Barcelona I, day 2: Team and driver quotes

Williams

Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering:

Lance was on lap six of his second run when he had a spin. The grip was particularly low and so he spun and went through the gravel backwards. Even though the accident was entirely innocuous we’ve unfortunately had quite a bit of accident damage, which we’re now in the process of repairing. We’re having to send some composite parts back to the factory, which will be back with us at some point tomorrow. We’re doing the upmost we can now to get back out on track at the earliest opportunity tomorrow. We will be able to recover the programme in the coming days.

Lance Stroll:

It is still early days and I have only done a handful of laps. I am just getting to grips with the FW40, and there is still a lot of time ahead of us. It was good to finally get behind the wheel to just get a feel for it. Like I said, it is still early days, so I need to do a lot more running before I know exactly where I am and where the car is at. I will have a much better picture once we have more laps under our belts, but it was good to break the ice and I am looking forward to some more running.

Sauber

It was a challenging second test day for the Sauber F1 Team on the Circuit de Catalunya. Antonio Giovinazzi, who is replacing Pascal Wehrlein during test one, missed the morning session due to power unit issues. Although the engine needed to be changed, the mechanics were able to send the Italian out on track just before the lunch break for an installation lap. In the afternoon Antonio Giovinazzi was able to get familiar with the Sauber C36-Ferrari running 67 laps in total.

Antonio Giovinazzi:

“It was a positive day for me, despite the issues we had in the morning. In the afternoon I was able to get up to speed running a good amount of laps. I want to thank the Sauber F1 Team again for this opportunity. Now I am looking forward to being back in the car tomorrow.”

On day three of the first winter test at the Circuit de Catalunya, Marcus Ericsson will be back in the Sauber C36-Ferrari in the morning session, whereas Antonio Giovinazzi will take over after the lunch break.

Red Bull

After a stop-start opening day in Barcelona, the new RB13 got into its stride on day two of testing, with Max Verstappen posting 89 trouble-free laps of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. The Dutchman’s first taste of the new car resulted in a best time of 1:22.200 and also a thumbs up for the increased pace of the new cars.

Commenting, Max said: “We had a very positive day with not too many issues and we’ve done quite a lot of laps so we can be happy. For us it’s not about showing how quick we can be at the moment. It’s the first test week and the second day, so it’s much more important to get some mileage in and to check if all the parts are okay. We’ll focus on lap time later on. The speed difference compared to the cars from last year is a good step; it’s definitely more enjoyable through the faster corners. You also have a lot more traction going through the slow corners and that was very difficult to find a good compromise with last year. But with such wide tyres and such big cars that’s a lot better now. Of course it’s more demanding but that’s what we trained for in the winter so you have to be up for it.”

Head of Race Engineering Guillaume Rocquelin added: “After clearing the niggles we had yesterday, today went very much according to plan. We were a little tentative in the morning as it was pretty chilly and a few people were sliding around a bit. Because of that we focused on short runs and aero mapping. We then had a pretty long stop over lunch to make some changes to the car in preparation for what we wanted to achieve this afternoon. We knew it would mean taking a hit in terms of track time but we were willing to do that in order to get the information we wanted. And we did that. It’s an interesting process this year. Obviously the new cars behave quite differently to the last generation and therefore you can only draw so much on historical reference. As such these first couple of days are really about establishing a platform of understanding and once you have that you can really start to build from there. It’s also been very interesting to work with the new tyres. The deg is good; they’re consistent, they’re a good step I think.”

Toro Rosso

Daniil Kvyat

“It was a decent first day in the car for me and we were able to complete a good number of laps, which is always the main objective with a new car. We lost a bit of track time after lunch, but this always happens in testing – it’s normal to carry out precaution checks in order to double-check everything before going out. My first impressions of the STR12 are positive – it’s fast but we obviously need to keep working hard to improve this package. There’s still a lot to discover and that’s what we will keep on doing during the test.”

