Barcelona I, day 3: Team and driver quotes

Toro Rosso Renault

Three quarters of the way through the second winter test, the first at Barcelona, and Max Verstappen was back behind the wheel of the STR10. That’s the end of the Dutchman’s cockpit time until next week now, as Carlos Sainz drives tomorrow, the final day.

Phil Charles (Chief Race Engineer)

“A very interesting and useful day, with much fewer problems than yesterday, which is why Max completed more laps than any of the other drivers. Second fastest? We are not looking at lap times yet, but that was just the natural result of running the Supersoft Pirelli. In fact we worked with many different tyre types today, which was useful for Max. He did a mix of short and long runs and practiced various race procedures that are new to him, including “lift off,” the technique for saving fuel during periods of a Grand Prix. He also had plenty of pit stop practice and that’s what caused him to stop just before the end of the day, as the clutch had had enough. It was a case of having worn the car out with all that work rather than a technical problem. Hopefully, Carlos can have an equally productive day tomorrow.”

Max Verstappen

“A good session and the first time I’ve done over a hundred laps in a single day. We got through a lot of items on the job sheet, with some faster runs in the morning. The car felt really good and it seems we are improving the car step by step. Compared to after the first test in Jerez, I feel more confident and more comfortable with the car, as I start to learn about every aspect of the job. Now, I’m really looking forward to seeing what the engineers can come up with for the final test here next week.”

Red Bull Renault

Day three of the first of this year’s pre-season tests in Barcelona saw Daniil Kvyat take over from Daniel Ricciardo at the wheel of the RB11. Following a similar schedule to yesterday’s – albeit hampered by mid-morning rain – the Russian worked steadily through a morning programme of untimed runs and pit stop practice followed by short runs and tyre work in advance of the team’s afternoon programme. Having completed 34 laps in the morning for a best time of 1:26.589, Daniil switched to a sequence of long runs in the afternoon that eventually saw his lap total for the day rise to 112.

“We learned a lot today,” smiled Daniil afterwards. “It was good to follow up Daniel’s total of yesterday with a lot of laps again today. That kind of consistent running is very useful for us and very encouraging. It’s hard to know where we are and it’s too early to make any kind of predictions, even though we’re getting closer to the first race. We’re just getting on with the job, making the car better every day and very productive days like today are really important.”

Head of Race Engineering Guillaume Rocquelin added: “Today’s running with Dany was pretty much a carbon copy of what we did with Daniel yesterday, although this morning we were hampered a bit by the weather conditions. As yesterday, we got through a lot of pit stop practice and tyre work in the morning but today the conditions for the last hour of the morning meant it was largely pointless to do any running, so we lost maybe 30 laps of running there. However, in the afternoon we switched Dany over to long runs and worked through that programme without any hitches. It is reassuring to have done these two days of long distance runs without problems at all. It means that we now have a solid baseline to work from and we can move forward to the next phase of our testing work, which should build on performance.”

Lotus Mercedes

Pastor Maldonado returned to the wheel of the Lotus F1 Team E23 Hybrid for the third day of testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, setting the day’s fastest lap whilst he accomplished an extensive programme. Pastor’s quickest lap was a 1min 24.348secs, completed during the course of his 104 laps, comprising of various aero, tyre and performance simulations.

Romain Grosjean will get his first taste of the E23 Hybrid in Barcelona tomorrow.

Pastor Maldonado:

“We achieved a lot today and it was great to complete so many laps and end the day as the fastest car. Certainly, I feel much more confident in the E23 and we’re learning a lot about it with all the laps we’re completing. I’m able to push when needed and everything about the whole package feels a lot more together than last year, especially if you remember where we were in terms of performance and reliability during the pre-season in 2014. We still have a lot of work to do, but we’re making very good progress so we’re all very positive about the work being done.”

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director:

“It was a productive day for us today. We chose to stay in the garage when it was damp outside yet we still managed to complete over a hundred laps. We’ve worked through a long checklist including aero and tyre assessments in the morning, then various performance assessments in the afternoons. Our aero work has been particularly productive and we’re showing good correlation with our wind tunnel and simulations.”

Force India Mercedes

Pascal Wehrlein was back in the driving seat as Sahara Force India completed another successful day of testing in Barcelona, the young German completing 81 laps in a session affected by unpredictable weather. Race driver Nico Hulkenberg will make his 2015 debut in the final day of testing tomorrow.

Pascal Wehrlein: “It was great to be back in the car after a surprising Thursday and this turned out to be another great day. When you get into a completely different car to what you are used to, everything is new, from how the car feels to the buttons and dials on the steering wheel. Having had the experience on Thursday really helped me with this, I learnt a lot in these two days and that made a difference for me. The team did really help me settle in my role: everyone welcomed me from the start and made it really easy to work. The atmosphere is great. Today’s work was very focussed on set-up and we even managed to include a longer run: it was a good day’s work and I am looking forward for more opportunities in the future."

Tom McCullough, Chief Race Engineer: "It’s never ideal to have rain showers disrupting the day, but in the end everyone is under the same sky and facing the same challenges. Today it was a matter of adapting to the conditions and making the most of the time we had and I feel we achieved that. Pascal settled within the team really well in his first full day, getting to know the engineers and the mechanics; he did a very mature and solid job without putting a single foot wrong. He handled the changing conditions well and did not let the very low track temperatures affect him. We managed to include both set-up and long run evaluations in our programme and, despite the poor weather, it was still a productive day. Our final day of testing tomorrow will be similar to what we did yesterday, allowing Nico Hulkenberg to do his first running on the 2015 tyres and to get his first mileage of the season."

