01/03/2014
NEWS STORY
Whilst Williams reached new heights in Bahrain today, Felipe Massa posting the quickest time to date, Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull hit an all-time low. The world champion could only manage four corners before his car ground to a halt, a subsequent run seeing him failing to even get to the end of the pitlane before stopping.
As team boss Christian Horner admitted that his team is ten days behind schedule, rivals upped the pressure with Williams leading the way.
Following one of its worst seasons in living memory, the Grove outfit goes from strength to strength, invigorated by the arrival of Felipe Massa, Mercedes power, shrewd sponsorship deals and some savvy signings to its technical department. The FW36 not only has pace it has reliability, something rivals, including Red Bull and Lotus, can only dream of at this stage.
After two relatively disappointing days, Mercedes was back on form again with Nico Rosberg completing 103 laps on his way to posting a best time just 0.226s shy of Massa's. Though the German outfit's day was not entirely trouble-free, the team opting for a cautionary engine change which meant it was side-lined for the first three hours of the session.
Kimi Raikkonen and Kevin Magnussen were both over 2s off the pace, despite healthy mileage, which included race distances in the afternoon, while Force India continues to impress.
It was another strong day for Marussia, Jules Bianchi around a second quicker than Caterham's Marcus Ericsson, while Sauber's Adrian Sutil, like Vettel, failed to complete a single lap. After two days on which Pastor Maldonado was unable to exceed more than 31 laps, Romain Grosjean was at least able to go two laps better, the Frenchman completing 33. Plagued by numerous problems over the first couple of days, including two fires, one down to a new exhaust system, the other to the power unit, today's issue is thought to have centred on the motor generator unit kinetic.
"We had a very good day today doing almost 100 laps," said Massa, who focussed on aero evaluations, set-up work and qualifying simulation over the course of the day. "We did a lot more performance work in the car which is something that we haven't done so much of so far.
"I'm really happy with the car and feel we found a good balance," he continued. "We did so much work on the set-up but it is very important that we go to Australia prepared. Of course you are always happy when you see your name at the top in first place, but as well as performance, today was good for the mileage and reliability of the car which we know is needed for Australia.
"You can never be sure that you are 100% ready for the first race, but I feel that what we have done in these days testing has been important for making sure that we have a car that can not only get to the end of the race, but that will have good performance as well."
"Having covered most of the bases in terms of reliability, we concentrated more on performance today as we had planned to do," added Chief Test & Support Engineer, Rod Nelson. "As we don't get the opportunity to test very much on a race weekend, we really look to do some significant tests when we have the tyres available to do so and we did some pretty positive tests today to continue learning about the car. This afternoon we did a full qualifying simulation with Felipe and we are pleased with how that turned out, so it's been a good day for us."
At Mercedes, running was delayed during the morning after overnight inspection of high-mileage components led to a precautionary engine change for the F1 W05. Nico Rosberg emerged for his first run at 12:00, completing 22 laps in the remaining hour before the lunch break. A further 81 laps followed in the afternoon as part of a programme including setup evaluation, long runs and qualifying simulations.
"That was an incredible effort by the team and I'm really happy with our day's work," said Rosberg. "The night shift crew recognised a strange sound from the engine while working on it during the night so we had to change it, which took a good few hours and meant we missed out on running for most of the morning. In the end I managed to do over 100 laps, so this was a very useful final day of testing for me and I learned a lot in the process. The only problem was the conditions, with a lot of wind and blowing sand at some corners meaning that suddenly you could have almost no grip which was a bit difficult to manage.
"Overall I can be really happy about my testing programme, so a big thanks to everyone in the team both here and back at the two factories for the remarkable job they've done. As is the case for everybody, we still have a few reliability problems that definitely need to be sorted out before Australia, but in general I think the winter tests have been better than expected. After some work in the simulator next week I will fly to Melbourne on Friday, and I can't wait to be back in the car again.
