19/02/2014
NEWS STORY
Nico Hulkenberg topped the timesheets on the first day of testing at Sakhir today whilst the Renault powered teams continue to experience problems.
Though nothing can really be read into the times at this early stage, the pace and reliability of the Force India, and its Mercedes power unit, is impressive, and appears to indicate that Hulkenberg's move back to the Silverstone-based team might not have been such a bad idea after all.
However, Red Bull's problems clearly continue, Sebastian Vettel not turning a wheel during the morning then stopping out on track, and bringing out the red flags, around ninety minutes after he finally did get going.
Repeating the pattern witnessed in Jerez, Mercedes appears to have the edge, the four German powered teams completing 238 laps (800.3 miles) between them, compared to 149 laps (501 miles) for the Ferrari teams and 95 laps (319 miles) for the Renault runners.
It was a perfect day for Hulkenberg who not only set the pace but set completed the third highest number of laps.
"A very positive and satisfying day," beamed the German. "We had a busy programme and we learned a lot. Time in the car is very valuable at the moment and so it feels good to cover so many laps and even complete two long runs at the end of the day. That gave me a chance to see how the car behaves and to start getting a feel for it, which was not something I was able to do in Jerez.
"It's great that we've already done some set-up work and started to improve the drivability of the car," he continued. "But it's still very early stages; we are learning with every lap and we face a very steep learning curve in the coming days."
"Our test has got off to a positive start," added Chief Operating Officer, Otmar Szafnauer. "79 laps is a good effort and it's just what we need at this early stage of the VJM07's development. The aero work this morning ran smoothly with the constant speed runs giving us some aero data we required. In the afternoon we started evaluating the soft and medium tyres, and running through different set-up options - changing ride heights and rebalancing the car. We ended the day with a couple of longer runs on the soft tyres."
Fernando Alonso was at the wheel of the F14 T as Ferrari resumed the programme it began in Jerez, working on further checking of all aspects of the new power unit systems and some aerodynamic testing. Today, particular attention was paid to fine tuning the new brake by wire system, to optimise the balance of the car.
"It's nice to be driving again," said the Spaniard who stopped on track twice over the course of the morning session, "especially when you have more reference points compared to the previous time, which means you get a better feeling for the car. We are also at a track that is more representative, with normal temperatures, where it's been easier to understand tyre behaviour. We are in a phase where we are discovering things and with every lap, we learn something new. For everyone, there is still a lot to do to be well prepared for Melbourne, so it will be important to make the most of every day we have available to us."
At Mercedes the focus was to optimise running on the hard tyre in temperatures more suited to race conditions. Lewis Hamilton completed two twenty-lap stints with the team taking a close look at tyre performance and car data. Unfortunately, a brake issue ended the programme slightly early, though the German team is confident this will be fixed in time for tomorrow when Nico Rosberg will be in the car.
"It's been impressive to see us start the Bahrain test with good mileage and reliability," said Hamilton, "especially when you see how difficult it is for everyone with the new regulations. The team can be very proud of this after so much hard work.
"Today was another good test of the car to see if any issues came up," he continued, "we had a small issue with the brakes at the end but were still able to achieve a lot of laps. We're not aiming to be top of the timesheets at the moment, it's more about ticking the reliability boxes, but we can be happy with where we are before the halfway point of the pre-season tests."
"We ran our programme as expected today until the running came to a conclusion slightly earlier than we would have liked with a brake issue," admitted Paddy Lowe. "We did get through all of the planned data logging runs and the lap count was high. There is a great deal still to be done and a lot of the things we've been focusing on during the break since Jerez are working as intended. That is a great credit to the team working on the car at the factory and at the track to carry on from where we left off at the last test. Nico will be in the car tomorrow and we look forward to doing more long runs in consistent weather conditions."
Kevin Magnussen and McLaren continue to impress, the Dane completing 81 laps - making him the second busiest driver today - on his way to posting the fourth best time.
Magnussen kicked off proceedings this morning by conducting a series of short aerodynamic evaluation runs, complete with monitoring equipment fitted to the car. In the afternoon, he completed a number of longer runs, aimed at putting mileage on the power unit and components, and also to proof theories and improvements introduced after the first test in Jerez earlier this month.
Being fifth on the timesheets is bad enough for Red Bull, especially when the gap to the pace-setter is over 3s, however it's the lack of running - just 14 laps completed - that is really worrying as the Austrian outfit continues to struggle. After frantic work behind the screens this morning, Vettel finally made it out on track, but his progress was soon ended by a mechanical issue.
"Obviously we're not happy with where we are now and we have a long way ahead of us," said the German. "The first gut feeling from the car is OK, but we need more running.
"It's not easy to find a quick fix, but I think we understand the problems," he added. "We sorted out the issues from Jerez and we were able to do some laps today. However, very often you fix one problem and another pops up, which is what happened. That's testing.
"We all knew this year was a massive challenge and we knew it would be difficult. We obviously didn't want this, but it is what it is and we are working flat out to solve the problems."