Jody Egginton (Head of Vehicle Performance)

“Overall we have taken a good step forwards in the learning process today and Daniil got his first opportunity to start working with the STR12. As we did yesterday, we started the day gathering aero data and conducting some background tests. After that, we moved on to baseline runs, combining what we learnt on Day 1 with some further tests, focusing on aero, tyre and mechanical characterisation. Overall, the results we have achieved so far are encouraging and we are working through our test programme adapting the run plans as required as we overcome the normal challenges associated with testing a new car. We have a huge amount of data to work through both trackside and at the factory overnight and from this we expect to take another step forwards in our learning tomorrow.”

Daniil will be at the wheel of the STR12 again tomorrow morning, before handing the car back to Carlos in the afternoon. On Thursday 2 March, the Russian will drive again in the morning while the Spaniard will takeover in the afternoon.

Force India

Sahara Force India’s Esteban Ocon got his first taste of 2017 machinery as he stepped inside the cockpit of the VJM10 for the second day of testing in Barcelona.

Esteban Ocon:

“A very enjoyable first day in the VJM10. It’s very early days, of course, but the initial feelings are positive and we found a good direction for setting up the car. The only issue was an oil leak just before lunch, but it didn’t cost us much track time and I’m satisfied with the number of laps we covered. I hope we will make similar progress tomorrow and the day after. This was my first experience of the new generation cars and I have to say they are proper beasts: the high-speed corners are very impressive and there are big gains in the low-speed corners so it’s a good step forward.”

Tom McCullough, Chief Race Engineer:

“It was a much smoother day than yesterday with good reliability allowing us to cover 86 laps with Esteban. We finished off the systems checks this morning as Esteban became comfortable with the new car and then moved straight into the aero programme, which we had started yesterday with Sergio. Esteban’s feedback led us in a good direction with rebalancing the car and he also ran on a variety of tyre compounds including supersoft, soft and medium. I’m pleased we managed to exceed our target lap count and accrued so much data because the learning curve is so steep in these early days. We will continue the programme tomorrow with Alfonso Celis in the VJM10.”

Haas F1

Kevin Magnussen had another productive outing behind the wheel of the Haas VF-17 in the second day of preseason testing Tuesday at Circuit de Barcelona – Catalunya. After taking to the 4.655-kilometer (2.892-mile), 16-turn track as soon as it opened at 9 a.m. local time, Magnussen ended the test nine hours later with 118 laps on the board to total 549.29 kilometers (341.313 miles), the most of any driver.

The result more than doubled Magnussen’s total from Monday when he ran 51 laps and it shattered Haas F1 Team’s mileage total from any previous test at Barcelona. Prior to Tuesday, the most laps Haas F1 Team ran in a single-day test at Barcelona was 105 on May 18, 2016.

In addition to logging the most laps, Magnussen remained fast. He set the fourth-quickest time with a 1:22.204 on his 103rd lap shod on a set of Pirelli P Zero Red supersoft tires.

Magnussen began the morning session with a series of reconnaissance laps, first using the Orange hard tire before optioning between the White medium tire and the Yellow soft. After five laps of systems checks, it was time for some outright running, first with White mediums and then on Yellow softs. As the clock ticked closer to the mandatory lunch break, Magnussen’s times ticked downward too. His best time in the morning was a 1:23.200, secured with Yellow softs on his 36th and final lap of the session to put him fourth overall.

The afternoon segment saw Haas F1 Team sample nearly all of the tires in Pirelli’s lineup with the Orange hard, White medium, Yellow soft and Red supersoft each getting a workout. Magnussen made the most of the day’s second half, knocking out 82 laps. The team practiced their pit stops, bolting on four new fresh tires to the Haas VF-17, and sending Magnussen back onto the track. The Red supersofts provided the most grip, and Magnussen unsurprisingly knocked down his quickest time in the day’s final 30 minutes.

Scuderia Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen set the quickest time (1:20.960) and ran the second-most laps (108).

Kevin Magnussen

“A good day. I got the most laps of anyone, so that’s sums up our day pretty well, with lots of running. That’s what it’s all about here at winter testing. We want to put as many miles on the car as possible, to find all of these little problems that can creep up during the season, to catch them as early as possible. I’m very happy with the feeling I have in the car and in working with the team. It’s been good to get back in a car again.”