"We didn't have the best start to the day," admitted Paddy Lowe. "Having discovered an engine problem at 04:00 this morning we weren't able to get out on track until 12:00, which forced us to alter our schedule quite significantly. However, we ended the session in a great position having exceeded 100 laps in a single day for the first time during pre-season testing this year; a landmark which had proven to be a bit of an obstacle up to that point.
"After the delayed start it was a relatively trouble-free day. Nico completed setup evaluation work over the course of some fairly long stints, before ending the afternoon with a pair of short runs on the super soft tyre. The team did a great job working through the night to get the car back on track before lunch, and it was good for Nico to round off his pre-season with a good day's running before he heads to Melbourne. We'll be targeting the same for Lewis tomorrow."
Following an early stoppage for Raikkonen this morning, his mechanics had to deal with a problem relating to a connector, which meant they had to partially dismantle the car to get it fully sorted. In the afternoon, the Finn did some short runs as well as a race simulation, including some live practice pit stops.
"I'd hoped to do more laps, but this wasn't an easy day," said Raikkonen. "We lost some time this morning when we had to fix something on the car, but then we managed to make up for some of it in the afternoon. Running a race distance, we continued to get more data relating to fuel consumption strategies and tyre degradation, even though the strong wind upset the driving a lot.
"I'd like to be able to say we did better," he added, "but there's still one more day with Fernando to continue our preparation for Melbourne."
This was rookie Kevin Magnussen's last opportunity to sample the MP4-29 before Australia. His morning running was interrupted by a small problem that required a long stop to cure - nonetheless, like Button yesterday, he was able to get back on track before the end of the morning's session, and got a sizeable number of laps under his belt before the end of the day.
The afternoon's programme also enabled him to run through a simulation of a race weekend, including the opportunity to run some fast laps on softer tyres, and also to try a race simulation - albeit one hit by a red-flag stoppage and a visit to the pits.
"We had some electrical problems in the morning, but sorted them pretty quickly, and completed most of today's run-programme," said the Dane. "Today's lap times from both Williams and Mercedes look very quick, but I don't think any of the teams have been running to identical programmes, so it's still hard to say.
"As a team, we're not quite there yet," he admitted, "but we have more to come. Our car feels like it has potential - unlike last year's car, where you could feel its problems when you were driving. This year, it feels like an F1 car.
"In terms of preparation, you always feel like you can do more - if we had more time, we wouldn't stop! But, from a driving perspective, I think I've got all the basics covered in order to go out there and do a race. I don't feel uncomfortable going into a grand prix now - I feel that I know all the procedures, I know what's important, and I know what to focus on in a race weekend. And that's really positive.
"It's a very special feeling knowing that the next time I get in the car, it'll be in Australia. I've got a big job ahead of me, but I'm pretty excited. I feel ready."
At Toro Rosso, Daniil Kvyat had his final day of pre-season testing and it was by far the best he and his team have had on track so far this winter. The Russian completed a total of 81 laps and was even fastest for a short time this afternoon, eventually being credited with the fifth best time.
The day's programme featured more suspension work, an aero evaluation, including assessing a new front wing and some long runs aimed at cooling. With Kvyat about to start his rookie season, today was also an opportunity for him to practice various race procedures and he also got to run three compounds, the medium, soft and super soft. Tomorrow, Jean-Eric Vergne takes over at the wheel for the final day.
"A very positive day because we managed to complete a good amount of laps," said the Russian. "The work all went in the right direction and we carried out many important tests and did some longer runs. That means I am feeling much more confident with the car now. The next stop is Melbourne and I don't want to make any predictions about how we will get on in Australia, although the one thing I can say is that I am really looking forward to my first Grand Prix."
It was another strong day for Force India, and while Sergio Perez went for pace and reliability on the preceding days, topping the timesheets on Thursday and Friday, today Nico Hulkenberg focussed on development and evaluations.
