After a short pause, testing resumed in earnest today in Barcelona with Red Bull Renault leading the way with Mark Webber on board.
While it was a most encouraging day for the Milton Keynes-based team, others – notably Virgin Racing – had a less successful day at the Spanish test track...
Here’s what the teams had to say.
Red Bull
Mark Webber was driving for the team in Barcelona today, as Red Bull Racing began its final 2010 pre-season test, ahead of the first race in Bahrain next month. The team’s programme included a race weekend simulation within one day, as they ran through procedures for P3, qualifying and a race.
Sebastian Vettel will be driving for the next two days of this final four-day test, with Webber taking over again on Sunday.
Ian Morgan, head of race engineering said: “Today was always planned as a race weekend simulation day, so we did some testing along with P3 and qualifying in the morning and a race simulation in the afternoon. Everything went very well up until halfway through the race simulation, when something in the data made us decide to stop the car on track. It was nothing major though and we got the car repaired and back out until the end of the session. It went well today, apart from that small reliability issue.”
Mark Webber: “We had a pretty good day of testing. We did some simulations and performance items in the morning and a race simulation in the afternoon. We had a precautionary stop in the middle of the race simulation because of a gearbox oil alarm, but the guys got the car turned around pretty quickly and we finished the session, so it wasn’t too bad.”
Williams
Sam Michael, technical director: "Nico spent our first day of four in Barcelona working on set-up, long runs and systems checks, like cooling. We also did some aero testing. Tomorrow, Nico will drive Chassis 02 and continue working through our programme."
Nico Hulkenberg: "We had a good day. I did quite a lot of laps on different set-ups so we can continue to learn how the car will react. It’s my last day tomorrow, so I’m looking forward to getting lots of laps in to be in the best possible shape for Bahrain."
Mercedes
The final test before the start of the season began at the Circuit de Catalunya today as the teams geared up to make the most of the four days of testing remaining before the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Nico Rosberg kicked off the programme for the Mercedes with much of the day spent focusing on set-up work with the MGP W01 car over longer runs alongside working on the team’s race weekend procedures including qualifying and pit stop simulations. Rosberg completed 107 laps today with a quickest time of 1:22.514 to finish in third position on the timesheets.
Michael Schumacher will be at the wheel of the MGP W01 tomorrow to continue the team’s programme.
Nico Rosberg: "We had a productive day today and we were able to learn a great deal from doing so many laps. We’re making good use of the testing time that we have and I’m feeling quite confident and comfortable in the car. Aerodynamically the car will change quite significantly for the first race in Bahrain so we’re not focusing on the details but on general set-up work and seeing how the car behaves over long runs.
"Working through the race weekend procedures and pit stops is also very useful in our preparations for Bahrain."
Sauber
Pedro de la Rosa was at the wheel on the first day of the final 2010 pre-season test, held on the driver’s home ground in Barcelona. The Sauber team carried out a lot of set-up work today.
Pedro de la Rosa: “We did an aero test for Bahrain and were trying to get the car’s balance right for the Circuit de Catalunya, which is a demanding track with lots of bumps. I think we learned a lot today and are looking forward to tomorrow.”
Willy Rampf, technical director: “Today we have been concentrating on different mechanical set-ups and different downforce levels in preparation for the Bahrain Grand Prix. We are not satisfied with the car’s balance yet, but we have recorded a great deal of useful data which will help us further improve it.”
McLaren
Jenson Button kicked off running in Barcelona this morning, concentrating primarily on mechanical and aerodynamic set-up work.
Despite not setting any headline lap times, the team declared itself pleased with progress, gaining a greater understanding of the behaviour of the Bridgestone tyre over a long run.
For tomorrow, Lewis Hamilton takes to the circuit. He continues today’s programme, developing set-up and working with the tyres. Button returns to the cockpit on Saturday before Hamilton concludes the running on Sunday.
Force India
Tonio Liuzzi was on driving duty for Force India on the opening day of the four day test at the Circuit de Catalunya, the final test ahead of the start of new season.
