28/02/2015
NEWS STORY
It was a day of contrasts at the Circuit de Catalunya; a morning which culminated in an intense shoot-out between Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen was followed by an afternoon of race simulations. McLaren, having appeared yesterday to finally have its various issues under control, today succumbing to yet another leak.
Between them the eight drivers on duty completed 1,010 laps, only two of them, Kevin Magnussen and Lewis Hamilton, failing to reach the magic one hundred.
Just twenty-four hours after its launch, the Force India VJM08 completed 158 laps, and had it not been for two late red flags it could have been far more. An impressive performance from the Silverstone-based outfit.
The red flags, for Marcus Ericsson and Carlos Sainz, both came within the final thirty-five minutes of the session, both drivers having already completed an impressive number of laps.
Whilst the day got off to a chilly start, as the temperature rose so too did the pace. Sadly, Mercedes ended its morning's running early, the German team focussing on "experimental setup changes", so Hamilton could only watch as Raikkonen and Massa fought for the top spot, first on the soft rubber, then the supersofts.
Going into the lunch-break Massa lead the way, with Raikkonen just 0.14s off the pace.
Ibn the afternoon, while most focussed on race simulations, which meant few improvements in terms of lap times, Hamilton was late reappearing. However, when he did he soon switched to the soft rubber - not supersoft - and silenced the pretenders with a 23.022. Neither can nor driver broke sweat.
Other than high mileage, there was impressive pace from the rest of the field, even if there is already a clear order forming in terms of Mercedes, Williams and Ferrari, then the rest.
Sadly, after yesterday's 101 laps with Jenson Button, it was back down to earth with an almighty bang for McLaren, Kevin Magnussen side-lined after just 39 laps. Then again that's 32 more than the Briton managed on Thursday.
"An oil leak has stopped play, so that's a wrap for today," said the Woking team.
"We'll be back tomorrow for more," they added, surely only the coldest heart would have added the word "punishment".
Williams also packed up early, but this was due to having completed its programme as opposed to a technical issue. A luxury its Woking rivals can only dream of.
"And that's day two finished or us and Felipe Massa's winter test programme completed," said the team. "Next stop Melbourne."
There's still one day of testing before Melbourne, and providing the weather gods look down on us kindly, we could be in for some serious action tomorrow with some finally showing their full hands... not just the fingertips.
Today's schedule for Hamilton consisted of aero evaluation work in the morning, followed by setup analysis and performance tests in the afternoon. Emerging for his first run at 09:05, Hamilton completed 36 laps before lunch and a further 40 after the break.
"It wasn't a particularly spectacular day," said the world champion. "The track seems to have lost a bit of grip in the last few days so the feeling wasn't as good. But I'm still glad we got some running done and I feel good in the car. We were trying to understand a few things today with the set up and it gave us a clearer indication of that in the afternoon.
"The guys in the team have been exceptional during these tests and I just can't wait to get racing now - the fun stuff!"
"It was Felipe's last day in the car before Melbourne and we have had a busy day," said Rod Nelson, Williams chief test & support engineer. "We focused on chassis and aero work as well as longer runs on scrubbed tyres to see the degradation and tyre performance. We did a grid simulation at lunchtime to ensure the procedural processes are all in place for when we arrive in Melbourne. We have just one day of the test left now, and it will be another busy one for the team.
"We had another good day with over 100 laps completed," added Massa. "We reached the end of the programme in good time and the car has remained very reliable over all three tests. Our long runs look positive and the car remains consistent throughout the stints.
"We are not the only quick car on the track though and the fight behind Mercedes will be interesting. I now have to get ready for the first race of the season in Melbourne, which I am really looking forward to."
Kimi Raikkonen continues to impress in the SF15-T, the Finn clearly at one with the car as he worked on aerodynamic testing, set up work and ultimately a race simulation.
"Overall it hasn't been a bad test since we covered a race distance today," he said. "Now we wait to go to Melbourne to see how we stand compared to the others. I wish to thank the Team for the work it has done during the winter."
"We've got a lot of laps under our belt in winter testing," said James Allison, "but until you actually go out and do the laps for a race, one after the other, and not stopping except to change tyres, you really can't claim that you're ready to go to Melbourne and do it for real. So we're happy to get our first race distance of the winter done, happy to have achieved at the first attempt, and with the reliability that we showed.
"So I'm pleased with the testing we did over the last two days, which shows clearly that the car works as we expected. Winter testing in Europe always asks slightly different questions from the car than you get when you're in Bahrain: but it doesn't turn night into day. Most of what the car really is is revealed here as much as on the other Grand Prix circuits during the year. And I think what we see is a well-mannered car, so we expect these characteristics to be broadly carried over to the other races."
Carlos Sainz was back at the wheel of the Toro Rosso car for his final day of winter testing before he jumps into the car in Melbourne for his first ever Grand Prix in only two weeks' time.
The Spanish rookie had another busy day, posting what would eventually be the fourth fastest time. Max Verstappen takes over in the STR10 for the last day of pre-season track action tomorrow.
"This was the sort of day we needed and it went really well," said the Spaniard. "It means we can go to Melbourne with a boost to our confidence. This afternoon was particularly productive, after we had a couple of minor difficulties in the morning. The race simulation went well and overall we did a high mileage, which is obviously the most important thing. I'd like to thank the team for all their efforts during this pre-season period, as they helped me learn a lot every time I jumped in the car.
"Two weeks from tomorrow I will take part in my first Grand Prix: I am looking forward to it and I feel ready, especially after this test. Clearly, I'm very excited that it's all about to start."
