Worst first day of testing... EVER!!!

28/01/2014
NEWS STORY

Jenson Button predicted that the first day of pre-season testing would be "hilarious"... sadly, it wasn't the remotest bit funny.

Whilst Lewis Hamilton was spearing into the barriers, one of just two drivers to post a time during a morning session that only saw five cars take to the track, Red Bull design guru Adrian Newey was warning that the new rule which has forsaken looks in the quest for safety might in fact have the opposite effect.

Between them the nine drivers on duty completed less than 100 laps on a day when the rain didn't appear until the final hour, the track action instead compromised by rule changes which have left the sport open to ridicule and at great financial cost.

As Marussia waits on its car to get the final all-clear and set off from Banbury, Mercedes was forced to brings its first day of 'action' to an early close, the German team, like its rivals, attempting to put a brave face on a very worrying situation.

"The F1 W05 emerged for its first run at precisely 09:00 when the track was declared open," said the German team in a statement. "Lewis completed four single-lap install runs in the early stages, before gradually building into longer stints. A front wing failure on his 18th lap ended Lewis' running for the day early."

"For me it's an incredibly positive start to be the first car out on track and completing a good number of laps," said Hamilton in the same statement, a comment that might lead some to dub the appendage on the front of his W05 Pinocchio. "Other teams have been going out for single-lap runs, starting a few hours after we had first hit the track, so to have started running through our test programme was very encouraging.

"The car feels quite good, especially considering it's so early in our programme, so overall it's been a positive day. Of course, it's unfortunate to end the day early when everyone has worked so hard and we had looked like easily completing the most mileage of anyone here today, but we'll make that track time back and it's better to have these things happen now than in Melbourne. I'm really proud of the team for what they've achieved in getting us here and we'll keep pushing."

"Incidents like this happen and that's why we are here, to find them before we go racing," said Toto Wolff. "We completed 18 laps and got through our system checks successfully. The car now needs to be repaired, which is a challenge in itself at the start of winter testing with regards to the number of spare parts available. However, it's our job to cope with those challenges.

"To conclude our day's running with a front wing failure was an unfortunate end to what had, to that point, been a very positive start to our winter," added Paddy Lowe. "We were the first team to send a car out on track, on the dot at 0900 this morning, and were gradually extending the length of the runs when the incident occurred. Lewis' initial feedback was positive once he was able to complete some timed laps, which is a promising indicator for the basic package.

"Concerning the failure itself, we are still analysing its cause, and this process, coupled with the repairs to the car, have brought an end to our running today. The teams at Brackley and Brixworth did a fantastic job to prepare the car for running this morning and tomorrow we hope to start adding to what is already a useful number of laps completed. There is a lot of data for us to analyse overnight and the learning curve this winter will be very steep."

"Today was a challenging start to the MP4-29's test and development programme," admitted McLaren, a masterpiece of understatement. "Along with other teams, we faced difficulties readying our new car for the first winter test.

"Despite firing up successfully at the MTC last week, the car was predominantly affected by electrical issues during the day," the Woking outfit admitted. "The subsequent dismantling, inspection and re-installation of several major components ultimately meant we were unable to conduct any running today. We're re-installing key systems on the car overnight, with the expectation that Jenson will begin the car's installation programme tomorrow."

While it was a miserable day for Mercedes and McLaren, things were a lot more positive for Ferrari, where Kimi Raikkonen was back in action for the Maranello squad. The day's technical programme was only interrupted once, right at the beginning, when the Finn was asked to stop the car at the side of the track as a precautionary measure.

Over the course of the day, work centred exclusively on checking the functionality of the F14 T's on-board systems and some aerodynamic mapping. By the end of what was comparatively a good day's testing, Raikkonen had completed 32 laps, over a third of the total mileage completed by all the teams present.

"We had a lot of new things to learn today" said Raikkonen. "Even if we would have liked to do more laps, I think that for a first day it was alright. Towards the end, when the track was damp, we chose not to take any risks. Now we have a lot of work ahead of us, but all in all, we are pleased with our first day."

Among the last out, Valtteri Bottas completed 7 laps on his way to posting the third best time of the day, the Finn spending much of his day side-lined by a series of issues.

"It wasn't an ideal start to the day," he admitted, "but the positive thing is that the team did a great job to fix the problems we found overnight and we got the car working well to complete a few laps this afternoon.

"The car matched my expectations on track with more torque," he continued. "It feels like a very different car compared to last year in the way it handles as well as the power. After only a few laps we found a few things we can improve which is also good, so we need to start working on those things tomorrow.

"We had a few electrical issues today which, combined with needing to replace a sensor critical to the functioning of the Internal Combustion Engine, delayed our running," said Rod Nelson, the Grove outfit's Chief Test & Support Engineer. "Despite this, we were able to complete a number of installation laps and one timed lap, and I now feel we are in good shape for tomorrow. The team have worked well to address the problems we had today and we are now focused on working through our programme for the remaining days."

"As expected it has been quite a slow day for everybody," said Sergio Perez, the Mexican having completed 11 laps on his way to fourth quickest on the sheets. "The main job was to learn as much as possible each time the car went out so that we could identify and solve any issues. It was not really possible to get a feeling for the car because we only did a small number of laps, but the important thing is that the car is up and running."

