19/02/2013
NEWS STORY
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Nico Rosberg topped the timesheets at the Circuit de Catalunya today as the second, and penultimate, pre-season test got underway.
Although the threatened rain never made an appearance, the skies getting very dark in the afternoon, it was somewhat cool. Almost everyone topped the timesheets at some stage or another, while at day's end the top four were covered by just 0.349s.
The leading four all posted their best times on the medium rubber, while fifth quickest Maldonado was on the softs. The best time posted on the hard rubber was achieved by Daniel Ricciardo.
Hoping the nightmare of the opening days of Jerez was well and truly behind it, things were not looking good this morning when a gearbox issue caused Rosberg to lose much of his morning running. However, he was back out for the afternoon session, with the team focusing on car balance and tyre management.
By the end of the session, the German had completed a total of 54 laps on his way to posting a best time of 1:22.616. Lewis Hamilton takes over the programme.
"We had a mixed day today with some laps lost this morning," admitted Rosberg. "However we were able to work through a good programme this afternoon and, of course, it's always nice to be quickest at the end of the day. In general, I feel happy and comfortable in the car and it feels better than the last time we were here at this track. There is still some work to be done on tyre degradation and our programme this afternoon was helpful in understanding that.
Though Kimi Raikkonen completed the fewest laps of any driver today (44), he was nevertheless the second fastest for most of the day, including at the end of the afternoon session.
Telemetry data-logging issues meant the team completed fewer laps than desired, but nevertheless concluded a productive day of assessment of the second E21.
"It wasn't an ideal day in terms of the number of laps we completed," said the Finn, "but the car feels strong and we've made some good progress. After Jerez it's nice to be at a circuit where we race and the E21 is definitely a step in the right direction. There's lots of work yet to do this week but I'm happy with where we are at the moment."
"It's been a positive debut for the second chassis," added Alan Permane, the team's Trackside Operations Director. "Kimi was happy with where the car started the day, and the setup changes we've made have been positive. We had a few issues on the electronics side with the telemetry data-logging and this has cost us track time as well as the ability to conduct longer runs. Other than that, we've been able to take over from where we left off in Jerez so we're happy with that. All we need is more laps, which is our focus for tomorrow."
It couldn't have been a better start for Fernando Alonso, the Spaniard getting his first taste of the F138. Other than completing the most laps (110), the two-time champion was third quickest, just 0.336s off Rosberg's pace.
The entire day was dedicated almost entirely to acquiring data for use in the development of the F138 and on gaining a greater understanding of the tyres.
"I feel reasonably pleased with this first day and I can say I share Felipe's opinion that the car is on another planet compared to the one we began with on the first day of testing last year," said Alonso. "The programme for this first session in Barcelona is aimed mainly at improving reliability, with the target of completing more than a hundred laps every day. Then, at next week's test we can concentrate on performance. Tomorrow, we will complete what we were unable to do today and we will focus on car set-up, to adapt it as well as possible to the tyres.
"I knew from looking at the Jerez data what sort of car I would find here today," he added, "as in fact we know more or less what we will see at the first race in Australia, in terms of what new parts we will have and how many tenths they will produce. This is down to all the work done over the winter in the wind tunnel and the numerous tests which confirm that the parts that are on their way will give the expected results."
The early part of Red Bull's running was hampered by a software issue but once the problem was solved Sebastian Vettel ran quickest for much of the day. The defending champion eventually claimed P4 on the timesheet.
"It's very important for us to put good mileage on the car and this morning that wasn't really possible," said the German. "We had a small software issue this morning, I think many teams had. That wasn't ideal but we got it fixed and after that it was another decent day."
"It is good to back in Barcelona," he continued. "It is a good circuit to judge a car on and a good indicator of where you are but we need to be careful of doing that as it's pretty cold at the moment and it's quite tough to keep the tyres alive for many laps. So hard to know. But overall, not a bad day again."
"It was a slow start, which was a bit frustrating," admitted Race Engineering Co-ordinator, Andy Damerum. "However, I don't think we were alone in that. Looking at the lap times and number of laps done by other teams I think quite a few had a similar problem to the one we encountered. We managed to fix it just before lunch but it meant that our laps in the morning were effectively systems checks. Everything went better this afternoon, though, and we were able to get through quite a few items on our checklist and in the end managed 308km, so I'm quite pleased about that."
"In the afternoon we were again working on some aero test items. The guys at the factory have been flat out since Jerez and as well as the things planned some time ago for this test there have been quite a few developments based on what we learned from Jerez. So there are plenty of things to get through here. Seb is driving again tomorrow."
Other than a row over the legality of its exhaust, it was a satisfying day for Williams which unveiled its 2013 contender just half-an-hour before today's proceedings got underway. Benig the car's first day of running, the programme centred on aero evaluations, tyre testing and component checks.
"It was a very good day for us," said Mike Coughlan, "with Pastor completing 86 laps, the second-highest of any team today. Pastor was very comfortable in the car which was shown by his early lap times. We had a small water leak this afternoon on a development part, but we were able to fix it quickly to complete our tyre programme. We feel confident in the core reliability of the FW35 and look forward to continuing with Valtteri tomorrow."
