Hamilton continues Bahrain test domination

09/04/2014
NEWS STORY

The final day of the first in-season test of 2014 saw a familiar name at the top of the timesheets.

Three days after standing atop the podium at Sakhir, once again Lewis Hamilton was the man to beat, both in terms of pace and the number of laps completed.

Today's programme for the world championship leaders focused on tyres, with the Brackley-based outfit conducting a range of tests on behalf of Pirelli in line with the 2014 Formula One Sporting Regulations.

Hamilton emerged for his first run at 09:00 and completed 50 laps over the course of the morning and a further 70 laps in the afternoon, the Briton running right up to the chequered flag at 17:30.

"It's been a long day," he admitted, "running lap after lap to analyse the tyres but driving a Formula One car is never boring. Of course, the nature of a tyre test means we haven't learnt anything in particular in terms of improving the car but it's useful for Pirelli and therefore useful to us in the long term.

"They gave me different sets and I told them how each felt," said the winner of two of the opening races of the season, who was joined today by his girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger. "The plan was just to get in as many laps as we could. The times mean nothing as everyone had their own programmes to run.

"It's been a fantastic few weeks for the team but also a long stint away, so I'm sure everyone is looking forward to heading back home for a well-deserved rest. Of course, it's a short turnaround before China so I'll be in the factory to work on ways we can improve."

At Toro Rosso, Jean-Eric Vergne replaced Daniil Kvyat. While yesterday, Kvyat spent the day doing long runs, today's programme involved shorter runs, while evaluating mechanical changes on the car. The job sheet focussed mainly on chassis work with the team making a major change to the suspension over the lunch-break.

Apart from that, Vergne ran a tyre evaluation programme, using the medium, soft and supersoft tyres. Overall, it was a useful two days, according to the Faenza outfit, as it made progress in its understanding of the STR9 and the various new elements on the car.

"It was not a completely trouble free day, but that's what testing is about," said Vergne. "That aside, we got some serious work done today that can inform us on the way to move forward for the next part of the season. From that point of view, today was very productive and important. We got some good answers about which direction to work in. Another plus point is that I feel the car itself has a good performance potential and will work really well, once we have everything under control, which is very encouraging."

At McLaren, Kevin Magnussen's programme began well enough, the team completing its planned aerodynamic correlation work, however, a car problem saw him go off into the gravel just before lunchtime, bringing out the red flag, and the team spent much of the remainder of the day repairing the subsequent damage to the chassis.

He was able to return to the track for the final half-hour of running, during which he set his fastest time of the day, but the lengthy repairs meant he was only able to complete 26 laps in total.

Sergio Perez, who finished third on Sunday following a strong drive in the Force India, completed 63 laps on his way to posting the fourth best time of the day.

After a morning hampered by an electrical issue which restricted to him to just 9 laps, Daniel Ricciardo got through a further 58 laps of the Sakhir circuit in the afternoon. The problem meant that aerodynamic work scheduled for the early part of the day had to be carried over to the afternoon, with the result that the Australian spent most of the afternoon running short data-gathering stints.

"We had a few issues this morning which limited our running, but the afternoon was a lot better", said Ricciardo. "This afternoon was about gathering a lot of data for the aero guys, so there were no real performance runs, just pure testing. At the end of the day we got a few medium-length runs in and a few balance changes, like we did yesterday. So, not really a day for the timesheets, but one for the people at the factory and the guys behind the laptops."

"It was a bit of a mixed bag today," admitted Race Engineering Co-ordinator, Andy Damerum. "We had planned to do a chunk of mapping work this morning but we discovered an electrical issue that put paid to most of our morning. We had a fairly strict schedule run plan today, so that mapping work then got moved to the afternoon and we got through it successfully and got a lot of data from that. No real performance runs at all and most Daniel's running was out and in stuff, but I think the amount of information we gathered will make a few people back at the factory extremely happy. Then in the last three quarters of an hour we had a chance to get through a few test items.

"So, a pretty successful day in terms of the afternoon work," he concluded, "but obviously we would have liked to have had a totally smooth day in order to get through the whole programme. But it's all good value and we'll head home tonight having learned a lot and with a lot more information to sift through in the coming days."

Jules Bianchi took over from Max Chilton at Marussia as the team continued to accrue valuable mileage and work through its development checklist, the French youngster ending the day 6th out of the 11 drivers on duty and with 93 laps under his belt.

"It has been a really positive day today and I am pleased that we achieved so much mileage, the second highest lap tally of the teams," he said. "What we have learned will be useful for the short and long-term, but I am hopeful that we will see the benefit as soon as China, because we are making small but important steps and we need to keep moving forward like this."

"We have consolidated a productive test with some further good running with Jules today," added Chief Engineer, Dave Greenwood, "which rounds off a very positive 10 day trip to Bahrain. It has been very hot here at the Bahrain International Circuit, producing ambient and track conditions that are representative of neither the pre-season test nor last weekend's night race, so it's fair to say we have the full spectrum of information from this circuit!

