20/02/2015
NEWS STORY
Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo topped the timesheets at Barcelona today as the top three are covered by just 0.098s.
Pre-season testing stepped up a gear today as the teams ramped up the mileage, a number of them completing race distances, and the pace offering a tantalising glimpse of what could be a thrilling season.
Whilst Ricciardo was the clear winner in terms of pace and laps covered (143), Sergio Perez, Marcus Ericsson and Carlos Sainz each completed more than 100 laps, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg completed 155 (in a shared car) and Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa were both within 0.1s of the Australian.
Rosberg drove the Mercedes this morning, but in the afternoon, keen not to put too much pressure on the German who has been suffering an inflamed neck muscle - thought to be due to his sitting position in the F1 W06 - teammate Lewis Hamilton was drafted in, the Briton having clearly recovered from the fever which side-lined him yesterday. The world champion was soon running a race simulation and in the process completed 89 laps whilst also posting a best time 0.633s quicker than his teammate.
Having ground to a halt at the very start of the session, necessitating a rescue mission by his pit crew, Ricciardo was soon back to work, pounding around the Spanish track. Unfortunately his race simulation, which saw his full race crew in its positions and Adrian Newey joining the rest of the team on the pit-wall, was brought to a halt half-way through when Carlo Sainz spun off at T9 around ninety minutes after the lunch break.
There was another red flag later half-an-hour before the end of the session when Marcus Ericsson parked up on the pit straight.
While it is still expecting new parts following its MGU-K failure on Thursday, and therefore not expecting to do much significant running today, McLaren, and partner Honda, will be delighted to see Fernando Alonso complete 59 laps, the team's highest mileage thus far. Furthermore, the Spaniard was only 1.3s off the pace.
Though team boss Maurizio Arrivabene continues to play down expectations at Ferrari, the Italian team will be pleased to see Kimi Raikkonen continuing to run at the top of the timesheets, completing 90 laps in the process.
Still targeting just two wins this season, Arrivabene joked with reporters today that he is concerned there is something wrong with the Finn. "He keeps smiling," he revealed.
Another driver who will be smiling is Felipe Massa as Williams continues to look very strong, many suspecting that, like Mercedes, it has yet to show its hand.
While Sergio Perez is fourth on the sheets, with the second highest mileage (121 laps), let's not forget that this is the 2014 car.
Other than his spin, it was an impressive performance from Sainz, whilst Jolyon Palmer looked good in the Lotus, despite only completing 77 laps.
There's talk of a change in the weather tomorrow as pre-season testing reaches the midway mark. Despite a slow start to today, once they got going the guys certainly put the work in.
Ricciardo's fastest time was set at about 11.30 this morning on the soft tyre and never bettered. Raikkonen set his time at roughly the same point in the morning, using the soft tyre as well.
Perez was the only driver - as far as we can see so far - to use the new supersoft tyre. He climbed as high as third overall, behind Ricciardo and Raikkonen with a time set before lunch. In the afternoon, Massa went faster than him, using the soft tyre. In general, the teams concentrated more on performance in the morning, then long runs in the afternoon.
Ricciardo's morning session was given over to a mix of short runs and pit stop practice and shortly before the lunch break the Australian recorded the day's quickest lap on Pirelli's soft tyres. In the afternoon the team switched to medium and long runs and more tyre evaluation.
"It was good," said Ricciardo. "We wanted to get a day with a 100-plus laps on the board and we did that and more. It was very solid. We also got through some pit stop practice and some good long runs, which is very positive.
"I know it's just testing," he continued, "but it is encouraging seeing us on top or at least in that front group. Obviously you have no idea what everyone is doing, but it is encouraging. The car feels good. It has similar characteristics to RB10 in terms of how the chassis feels but that's a good thing, as I think we had a pretty good car last year. All in all a really good day's work."
"A good day for the whole team today and a very satisfying follow-up to yesterday," added Head of Race Engineering, Guillaume Rocquelin. "Day one was all about tuning the new elements we had brought here and it was always going to be a bit stop-start but by the end of yesterday we were on top of that and running well and today was the reward for all that hard work.
"We had a small issue on Daniel's installation lap, again caused by a software gremlin, but that was quickly sorted and we could get to work on the programme we had in place. In the morning that meant a lot of pit stop practice first thing, giving way to some tyre work in advance of our afternoon programme. We switched over to long runs in the afternoon and by the close of play we'd got through everything we wanted to on the day."
