Catalunya, day 1: Webber puts Red Bull on top

After the rain!

Red Bull Racing’s Mark Webber ran quickest on day one of Formula One’s final pre-season test in Barcelona, setting a time over 1.6 seconds quicker than closest rival Lewis Hamilton.

After a morning session marred by frequent showers, the rain stayed away in the afternoon to give the teams a chance to put on slick tyres and test performance. And in the dying moments of the session Webber strapped on soft tyres and leaped to the top of the timesheet with a lap of 1:22.693.

However, afterwards the Australian admitted that it had not been the easiest ride.

“[The wind] was pretty heavy, I must say. There was a big tailwind down to Turn One,” he said. “And in other sections it was pretty dusty. The level of wind wasn’t trivial but to be honest it was tricky enough anyway because of the greasy conditions on the track. We only got one hour at the end of the day in more stable conditions.

“We opted to put on a couple of sets of tyres at the end and see how it went and it was OK,” he added. “We’ve still got more to come, but that was the most we could get done in a short, limited programme in dry conditions at the end of the day.”

Hamilton, meanwhile, set his second-placed time on medium tyres.

“The track started out really wet this morning but thankfully the conditions dried out later on and we were able to complete some proper running,” said the Mercedes driver, who added that his afternoon had not been about performance. “It felt good to work through the race simulation this afternoon; both to get myself back in practice and to put valuable miles on the car. The last couple of days of pre-season testing are always really exciting when everyone starts to add their upgrades so I’m looking forward to the weekend.”

Jean-Eric Vergne was third for Toro Rosso, while Williams Valtteri Bottas continued to demonstrate the apparent competitiveness of the team’s FW35 with fourth place. Fifth went to McLaren’s Sergio Perez.

The weather caused problems for several teams and the red flags came out a number of times during the day. The first appeared within half an hour of the start of the morning session when Lotus’ Romain Grosjean spun at Turn 12. He was later followed, just before the lunnch break, by Esteban Gutierrez, the Sauber driver sliding off and into the barriers at Turn Three. Finally, late in the day, Felipe Massa’s Ferrari ground to a halt on circuit as the Brazilian neared the end of a long run.

Caterham Renault

Charles Pic: "Day one of the final test has been ok - 83 laps and another day where we’ve run without any issues and kept the same consistent approach throughout all the tests. We had planned to do qualifying and race simulations, but with the rain today we’ve switched the race simulation to Sunday when I’m back in the car. We did run through all the qualifying procedures and that went pretty well.

"Giedo is back in the car for tomorrow and Saturday, and if the weather improves by Saturday morning I think we’ll be able to get through everything we’ve planned for the final test."

Toro Rosso Ferrari

The third and final test in Barcelona began the same way that the previous one ended, which is to say, in the rain, which meant that slick tyres were only viable in the final hour of today’s track time. Therefore Jean-Eric spent most of the day on rain tyres and intermediates, a useful exercise as Pirelli has made changes to its wet weather tyres for this year. However, in between the showers, the team did manage some aerodynamic work, including the evaluation of a few new components. The day ended with two satisfactory runs on dry tyres. Our two drivers are alternating days at this test, which means Daniel Ricciardo takes over tomorrow.

Jean-Eric Vergne: “Not the best of days, because we had many things to test and the rain meant we were not able to get that much done, but we have to remember that the other teams have similar programmes and the rain affects everyone. Nevertheless, I did plenty of laps, which is good for me and good for the new car to do a high mileage. The car seems to behave really well in the wet and it also felt good in the dry, during the few laps I managed at the end of the day.”

McLaren Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton completed 113 laps today during testing at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, with conditions varying from heavy rain showers to a dry circuit for the late afternoon.

— Lewis completed a total of 526 km over the course of the day, the highest of any driver
— The morning programme focused on tyre evaluations in the wet conditions, mainly on intermediate tyres
— Lewis also completed race weekend procedure practice when useful running was not possible
— This afternoon, Lewis completed a wet to dry race simulation on intermediate and then medium compound tyres
— Lewis has now completed 2040 km over five days of winter testing, equivalent to nearly seven Grand Prix distances

Nico Rosberg will drive for the second day of the test tomorrow.