"It's been a very long two weeks for everyone back at the factory and I have to say that while it might not appear so on the surface there has been a big improvement since Jerez," added Race Engineering Co-ordinator, Andy Damerum. "We are obviously playing catch-up and for us this was very much like a first test, so we were sending the car out to do one lap, then two and trying to build from there. In that regard the laps completed were good. However, we were sidelined by a mechanical gremlin but one unrelated to the issues in Jerez. That's the way of testing. All these problems have to be ironed out and only reveal themselves as you progress. We'll look at solving that issue now and we're itching to get out on track again tomorrow."
Despite being the cause of two red flags it was a solid day for Sauber which had Adrian Sutil on duty. With the full aero package the team was able to run through the test programme as planned in the morning, including aero tests and rear wing comparisons. Sutil completing 82 laps, the most of the eleven drivers on duty.
"It was a productive day and the conditions for testing are good," said the German. "The temperature is better and more consistent than in Europe right now. We did 82 laps and were able to put a lot of mileage on the engine.
"The car is getting better, but there is still a lot to do," he admitted. "We still have issues with the brakes and the engine drivability, but we were able to progress, which is good. It was good to have a better day today than any we had in Jerez and I am more confident now. Also in terms of aerodynamics, the car was in a much better shape with much more grip and better driveability."
"Today went quite well," added Giampaolo Dall'Ara, the Swiss outfit's Head of Track Engineering. "We scheduled the shorter runs in the morning. This included some aero tests, as well as rear wing comparisons. The wind wasn't ideal, but we got through the programme. The long runs in the afternoon didn't quite go to plan, but despite this we were still able to get in some decent mileage. The issues that gave us a lot of downtime in Jerez were largely sorted, with some final work to be done, which is positive."
Although over 5s off the pace, Caterham had the consolation of being the second quickest Renault powered team, Robin Frijns completing an impressive 68 laps on his way to posting the seventh best time of the day.
"We've obviously made quite a lot of progress since Jerez," said the Dutch driver, "and having finished the day with 68 laps, a lot more than the other Renault powered teams, I think everyone can be quite pleased with how this test has started.
"For me it's still too early to really tell how quick the car is because we haven't yet started running anywhere near full performance levels, but overall it feels ok. I wasn't getting a lot of grip from the back end to begin with but we made a few changes to the aero balance and by the end of the session it was starting to come together, especially on the mediums which we tried in the afternoon - the grip levels on those was much better and I could really start to push on that set.
"That's my last day in the car before the season starts and I'm happy to finish in the car in Bahrain with that mileage completed. I'm enjoying being part of this team - they all know what they have to do to start pushing up the grid, and being part of that is good."
"Today was obviously a more positive start to the test than we had in Jerez," admitted Cedrik Staudohar, Track Support Leader for Renault Sport F1, "but we still have work to do to increase the performance levels to achieve the targets we have set for this stage of the season.
"A lot of work has been done since the first test, much of which has helped us achieve the mileage we did today, and after running without any major Power Unit problems throughout the whole day it is clear we have made significant progress, both for us and with the team."
Following weeks of teasing, those naughty rascals at Enstone finally took the (public) wraps off the E22 to reveal that the twin nose concept shown in those first pictures were not a joke.
Unfortunately, the team known for its sense of humour - remember when we used to say that about Red Bull - had little to laugh about, Romain Grosjean completing just 8 laps as his team attempted to make up for missing the Jerez test as it focussed on installation and functionality checks.
"I didn't have too much work to do today and I certainly had fewer laps than scheduled in the car," said the Frenchman, "but it was still great to get out on track for the first time in the E22. For me personally it felt good to be back behind the wheel but some issues held us back today. I'm confident that we'll put today's problems behind us and we'll be able to get some good mileage under our belts before we head to Melbourne."
"Obviously that wasn't the day we wanted to have," added Alan Permane, the team's Trackside Operations Director, "and there are few conclusions we can draw so far as our running was so limited. It's no secret that we're frustrated as we want to get laps on the board to understand our new car and all the different elements it contains. The power units contain a lot of new technology and certainly we had issues with the energy store unit today. We changed this unit during the course of the day, which is not the work of a moment. Certainly we hope for a better day tomorrow."
Williams was another team left highly frustrated, the Grove outfit sidelined for much of the day with a fuel system issue and failing to post a time.
"It was a difficult day," admitted Felipe Massa. "It was frustrating for me but also for the whole team as we all wanted to get lots of laps on the board today. We had a few issues with the car which we are investigating and aim to solve for tomorrow and the following days. We know the most important thing is to get mileage on the car, so we hope to do that and get everything we want from tomorrow, and through until the end of next week."
"Unfortunately we lost some time today with a fuel system problem," added Chief Test & Support Engineer, Rod Nelson. "After replacing some components it then became necessary to remove the power unit to investigate the fuel cell. We were able to get some laps in at the end of the day but we will aim to resolve the issue and continue our programme with Valtteri tomorrow to get through as much of our planned running as possible.
Ditto Marussia, where the problem wasn't to do with the fuel system but an "IT configuration problem", meaning that Jules Bianchi completed just 3 laps.
With the team apparently on top of the issue, Max Chilton will take over the car on Thursday, when the aim is to get back on course with the run plan, which includes further exploration of the car's systems, along with an aerodynamic testing programme.
Chris Balfe
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