19/07/2013
NEWS STORY
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Sebastian Vettel topped the timesheets on the final day of the YDT at Silverstone, eclipsing Daniel Ricciardo's time - set on Thursday in the Toro Rosso - by just 0.078s.
Weeks after the three-time world champion was jeered as he ground to a halt whilst leading the British Grand Prix, Vettel set the pace at a test totally revamped in response to the numerous tyre failures that day.
Drivers continued to run the various tyres options available, Vettel, on mediums, ominously 0.698s quicker than the fastest runner on softs.
Once again Red Bull split its running, with GP3 and Renault 3.5 Series driver Carlos Sainz Jr at the wheel in the morning and Vettel purely on tyre-testing duty in the afternoon.
After driving for Toro Rosso yesterday, Sainz Jr moved across to its sister team today and in a busy schedule the young Spaniard worked his way through 35 laps whilst continuing to impress with his obvious pace.
"This has been an incredible opportunity," he said afterwards. "It was not an easy day and the nerves were definitely there. In the end though, it all went smoothly and there were no major issues. I enjoyed the work and tried to do my best in terms of giving feedback to the team. It's a big boost for my self-confidence, but I'm 18-years-old, still very young and still learning. There's a long way to go."
Vettel, getting his first taste of the new compound Pirelli, said the new rubber had performed well. "We had three days of testing with a lot of different drivers in a lot of different cars and no failures," he said, "in conditions that were hotter than the grand prix... so that's good. Obviously, we were very limited on what we could do, but for me there is not that much difference with the tyres. It was good to get in some laps though, good to get a feeling for them and it's always nice to drive at Silverstone."
"Because of the tyre test with Seb we probably had about 2.5 hours of running with Carlos in the morning," added race engineering co-ordinator Andy Damerum, "but we were very satisfied with the work we got through during that period. The team was impressed with his ability to adjust to the car, happy with his feedback and also with his pace.
"As for the afternoon, we were again locked into Pirelli's programme and you can't make any adjustments to the car, so while it wasn't the best balance for Seb, he's an expert at driving round these issues and we got a lot done, 79 laps; over 460km. It's been a useful test and aside from some small problems, which you always get with a test car, we've had good reliability and good performance."
Force India also had two drivers on duty, however, while Adrian Sutil was to set the second best time of the day, completing 99 laps of the Northamptonshire track, James Calado only completed six ass the team focussed purely on rubber in an attempt to claim back the ground lost in recent races.
"It was only tyre testing today," said Sutil, "but it was interesting to see how the new tyres react. They are a bit easier to handle so the drop-off won't be as dramatic as we saw in a few races. Silverstone is a good circuit for testing because it's tough on the tyres and we've been able to get all the information we needed this week. It was quite windy so very different from the conditions at the race a few weeks ago, but it was not a big problem. I am happy with today's work and I think it has been beneficial for the engineers. We learnt a lot and hopefully we can translate it into a top ten performance in Hungary."
"It has been an excellent three days of testing for us," said chief race engineer, Jakob Andreasen. "Everything went according to plan and was executed perfectly by the team. We've generated all the data we needed and given Pirelli a lot of information on their new tyres. As for the drivers, I want to say a big well done to James Calado. He did a superb job for us and settled in very quickly with the team. We've been working with him for a few months during our aero tests, but he was on the top of his game this week and gave us some great feedback. As for the weather conditions, we could not have asked for more. In fact, it was actually a bit tougher because of the heat, but the consistent temperatures over the three days were ideal for testing."
At Lotus, Nicolas Prost completed his second day of testing, finishing third fastest as he ran through a programme of setup work and aerodynamic assessments, in addition to evaluating a new exhaust.
"It was a really good day for me," said the French youngster. "We focused on some more performance orientated work in the morning – which is always enjoyable to do – and especially beneficial after spending yesterday in the simulator in terms of correlation. I feel that I'm improving each time I get in the car. Obviously, it's very fast so it takes some time to get used to it, but I feel I've definitely made good progress. It was clear that the team made some improvements with Davide (Valsecchi) in the car yesterday so I think it's been a very productive and worthwhile test for the team. Overall, it's been a fantastic week for me."
"Today proved to be a good conclusion to a productive three days," added Alan Permane. "Nico continued the assessment programme he started on Wednesday and we made further positive steps forwards. We worked more on setup to get the car to Nico's liking, thereby enabling him to push harder through the day. We ran new aerodynamic parts designed to help extract the maximum performance from the tyres, and it was with these that Nico set his fastest lap time, which is certainly a positive sign. We also assessed a new exhaust in the afternoon which looks to be beneficial. Now it's time to analyse all the data to determine which parts we intend to use in Budapest."
