09/03/2018
NEWS STORY
The second and final test has now ended. Today, Kimi Raikkonen was behind the wheel of the SF71H, having recovered, after being indisposed over the past few days.
He rattled off 157 laps, the best of them a 1:17.221, set using the hypersoft tyres.
Ferrari's programme included set-up work and a race simulation, running different types of tyre and fuel loads. This was the hottest day of the entire two weeks of testing, with temperatures over 20 degrees and the track around the 37 mark.
"Overall, I feel we have a good package," said the Finn. "For sure the weather at the start of testing wasn't ideal, but we have finished with a couple of pretty good days. The car gives me a good feeling and, even if there are still a lot of things to improve, its reasonably easy to drive and it reacts to the various set-up changes. However, no one can say where we really are, compared to our rivals. We'll have a better idea in a couple of weeks in Melbourne and then, in general, after the first few races of the season. I like racing and I can't wait to start."
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After a tough start to the day, the entire McLaren team pulled together to concentrate some solid running into the afternoon session.
Although Fernando took to the track shortly after 09:00 to commence his run programme, his progress was cut prematurely short by a problem with the turbo, prompting an engine change which kept him in the garage until the after the track closed for lunch break.
The team worked hard to prepare the car for the afternoon session, and Fernando returned to the track just after it reopened at 14:00.
He condensed a huge proportion of today's run plan into only a few hours of track time, completing significant mileage and ticking off more valuable elements on the test programme.
The day - and the pre-season tests - ended ultimately positively, despite the challenges the last couple of weeks had delivered. Fernando completed 93 laps, posting the second-quickest time of the day.
"Today was a bit of a rollercoaster!" admitted the Spaniard. "This morning we had an engine issue which meant we couldn't complete any of the morning programme, but the guys did a fantastic job once again to change everything on the car and get us ready as soon as possible.
"We had a very good afternoon, and compressed our full day's schedule into the afternoon session. We managed to do everything we wanted and I'm quite happy with the result and the final day of testing.
"I think there's more to come from the car in terms of performance and also of course with reliability, but now we have two important weeks back in the factory to prepare for the first race. We will see exactly where we are in Australia, when everyone is running with maximum performance, but I think it was a very productive two weeks of winter testing for us. We had a lot of new things to prove and test and now we have a couple of weeks to put everything in place.
"I'd like to say well done to the whole team for pushing hard, and now we're all looking forward to going racing in Melbourne."
"After a difficult start to the day this morning, I'm pleased that we've rounded off both today's programme and the two weeks of pre-season testing on a positive and productive note," added Eric Boullier. "We suffered a turbo issue in the power unit early on in our morning programme, which we believe was linked to the chassis oil leak on Tuesday. We had put this turbo onto the car overnight after spotting something in the data on the current power unit during installation, and to save time with investigation elected to swap the two elements.
"Unfortunately, this one failed - although the two issues aren't linked - and it will be sent back to Viry for further analysis and investigation. Nevertheless, the guys and girls in the garage did a phenomenal job to change this new configuration of power unit in four hours so that Fernando could return to the cockpit.
"In the afternoon session the engineers worked hard to condense our programme to provide us with as much track running as possible, and the whole team pulled together to get a significant amount of work done this afternoon.
"Fernando put in some solid laps, and he - and we - have ended the day happy with 93 laps completed after a pretty challenging start. We now will return to the factory armed with massive amounts of data to analyse before we head to Australia in two short weeks. We know we have things to work on, but we also know there's definite potential in our package, and we'll be working hard to maximise our reliability so that we have the chance to show our true performance in Melbourne.
"I'd like to say a huge thank you to everyone in the team for their hard work over the past few weeks. Despite the problems we've faced, we're taking home an extra 810km of data back to Woking compared to this time last year, which will help with our analysis and inform the direction we will take with car set-up when we arrive in Melbourne. I know I can speak for the whole team when I say that we already can't wait to go racing."
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Renault completed a productive test with an interrupted final day. Due to a gearbox issue precluding running for a significant period, the planned programme was revised so Carlos Sainz stayed on driving duties for the afternoon as well as the morning. He completed 45 laps, setting a best lap time of 1:18.092, the third fastest of the day.
"Most of the day was frustrating for me and the team," admitted the Spaniard, 2but this doesn't cloud what was a productive week of testing in Barcelona. For the final couple of hours we were able to conduct some performance work with the softer tyres and the car did feel decent. In a way, it's good that we had the problem we did today, rather than during the season when it could hurt us more. I'm feeling positive ahead of the start of the season and I can't wait to get to Albert Park."
"Today we brought an encouraging test period to a close," added Cyril Abiteboul. "We have been able to cover almost all our programme over the two weeks, with several notable achievements, including beating the record of laps around Barcelona for a day. We feel we have a good handle on the car, which is a step forward from last year, but we will need to wait until Australia to determine where we are in the order.
