Barcelona I, day 2: Team and driver quotes

Team quotes

Toro Rosso Renault

For the second day of this session in Barcelona, it was Carlos Sainz’s turn to get behind the wheel of the STR10, while with a certain other Spanish driver also in action, there was a big crowd at the Catalunya circuit and the paddock was very busy. Tomorrow, Max Verstappen is back in the cockpit.

Phil Charles (Chief Race Engineer)

“We had intended to follow a similar schedule to yesterday, 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.”

Carlos Sainz

“A slightly difficult day, a typical testing day, in that we had a few issues with the car in the morning. 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. 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.”

Sauber Ferrari

During the second day of testing in Barcelona, the Sauber F1 Team was able to work through the planned programme and cover a lot of mileage. Marcus Ericsson drove the Sauber C34-Ferrari today completing 113 laps in total. However, it was not a problem-free day as the team had to sort out several issues with the car.

Giampaolo Dall’Ara, Head of Track Engineering

“On the positive side we were able to do some mileage today, which was a good learning programme for us. 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.”

Marcus Ericsson

“It’s been a busy day for us. 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.”

Tomorrow Marcus Ericsson will again be behind the wheel of the Sauber C34-Ferrari, before Felipe Nasr will be back in the cockpit on Sunday.

Lotus Mercedes

Jolyon Palmer had his first taste of the Lotus F1 Team E23 Hybrid in his role as Third and Reserve Driver today. Over the course of 77 laps at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Jolyon ran through a programme of tyre and aero assessments, setting a best lap of 1min 26.280secs.

Pastor Maldonado will return to the E23 Hybrid for the third day of the test tomorrow.

Jolyon Palmer

“Today went well. 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!”

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director

“Today was about data accumulation and Jolyon did a great job in his first time in the car, 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.”

Red Bull Renault

Infiniti Red Bull Racing’s pre-season preparations went well on day two of the second test of 2015, as Daniel Ricciardo completed 142 laps of the Circuit de Catalunya at the wheel of the RB11. The morning session was given over to a mix of short runs and pit stop practice and shortly before the lunch break Daniel recorded the day’s quickest lap with an outing on Pirelli’s soft tyres that netted a time of 1:24.574s. In the afternoon the team switched to medium and long runs and more tyre evaluation.

“It was good. We wanted to get a day with a 100-plus laps on the board and we did that and more today. It was very solid,” said Daniel afterwards. “We also got through some pit stop practice and some good long runs, which is very positive. I know it’s just testing 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.”

Head of Race Engineering Guillaume Rocquelin said: “A good day for the whole team today and a very satisfying follow-up to yesterday. 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.”

Williams Mercedes

Rod Nelson, Chief Test & Support Engineer: It has been another productive day. 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.

Felipe Massa: The car has a lot of potential and today we realised some of that but we still have a lot of work to do. 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.

Force India Mercedes

With two test days remaining this week, Pascal Wehrlein will return to the cockpit tomorrow, with Nico Hulkenberg driving in the final sessions on Sunday.

Sergio Perez: “I am really happy with the way the day went and by the amount of laps we managed to complete. 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.”

Tom McCullough, Chief Race Engineer: "It was a very productive day with a solid 121 laps and no technical issues. 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

MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS continued the second test of the 2015 season today at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, with Nico Rosberg at the wheel of the F1 W06 Hybrid in the morning and Lewis Hamilton taking over driving duties in the afternoon.

— Today’s schedule consisted of aero and setup evaluation work in the morning, followed by race simulation runs in the afternoon
— Nico emerged for his first run at precisely 09:00 CET, completing 66 laps in the morning
— While Nico 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
— Lewis took over duties at the wheel of the F1 W06 Hybrid shortly after the lunch break, completing a total of 89 laps to bring the day’s total to 155
— Mercedes-Benz Power Units today completed a total of 2,053 km
— Lewis is scheduled to take the wheel of the F1 W06 Hybrid tomorrow for the third day of the test
— Fact of the day: The top five best times from today’s running would have been good enough for pole position at the 2014 Spanish Grand Prix

Nico Rosberg

My back has been a bit of an issue but I know what it was. 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.

Lewis Hamilton

I’ve felt better 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. 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.

Ferrari

Kimi Raikkonen: “Today was not ideal, 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 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”.

McLaren Honda

The halfway point of the winter test season – six days completed; six remaining – and, in terms of laps completed, this was our most productive day so far. Nonetheless, there’s still plenty of work left to do to ready MP4-30 and the Honda power unit for the opening day of practice at the Australian Grand Prix – exactly three weeks away.

Fernando Alonso

“We definitely had a better day today than yesterday, 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, 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.”

Eric Boullier

“It’s been good to put some laps on the board – 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.

Yasuhisa Arai, Honda R&D senior managing officer - chief officer of motorsport

“Today’s programme has been productive: 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.”