After two solo days in the F138, today Davide Rigon was joined by Felipe Massa. The Brazilian did 69 laps, setting the sixth fastest time of the day, while Rigon posted the fifth fastest time having done 20 laps.
"It seems to me these tyres work better, at least compared to what we saw in the race here" said Massa. "Over the three days, no one had any problems and from the safety aspect, this is the most important thing. The prototype Hard seemed maybe too hard to race on. I think that in the coming Grands Prix we could head towards a choice of the softer compounds, because they can work at lower temperatures and last longer. Temperature has a significant effect on our car and here for the race for example, it did not help us, but let's see what happens in Hungary, where we can expect hotter conditions. You need a lot of aerodynamic downforce there and let's hope we can find the right solutions to be competitive."
"The past three days have been positive, as I didn't make any mistakes and I learned a lot" added Rigon. "I hope that all the work will have given the team some useful data, maybe some that can be used to prepare for the upcoming races. Again today, we were not concerned with lap times, nor did we make big changes. Instead, we concentrated on adapting the set-up to the new tyres. Now this information will be passed on to our colleagues at the simulator. I think this test has been very useful for my work and also my personal experience, even though I don't see it as finite, neither for me nor the car because there are no limits to improvement."
Toro Rosso was another team with two drivers in action, Jean-Eric Vergne joined by 19-year-old Russian, Daniil Kvyat, a member of the Red Bull Young Driver Programme, currently competing in GP3. Unfortunately, a car issue in the morning and an off in the afternoon meant Kvyat got little running.
"Overall, this has been a positive test and we completed a total of almost 1,350 kilometres," said Laurent Mekies. "We ran our two races drivers and three young drivers over the three days, working on the new tyres with the former and on car development with the latter. By the end of the test, we have a reasonably high percentage of answers on both these topics. The tyres worked well, but we are aware that you cannot get all the information you need at just one circuit and with the same track conditions throughout.
"While the first two days went off very smoothly, today was rather more hectic," he admitted. "We lost track time with a car issue in the morning, however by extending Jean-Eric's running into the afternoon, we were able to complete our tyre programme with him. That meant Daniil's time at the wheel of the STR8 was reduced. He lost more time, after going off in the gravel and even if the car was not really damaged, it took a long time to clean out, but he managed one final run before the flag."
"It's always good to get extra cockpit time, putting in some miles on new tyres, so from that point of view it was productive," said Vergne. "As for the new Pirelli tyres, they behaved well over the three days, as indeed we had expected, with none of the problems myself and others experienced at this track, during the British Grand Prix. That is a positive thing for the rest of the season."
"I want to thank Red Bull and Scuderia Toro Rosso for giving me this opportunity to drive a Formula 1 car for the first time," added Kvyat. "It was a really nice feeling, with all that downforce and power. The more laps you do, the more you get used to it and on my last run, I was already trying to push and find the limits. Unfortunately, we lost some time when I made a mistake and ran into the gravel. I'm not sure what happened, I just felt a lack of grip at the rear from the tyres and had snap oversteer."
After Kevin Magnussen and Oliver Turvey each drove the MP4-28 for a day, today McLaren test and development driver Gary Paffett took to the cockpit. However, it was a frustrating start to the day as the team's morning running was cut short due to an engine issue. An excellent recovery by the mechanics in the garage meant Paffett was able to return to the track for some solid running in the afternoon.
The team continued with its aerodynamic program, evaluating ride mechanical set-up changes, both of which should provide plenty of data for the engineers to analyse in preparation for next week's Hungarian GP.
"It was great to get out in the afternoon and get some testing done after the engine issue we had this morning," said Paffett. "The guys in the garage did a great job.
"It was a real treat to drive the car - most of the work we do nowadays is on the simulator in Woking. We get very limited time out on track. So it's great to get back in the car - it's invaluable for us to make sure we are going in the right direction."
The centre of media attention was Suzie Wolff who was in action for Williams. Over the course of the session she completed 89 laps posting the ninth best time of the day and less than a second off the best time posted by Pastor Maldonado this week.
"It was fantastic today," beamed Wolff. "The team did a great job getting me through the day, talking me through everything step by step. In hindsight it would have been good to run the new tyres later in the day after I'd had more time in the car as I don't think I got the best out of the medium tyres.
"Physically it wasn't easy," she admitted, "but it was what I was expecting. I was well prepared so it was completely manageable. My only problem was my seat as I was moving around a little. Doing the pit-stops this afternoon was also really beneficial as there is a lot to think about coming into the stops. It was a fantastic experience."
"Susie did a great job for us today," added chief engineer, Xevi Pujolar. "We did some aero tests this morning while she familiarised herself with the car and then we moved onto some performance and development work with her. In the afternoon we combined some general running with live pitstop practice, which is an area we are keen to improve ahead of the next race. We made some good progress and Susie was good at stopping on the mark every time. Overall we have had a successful test, gathering lots of data to take back to the wind tunnel and have some experience to know what to expect from the tyres in Budapest."