"It was frustrating to finish with so few laps on the board today, but the complexity of the cars means little issues can take time to be sorted out. Today we fell victim to a sensor problem within the gearbox and, due to this being the early part of the season, we had to rebuild the gearbox with limited spares. It was a shame to end a very productive two weeks like this, but we can go into next week and Melbourne looking forward."
Daniel Ricciardo brought Red Bull's schedule to a close with the day's fourth fastest lap, a 1:18.327 set on supersoft tyres.
The next stop now for the team is the Honey Badger's home race weekend in Melbourne in a little less than a fortnight. And after a productive second week in Barcelona, Daniel admitted that he's relishing the prospect.
"We had some strong pace in testing at times," he said, "but then you see what others are doing and then you're not sure anymore, but I think we're looking OK. I think we still have to find a bit of time, we still have things to improve, but I think we are close enough to be in the hunt.
"It's been a good winter, we did a lot of laps and we're definitely feeling better about ourselves than we did 12 months ago. For me, I'm glad testing is over, it's not that exciting, especially when you're in the middle of a long run on a good bit of fuel!
"I'm looking forward to Melbourne now, that's what my sights are set on. I'd love a good result there. We'll try to come out with strong intentions. I think we can be close and I'm looking forward to a battle."
"This week has been extremely productive," added Head of Race Engineering, Guillaume Rocquelin, "and it was a similar story today, even though we covered fewer laps than on either of the past two days.
"In the morning we conducted a lot of aero work and stuck to the medium tyres. In fact, that was the case for most of the day. We made some changes in the afternoon and Daniel had a run on the supersofts later on, and he set an encouraging time on those.
"Overall, it's been an excellent week of testing for us and we learned a lot about the RB14. Now we have two weeks to analyse all of that information and act on it before arriving in Melbourne."
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Romain Grosjean set a new benchmark for Haas with 181 laps completed, it was also the highest lap count of the day among the 12 drivers.
Teammate, Kevin Magnussen, set the team's previous best single-day total of 153 laps on Thursday. Prior to this year's winter test, the highest single-day lap tally of any Haas driver during preseason testing was 119 laps by Grosjean, set exactly one year ago.
The 181 laps translates to 842.555 kilometres (523.452 miles), which brought Romain's two-week testing total to 314 laps or 1,461.67 kilometres (908.240 miles). With Magnussen securing 381 total laps or 1,773.55 kilometres (1,102.033 miles) during the same time period, Haas F1 Team racked up an impressive 695 laps or 3,235.22 kilometres (2,010.57 miles) during its 2018 preseason test.
In addition to the amount of laps run, Grosjean displayed speed. His time of 1:18.412 placed him fifth overall. It was earned on his 87th tour with his VF-18 ultrasoft tires.
"It's been a long day, but it's been brilliant," said the Frenchman. "We did a lot of work with the car, which is really good. I managed to get a lot of laps in on the last day, which we missed earlier on in the test. The team did a great job. We've got a lot of knowledge now for Melbourne. I'm looking forward to being there."
"I think we got as much out of the last two days as we could," admitted Guenther Steiner. "Today, we got a race distance in during the morning and another one in the afternoon. That's what you want. The more you run, the more you learn."
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Having completed over 1,000 laps in pre-season testing, Mercedes leaves the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya with a positive feeling and is excited to start the season in two weeks' time.
Lewis was first behind the wheel today, focusing on race simulation, while Valtteri drove the W09 this afternoon, gathering important tyre data. The W09 completed a total of 1,040 laps or 4,841 km during testing.
"It's been a really positive test," said Hamilton. "We got through everything, reliability has been great. Everyone has been working their backsides off and doing a tremendous job, I'm really proud of the team. We're happy with the information that we've got.
Both the car and the track are a lot faster compared to last year's race here. In my last run during the race simulation today I was doing 1:19s - that's my qualifying lap time from 2017 every lap.
"It's still difficult to know exactly where we are in comparison to Red Bull and Ferrari and we won't fully know that until we get to the first race. But I feel like we've got as much information as we could in order to equip us with the best data to go to the season opener. The preparation has been really good in the time that we had."
"Today was a very good ending to testing," added Bottas. "As a team we completed more than 200 laps and I put in more than 100 laps in the afternoon. So that's very positive and I'm very happy with the progress. Now we need to keep working for the week and a half before we travel to Melbourne. It will be interesting to find out where we will be.
"We got the Medium and the Hard tyres to work quite well. I think we still have issues with blistering on the softer compounds. Hopefully it will be different in Melbourne, but on the new track surface here in Barcelona we had some difficulties.
