08/07/2014
NEWS STORY
Felipe Massa, who was eliminated on the first lap of Sunday's British Grand Prix, posted the fastest time on the opening day of the Silverstone in-season test.
The Brazilian, who was taking part in his 200th Grand Prix, was eliminated when he was unable to avoid the aftermath of Kimi Raikkonen's horrific crash.
Today, as the Grove outfit, which saw Valtteri Bottas take second on Sunday, concentrated on aero and systems work, Massa completed 42 laps on his way to posting a time quicker than Nico Rosberg's pole-winning 1:35.766 on Saturday.
"The car was very competitive during the race so today we have built on a very good platform," said Massa. "The test today was experimenting with some parts for future races as well as a little bit for next year. The car felt really good, so we know we will go to Hockenheim with a good car. The programme went to plan today and we didn't have any rain so it was a very productive day.
"At one point today we had rain surrounding the whole track so for it to not affect running today was very lucky," admitted Rod Nelson, the team's Chief Test and Support Engineer. "It was a successful day, the main plan was for aerodynamic and systems tests for this year and also moving forward for next year's car, and we are very pleased with the progress."
Daniel Ricciardo, who finished third on Sunday, courtesy of another quality drive and amazing tyre management, finished the day second on the timesheets. Following a minor delay at the beginning of the session, the Australian completed a very useful 72 laps getting through a long programme that mixed aerodynamic validation work and mechanical testing.
"It was a successful day, pretty productive," he said. "We got a lot more done than we thought because the rain we were expecting didn't show up. A lot of what we were doing was for the engineers and aerodynamicists to look over back at the factory, and we've given them plenty of data to go on."
Race Engineering Co-ordinator Andy Damerum underlined the importance of getting in a solid day of running. With tomorrow being a Pirelli tyre test day, this was the team's final opportunity to test outside of a grand prix weekend before the end of the season.
"Today we were looking at the long term," he said. "We will of course be testing on Fridays at grand prix meetings but there are certain things we can't do there. We've gathered a wealth of information today, which will help us to map the way forward for the second half of the season.
"Our start today was a little delayed as we had some sensor glitches, which meant we were out about half-an-hour late - but we made up the time and were happy with the 72 laps that we completed. We gathered some good data that will help us as we move forward in the coming weeks."
Nico Rosberg, whose world championship lead was cut from 29 points to just 4 when he suffered a gearbox issue, completed 89 laps today as the Brackley squad focussed on aero testing, brake cooling evaluations and engine system checks, plus set-up work. The German team was also able to test some practice starts and run strategy checks for ERS using hard and medium tyres in the morning, and the medium again in the afternoon.
"It's been a good day today," said Rosberg. "It's so valuable to do these test days; over a race weekend it's rare to get two runs in the day that are the same as tyres are getting old and conditions change but here we can always use new tyres, so we can really do some setup work that we don't normally get to do. It was very useful and we learned a lot today. We will be able to use this information going into the next race.
"The British crowd has been brilliant this week," he continued, "and, even though they were cheering for Lewis, they showed a lot of respect for me and it was great to see the fantastic atmosphere they brought over the whole weekend. I'm now looking forward to taking our dominant Silver Arrow to Germany and racing at Hockenheim."
Sauber, which had Adrian Sutil on duty, took the opportunity to try various new aero parts and also work on the C33's set-up. The German did a lot of work with the medium and hard tyres and got through the planned programme finishing the day with short runs.
"It was a good day, as I was able to do a lot of laps," said Sutil. "In the morning everything worked well except for a small issue with the powertrain, which we were able to solve quickly. We worked a lot with the medium and hard tyres in order to understand them better. Besides that, we also worked on the set-up to improve the balance of the car. In the afternoon we tried different set-ups.
"So far we cannot say which set-up worked the best, but all in all it was a good day during which we went through our planned programme. At the end of the day we did short runs with the soft tyres, which was also helpful."
"Generally, we were testing new aero parts and were working on the car's set-up," said Paul Russell, the Swiss outfit's test engineer. "We had quite a lot of luck with the weather, as the conditions were nice and dry. We had quite a long stop as we changed the complete rear axle of the car. We also had a small issue with the powertrain in the morning that we were able to sort out. At the end of the day, we went through our programme and did a couple of long runs as well. After the race weekend here in Silverstone, we are continuing to work hard and trying to improve."
Tomorrow, Jules Bianchi replaces Kimi Raikkonen in the Ferrari F14T, but for today the French youngster was in the Marussia. He got the test underway by completing a Pirelli tyre programme this morning before progressing to set-up development work in the afternoon. Unfortunately, after 108 laps he was forced to stop the car out on track, after which there was a small fire underneath the top bodywork. This was quickly extinguished and there was minimal fire damage, but nonetheless it spelt the end of the afternoon session with the focus switching to further investigation and cleaning of the car's systems in preparation for tomorrow.
