With just two days of testing remaining ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix next month, Nico Hulkenberg set the pace for Williams Cosworth today at Circuit de Catalunya from Fernando Alonso.
With varied programmes underway, the times continue to fall at the sharp end of the field while the new teams continue to adjust to life in the fast lane...
Williams
Nico Hulkenberg completed aero evaluations, starts practice and set-up work with the FW32, recording the fastest time of the test on a 1:20.614s.
Nico Hulkenberg: "We’ve had a good test here. P1 today is nice but means nothing, to be honest. We’re not in Bahrain yet! It’s positive for the team, and for me, to know what the car can do though. We did a lot of set-up work today and have found some interesting things so I feel ready and confident to go to Bahrain now."
Sam Michael, technical director: "Nico finished his last day of winter testing today with a good run of laps. Our programme included the evaluation of a new sidepod, starts practice and some additional work on the set-up of the FW32. We’re making progress, but there’s still plenty to do."
Ferrari
Once again today, Fernando Alonso was at the wheel. The Spanish driver’s programme consisted of set-up testing and an assessment of new aerodynamic components, as well as a race simulation, which was completed successfully. At the end of the day, Alonso covered a total of 133 laps, the quickest in a time of 1:20.637s, second fastest.
Testing at this circuit continues tomorrow, when Felipe Massa will take over driving duties for the last two days.
Sauber
Sauber and Pedro de la Rosa enjoyed a very busy second day of testing. The team ran a simulation of free practice, qualifying and a race distance in one day with excellent track conditions and zero technical problems for the C29.
Pedro de la Rosa: “Today was a very good preparation for the season’s start in Bahrain. The reliability of the car was perfect and I think the performance was also good, especially in the race simulation. It was a very good exercise and I feel we have now done everything possible to get ready for the first Grand Prix. It was also a big day for me because it has been a while since I last completed a race distance. I feel very well and also really confident now.”
Willy Rampf, technical director: “Overall it was a good test day for us. We improved the car’s balance significantly compared to yesterday by doing some set-up changes. We then simulated an entire race weekend with free practice, qualifying and a full race distance without any technical problems. We are quite happy with the overall pace and reliability.”
Force India
Force India’s preparation for the start of the championship continued in testing at Barcelona as Tonio Liuzzi worked through an intensive programme that included a full race distance.
After completing shorter runs in the morning, where he clocked his fastest time of 1:21.056s, the fourth quickest of the day, Liuzzi started a race simulation after the lunchtime break. Aside from a red flag period shortly after his second stop for tyres, the VJM03 performed reliably throughout the day.
The team will now prepare the second chassis that will be tested by Adrian Sutil tomorrow.
Tonio Liuzzi: "We can be quite happy about today’s programme. We completed everything without any issues and the car showed very good reliability, even when we did the race simulation. Again it is responding very well and we are improving day by day so everything is looking positive. We still don’t know where we are relative to the others, and we will only see in Bahrain, but overall we can be really happy. We now have two more days of testing to try and get as much information as possible."
Dominic Harlow, chief race engineer: "Tonio covered more than 400km today with some performance work in the morning and long run evaluations in the afternoon. Good conditions today mean that the testing has proven very useful for data collection and analysis of the performance of the car in a race situation. Other test items today included some suspension components, fuel system and control systems testing."
Red Bull
The team undertook its second race weekend simulation and by the end of the session Sebastian Vettel had completed 125 laps.
Sebastian Vettel: “It was good today – we didn’t have any major problems. We had to stop in the afternoon for a minor issue, but it’s quite normal in testing. When you’re testing, you don’t want to risk any damage so it’s best to switch the car off and stop if you don’t have to push when there’s an alert in the background. We had a lot of rain in Jerez so we still have a lot to do over the last two days here, such as finding out more about the tyres and doing some set up work.”
Vettel will be driving again tomorrow and then Mark Webber will be back in the cockpit for the final day of testing on Sunday.
Ian Morgan, head of race engineering: “Today was almost a repeat of the race simulations we did with Mark yesterday and it all went pretty much to plan. We stopped the car again during the race simulation, which was precautionary to check a couple of things, but it was only a minor problem and we quickly got running again. Sebastian finished the race simulation completely before the end of the session; we did a lot of laps and we’re pretty happy with the car.”
Toro Rosso
A full race day simulation was on Jaime Alguersuari’s programme, for what is his last day of winter testing, prior to the Bahrain Grand Prix. The race distance was duly completed, including one pit stop and one further unscheduled trip down pit lane, when another car caused a red flag stoppage. The STR 5 ran reliably throughout.