Lewis Hamilton: The track started out really wet this morning but thankfully the conditions dried out later on and we were able to complete some proper running. It felt good to work through the race simulation this afternoon; both to get myself back in practice and to put valuable miles on the car. All the guys have done a fantastic job both here and at the factory. I’m really happy that we’re making progress together and very much enjoying working with everyone. The last couple of days of pre-season testing are always really exciting when everyone starts to add their upgrades so I’m looking forward to the weekend.

Williams Renault

Mike Coughlan, Technical Director: The conditions today made it difficult for us to complete our planned programme, but we were able to get some useful tyre data. It was good mileage for Valtteri, as he was able to try a mix of tyres running from the wet, onto the intermediate and finally onto dry tyres this afternoon. It’s a good grounding for him and he brought the car home safely despite the tricky track conditions. The FW35 has now completed another 85 laps without any issues.

Valtteri Bottas: It was a good day overall and we had no problems with the car. It’s a shame we were disrupted a bit by the wet weather, although this did allow us to run on the wet, intermediate and dry tyres. I clocked up a lot of mileage for myself and was able to get more experience driving in difficult conditions. It was cold, wet and windy all day, and particularly slippery on track this morning.

The Williams F1 Team will be back on track tomorrow, Friday 1 March, with Pastor Maldonado driving the FW35 for the second day of the test.

Force India Mercedes

Sahara Force India started its final pre-season test this afternoon as Paul Di Resta completed 57 laps in the VJM06. His recently confirmed teammate, Adrian Sutil, will drive tomorrow and Saturday.

Paul Di Resta: “Quite a disrupted day with the constant rain showers, but it gave me the chance to run in the wet conditions and gain some knowledge of the wet weather tyres. That should mean we’re prepared in case we get a wet race early in the season. The temperatures were low today and not that representative, so we saw a big variation in lap times. Late in the day the rain eased off, which gave us a run in the dry, and we were able to check some things ahead of the weekend when the weather is expected to improve.”

Jakob Andreasen, Chief Race Engineer: “It has been a useful day despite the damp weather. Our mission was not to accumulate mileage, but to learn more about the car’s aero performance, as well as the new construction intermediate and wet weather tyres. With a similar forecast for tomorrow, it’s likely we will run through another wet weather programme with Adrian to give him experience of the intermediates and wets.”

Sauber Ferrari

Together with all the other teams, the Sauber F1 Team resumed testing today at the final pre-season test. Intermittent rain during most of the day made things difficult for both engineers and drivers. Esteban used most of the time to gain experience with the intermediate and full wet tyres. Towards the end of the session the track was drying, and he so he was able to use dry tyres. He completed a total of 92 laps.

Tom McCullough, Head of Track Engineering: "Until late afternoon the running was affected by intermittent rain showers. Once again our main aim was to make the most of Esteban gaining experience in these difficult and changeable conditions. As the track dried out we started our preparation for the Race Simulation that we are planning for day three when Esteban is back in the car. Hopefully his final test day before the Melbourne GP will be dry as forecast."

Esteban Gutiérrez: "It was another positive day with a lot of laps. Unfortunately the weather changed constantly. It was important for us to work with the intermediate tyres, which seem to be the most difficult ones for us. We had to change quite a lot of things to make them work better. Personally for me it was again a good day, because I was able to gain more experience and get myself up to speed in very tricky conditions."

Tomorrow, Nico Hülkenberg will be at the wheel of the Sauber C32.

Marussia Cosworth

The Marussia F1 Team embarked on its third and final pre-season test with the new MR02 race car with the first day of a four day programme at the Circuit De Catalunya in Barcelona.

Max Chilton was back in the MR02 working through a mainly wet weather oriented programme by virtue of the conditions at the Circuit de Catalunya. Later in the day, when the track had dried, he was able to progress into a dry tyre programme where the first of the components of the new aero package was put through its paces.

Max Chilton: “Despite the rain we have been able to make good progress today, as experience of the range of wet weather scenarios is important for me and the Team. While on the one hand it’s a frustration because we need to start work with the new aero package, on the other hand we wouldn’t have wanted to be heading into the races without having done some work with wet set-ups and the range of tyres in variable conditions. When the track was drying later on in the day we were able to gather some data with the new front wing and the first indications are that this looks to be a positive step. I am also pleased to end the day in P9 and ahead of the Caterham again.”