"Overall it has been a very good day and I am pleased to be in P5, despite having to bring our afternoon to an early conclusion," said Bianchi, who was the busiest driver today. "It was positive that we were able to achieve so many laps - 108 in total - and that we had completed quite a lot of our programme. We did some good work with the tyres and then this afternoon with the set-up, so I look forward now to Germany."
"Although our day has been brought to an early conclusion, it has been overwhelmingly positive, with Jules completing 108 laps to end the day in P5," added Dave Greenwood, the team's Chief Engineer. "This morning we completed our team's allocated day of Pirelli tyre testing, as required of all of the teams, before embarking on some set-up development items to continue the progress we have made in this area.
"Already we have got the car to a stronger position than on the race weekend here," he continued, "as it has translated into stronger pace, which Jules has been able to demonstrate. It is unfortunate that we suffered a small fire which brought our day to a premature end but we can be thankful that the damage was not too extensive and we will be fine to press ahead with the second day of our test tomorrow."
McLaren had reserve driver Stoffel Vandoorne on duty, the Belgian youngster spending the morning focusing on aerodynamic correlation and brake development and the afternoon conducting set-up changes and gathering tyre data.
"It was great to be back in the car today," he said. "We managed to get a useful number of laps completed. We spent the morning doing a lot of aero work and some development runs; in the afternoon, we followed it up with some work to further understand tyre degradation. We got some good running completed.
"Hopefully, I've been able to provide the engineers with some valuable data, which will be useful for future development. We'll see what the engineers get out of it, but hopefully I did a good job today to improve the car."
After Sunday's double-points finish, today it was 'business as usual' as Toro Rosso, with Jean-Eric Vergne, suffered almost endless frustration.
While the morning was mostly trouble-free, there was little running in the afternoon because of a technical problem with the car. The first part of the day saw the Frenchman tackle an aero programme, completing short runs to acquire data for the engineers. The team then worked on two chassis tests aimed at answering questions raised during Sunday's Grand Prix.
In the afternoon, the team shook down some new Energy Store batteries and there were some issues with these units. These will all be changed for tomorrow, when Daniil Kvyat takes over driving duties for the second and final day tomorrow.
"Looking for a positive side to today, I'd say the car felt good on the three runs I managed to complete," said Vergne, "but we didn't achieve much in terms of real testing."
Pastor Maldonado ended the day ninth fastest, the Lotus driver completing 97 laps as the Enstone outfit focussed on a wide range of aerodynamic evaluations.
"We had a very busy day," said the Venezuelan, "it was an important test for the team and a good day for me to get to know the car even better. We were fully focused on an aerodynamic programme and hopefully we have enough data for work to continue in the wind tunnel back at the factory. Reliability was good and we completed our entire test programme. We ran with a new engine in the car which felt a lot more powerful, which is a positive for the future."
"The E22 ran very reliably today and we completed a comprehensive aero programme to enable us to understand the car better and make progress for the rest of the season," added Nick Chester, the team's Technical Director. "We were able to make tangible improvement through the day and have some interesting avenues to pursue. Tomorrow will be quite interesting as we're evaluating 18 inch wheels and tyres for Pirelli. The car will look very different so it will be good to hear what people make of it."
At Ferrari, Pedro de la Rosa spent the day working solely on tyre development aimed at next season. Unfortunately, the morning and afternoon's work on the prototype Pirellis ended about an hour early because of a coolant leak.
"It was great to be able to drive the actual car after so much work in the simulator," said the Spaniard, "especially at a track like Silverstone. I think today was very useful both for me and for the team. We worked a lot on race simulation, always running with a high fuel load, so as to understand as much as possible about the new tyres. We learned a lot and even if I can't make a direct comparison to this year's tyres, the feeling I got is that they do represent a step forward."
Essex youngster Will Stevens was on duty for Caterham, the 23-year-old completing 95 laps in the CT05.
"I've done a lot of mileage already this year in the 2014 car but all in the simulator," he said, "so it was really good to be in the real car and to have a decent day at Silverstone. The morning session was a bit stop / start as we had a few software issues that needed fixing, but we still completed 71 laps by the time we stopped break and by then I was increasingly comfortable in the car.
"By the end of the day we'd completed 13 runs with a total of 95 laps and have a lot of data for the guys back at the factory to work through. I know the plan tomorrow for Julian and Rio is similar so hopefully we can have another productive day and leave Silverstone on a positive note. After my day today that's exactly what I'm going to do!"
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