at Banbury for bringing us such a significant upgrade. We leave Spain with some very important information and we know we have taken another step towards the midfield. Now we look forward to seeing what we have for Monaco, which is my home race, and naturally I am hoping that we have a good tTeam result there."
"Overnight we were able to spend time analysing the data we had collected yesterday," added Chief Engineer, Dave Greenwood, "and the initial conclusion for this was that the set-up work was a good step in the right direction. This morning we put Jules in the car with the same setup with which Max concluded his running yesterday. This was a slightly bold approach as the set-up was very different to that which Jules had raced with at the weekend, however we were very pleased that Jules was positive about the changes to the car.
"The conclusion we have drawn from the feedback of both drivers is that we appear to have a better balanced car we have been able to exploit more of the downforce potential. This afternoon, unfortunately we experienced a mechanical problem which left Jules unable to complete the full Soft and Supersoft tyre programme. I am pleased that we managed to at least provide one lap at the end of the day when we had rectified the problem and that he gave us a brief glimpse of his level of confidence in the package in preparation for the coming races.
"Later this week we will spend some time converting our revised set-ups for Monaco, as the tracks are, of course, very different. Next week's race will provide another measure of how much we have progressed. For now though, an excellent job by the whole eam and our drivers."
Sebastian Vettel took over the RB10 from Sebastien Buemi and after a late start due to overnight work solving the gearbox issues that halted the team's running yesterday, the world champion managed to put in a useful 72 laps.
"The problems of yesterday made us a bit late out this morning but the afternoon was productive and we did a lot of laps which, considering the time we had, was good," said the world champion. "We used the tyres that we used last weekend, as we want to try to understand the car more and in terms of that I think we have learned a lot, so I would say it was a useful, if not perfect, day."
"It's obviously not ideal to have a problem that costs you time on both days," added Race Engineering Co-ordinator, Andy Damerum, "but the problem we had was such that it needed a lot of time to fix overnight and getting the car ready delayed our start this morning.
"We managed to get a couple of runs in before lunch, just to get Sebastian comfortable in the car, but it wasn't giving him what he wanted so we tweaked a few things over the lunch break. Then in the afternoon we had a pretty productive run.
"It sounds like a mantra for me now, but every lap you run yields good information and even though we didn't have a perfect outing yesterday or today, we've got good data. I spoke to the guys at the factory this morning and they're already pleased with the information we got yesterday. In the limited time we had today I have to say that, from a race engineer's perspective, there was a lot to take away from the work we did. So, all told - a fairly decent couple of days."
At Force India, which was on tyre testing duty for Pirelli, Daniel Juncadella was on duty, the Spanish youngster completing 91 laps.
"I enjoyed today," he said. "It was my second day of testing with the team and it was a valuable opportunity to continue learning about the VJM07. The last time I drove the car was in Jerez in January when the track was cold and damp, so it felt good to have a completely dry day.
"The main job today was to evaluate tyres for Pirelli so there was not really that much we could change with the set-up. The focus was simply on giving accurate feedback on the tyres and we delivered that successfully."
"Overall it was a successful test," added Tom McCullough, the Silverstone outfit's Chief Engineer, "even though we did lose some track time due to the poor weather on day one and an early accident on day two.
"Yesterday, Nico's test programme was geared towards gathering data that is critical to our on-going car development. This also included preparatory work for the upcoming races in Monaco and Montreal. The focus today was all about tyre testing for Pirelli with Daniel in the car. He gave useful feedback on the tyres and general car performance."
Busiest man today was Stoffel Vandoorne who did more thasn enough laps to earn his F1 Superlicence. Like Force India, today’s programme was exclusively reserved for Pirelli tyre testing.
It was a successful and trouble-free day, Vandoorne impressing the team with his maturity, feedback and pace as he completed 136 laps - more than any other driver - running all his day on the hard compound, while all other cars used Medium or Soft tyres.
Having completed the compulsory programme with McLaren, Vandoorne then went on to set his fastest time of the day on the current 2014 medium tyre, as the Woking team ran its their own test, a procedure allowed by the current regulations.
"This has been a fantastic day for me," said Vandoorne, "my first experience in a Formula 1 car, and a really great opportunity to get plenty of laps under my belt.
"I want to say a big thank-you to the team," he continued, "everyone has been incredibly helpful and positive. It’s also great to have been able to contribute to the test programme: 136 laps today was a fantastic achievement, and it’s great that it’s earned me the right to be granted a Formula 1 Superlicence.
"Now my focus turns towards my next event - the GP2 races in Monte-Carlo next Friday and Saturday. I’m looking forward to bouncing back from a tricky weekend in Barcelona, and would love to get some great results in Monaco."
At Toro Rosso, Daniil Kvyat took over from Jean-Eric Vergne. In the morning, the Russian completed an aero test, involving straight line constant speed running, so plenty of "in" and "out" laps. These tests involved making lengthy changes to the car, which meant not many laps were completed, although the results achieved were positive and will provide useful data for the upcoming races.
At the end of the morning, Kvyat did a "normal" run, which went off smoothly. After the lunch break, the programme called for modifications to the mechanical set-up on the car and these too took time. Once the car was ready, it was sent out to complete a baseline run during which a problem occurred that side-lined the car for the rest of the session.
Caterham opted to withdraw from today's testing after the team was unable to rebuild its car following Kamui Kobayashi's off in the final stages of yesterday's running.
Check out our Wednesday gallery, here.
Chris Balfe