Mercedes

MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS continued the second test of the 2015 season today at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, with Lewis Hamilton at the wheel of the F1 W06 Hybrid.

— Today’s schedule consisted of suspension and aerodynamic work
— Lewis emerged for his first run at precisely 09:00 CET, completing 41 laps before lunch and a further 60 after the lunch break
— Mercedes-Benz Power Units today completed a total of 1,815 km
— Nico Rosberg is scheduled to take the wheel of the F1 W06 Hybrid tomorrow for the final day of the test

Lewis Hamilton

Just like yesterday, there have been better days in terms of how I’m feeling. I’m definitely not 100% and I’m looking forward to going home tonight and sleeping for the next couple of days! It was a hard day out there physically – but I’ll make sure I’m better for next week and come back stronger. I’m glad I got some good time in the car today with 101 laps. The guys here and back at the factory are working incredibly hard to make sure we get as much mileage as we can, so a big thanks to them. We weren’t looking for a quick lap – just driving round looking at setup changes. If the weather had been better we would have had more mileage but we got through everything we wanted to today anyway. All things considered it’s been a great day. The biggest issue at the moment is actually getting the tyres working properly. There’s temperature in them but they just don’t seem to ever be in the operating window. Hopefully when we see warmer temperatures they’ll be better. The car itself feels solid and we’ve been good on reliability. There are areas we can improve on – but we’re taking it one step at a time and each step so far has been forwards, not backwards, so it’s been quite positive.

Sauber Ferrari

Marcus Ericsson was again driving the Sauber C34-Ferrari for the third day of testing on the Circuit de Catalunya. Due to a gearbox issue from yesterday, the Sauber F1 Team lost almost the whole morning session. However, the team was still able to do set-up checks, functionality tests and measurements. All in all, Marcus Ericsson completed 53 laps.

Giampaolo Dall’Ara, Head of Track Engineering: “We had a late start as a consequence of some work we carried over through the night from yesterday. In the afternoon we were able to recover on the programme side and were chasing the weather to some extent. We had pretty variable conditions and it was also colder than the previous days. However, we were able to put together more set-up checks, functionality tests and measurements.”

Marcus Ericsson: “It was not an easy day for us. With the gearbox issue from yesterday, we missed almost the whole morning session. In the afternoon we were struggeling a bit to understand the car. We were changing different things, but we could not get the car to work as we wanted. However, we managed to do some laps, and it is also important to learn from these sort of days. We will go through the data and make sure we take a step forward for the next days.”

Tomorrow, the final day of the first test in Barcelona, Felipe Nasr will again be behind the wheel of the Sauber C34-Ferrari.

Williams Mercedes

Rod Nelson, Chief Test & Support Engineer: We were expecting rain today so we changed the plan slightly. The day was dedicated to pitstop practice and we ran through various scenarios, issues and problems we may encounter in a race situation. I am happy with the way the team has managed themselves and worked with the issues thrown at them. We have a busy programme planned for Valtteri tomorrow so hopefully the conditions are good.

Felipe Massa: I did a few laps at the start of the day, but it was hard to gain anything from my perspective. The programme for the day was to practice the pitstop procedure which come a Grand Prix are always important. It is positive to have the team ready and it’s always good for the driver to practice so the team know what to expect. The whole procedure has to be quick and we can only do that by practicing.

Valtteri Bottas: The programme for the whole day was pitstop practice. It was difficult to get a feel for the car on the rest of the lap as I was on old tyres and my only proper run was when the track was very cold at the end of the day. It was good for the team to practice the pitstop procedure, but also for me to practice too. Australia is just a few weeks away and we need to be ready for all elements of the race. Every stop is important and it’s good to be well prepared.

WILLIAMS MARTINI RACING will be back on track tomorrow with Valtteri Bottas at the wheel for the final day of the second test.

McLaren Honda

A disappointing day. The damp weather pushed the emphasis onto aerodynamic testing, but this was cut short by a failure of the revised seal introduced today in a bid to resolve the week’s MGU-K issues.

To compound a tricky day, Jenson suffered a punctured Intermediate tyre during a practice pitstop, coming to a halt before the end of the pitlane.

Jenson Button

“Yesterday wasn’t bad, with more mileage and lots of data gathered, but today’s been tricky – it hasn’t been my day. We had a similar problem to the one we faced on Thursday, with the faulty MGU-K seal, so the afternoon running was limited to aero testing and pitstop practice.

“I still can’t comment on where the car will be when everything is running smoothly, as I haven’t had the chance to run it properly without meeting problems. Having said that, I feel like there’s definitely nothing wrong with the car or any stand-out issues with driveability. You jump in the car and everything feels good.

“Hopefully, our problems will be solved sooner rather than later, but tomorrow is still likely to be a reasonably difficult day. There’s a lot for us to improve at the moment – we’ve still got five days of testing left, so hopefully they’ll be five good days.”

What’s next: Final day of this test. Tomorrow, the team will try another fix to the on-going MGU-K issue. With the lack of mileage recorded so far this week, the programme for tomorrow remains relatively open-ended.

Ferrari

Sebastian Vettel: “This morning I was sleeping a bit and, coming out of the pits on cold tyres, I spun. The least I could do was help the guys clean all the gravel out of the car! Then, we worked mainly on reliability,doing a good number of laps. We are managing to run without too many problems, but it’s really hard to tell where we are compared to the others. We need to work day by day to try and understand our car. In general, both me and Kimi are pleased with the way it handles, but there’s still a lot to do. The conditions today were difficult for everyone, as the cold meant the track was pretty slippery. It was good to see our President in the garage and I’mpleased he is bringing his support”