Weather conditions were significantly better than the previous two weeks’ tests in Jerez and Liuzzi was able to complete 65 laps without major issue. Several red flag periods interrupted some of the team’s planned running, however his best lap of 1:24.064s was still the sixth quickest of the day. With track conditions relatively ’green’ Liuzzi’s programme principally concentrated on pit stop practice and drills and general set-up work.
Liuzzi will remain in the car for a second day tomorrow before Adrian Sutil takes over on Saturday.
Tonio Liuzzi: "Once we realised the track was really green and not good enough to conduct some useful testing, we concentrated on set-up and pit stop practice to get back into the rhythm of a race weekend. Overall it was quite OK but we concentrated a lot on the pit stop practice to get the guys back up to speed. Tomorrow will be where we move to look at performance and long runs so it should be a more representative day regarding the pace of the new car."
Dominic Harlow, chief race engineer: "The first day of our final pre-season test was concentrated on race team pitstop practice, with simulations of live race stops and various different race scenarios conducted through the day. The circuit conditions weren’t particularly good today, and tomorrow will be used to continue our set-up and development programme."
Ferrari
It was quite a difficult start for the Scuderia Ferrari, as of today working for the next three days at the Circuit de Catalunya during the last pre-championship test session.
Fernando Alonso had to stop on the track during his first series of laps, due to a problem with the car’s electronics. After the necessary reparations, which required a long procedure by the technicians, the Spanish driver went back onto the track just before the lunch break, in time to complete around another ten laps.
The afternoon saw Alonso mainly on overall development of the car, beginning to use a few new aerodynamic components.
The afternoon programme was worked through according to plan. A total of 74 laps were completed, the quickest in a time of 1.24.170s, seventh fastest.
Testing at this circuit continues tomorrow, when Alonso will again be on track.
Renault
Bright conditions in Barcelona allowed the team to complete a busy day of work. The programme included practice pit stops in the morning and set-up work in the afternoon.
Vitaly Petrov: “The track conditions were pretty good today and it was nice not to have to drive in the rain! The day went quite well and we did a lot of pit-stop practice to begin with and then some set-up work, which was useful.”
Alan Permane, chief engineer: “We spent part of the morning doing pit-stop practice with Vitaly, which went very well. This was the first chance for our pit crew to practice with a running car at the circuit without refuelling and there were no procedural problems.
"Unfortunately we had a hydraulic problem in the early afternoon, which meant we had to change part of the hydraulic system and that limited our running. But we were still able to do some set-up work as we concentrated on getting Vitaly comfortable in the car on this circuit.”
Toro Rosso
The morning was dedicated to set-up work on the STR5, while in the afternoon, the team evaluated a new braking system.
Throughout the day, the car ran on just one of the three Bridgestone compounds available here. Jaime Alguersuari has one more day in the cockpit, before Sebastien Buemi takes over for Saturday and Sunday.
Jaime Alguersuari: “It was encouraging to have another trouble free day, completing a high mileage. We learned a lot doing long runs on the Soft compound tyre and I’m looking forward to tackling a different programme tomorrow.”
Virgin
It was a troubled day for the Virgin Cosworth team as Lucas di Grassi crashed just ahead of the lunch break and the team could not resume running in the afternoon. Full report here.
Lotus
76 more laps for Fairuz Fauzy on the first day of the Barcelona test marks another satisfactory day for Lotus Racing.
In dry, sunny conditions the team completed all its objectives for the day and are now looking forward to seeing Jarno Trulli take over driving duties tomorrow and Saturday.
Mike Gascoyne, chief technical officer: “It was a very productive day - 76 laps with no mechanical worries on the car. In the morning we conducted some engine LAMDA running which we completed successfully.
"We ran through a series of system set up checks, completed our first starts and evaluated a number of other control systems on the car, as well as monitoring temperatures and pressures throughout the car.
“All in all this was a successful day both on the track and we ticked off a lot of behind the scenes tasks ahead of the first race. Fairuz did a very good job today, with no mistakes, and we were able to complete our whole program.”