Despite finishing second quickest, just 0.010s off the pace, as he focussed on mechanical settings, aerodynamics evaluation and tyre testing, Kimi Raikkonen wasn't entirely happy.
"Today was not ideal," said the Finn, "we had some small issues which prevented us from running as much as we wanted, but still we managed to do other stuff, try things and learn.
"We are going in the right direction in all areas," he added, "and the team did a good job over the winter. Of course, racing is a different story from testing, but so far it has been good. The team bosses have managed to put the right people in the right places. It's still early days, but everybody seems to enjoy it more. For the next test we'll try to put the right things into the car."
"The car has a lot of potential, and today we realised some of that but we still have a lot of work to do," said Felipe Massa who worked on systems, set-up and tyre work. "We completed the programme for the day without any unexpected issues. The work on tyres this afternoon gave us a lot of good data which we now have to look at. Getting more laps in the FW37 is important for the continued development of the car."
"It has been another productive day," added Rod Nelson, the Grove outfit's Chief Test & Support Engineer. "Barcelona is a good representative circuit so the data we get here is very useful. We had a lot of work to do with Felipe which we covered. Our focus is moving from reliability and long runs to more performance based tests and I am pleased with how the car has run so far in Barcelona."
Persisting with its 2014 car, Force India made the most of the day, as Perez completed a total of 121 laps - the second highest tally in the field. With two days remaining, Pascal Wehrlein will return to the cockpit tomorrow, with Nico Hulkenberg driving in the final sessions on Sunday.
"I am really happy with the way the day went and by the amount of laps we managed to complete," said Perez. "We worked on understanding the new tyres and I think we took a good step forward in that respect; of course, we are waiting for our 'new baby' to come and we're really looking forward to put all the learning we did in the last two days into practice with the new car. On a personal level, these days have also been valuable to get to know my new race and performance engineers: we made good progress and I am looking forward to even more when working on the simulator this coming week."
"It was a very productive day with a solid 121 laps and no technical issues," added Chief Race Engineer, Tom McCullough. "Our main objectives of the day were for Sergio to get to know his new engineering team better, in addition to lots of setup and procedural work. We continued the evaluation of the 2015 Pirelli tyres we started yesterday, working through performance running in the morning and long runs in the afternoon. The data we gathered today will be really useful not just for the first few races, but also for the final test next week. We are looking forward to continuing our testing programme over the final two days."
Mercedes' schedule consisted of aero and setup evaluation work in the morning, when Rosberg was on duty, followed by race simulation runs in the afternoon for Hamilton. While the German did not report any issues with his back, he opted to sit out afternoon running as a precautionary measure to ensure 100% fitness for Sunday's session.
"My back has been a bit of an issue but I know what it was," said Rosberg. "My position in the car was not quite right but I've been lucky with it really and it should be fine for a full day on Sunday. I'm just being a bit cautious and decided to get out of the car at lunch today. It's a different circuit with this new car so it felt a bit different, but in general it was ok.
"I wasn't so happy with the car this morning but then we found our way quickly with the setup and in the end it felt pretty good. At the moment we're just focusing on getting the miles done and working on setup. Of course, I want to go out and do qualifying laps all the time - but there's a right time for everything. We don't know where we are yet but things are going to plan. The development curve is still very steep. There's so much still to discover with these regulations in both the car and the Power Unit, so it's a big challenge. Overall, though, it's been a good start.
"I've felt better," added Hamilton, who continues tomorrow, "but I miss driving so I wanted to get in the car. It's been good today to get out there and get some laps in. I'm not sure where we stand compared to the others. The first test was just about completing loads of laps and today was the same, so I've not really started dialing the car into how I'd like to perfect it.
"Quick laps are for Saturday in qualifying," he continued. "But it feels good - similar to last year but better. We're just focused on our own job - getting lots and lots of miles on the car, proving everything out and making the most of the time we have before the season starts. We've not been without a few problems here and there but I've seen the team working away to iron out any creases and it's just amazing to watch. As long as we keep moving forwards that's what matters most and we're focused on doing that.
The halfway point of the winter test season - six days completed; six remaining - and, in terms of laps completed, this was McLaren's most productive day so far.
"We definitely had a better day today than yesterday," said Fernando Alonso, "and not only managed to complete some runs, but also started running at 09:00 and finished at 17:45, which showed promise. The extent of our running also meant that we could finally begin to evaluate the potential of the car.