"The team has done a great job over the past two weeks. I really enjoy working with the team and I can't wait to get racing."
"Eight days of winter testing is a punishing schedule," said James Allison. "All of us out here at the track and those who have supported it back at the factories are feeling the cumulative loss of sleep. But I think we can look back on these two winter tests with some satisfaction, having designed, planned and then executed a very complex series of tests with some competence.
"The loss of time caused by the inclement weather during the first test is something that Andrew Shovlin and his team were able to nimbly work around and come back with a good programme. We finish winter testing feeling like we've explored the car and the tyres. We know that we put a good amount of kilometres onto it without any significant reliability difficulties and feel that we have in the car a good, strong foundation on which to build our 2018 campaign.
"Both drivers seem to like the car, it responds well to set-up changes and has shown a good turn of speed. I say that with caution because even with all the mileage we've done it's chastening to note that we have not yet come close to completing the full life cycle of core components such as the engine and the control electronics.
"Although we make our best efforts to try and figure out our competitive position, we don't know what the other teams are going to do between now and Melbourne and we don't really know with full accuracy what they've been doing here. So there's all sorts of reasons to be cautious - but this has been a good winter test. For now we can be content that we've managed to deliver that, and we look forward to Melbourne.
Check out our Friday gallery from Barcelona, here.
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"After the weather related problems in the first test, we were quite lucky with the second test, as the air temperatures reached 20ºC and the track around 37ºC," said Toro Rosso team boss, Franz Tost. "This gave the team the chance to learn a lot about the new car, the tyres and the set up. Nevertheless, I hope we will test in Bahrain in the future.
"I have always said that the partnership with Honda will be very important for our team, as it gave us the possibility to start a new way of designing and developing this season's car in real cooperation with a very strong engine manufacturer – this time effectively working together in order to improve the packaging in its totality. After completing the two pre-season tests here in Barcelona, I'm satisfied with what we have achieved, completing a total of 3.826 km in 8 days - in the end it was really 7 days due to bad weather during the first session of testing last week, which makes the result even better. It's great to see that we have been able to perform at a decent level in terms of speed and reliability.
"Honda has done a great job," he continued, "but, also from our side we have been able to provide our drivers with what seems to be an easy car to drive. Both Brendon and Pierre were able to give us a very valuable feedback during these days, accumulating lots of data, which we will now analyse to be at our best for the first race in Melbourne. I'm optimistic but cautious at the same time – there's still a lot to do! I want to thank the team, Honda and the drivers, as we have done a very good job together. Let's go racing now!"
"We completed another positive day with a lot of mileage for Brendon," added James Key. "Today we replicated what we did with Pierre yesterday with some early morning softer compound running with slightly lower fuel in short runs and then some race running in the afternoon. I think again we managed to learn quite a bit and a little more about the tyres and certain aspects of the car setup from what we had discovered yesterday, so that proved to be useful but there's still much to analyse prior to the first race.
"I'd like to thank our colleagues at Honda for a really excellent effort over the last two weeks. They really have only run one engine for the entirety of Test 02, and pretty much it's run faultlessly throughout, other than a minor issue towards the end of today where we stopped the car as a precaution to have a look at the issue in more detail and not take any risks. Given we were close to the completion of our programme today anyway, we felt it was better to spend some time on that, which Honda are in the process of investigating now, but otherwise everything with them has run faultlessly. I'd like to thank them very much for their hard work and excellent support over the past two weeks and through the car's design.
"So, that was winter testing 2018 - it's gone very quickly with two weeks of very intense work. Now we look forward to the beginning of the season! We're at the end of a process which is the completion of the design, development and build of the STR13 which started off over a year ago. We're at the start of the next phase which is going to race that car and develop it further, and we look forward to starting that process in Melbourne in a couple of weeks."
"It was another really good day today," said Hartley, "we completed 159 laps within two hours from the end of the session. I drove the car in Day One of Test 01, and I was able to drive on the last day, so I opened and closed the pre-season tests - it's been great to see how much we have unlocked from the STR13 and all of the hard work that goes on behind the scenes. The people watching back home might not realize but there's so many people involved to get these cars working to perfection! I think we're really in the mix and that we're looking good for that midfield battle, which is really fierce.
"We're starting to get a better picture of where we are in the fight, it was a really positive test and I think we've shown a lot more than what people expected... which is great! It's been a strong start to the partnership with Honda, so I think everyone's really positive after these test days and we're really looking forward to Melbourne which luckily isn't far away."
"Today, Brendon went through the same programme that Pierre did yesterday and completed 156 laps," added Toyoharu Tanabe, Honda F1 Technical Director. "Both drivers were able to complete a race simulation, which is a positive result.