"What this has provided us with though is useful baseline data and allowed us time to tune a lot of the systems on the car, which isn't as easy to complete with the pressures of a race weekend. We've achieved some good work in terms of aero evaluation and different set-ups, plus we have made progress with a dedicated brake development programme with Jules today. Reliability has been good on both days and overall we have worked on resolving a lot of small issues which have been present in the first three races.

"All in all, a good extended visit to Bahrain which, despite being a very tough schedule for the Team, has at least rewarded us with some extremely good data."

Sauber ran through a shortened programme with a positive outcome. After experiencing issues with the power unit in the morning, the team was forced to interrupt the session for approximately two hours. The Swiss outfit could not therefore continue with the planned aero measurements. In the afternoon, Giedo van der Garde continued testing different set-ups and doing long runs, the Dutchman completing 77 laps.

"All in all, it was a positive day," said Van der Garde. "Unfortunately, we could only run a few laps before the lunch break. However, in the afternoon we could start our test programme, and I think we did a lot of work today. For me, it was good to be back in the car. I had the chance to drive the car all day in comparison to the 20 laps I did in FP1 last Friday. I am satisfied with where we are right now. We found something interesting during the long runs in the end. Besides that, I think the performance run was also quite good as it was during the hottest part of the day, so the time was pretty good. All in all, I am happy that I got the chance to drive the C33 again and I am looking forward to being back behind the wheel for FP1 in China."

"Overall it was a good day," added the Hinwil outfit's Test Engineer, Paul Russell. "In the morning, we had issues with the power unit, so we lost about two hours solving the problem. However, we had a good afternoon. We worked on the car set-up and also the qualifying settings. Towards the end of the day, we did some long runs during which we were working on the race performance. It was great that Giedo could have more experience with the car. He has started to feel comfortable with all the control panels and also with the team. We found a couple of things today which are quite interesting and helpful."

It was a hugely disappointing day for Ferrari which opted to conclude its running several hours early. On the job list for today was a series of set-up tests, based on data from yesterday.

Unfortunately, the programme had to be called to a halt when the chassis was found to be damaged. After the necessary checks were made, the team decided to bring the test to a premature end as a precautionary measure.

After a day spent tyre testing for Pirelli yesterday, today Caterham was able to concentrate on its own programme. Over the course of the day, Marcus Ericsson completed 66 laps on his way to posting the ninth best time of the day his afternoon running compromised by an ERS issue.

"It was a good morning session for us," said the Swede, "running through a plan that started with aero work with a front wheel wake rake fitted for aero evaluation, and then some work on the braking system that gave us a lot of interesting information. We didn't really have any issues so we were able to get through most of the morning run plan and then broke for lunch just before the morning session ended.

"In the afternoon session we started with a number of runs with a rear wing rake on, carrying out more aero work and then removed it to start the final planned runs of the test, but on my 13th run of the day we had an issue that stopped the car at turn eight. We got the car back and identified the problem as an ERS electrical issue but didn't have enough time to fix it and go back out so that was the end of the test.

"Even with the problem in the afternoon we got through a lot of work today and everyone's reasonably pleased with what we've achieved. We have a lot more information to work through at the factory before China - now it's time to pack up for the last time in Bahrain in 2014 and prepare for the next race weekend in Shanghai in a week's time."

Like McLaren, Williams was on duty for Pirelli today, the Grove outfit, which had Felipe Nasr on duty, running experimental tyres aimed at next season.

"Today was our allocated day for work on next season's Pirelli tyres," confirmed the Brazilian. "We worked on many new compounds and it was another productive day for me to learn the processes and feeling of driving a Formula One car, and I did quite a few miles. Doing a tyre test means you can test the tyres to the extreme which was a good experience. I also got to experience the differences between different compounds and how they affect the car and the balance.

"Running a Formula One tyre when it hasn't been in a blanket was one of the most interesting things," he admitted, "as it's very difficult to get them up to temperature, even in the Bahrain heat, it will be even more of a challenge at tracks such as Silverstone or Spa."

"We carried out the test programme set down by Pirelli today so they set us the tasks and we carry them out as required," added Rob Smedley. "We had some control issues at the end of the day, but that's why we go testing, to iron these out. We are content with the day and hope we delivered some good data back to Pirelli."

After yesterday's disappointment when Pastor Maldonado only completed 16 laps, it was an equally disappointing second and final day for Romain Grosjean who also only completed 16 laps before a power unit failure ended running.

"We were hoping for a good day's testing today with a programme based on aerodynamic work," sighed the Frenchman. "Unfortunately, we struggled with power unit issues from the beginning, even when the car was able to run. Fortunately, we did manage some aero work so we did collect some useful data, however we fell far short of what we wanted to achieve. We will analyse the data collected to help us get a better understanding of the car so we can move forwards in China."

"The power unit failed to work correctly today," said Alan Permane. "We managed to do some very limited running to do some aero mapping work but at about mid-afternoon the power unit failed completely which meant the end of today's running and the end of very disappointing two days. We must now focus on the next race and will work hard towards China."

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Chris Balfe

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Published: 09/04/2014
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