"Lots of laps today, which is good," said the German, "and it’s the third day in a row that the team has done more than 100 laps. When I jumped in the car this morning I could feel the progress the team has made since I last drove at the end of last week, so it shows we are moving in the right direction. The track conditions were quite tricky because it was windy, but otherwise it was a successful day and my feeling with the car is pretty good. We got through the test programme and hit the objectives for the day, including a race simulation in the afternoon. For the final day tomorrow we will continue doing our homework for Melbourne, ticking off the boxes and try and do another race simulation."
"Once again we were able to do a lot of valuable work today and hit our target number of laps, which is very satisfying," added Technical Director, Andrew Green. "At this stage of testing we still have lots of items to evaluate, but we’ve been able to combine this with giving Nico the opportunity to explore numerous set-up options ahead of Melbourne. He managed to try all the different tyre compounds available today and did three solid long runs at the end of the day, which went to plan. Nico also ran through some of the new procedures needed this year, especially those for grid formation."
Marussia's morning got off to an excellent start, with Jules Bianchi posting 55 laps during a series of trouble-free longer runs. Progress was a little more frustrated in the early part of the afternoon, but the Russian team was back in its stride later in the day, working steadily towards performance evaluations on the soft and supersoft tyres.
"It is quite exciting to end today in a positive way and to know that the next time I drive the car will be on Friday in Melbourne at the first Grand Prix of the season," said Bianchi. "We have achieved a good baseline understanding of the car now and I have a really good feeling for it. Of course we had hoped for even more mileage today, but we are happy with what we achieved and the work we have done is very important. At the end of the day I got my first experience of the car in lower fuel on the Soft and Supersoft tyres, getting closer to qualifying specification. I was encouraged by the performance of the car, even at this early stage when we know there is more to come. We will see how things go for the Team tomorrow but I feel that we are well-prepared and gaining confidence with our package."
"Once again, it is very pleasing to end the day having achieved a substantial amount of mileage and much of our planned programme," added John Booth. "The majority of the morning was spent working on longer runs during which we were able to evaluate systems on the car to cover the basics needed to go racing, for example brake wear and temperatures, fuel system performance and cooling temperatures. This afternoon our attentions were focused on set-up testing early on, followed by some lower fuel performance tests with the Soft and Supersoft tyres, which enabled us to get more of a feeling of the car's potential. With much of the field doing the same, we were pleased to end the day in P7 on the timesheet, but we remain on the cautious side of optimistic as there is still a long way for everyone to go.
"There is further work to be done in terms of managing the performance of the powertrain system and hopefully we can make some more progress with this tomorrow. All in all, a good day."
In a change to its original schedule, Marcus Ericsson was back in the Caterham, the Swede completing an impressive 117 laps.
"I'm very pleased we finished off my pre-season tests with so many laps," he said ast the end of his day's work, "and I want to thank the team for working so hard last night to fix the car after the problems we had yesterday. The day went exactly to plan - we started with a few short runs to go through some setup options, and then ran very nearly a whole race simulation, including stops, which was just what we wanted to do today. If it hadn't been for the late red flag just before lunch we'd have finished the whole distance, but the fact the car ran faultlessly all afternoon showed we'd pretty easily have finished a complete race mileage and that's very good news for the start of the season.
"In the afternoon we put on some new parts that arrived from the factory and spent a bit of time trying various setups with those, and then, towards the end of the session we started focusing more on performance and the lap times started coming down. The final run was my first ever laps on the supersofts and I have to say I was surprised by how much more grip they had than the softs! With more experience of them there's obviously more lap time to be found from those compounds and that will come. We still have more to come from the whole package in outright pace, but we have to be pleased with the amount of work we've got through today, and, for me, having that much time in the car is a great way to sign off the tests.
"I'm back in the factory next week for more sim sessions, and we have more new parts coming for Australia so we have lots to look forward to. Also, for Renault, this has obviously been a tough pre-season, but they continue to improve and we know they'll keep working harder than ever to unlock the full performance we know is there. Overall I'm happy, for the team and for me, and I'm more excited than ever about starting the race season properly in Australia."