"Today's laps were a key first step for the development of the VJM07," added Andrew Green, the Silverstone outfit's Technical Director. "There's still a long way to go, but we have been able to start checking all the new systems on the car, especially the power unit and the gearbox. There have been a few teething problems, which is to be expected with a new car, but we've already learned a great deal in just one day. The plan for tomorrow is more of the same as we continue to get miles on the car."

Hard to believe but Toro Rosso and Jean-Eric Vergne can proudly boast that their 15 laps comprised the third longest distance of the day. Despite a software issue which saw the Frenchman stop out on track the team feels that "overall this was a positive start"

"It would be easy to say things did not go well today, because the car stopped, because we didn't use full power and therefore I did not get a chance to see what the car feels like," said the Frenchman. "However, that is the wrong way to look at things, because we expected plenty of difficulties, especially learning about how the new type of power unit works.

"In fact, I would say this was a positive day," he continued, "because just getting the car on track was an achievement, so the team can be pleased with that as it was down to their hard work. From my point of view, it was also interesting to work with my new race engineers for the first time and to be back enjoying the atmosphere of the Formula 1 paddock.

"Now, we will spend a lot of time looking at all this data tonight and then Daniil will move the programme forward tomorrow. Overall, a satisfactory start to the season in very difficult conditions."

At Sauber, Esteban Gutiérrez took to the track at around 11:20 for the very first time in the C33 with the V6 turbocharged engine. Over the course of the day he completed seven laps.

"It was a big achievement to get our car on track on the first day of testing, and I am proud that I was the first one to drive it," said the Mexican. "Especially because of all the rule changes, it is very complex but the team has done a good job. The feeling in the car is not what I have been used to. The engine and the power it produces and the sound are very different, but we will get used to that. It's just a different characteristic.

"It was important to get some running today," he added. "These four days of testing are to see if all the systems are working, and that's the most important. It is way too early to comment on the drivability. We will get there during the second and third per-season tests in Bahrain. We will get the electronics and everything else sorted first and I think we are going in a good way to achieve that."

"The main target today was to get the car on track and the team has done a brilliant job over the winter to accomplish that on time," added, Giampaolo Dall'Ara, the Hinwil outfit's Head of Track Engineering. "Obviously with the significant changes there were issues that needed to be solved throughout the day. We have to understand and analyse those properly, which is why we couldn't run that much today. What we did today was a good achievement for the team and now we have a lot to work on for tomorrow."

Following its early-morning launch Red Bull kept the RB10 in the garage for most of the day as it too corrected a technical issue discovered overnight. The new car eventually took to the track 15 minutes before the session ended, with Sebastian Vettel completing an installation lap and two more runs past the pits.

"We did a total of three laps today so it was difficult to get an impression of what the new car is like," said the German. "We weren't quite ready this morning and things took a little bit longer than expected. But considering the total amount of running we saw today I think everybody is in a similar position. The laps we did were just to run the car and get everything up to temperature, but it was impossible to get a feeling for it today. There's still a lot we can go through tonight. Even if you don't do much running there's plenty of work."

"The packaging of these new cars is obviously vastly different to what we've had in the past," admitted Race Engineering Co-ordinator, Andy Damerum, "so working on them is a learning curve and we spent most of today correcting a problem we discovered overnight. We eventually got it sorted in time to get out on track and we put in a handful of laps, with Seb doing his installation lap on inters because of a brief shower beforehand.

"While that might not sound the most successful outing, even those few laps have given us a wealth of data to have a look at, so it's been a valuable, if tricky, day. I think it's been a similar story up and down the pit lane. It's a voyage of discovery for everyone and it will take time to get up to speed with the cars. Seb will be back in the car tomorrow. It's forecast to rain, though that won't affect what we're looking to get done."

"Back to basics. No fancy launch," tweeted Tony Fernandes, in another masterpiece of understatement. However, in the art of understatement the Malaysian businessman was given a run by his new signing, Marcus Ericsson...

"I'm very proud to have completed my first lap as an F1 driver today," he said, a classic, considering that's all he actually completed, one lap.

"I want to thank everyone in the team for working so hard to get the car ready for day one in Jerez," he continued. "We'd planned to unveil it before the track opened this morning but put that back until later in the afternoon after a few problems with the final car assembly, but that was to be expected with so much new technology on the car.

"The reaction to the car has been huge," her continued, "people either love it or hate it, but for me it's not really important what it looks like as what counts is how quick it is. If it's fast then I really don't care if it's the worst looking thing out there, if it's slow but beautiful then what's the point of that? We obviously won't know really where we are until quali in Australia, and one installation lap on day one isn't going to tell us a lot about the car, but to have got that first lap out of the way and on to day two is a good feeling, and, for me, a positive way to start my life as an F1 driver."

"F1's new era began today and I'm pleased we were part of the day one action," added Cyril Abiteboul, "albeit in a small way with one installation lap completed. That lap is the culmination of a huge amount of hard work by everyone in our team, working flat out back in the UK and here in Spain and I want to thank everybody for helping us achieve our first goal today. It was also good to see how calm Marcus was today with a lot going on around him. He's been positive all day and when he was told it was time to get in the car for his first lap as an F1 driver he was just as calm as ever and that's a good sign for his season ahead.

"We were looking at running other installation laps towards the end of the day but an engine issue cut that short so now the night shift are coming on track, ready to push on through to tomorrow when we want to complete a more significant mileage."

As we said, "worst first day of testing... EVER!

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Published: 28/01/2014
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