"We used the same Power Unit throughout Test 2. Therefore, it was disappointing that we spotted an anomaly on the data from our PU towards the end of session and decided to stop running, as there would not have been enough time to investigate the situation fully and send the car out again.
"Overall, the results of winter testing have been satisfactory, as we managed to get through nearly all items on our programme, thus acquiring plenty of valuable data. Equally important, it was our first eight days of working at a race track together with Toro Rosso. Our relationship has been very open and honest and communication has been effective between all of us. It's only testing, but it has been an ideal start and now we look forward to racing together in Melbourne."
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"It was another solid day and I feel quite confident heading to Melbourne," said Esteban Ocon. "To complete more than 160 laps on the final day is a good achievement and ends a really solid week of work. We tried all our race weekend procedures today and went through the various processes we will need in Australia. We ran on several different tyre compounds and then concentrated on long runs this afternoon.
"I think we have a good idea of where we are but the real confirmation will come in Melbourne. It has been quite a long time since the last race in Abu Dhabi and I am itching to go racing again. I am really looking forward to arriving in Australia."
"We were able to sign off pre-season testing with another productive day," added chief race engineer, Tom McCullough. "Our programme was very similar to what we did yesterday, making sure we completed all our test items and reviewing all race weekend procedures with Esteban. The track conditions were possibly the best we've had over the last two weeks, so the significant amount of data we gathered will be very useful to our engineers.
"We can look back at these two weeks feeling pretty satisfied. Despite the time lost because of the weather last week, we were able to complete our ambitious programme and made good progress in understanding the VJM11. The reliability of our car was one of the highlights of testing: we were able to run solidly without any significant issues and, for a new car, this is a remarkable achievement. The whole team did a great job and we can now switch our focus to Melbourne."
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At Sauber, the final day of T02 was driven by Charles Leclerc. The young Monegasque driver completed 75 laps throughout the day. His running time cut short due to a minor incident in the morning, in which he went off track and touched the barriers. With reduced track-time, the work was mainly focused on aerodynamic and mechanical tests, as well as tyre work.
"Today's session was not ideal," admitted Leclerc. "It was unfortunate that we lost some track time after I ran off the track in the morning. I was back on track in the afternoon, and completed some runs testing different tyres. It was interesting to drive on the hypersoft compound for the first time in this car. Overall, the test has been quite positive for me. I accumulated good mileage, and gained some valuable experience in the C37. I look forward to my first race in Melbourne now."
"The past two weeks of testing have been useful for us," added team boss, Fred Vasseur. "We got a first impression of the C37, and our drivers have gained an understanding of how it behaves on track. Our drivers have been working together well and have given productive feedback to the engineering team after each session. In addition to the data that we collected, their input will be crucial in making the final preparations for our first GP at the end of this month. The race weekend in Melbourne will be a first step in the development of this new project, the Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team, and I look forward to seeing it progress during the season."
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"A far better day than yesterday," said Williams chief technical officer, Paddy Lowe, "with Sergey running a long half-day across lunchtime up until 14:30, without any issues, but not perfect as Lance's final two hours in the car were interrupted by a failure in the fuel system. Sergey managed a full programme of performance tests ending with a qualifying simulation on a range of softer tyres. He achieved good results on the soft tyre but unfortunately, we were unable to improve with the supersoft or ultrasoft. This is something we clearly need to understand. Lance completed the day with some further performance tests giving our final information before we get to the first race.
"Today brings to an end our 13-day pre-season testing session in Spain, during which we have run eight full track days and two promotional events, and given time in the car to Lance, Sergey and Robert. The weather has not been ideal, but the team have made the best of the time and conditions available. Considering this car had not even fired up just two weeks ago, reliability has been very impressive with only two significant failures losing track time.
"We have learnt a lot about the FW41 and completed all the necessary commissioning processes to be fully prepared for the first race. Well done to the team for the huge job done so far, and especially to our three drivers who have pushed themselves and the team hard but without incident, especially in some very tricky conditions."
"Today was definitely the best day of the last two weeks," said Sirotkin. "We managed quite a lot of laps in the morning and the afternoon. We completed quite a good set-up evaluation as well, with slightly different tyre compounds and fuel loads, so it was an interesting and nice day. The weather was on our side which made the car much more consistent and driveable, which we haven't really had until Wednesday. It was the second proper testing day for me and the best one of them.
"There are still some issues, obviously. It's not all great and there are many little things we need to analyse and try to learn from to get sorted for Australia, but at least we found out what things are right and what things are not, which gave us a direction to work in. Now we will do some homework and see where we will be in Australia."
"That's the last day of testing done, next up is Australia," added Stroll. "Today felt pretty good, I think we did some good running. We have some bits and pieces to sort out before Australia but I feel pretty good in the car."