"A much more positive day for us than we have had this week," added Cedrik Staudohar, Renault Sport F1's Track Support Leader, "and running a full race distance shows how much progress we are making. We believe we have turned a corner with reliability and this will allow us to focus more of our efforts on outright performance, something we can look at tomorrow with Kamui. The objective for the final day is obviously to repeat the mileage Marcus achieved today, and then we will have a much clearer view of where we are at the end of the pre-season tests."
Romain Grosjean ended the day with just 33 laps completed after a power unit problem curtailed his running.
"It wasn't a perfect day!" sighed the Frenchman, who is back on duty tomorrow. "For the time we were on track we were certainly learning, but it is true to say that we haven't been as successful as we wished in our preparations so far. This doesn't mean that everything is lost or that it will be impossible for us to win races, but certainly we are behind schedule. We'll just keep working together to get on top of the situation and get some more time in the car."
"Today we had a wiring issue in the morning," added Alan Permane, "which meant we started our running late, and an MGUK problem in the afternoon, which meant we ended our running early. It would be an understatement to say that this is not how we wanted our day to go. We are doing everything we can to ensure we get more running tomorrow for the final day of pre-season testing."
The penultimate day of testing saw Sauber go from one extreme to the other - the most amount of laps in one day yesterday, to the least amount of laps in a day today. After the installation lap the team was forced to abandon the morning session. The crew worked hard to get back on track, however, at a certain stage in the afternoon it was decided to fully focus on the final day of testing tomorrow.
"This is why we are testing," said Adrian Sutil. "Of course I would like to drive as much as possible, but you have to look at the overall picture and the team decided to focus on and get ready for the final day of testing tomorrow. I would rather have these issues appearing here at the test than on the first race weekend. It shows how complex the new car and powertrain are and that we are exploring them to the limits. Although the garage doors were closed, the engineers and mechanics worked incredibly hard and hopefully we'll have a better day tomorrow."
"Unfortunately today we have encountered an anomaly on the engine and as a precautionary measure we decided to change it," added Giampaolo Dall'Ara, the team's Head of Track Engineering, "which meant that we could only manage one lap in the morning. However, assembly takes considerably longer and at a certain stage during the afternoon we decided to focus on tomorrow and be ready for the final day of testing. The crew worked tirelessly and hopefully tomorrow we can get on with our programme."
After a positive second day in Bahrain, Red Bull suffered another setback today, with the team and Sebastian Vettel restricted to the garage for the day.
"At the moment we obviously have lots of different problems we are curing," said Vettel. "It's not the best situation to be in but we can't change it. Everybody is extremely motivated to fix it, but it doesn't happen overnight. We can just hope for a better day tomorrow and then to have a decent start to the season in Melbourne but at this stage obviously reliability is still a big question mark.
"It's difficult to say how long it will take to remedy," he admitted. "I think some things will just come down to the fact that in two weeks' time we'll have lots of new parts on the car. We've had some damage because of the problems we've had here and the parts aren't available overnight, so from that side I think things will get better over the next couple of weeks. We obviously haven't done much running but from the little we have done has been quite promising, so I think once we get going the speed should be OK."
"Given how well the car behaved yesterday we were anticipating a solid run for Seb today," added Race Engineering Co-ordinator, Andy Damerum, "but almost as soon as he went out there was an electrical problem, which meant stopped him on track. We brought the car back, identified the issue, which is one other teams have had but which hadn't affected us so far, and set about fixing it. We got ready for another run but this time the car stopped in pit lane. We brought it back again and discovered a leak, which we thought we could fix but it turned out that it had caused enough damage that we weren't able to go out again. Having run so well yesterday it is frustrating to have had these problems today, but all we can do is keep solving the issues."
Check out our Saturday gallery, here.
Chris Balfe