Having practiced pit stops at the factory on a daily basis over the winter and also at the three previous test sessions in Valencia and Jerez, this morning the race crew tackled their first “real” pit stops, using the new pit stop gantry designed to accommodate the lack of race refuelling. After completing the full programme for the day, the team stopped testing prior to the official end of the session.
Sebastien Buemi takes over at the wheel for the final two days.
Jaime Alguersuari: “Today was very useful in that it is a good confidence boost to have completed a race simulation on my last day of testing before the start of the season. It is still too early to talk about where we are in performance terms, but with a good mileage achieved over these four test sessions, I feel much better prepared than when I made my debut in the middle of last year.”
Mercedes
Michael Schumacher was at the wheel of the MGP W01 today for the second day of the final pre-season test at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona. Continuing the development programme which team-mate Nico Rosberg began yesterday, Schumacher worked on developing the balance and set-up of the car over longer runs along with further practice of the team’s race weekend procedures, including pit stops and practice starts, in preparation for the first race.
Schumacher completed a total of 85 laps today setting a quickest lap time of 1:21.689s. Rosberg will be back in the car tomorrow with Schumacher due to conclude the four-day test on Sunday.
Michael Schumacher: "We had a positive day but it was quite stop-start with some changes on the car and then the red flags towards the end of the day. We are working hard and even if the programme doesn’t run as smoothly as we would have liked, there is much more to come from the team both here and in Bahrain. We are working very well together and there is a good atmosphere within the team."
McLaren
Lewis took over from Jenson today, continuing the development work his team-mate began yesterday: refining set-up and evaluating tyres.
The morning was spent conducting shorter runs, attempting more experimental set-ups – changes that Lewis found beneficial to the car’s balance.
The different set-up changes caused several lengthy turnarounds in the morning before Lewis could concentrate on a single long-distance run in the afternoon – which was punctuated by several late red-flag periods.
Jenson is back in the car tomorrow, conducting further fine-tuning of MP4-25.
Renault
The team spent the morning focussed on shorter runs and set-up work, but ran limited laps in the afternoon.
Robert Kubica: “It’s frustrating to lose track time this afternoon because of a problem with the suspension, but I’m sure the team will get on top of the issue so that we can have a good weekend. We have some new aero parts coming for the car on Saturday and Sunday, which will help improve the pace of the car.”
Alan Permane, chief engineer: “Robert was in the car today for his first laps at Barcelona in the R30. We spent the morning doing some set-up work, but in the afternoon we had a problem with the suspension, which limited our running. We’re still looking into the issue and will have the car fixed and ready for tomorrow morning.”
Lotus
Jarno Trulli took the Lotus Cosworth T127 challenger onto the Barcelona track and completed 70 laps. The Italian ended the day tenth of the 11 runners.
Mike Gascoyne, chief technical officer: "It was a productive day in terms of set up direction with Jarno. We were able to identify some problems with the set up in the car and establish clear direction to improve it. We still have a long way to go, and a lot of time to come from the car. We had a couple of minor hydraulics issues which stopped the car on track, but nothing major, so all in all it was a productive day and we’re aiming to continue in the same vein tomorrow."
Trulli again picks up the wheel for day three of testing. Heikki Kovalainen then takes over on Sunday, for the final day of testing.
Virgin
Virgin Racing enjoyed a productive day of running at the Circuit de Catalunya today as Timo Glock took to the track for some quality testing of the VR-01 in the dry. The day wasn’t entirely without issue but with just two more days of pre-season testing to go before the team’s debut race, the opportunity to continue debugging the car at the same time as conducting valuable race preparation work in more representative warm and sunny conditions was most welcome. Timo completed 52 laps and set a best time of 1:25.942.
At the end of the day the team conducted its very first pitstop practice session, putting the all-new Virgin Racing pit crew through their paces in preparation for the pressure-cooker of race day in Bahrain.
Nick Wirth, Technical Director for Virgin Racing, said: “Our recent hydraulic issues, plus yesterday’s crash, have required us to focus the remaining pre-season track time on procedural preparation for Bahrain. The crash rebuild postponed the start of today’s programme to midday, nevertheless it was quite satisfying to see us complete the day with no reoccurrence of our hydraulic problems. Timo took over the driving duties from Lucas today and we never really got him happy with his throttle pedal, which is something we’re addressing tonight.”