Jerez, day 1: Team and driver quotes

Lotus Mercedes

Lotus F1 Team’s 2015 challenger, the E23 Hybrid, arrived in Jerez today after firing-up for the first time at the team’s Enstone base on Saturday January 31. The car is now undergoing its build programme overnight and through Monday, with the first significant running expected for Tuesday February 3.

Nick Chester, Lotus F1 Team Technical Director:

“We have been pursuing a very tight and aggressive build programme with the E23 Hybrid which is one of the most technically advanced cars to have come out of Enstone. We will take to the track with this car as soon as we are ready from an engineering perspective. We’ve fired-up the car at Enstone and we’re now putting everything together ahead of the first laps on track. Everyone at Enstone is very positive with what we’ve seen of the E23 Hybrid so far and we’re looking forward to it turning its wheels in anger for the first time later this week.”

Toro Rosso Renault

2015 track action began today with the first official test of the year in southern Spain. Scuderia Toro Rosso, with Carlos Sainz at the wheel, shared the Jerez de la Frontera track with six other teams, running in dry and relatively cool conditions.

Phil Charles (Chief Race Engineer)

“As usual when running a new car for the first time, our programme centred mainly on systems checks and ensuring that everything was running smoothly. Inevitably, we had some teething troubles although nothing major, but it did mean we had something of a stop-start day. Carlos settled in well and we managed to do some set-up work, as we aimed to improve the balance on the new STR10. An issue at the end of the day saw the car stop on track and, with not much time left until the chequered flag, we decided it was better to stop running early to ensure we are completely ready for tomorrow, when Max Verstappen will be in the cockpit.”

Carlos Sainz (Car 55)

“We can take many positives away from today, our first proper run with the STR10, even if we managed a short run during an earlier filming day. We worked well together as a team and managed to complete a reasonable number of laps. That has given us plenty of data to look at tonight to help prepare the car for tomorrow, when Max is driving. I felt good in the car today, I was constantly improving, lap after lap. We did some adjustments and I think we have a good starting baseline.”

Red Bull Renault

Infiniti Red Bull Racing’s 2015 challenger, the RB11, made an eye-catching debut at the first pre-season test of 2015 in Jerez today, with the team’s new car taking to the track in a striking black and white “dazzle” livery, similar to those used to camouflage prototype road cars.

After starting testing bang on 9am this morning, there was a sense of achievement felt among the team at the end of the day as a solid set of sessions saw Daniel Ricciardo rack up 35 laps and the day’s fourth best time.

“We got going pretty well this morning and I got a few laps under my belt,” said Daniel. “So the first impressions are good. We’ll get a few more laps over the next few days, but so far everything seems pretty encouraging. I can feel a step forward. I won’t go into too much detail but it’s there. We didn’t do a whole lot of laps but definitely more than at this test last year! In general everything is behaving as it should. Obviously we had a couple of issues, but once the car is running it’s all going pretty normally. A good first day, there are some positive signs there.”

Commenting on the interim livery Daniel added: “The livery’s cool. It’s a testing specification for us but I think it looks really good. Maybe I need a matching helmet.”

Head of Race Engineering Guillaume Rocquelin added: “It’s no exaggeration to say that today represented a good day for the team and for the RB11. The car preparation has been good, the day’s running was by and large excellent and we’ve already gathered a lot of information. The day generally went according to plan, starting cautiously, building up the length of the runs and learning all the time. We had a small issue with the brake controls system around lunchtime but you’re always going to have little niggles like that on day’s like this. We stopped running late in the afternoon with a technical issue, but it wasn’t too serious. An alarm went off on the engine and at that stage of the day, knowing that an investigation would take time we chose to stop. Aside from that, everything went pretty as we hoped.”

Sauber Ferrari

The Sauber F1 Team enjoyed a successful roll-out of the Sauber C34-Ferrari in Jerez. At exactly 09.00 hours Marcus Ericsson took to the track for the very first time. The car worked fine right from the beginning, and Marcus was able to complete 73 mainly trouble-free laps.

Giampaolo Dall’Ara, Head of Track Engineering:

“Today we started with a normal roll-out programme with some functionality checks, which we were able to cut to the mimum, because the car was working well from the beginning. We had some longer breaks, just to do some thorough checks on the car. In the afternoon we went a bit deeper in by exploring the balance and checking some different tyre compounds. Towards the end we did some longer runs. We are happy that the car is working, and, compared to last year, we can see the improvements. Overall it was definitely a positive day.”

Marcus Ericsson:

“It was a very good day. First of all it was great to be back in the car after the winter break. I think we have good reasons to be happy. We were able to complete a lot of laps, and we went through quite a few different small tweeks on the set-up and did all the installations needed. There were no major problems with the car, which was really the main thing. Overall it’s been a good day, and I’m looking forward to the rest of the week. I hope we can continue like this.”

Tomorrow and on Tuesday, Felipe Nasr will be behind the wheel of the Sauber C34-Ferrari.

Mercedes

MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS began its 2015 winter testing programme today at the Circuito de Jerez, with Nico Rosberg taking the wheel of the F1 W06 Hybrid for the opening day of pre-season testing. Nico’s best time of 1:23.106 from 157 laps put him third on the time sheets.