Caterham had both its 2013 race driver on duty as the team focussed on tyres, Giedo Van der Garde, who ran in the morning, proving to be the quicker of the two.
"That was a useful morning's work," said the Dutchman. "65 laps is quite a bit over a full race distance here and we've got through a lot of tyre work so everyone's pretty pleased with how it went. The run plan meant we were looking at both short and long run tyre performance and we'd targeted about the number of laps we completed, so now we have a lot of new data to work on with Pirelli and our own tyre engineers to see how today can help us in Hungary next week, and for the rest of the year. The main thing for me today was finding out how much more consistent the tyre drop off was on the new sets Pirelli brought to Silverstone - I think that'll help everyone a bit as it should mean we can push harder in the races, but until we get to run them in a full race weekend it's still too early to tell completely how they're going to behave."
"Like my teammate I think we've had a productive afternoon," added Charles Pic. "We repeated the same plan we ran in the morning and it obviously wasn't about times today, it was about working with the new Pirelli tyres and evaluating setups that we can work on for Hungary and the rest of the season. I was quite pleased with how consistent the sets we used today have been, the deg levels are certainly lower than the tyres we've used so far this year and that should help us."
Watched on by Twitter legend Taki Inoue, Kimiya Sato had his first outing in a Formula One car, the current Auto GP leader, at the heel of the Sauber, running through his programme without any problems. Sato completed a total of 67 laps, which is an impressive 394.697 kilometres.
"I'm really amazed after driving a Formula One car for the first time," he said at the end of his day's work. "It's so sharp and it reacts very quickly too, especially when steering and braking. It's incredible.
"From a physical point of view, it's also tough. I have raced in Silverstone before, so I do know the track well, but nothing compares to this. To drive here in a Formula One car feels completely different, and the speed is incredible.
"The morning was really good. In the afternoon I used a few new sets of tyres and tried to improve my lap times. Unfortunately, that didn't work out the way I wanted it to. The track conditions changed, the wind picked up and the circuit was generally slower. Driving a Formula One car today was really good, and I had a lot of fun. But the next step is to really work on improving my lap times."
"It is always exciting being associated with a driver's first day in a Formula One car, as it is a very special day for him," added Tom McCullough, the Swiss outfit's head of track engineering. "Kimiya's mature approach to the day impressed us all, as he worked well with the Engineers, improving throughout the day. This also allowed us to complete some further aero testing, which was valuable to us as a team. Our three-day test plan was very ambitious. We managed to get through the programme and are happy with all the data we have gathered on both the new aero package and the 2012 construction tyres. We feel well prepared for the Budapest race."
The final day saw Marussia's reserve driver Rodolfo Gonzalez at the wheel of the MR02 for the morning session and Jules Bianchi in the car in the afternoon.
Gonzalez completed the programme he began yesterday, providing him with valuable experience and the team with an evaluation opportunity for development parts. In the afternoon Bianchi worked his way through the checklist of Pirelli tyre test evaluations but his day was cut short by a mechanical problem which caused him to spin off track. The resulting damage was minimal but with only an hour of the session remaining the team decided to curtail his session.
"Once again I've been very happy to be back in the car as the more mileage and experience I can gather, the better," said Gonzalez. "I'll be running in FP1 again in Hungary so the work I have done here this week will benefit me for sure. The morning was not entirely smooth as I had a couple of spins out on track; nothing more than perhaps trying to push a little too hard on my performance runs after having focused more on the development work. It has been a good part of the learning curve so I am looking forward to putting this into practice again next week."
"A flying visit to Silverstone for me to conduct the afternoon programme today," added Bianchi. "I think it was a very useful opportunity to work with the tyres we will use from Hungary onwards and every lap gives us some vital information, so it has been good to be here. It's a shame we experienced the mechanical problem near the end of the day. It could be fixed, but it would take all of the running time remaining, so we had to cut short our day. Hopefully we have learned a lot this week that will help us next weekend in Hungary."
"After an improved day yesterday we have again encountered a few frustrations today," admitted John Booth. "Rodolfo worked more on performance runs for his development this morning and that has certainly given him more experience of new tyres, something that he doesn't get to experience during FP1 sessions. We also finished off working on some control system development before returning the car to a standard specification for the Pirelli tyre testing with Jules this afternoon. We completed one test and were about to move on to the second, but unfortunately we suffered a car problem. Jules has gathered valuable data on the hard and medium compounds, which will be useful race information. Unfortunately he didn't get to complete the programme, including running the soft compound, but we are pleased to have gathered good data for Pirelli and we're now looking forward to Budapest next week."
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