"It was a good day today," added the Venezuelan. "I felt happy after the first run this morning and we then completed a busy day of testing. It was great to get out on track in the new car. The FW35 feels like we have made a real step forward. There is still a lot to discover with the new car, but this is a good starting point for us for the season."
At Toro Rosso, the morning was given over mainly to aerodynamic work to gain a better understanding of the car. In the afternoon, work began on the actual set-up of the car, to find the best direction in which to move forward. Daniel only used the hard Pirelli compound today.
"This was my first time back in the car since the second day in Jerez," said the Australian, "and we had a full programme of things to try. Because of some of the changes we chose to make to the car set-up, this involved quite a bit of time in the garage, therefore this was not a day for a lot of laps. I'm glad I'm driving tomorrow, because I feel I need to get a better understanding of what we started today. We have some homework to do overnight, but we know which direction to go in."
Sergio Perez was on duty for McLaren, the Mexican spending the morning running through a series of aero tests before breaking to reset the car for some set-up comparison work. After lunch, he began a series of longer runs to evaluate the effects of the mechanical set-up changes. He also took the opportunity to more fully acclimatise himself to the cockpit controls and team communications that he will start to encounter in the races.
Still blissfully unaware who his 2013 teammate might be, Paul di Resta continued for Force India, the Scot completing 82 laps on his way to posting the eighth best time of the day.
"The first day of running was mainly about tyre work and making some comparisons with Jerez," said di Resta. "I was running on the hard and the mediums and we got a good feel for them once again. We also did an aero programme this morning, which is part of the correlation work as we evaluate some of the new parts going on the car. The plan is for more of the same tomorrow."
"It has been a solid first day of work with Paul," added Chief Race Engineer, Jakob Andreasen. "We've put into effect what we learned in Jerez and made some useful comparisons, especially in terms of tyre evaluation. After the aero programme this morning, we did some shorts runs with new aero components and then moved to longer runs later on. The track conditions were not at their best this morning, but from midday onwards things started to improve and the cloud cover kept the track temperatures relatively low. With Melbourne less than a month away the team is gelling nicely and the new personnel and structures we have put in place are working well."
It was a niggling day for Sauber, the Swiss outfit suffering a number of minor issues, one of which brought out the first red flag of the day. "We spent a lot of the morning evaluating some aerodynamic and mechanical parts on the car," said Tom McCullough, the Swiss outfit's Head of Track Engineering. "We were also working on the hard and the medium tyres, but the track conditions were not ideal. We gathered a lot of data with some special instrumentation, and now we need to look at it. Due to a few small issues we weren't able to complete our full programme, but we are confident we will be back on track tomorrow.
"It was quite a tricky day with the tyres," admitted Gutierrez. "We were struggling with tyre management and, as a result, degradation. We tried different things in the morning, but then in the afternoon we had some issues with the set-up of the car. The good thing is we have a lot of data to analyse. This will be the basis for us to understand everything."
At Marussia, Max Chilton worked through a programme of systems checks in the morning before moving on to set-up work in the afternoon. This will provide the first indications of where the car's performance can be further honed and developed in the weeks between Barcelona and Melbourne. Throughout the day, Chilton worked with the Medium and Soft tyres.
"It took a little while to get into our rhythm this morning," admitted Chilton, "as the track conditions were cool and green and the early part of our programme consisted mainly of checks with the KERS and other on-car systems. This afternoon we were able to get into a proper set-up programme and the initial results from that are quite promising.
"I am pleased with where I ended the day - P10 - in respect of the teams around us. Tomorrow we look forward to building on our performance after a night absorbing the data from the car. All in all, a good start for the Team here in Barcelona."
"After a week at the factory analysing the data from our opening test in Jerez, it is good to be back on track in Barcelona applying what we have learned to the development of the MR02," said John Booth. "The fact that this circuit is more representative is extremely beneficial at this stage in our programme and we have been able to start to understand the tyres better from the word 'go' this morning, whereas Jerez shed relatively little light in this regard. After completing our systems checks and running through some revised engine mapping work, we were able to turn our attentions rather more to set-up work, the first we have done with the new car.
"Overall the results have been positive, although we will need to put some further thought into how we can get the tyres working better in these cool conditions. We are looking forward to another solid day's running tomorrow. Max has performed well here today and his feedback, coupled with the data from the car, is helping us to make good progress."
It was a problematic day for Caterham, the Anglo-Malaysian outfit completing just 49 laps and finishing 0.78s off the pace of the Marussia. A technical issue shortly after lunch brought out the red flag for the second time when the MR02 stopped at Turn 3.
"49 laps on the first day of the second test isn't the total we wanted," admitted Chalres Pic, "but we've still been able to complete quite a bit of today's program and with every lap I'm getting more and more comfortable in the car.
"In the morning session we ran through a similar program to the second day in Jerez last week, and we had planned more tyre work in the afternoon. When I went out for a stint after the lunch break I had a mechanical problem going into turn three and after we got the car back to the garage we found out it was a gearbox issue and that brought the day to an early end. We've already started work on the fix and I'm sure we'll be ready for tomorrow morning when we can get back to work."
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