— Today’s programme comprised long runs and practice pit stops
— Nico emerged for his first run at precisely 09:00 CET, completing 60 laps before lunch and a further 97 in the afternoon
— The F1 W06 Hybrid ran trouble-free throughout the day
— Mercedes-Benz Power Units today completed a total of 1018.44 km between the two teams present
— Lewis Hamilton will take the wheel for the second of four days running tomorrow in Jerez

Nico Rosberg

That was a great start to the winter testing. In the beginning it’s all about reliability and we managed to do a lot of mileage today. The guys in the factories built a complete new car and now we come here and it’s working great, so the team did a fantastic job over the winter. I was able to do some good long runs on the first day and that’s really amazing. We have such a great team and this is what makes me really happy. As a driver, you always want to find out how quick you are compared to the others – but that will have to wait until qualifying in Melbourne. The next testing days are all about making sure we know the car inside out and we’ve made a good start with that today.

Williams Mercedes

Rod Nelson, Chief Test & Support Engineer:

We have gone through our normal winter test programmes today and have solved any issues that have arisen. We lost a bit of time this morning but once on track, Valtteri clocked up 73 laps. We have new hardware on the car and there is a new power unit, and all of these have to be checked and tested whilst we are running before we can start looking at performance. Jerez isn’t too representative as a circuit as the surface is so abrasive, this limits the amount of useful performance work we can carry out. We are very satisfied with the first day and are looking forward to tomorrow.

Valtteri Bottas:

The day started off a bit slow, but it ended turned out to be a really good one. After that initial set-back we didn’t have a single issue with the FW37, which is impressive for the first day with a new car. We started off on shorter runs before longer runs later this afternoon, including one run that was significant considering again that it’s only the first day. The car was consistent, so it’s a really good start to the week and we are pleased that it’s still a step up from the car we had at the end of last season. We know we have a lot to learn and improve, but we also know where these gains can come from, and have work to do with the car performance and the power unit. There are a lot of strengths in this car and we’ve made good progress in just one day, so I am very pleased.

McLaren Honda

After conducting shakedowns with our interim MP4-29H/1X1 at Silverstone and Yas Marina Circuit last November, today marked the first time that the McLaren-Honda chassis and power unit had run together as a bespoke combination, in the sleek and tightly packaged MP4-30.

After a successful fire-up, the morning was spent conducting a number of single-lap installation runs, which were gradually increased in length, concluding in a three-lap run at lunchtime.

However, the programme ended early after the engineers and mechanics were unable to resolve a

technical issue in time for the car to resume running for the rest of the day.

Fernando Alonso

“Given the complexity of modern Formula 1 machinery, the sorts of issues we encountered today weren’t too surprising. They’re just the things you experience on the first day of a Formula 1 test. But it’s been a fantastic day for me: to have the privilege to drive the car for the first time – for the comeback of McLaren and Honda after 23 years – makes me feel extremely proud.

“Obviously, I don’t really have a feeling for the car yet – I only did a handful of laps, and most of those were at slow speed, conducting preliminary checks – so I need a bit more time to be able to speak accurately about it. But everything seems to be responding well, and showing us what we expected.

“We have a lot still to learn, but let’s not forget how tough it was for a lot of teams last year. It’ll be no different for us. Every lap we do, we learn something, so hopefully we’ll arrive in Australia with a good understanding of the car.

“So far, everything feels very exciting – there are a lot of positive emotions inside the garage for everybody, and I’m very happy to be part of this project.”

Eric Boullier

“Today was a challenging day, which was not surprising to us given that our car has been designed to a radical all-new size-zero philosophy. In fact, we’re still in the process of analysing this afternoon’s technical issues, systematically and methodically, in an effort to increase our mileage in the coming days.

“What’s particularly encouraging is the way that McLaren’s and Honda’s technicians and engineers are already working so well together - collaborating seamlessly in their shared ambition to nail a revolutionary new car’s inevitable developmental gremlins as soon as possible.

“Tonight will be arduous and sleepless, but we wouldn’t have it any other way. Bring it on!”

Yasuhisa Arai

“We had a good, steady, checking, lap-by-lap session this morning, and received good feedback from MP4-30.

“This is the first shakedown of our radically designed car, so we expected to encounter a few issues, and we look forward to doing longer runs in the near future.

“Finally, this is an exciting first day of a very exciting project. It’s great to be on the inside at last, rather than sitting in the stands!”

Ferrari

Sebastian Vettel

“Today was a good start. I can’t say more than that, because this is only the beginning. Everything is different, even the philosophy behind the car, when compared to what I was used to. But I immediately felt at ease within the team and the guys gave me a very warm welcome. For now, lap times aren’t important: I did mine on the medium compound, but the comparison has to be made yet again with the Mercedes. They are very quick, let’s just hope they are not quite as fast as last year…”

James Allison

“On the one hand, I’m disappointed we didn’t manage to do more miles, because of problems we encountered with the telemetry. However, on the other, we saw the car make progress with the laps we did run.”

Maurizio Arrivabene

“It seems the SF15-T took on board what was said about it at the launch! Joking apart, this is only the beginning and at this stage, lap times are all relative. We are just getting on with it for now and I’d rather emphasise the work done by the team, who seem to me to be very motivated, which I am very pleased about. I say “well done” to Sebastian, but we have to keep in mind that our rivals, especially Mercedes, must not be underestimated.”