"Obviously, we’re still running with some limitations on the engine," he continued, "but the car definitely felt better than it did in Jerez. On every lap, we discover something new, and we encounter different issues, but that’s to be expected with a project that’s in such an early state of development.
"We’re now exactly halfway through the test programme, and we need to make some progress. There are positives from the day, but we did the fewest laps of any team today, and need to raise our game and learn as fast as we can. Australia is approaching fast."
"It’s been good to put some laps on the board," added Eric Boullier, "we’ve pushed through the programme today, and achieved more than we anticipated. Our running was relatively smooth, and we’re starting to catch up with our programme. We’re happy with what we’re doing - we’re still not looking at outright performance as we still have a long list of systems checks to evaluate. The car is reacting as we expected, but it’s too soon to go into a race simulation, and, as a result, too soon to be sure of our overall performance."
"Today’s programme has been productive," said Yasuhisa Arai, Honda R&D senior managing officer - chief officer of motorsport, "we were able to undertake some useful practical running with the power unit, and I’m satisfied with what we achieved. We covered off today’s list of planned test items, and we’re ready to homologate the power unit at the end of next week.
"We still haven’t seen the unit running at its maximum potential, but I think we’re progressing steadily. We’re getting closer and closer to Melbourne, where I think we’ll be in better shape.
"For the final two days of this Barcelona test, we’ll be aiming to push things a little bit further in order to get a more accurate reflection of the package’s behaviour and performance in race conditions."
Jolyon Palmer had his first taste of the Lotus E23 in his role as third and reserve driver. Over the course of 77 laps, the reigning GP2 champion ran through a programme of tyre and aero assessments, setting a best lap of 1:26.280.
"Today went well," said the Briton. "We racked up a lot of laps and I got a good feel for the car. It was very slippery first thing with the cold track, it was certainly very difficult with the hard tyres combined with the low temperatures! Through the day there was a good mix of conditions and set-ups to work with. There was a lot to take on board with the different settings for the car and the different programmes we were running, so it's been a pretty steep learning curve. It's been a very positive start for me and I hope my work has benefited the team. I loved being in the car and I can't wait to get back out on track!"
"Today was about data accumulation and Jolyon did a great job in his first time in the car," added Alan Permane, the Enstone outfit's Trackside Operations Director, "especially with particularly cold conditions to start the session here this morning. We've completed a number of aero runs with a variety of different data collection tools on the car as well as conducted a number of different tyre assessments to build a picture of what to expect from Pirelli's latest tyres working on the E23. The car has run well again and overall we're making good progress this week."
Sauber was able to work through its planned programme with Marcus Ericsson however, it was not a problem-free day as the team had to sort out several issues with the car.
"It's been a busy day for us," said the Swede. "We have done more than 100 laps during which we have been testing and scanning many different set-ups. This will give the engineers and myself a better understanding of the car. We have collected a lot of information to go through tonight. Tomorrow we will push again."
"On the positive side we were able to do some mileage today, which was a good learning programme for us," added Giampaolo Dall'Ara, Head of Track Engineering. "However, it was not trouble-free, as we had to go through a number of issues. We cannot forget we are in our pre-season tests where it is good to discover and fix these kind of issues. We have quite a lot of work to do over night and will try to get back tomorrow with a good programme."
"A slightly difficult day, a typical testing day, in that we had a few issues with the car in the morning," said Carlos Sainz. "We managed to work around them to get the car ready again for the afternoon.
"After the break, everything was going to plan and we seemed to have made a good step forward," he continued. "Unfortunately, I made a mistake at Turn 9 and the car was stuck in the gravel so that cost us about half an hour of track time. Once we got the car back, we started a race simulation that provided useful information, even if we didn’t complete it. These things happen in testing, which is better than in a race, so we can still take away some positive aspects from the day."
"We had intended to follow a similar schedule to yesterday," added Phil Charles, the Faenza outfit's Chief Race Engineer, "working on testing various elements in the morning and then giving Carlos a race simulation run in the afternoon. However, we had a few little niggling problems that meant he had a stop-start day, which prevented him from getting much of a flow going. Nevertheless, we learned from the problems we encountered and, all the same, Carlos did manage 100 laps. So not too bad and he did work his way through various race procedures, until we called a halt to the race run after the second pit stop."
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