John Booth, Team Principal: “Max has had another very good day learning about the three types of tyres in wet conditions. We would have liked more dry running to help us assess our aero upgrade, but it looks like we will have to wait till the last two days for the detailed focus that requires. We did achieve minimal running on dry tyres on a damp track, when we tried our new front wing. This was a less than perfect situation in which to evaluate it, however the feedback we did get was in line with expectations. It looks like it will be wet again tomorrow but we will keep looking to take advantage of any dry running opportunities and try to get more elements of the upgrade tested.”

McLaren Mercedes

Overnight heavy rain and constant drizzle throughout the morning meant it was a slow start to the final pre-season test of 2013. Today was Sergio Perez’s penultimate day in the MP4-28 before Melbourne, and the wet weather prompted the team to undertake a more conservative run programme.

Checo conducted some aero mapping in the morning before the team chose to focus on developing a stable set-up on the Intermediate tyre and putting some solid mileage on our 2013 package. With 100 laps under his belt, it was a positive first day.

With more wet weather predicted for tomorrow, Jenson’s programme is expected to be a continuation of today’s. Drier conditions are forecast for Saturday and Sunday – a benefit to the team as it brings together all the elements that constitute the aerodynamic package that it runs in Australia next month.

Lotus Renault

Romain Grosjean returned to the Circuit de Catalunya for another day of testing in cold and wet conditions in Barcelona. The team ran through a programme of assessments and correlations, including work on the DDRS Device.

With the unfavourable track conditions, only short aerodynamic runs were conducted in the afternoon.

Romain returns to the E21 for his final day of pre-season testing tomorrow.

Romain Grosjean: “Another day with bad weather in Barcelona is not what I wanted, but there’s nothing you can do about it. It was a bit of a frustrating day as we concentrated on aero runs and never went for a time on the drying track surface. The car feels good on both the intermediate and wet tyres and we’ve run through more of our pre-season test programme so those are positives. You never want to see yourself at the bottom of the timing screens, so hopefully that’s the only time it happens this season. We certainly know there’s more pace in the car than we saw today!”

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: “Given the weather, this morning’s session concentrated on running assessments between the wet and intermediate tyres and we’re getting a much better idea of Pirelli’s 2013 wet tyres. In the afternoon we concentrated on assessing our rear wing DDRS Device. These conditions aren’t great as it’s difficult to run comparison tests with an ever changing track surface. Nevertheless, we’ve clocked up more laps on the E21, tried different settings and conducted numerous aero-runs. This meant that our lap time today was very far from what we’d expect had we conducted a more normal test programme.”

Ferrari

Scuderia Ferrari today began work at the third test session of the year, once again at the Catalunya Circuit, with Felipe Massa at the wheel of the F138. In terms of the weather, the signs were not promising in the morning, but a gradual improvement throughout the day meant the team was able to continue with preparing for the start of the season.

In the morning, in intermittent rain, Felipe ran wet weather tyres, alternating between aerodynamic tests and evaluating set-up changes on the car.

In the afternoon, the team went through a race simulation procedure, doing long runs and some pit stops, starting on intermediate tyres and switching to dry weather ones as the track conditions improved.

Testing continues at this circuit tomorrow, with Fernando Alonso driving.

Red Bull Renault

The final pre-season test kicked off today at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya and, as widely predicted, the weather played a major part in proceedings. Starting on a damp track the morning session was given over to running on intermediate and full wet tyres as overnight wet weather turned into heavy rain before lunch. The downpours abated after the break, however, and Mark Webber was able to put in the day’s fastest lap just before the end of the session. Aftewards, Mark admitted that the rain hadn’t been the only difficulty, with strong winds also making running tricky.

Mark Webber: “It was pretty heavy, I must say. There was a big tailwind down to Turn One. And in other sections it was pretty dusty. The level of wind wasn’t trivial but to be honest it was tricky enough anyway because of the greasy conditions on the track. We only got one hour at the end of the day in more stable conditions. We opted to put on a couple of sets of tyres at the end and see how it went and it was OK. We’ve still got more to come, but that was the most we could get done in a short limited programme in dry conditions at the end of the day.”

Race Engineering Co-ordinator Andy Damerum: “We’re pretty pleased with how it went today, especially after the start to the session. It rained overnight and the track was quite damp this morning. That obviously forced us to adapt the run plan a bit, but we did get a lot of mileage on the full wet tyres, which was very good, as we didn’t run those last week. In terms of what we went through, it was mostly just mechanical and set-up work. Overall, a good day and now we’ll have to see what the weather has in store for us tomorrow when Seb will be driving.”