13/05/2015
NEWS STORY
While yesterday's session passed without incident, there were three red flags today. The first came just half-an-hour into the session when Raffaele Marciello hit the barriers at the infamous T3, whilst Carlos Sainz and Pierre Gasly caused further stoppages when brought to a halt by technical issues.
It was another busy day which saw the nine drivers on duty complete 865 laps, though not quite matching yesterday's 892.
Palmer completed 87 of those laps on his way to posting a 1:26.080, as the Briton tried various aero evaluations and set-up configurations.
"It was great to be in the car for a full day of productive testing," he said, "especially here where I tested in the pre-season and then drove in FP1.
"I think we've made real progress as a team with the set-up of the car," he added, "and I know I'm improving every time I get in the car. We ran through a lot of different programmes and assessments and it was a great day at the office for me."
"Today was a solid day of testing and evaluation and Jolyon delivered everything we wanted and expected of him," added Trackside Operations Director, Alan Permane. "The morning was more focused on aero assessments whilst in the afternoon we looked more at set-up permutations. Our focus was general improvement to the car and data collection as well as looking at potential gains for Monaco next week. We've plenty to work on back at Enstone before we return to race action next week."
Still not fully recovered from the bug which prevented him driving the Force India yesterday, Pascal Wehrlein was at the wheel of the all-conquering F1 W06 Hybrid today.
His morning schedule consisted of familiarisation with the car, followed by a series of long runs. He then continued with setup work for the Monaco Grand Prix in the afternoon, in addition to evaluating a number of new parts and conducting practice starts.
"Today was a really good day," said the German youngster. "I was driving this car for the second time and it's always a pleasure - especially after yesterday, which was a big disappointment for me. I still don't feel 100% but it's much better, so luckily I've been able to drive.
"We did some long runs before lunch and I was able to get a lot of laps, which was good as I had to adapt to the car again. But I felt comfortable from the start.
"The Mercedes Power Unit is unbelievable and the chassis too, with a very good balance. I could feel it has changed a bit since I last drove it during winter testing. The team has clearly been working hard and developing it even further. It's definitely a step forward and I've loved every minute of being behind the wheel!"
Describing its day as "extremely productive", McLaren had Jenson Button run through all the items on its plan, including measuring rakes on the car in the morning to capture aerodynamic data, and a lengthy series of mechanical and aerodynamic balance changes, with modifications made to the front wing and suspension.
The Woking outfit also carried out investigative work ahead of Monaco (low-speed set-up work) and Canada (low-downforce rear wing), which equips it with useful information ahead of these two extreme races.
According to the team, Button reported that the set-up work undertaken today had gone a long way to curing the rear-end handling imbalance that afflicted him in Sunday's race.
At Williams, Alex Lynn was in action, the reigning GP3 champion completing 52 laps on his way to a best time of 1:26.967.
"I didn't really sleep that well last night as I was so excited about today," he revealed. "It has been an amazing day and great to get behind the wheel of the FW37. We managed to get through a really important schedule and I completed a number of runs in the car. The team were happy with how we got on and with my performance, so all-in-all it has been a really positive day."
"It has been a good day with Alex in the car, his first time in a Williams," added Chief Test & Support Engineer, Rod Nelson. "He has done quite a bit in the simulator back in Grove but it's a bit different when you actually get in the car. We have been impressed with his speed and maturity throughout the day and he has helped us with some chassis and aero work. It has been a positive day and he has done a really good job."
Force India, which is understood to be looking for a regular third and reserve driver, had 18-year-old Esteban Ocon on duty, the French youngster at the wheel of the VJM08 for the first time.
"I was very happy to get the opportunity to drive today and I'm pleased with how things went," he said. "It's always good to get more experience in a Formula One car and I've learned a huge amount about this car and this team.
"We worked on a lot of things - mainly on the aero side and we completed most of the things we had planned. The team has given me some good feedback and I improved during the day - step by step with each run. I hope I get another chance to drive a Formula One car soon."
"It has been a pleasure working with Esteban, who is clearly a very talented young driver with a bright future ahead of him," said Tom McCullough, the Silverstone outfit's Chief Race Engineer. "Due to the late call-up, he was at the track until quite late last night completing the seat-fit and getting comfortable in the VJM08. We also had to get him up-to-speed with some of the systems on the car and the steering wheel.
"The programme today progressed relatively smoothly and Esteban did an excellent job. He settled in quickly and improved with each run. Overall it has been an encouraging test for us. We have gathered an enormous amount of aero data using special instrumentation all over the car - data that it's impossible to capture during a Grand Prix weekend. Analysing this information will play an important role as we push to improve our car performance going forward."
Esteban Gutierrez was on duty for Ferrari, the Italian team having been criticised for not running either of its regular race drivers over the course of the test. The Mexican was one of four drivers to complete more than 100 laps, posting a best time of 1:27.930.
"Our work was aimed at the upcoming races, looking at various aspects, such as driveability, aerodynamics and set-up," he said. "We managed to complete a lot of laps and it
was definitely a very productive day, even though it was interrupted by a red flag. However, we managed to make up for lost time and complete our planned programme.
"We were looking to validate the new aerodynamic package and we managed that," he revealed. "It was a case of understanding how to improve the car's set-up to better suit the new solutions we ran in the last race and that's what we did.
"It was very exciting to drive the SF15-T for the first time and I got a very good feeling from it. It will be very interesting to transfer this data to our work in the simulator, once we are back in Maranello."
For the second and final day of the first in-season test of the year, Carlos Sainz was behind the wheel of the STR10.
After Pierre Gasly had racked up the miles yesterday, Carlos Sainz also had a lot of track time, ultimately completing the second highest number of laps (126).
"The plan today was focussed mainly on long runs," said Sainz, "trying to see what we could learn about the car with high fuel loads. That was the configuration which proved to be our main weakness over the Grand Prix weekend here at this circuit. We managed to do 126 laps, we learned a lot and now we have to make the most of that over the forthcoming races."
"We can ignore our lap times," warned Phil Charles, the Faenza outfit's Chief Race Engineer, "because today was actually very good for us. We completed a lot of laps and apart from a few minor things, I can say we have ticked off all the boxes on our work sheet, provided by the factory and from what came out of our race debriefs.
"This morning we fitted the rake to the car to get some extra aero data and also did some brake work. Then we continued with our runs for more aero work, before finishing the morning with some set-up testing. After lunch, we concentrated on long run tyre evaluation and because that went well, we managed to fit in some more set-up work right at the end."
Due to his off, Raffaele Marciello lost more than two hours of track time before the lunch break which meant Sauber was not quite able to work through its planned programme in the morning. However, in the afternoon the Italian completed 75 laps, though he remained 2.749s off the pace.
"In the morning we started as scheduled, but were than stopped by an incident, which hurt our programme," he admitted. "The team did a perfect job to put the car back together in around just two hours. Once the car was ready the programme went well and we had a good, solid afternoon of testing. I am positive about what data and other information we were able to collect for future races."
"Unfortunately in the morning, when we focused on aero measurements and correlation, didn't start well," added Paul Russell, the Hinwil outfit's Test Engineer. "The incident in turn three after four caused damage to the left front of the car and delayed our progress. The team did a very good job in getting the car back on track before lunch time. In the afternoon Raffaele went out on track and continued with a shortened programme, focusing on set-up work."
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