"Another good day's work during which we got through a range of tests," added chief race engineer, Phil Charles. "In the morning, we did just a small amount of data acquisition runs, before switching our focus to the needs of the driver. So it was nice for Carlos that he was able to concentrate on getting the car to suit him in terms of set-up and the feel of the car. The first item in the afternoon was a race simulation and after that was completed successfully, we still had time for some short runs looking at the pure performance side of things. Unfortunately, almost at the very end of the day, a minor electrical problem left Carlos stranded on track."
At Lotus, Romain Grosjean drove his final day of pre-season testing, completing 116 laps as he completed a comprehensive programme including a race simulation, clocking a best time of 1:24.200.
"That was a long day and the track conditions varied quite a lot," said the Frenchman. "This morning went pretty well, we had a lot of work to do with some aero and set-up tasks as we're trying to test as many things as possible before Melbourne. In the afternoon we ran a race simulation and other performance evaluations. There's potential for improvement in some areas but we have plenty of data to get the car more to where we want it to be for Melbourne. I can't wait to for the season to start."
"Today we completed another extensive programme with the E23 running reliably throughout," added Alan Permane. "Track conditions were quite difficult for establishing a baseline as the track temperature varied a lot through the day, but nevertheless we ran for over 100 laps and have a lot more information relating to the various aero and set-up configurations. We have quite a long night ahead of us as tomorrow is the final day of testing where we hope to make further progress with Pastor at the wheel."
The third day of testing went according to plan for Sauber where Marcus Ericsson continued with race preparation. At the end of the day, the team observed a minor technical issue related to the power unit which did not affect its programme. Overall Ericsson ran for 123 laps.
"It was another good day during which I was able to complete a lot of laps," said the Swede. "We went through a quite similar programme to that from two days ago. Overall it was a good day as we gathered plenty of data, which was important. I did more practice starts, pit stops, short-runs on different compounds and also almost a full race simulation again. All in all it was a good day for the final preparations before going to Melbourne."
"The main target today was again getting ready to race," added the team's head of track engineering, Giampaolo Dall'Ara, "so we alternated between short and long runs. All the investigations on aerodynamic set-ups and the tyre side are done. The day went smoothly, and we had no major issue except for stopping on track in the last hour, which was a precaution as we saw something that was unclear in the data. We preferred to check the car before hitting the track again at the very end."
Force India will be delighted with its progress, Nico Hülkenberg completing a massive 158 laps at the wheel of the brand new VJM08.
"It was a very positive day in terms of reliability and getting a lot of mileage under our belts," said the German. "It was our first full day of testing so our main focus remained on getting to know the car, the way we set it up and its characteristics. I think we made some good progress in this regard and we managed to get a decent understanding of how the VJM08 feels under different conditions. That's definitely a positive, although it remains very hard to judge where everyone is in terms of performance.
"Next time I will step in the car will be in Melbourne: I am very excited to fly to Australia as that's when you get the racing feeling again. I am really looking forward to getting going and being back in a competition; that is something I relish. Hopefully the work we did in the last few weeks will pay off and we will be in a position for fight for a good result."
"It was another solid day of testing with the VJM08, which is proving to be a very reliable car so far," added Tom McCullough, the Silverstone outfit's chief race engineer, "the plan we had set for ourselves today was very ambitious but we managed to achieve all its main points. We have taken another big step in our process of understanding the performance of the car and we were able to work through both performance runs and longer stints. Track temperatures were not ideal as they were very much on the cool side, but we still learnt a lot and gathered a significant amount of data to analyse tonight.
"It was Nico's last day in the car before heading off to Melbourne: the work he completed today will help us ensure we make the most of our final day in the car tomorrow as Sergio steps in the cockpit for the first time."
Test and reserve driver Kevin Magnussen deputised for Fernando Alonso at McLaren, the Dane completing a useful test programme - as well as providing an additional opinion on the car. He quickly got to grips with the car, his first outing in MP4-30, but his programme was cut short by an oil leak.
"This year's car is really different to last year's," said Magnussen. "It feels much more consistent; it's more predictable and driver-friendly. It's not fast enough yet, but it feels like a solid baseline, and there's obviously still plenty more to come. I think McLaren-Honda should have a good car if they continue in this direction.
"It's nice to be back in the car. I always enjoy driving new cars, and this is a car I haven't driven before. I can see the work we did last year has gone into this car.
"It's good working with Honda," he concluded, "they're a very enthusiastic team, you can feel they have a desire to succeed - they're here to win. It will take time, but that's what they're here to do."
"The power unit systems are all functioning well, and the spec is race-ready," said Yasuhisa Arai, Honda R&D senior managing officer - chief officer of motorsport. "We just need more practice on race simulation, and to improve our reliability. We still have strong ambitions to improve, and tomorrow we'll be tackling durability issues."
Daniel Ricciardo was at the wheel of the RB11, the Australian completing 128 laps with a best time of 1:25.742. The team ran a familiar pattern of short runs in the morning followed by longer stints in the afternoon, concentrating on the medium compound after an early run with the hard tyre. The team enjoyed a trouble-free day, with only set-up changes.
"There's definitely plenty of positives to take from today: we did a lot of laps and worked through the programme," said Ricciardo. "Most of the other teams did some performance running today but we were focusing on ourselves and didn't get onto the soft or supersoft tyres and the low-fuel stuff. Our long runs look pretty good and completing nearly 130 laps means reliability is where it should be too. We've just got a bit of fine-tuning to do tomorrow."
"We did a normal race weekend run plan today," added Guillaume Rocquelin, the team's head of race engineering. "The car was really reliable and we completed a lot of miles; it was the sort of good, sound testing that engineers like. We're very happy with how today went. We'll carry on with the programme tomorrow as planned but because we got a lot done today it gives us a little more flexibility as we can afford a bit more downtime."
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