Gunther Steiner

“We have learned a lot from this test and it’s been good so far. We hope it continues like this over the next two days and into next week, as well. Today we ran our full program. This morning we had a small hiccup, nothing big, and in the afternoon we ran our full program. What we missed in the morning we got in the afternoon. We learned a lot about the behavior of the car. We did setup changes. We know that we still need to work on the car to get the best out of it, but that’s why we do testing. Now the guys will analyze the whole night, and tomorrow with Romain (Grosjean), we’ll put in what we learned today and try to make the car go quicker. It seems the car is very reliable. Ferrari has done a fantastic job with their engine package, gearbox, everything. It was very reliable today, no problems at all. Touch wood it stays like this for the rest of the test, but up to now we’re very satisfied.”

Teammate Romain Grosjean takes over the Haas VF-17 Wednesday and Thursday to finish out the first week of testing. After a four-day break, teams return to Barcelona for the second and final round of preseason testing March 7-10. Magnussen drives March 7 and March 9, and Grosjean drives March 8 and March 10.

Renault F1

Renault Sport Formula One Team completed its second day of testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya with Jolyon Palmer at the wheel of the R.S.17. Jolyon ran exclusively in the afternoon, completing an installation lap immediately prior to lunch, then running through a complete programme after lunch. His best lap time was a 1min 24.139secs.

Interruptions: Delayed start waiting for parts, otherwise only minor interruptions

Jolyon will remain in the car tomorrow morning, handing over the reins to Nico Hülkenberg for the afternoon.

Jolyon Palmer:

“I’ve really enjoyed driving the car today. The downforce is a massive change; it’s completely different from last year. It takes a little bit of getting used to but it’s actually a lot more enjoyable to drive. For today, we had a productive afternoon with 53 laps. It’s just a shame not to have ran this morning but we learnt a lot regardless and we aim to have a fuller day tomorrow.”

Remi Taffin, Engine Technical Director:

“We had a late start today but we were still able to complete set-up work on the chassis, gather data on the power unit side and give Jolyon a chance to evaluate the R.S.17. We completed just over 50 laps this afternoon and we were happy with how the car ran. Everything we’ve seen from the power unit perspective has been positive, and we’re looking forward to getting some bigger mileages under our belts in the coming days. We have a good amount of data from today and plenty of work to do overnight.”

McLaren

The McLaren-Honda team experienced a second day of mixed fortunes on track during today’s testing.

While Stoffel took to the track shortly after 09:00 to commence his scheduled programme of installation laps, systems checks and set-up changes, he managed only to match Fernando’s tally of 29 laps from the previous day before he lost power.

To make the best use of time, the team elected to change the power unit in order to get the car back on track as soon as possible, enabling Honda to begin full investigations into the cause of the problem.

The team once again worked quickly and efficiently to get the MCL32 back up and running, and Stoffel was able to return to the track and continue the day’s run plan. He ended the day having completed 37 laps.

STOFFEL VANDOORNE

“It wasn’t the best day of running for us, but I’m pleased that despite the issue we still managed to get some laps on the board – I was very happy to get behind the wheel after four months without driving. It’s important with a new car and a new design that you can step into the cockpit for the first time and feel confident to push, and I immediately felt comfortable in the car, so that was definitely a positive for me.

“The initial feelings this morning were quite good, then unfortunately we had a loss of power, and we’re still investigating what the issues were. The first two days have been a bit difficult, but the team has done a great job to get the car up and running again so we could get back out on track.

“There are still more days of testing this week and every lap in the car is valuable; it’s my first season in F1, so during every lap I try to make the most of it. Hopefully tomorrow and Thursday Fernando and I will have a couple of better days.”

ERIC BOULLIER

“It’s a shame we weren’t able to maximise the track time today due to the issue with the power unit, but it was encouraging once again that the team pulled together to replace the PU quickly in order to enable us to return to the track at the end of the afternoon session.

“When you design a new car and power unit under new regulations, it’s possible that there will be issues that arise that you cannot foresee in pre-season development. Of course, it’s unfortunate, but the important thing is that we learn from them, and there is already a lot of hard work going on behind the scenes by Honda to identify the issues and rectify them as soon as possible.

“Testing is just that: the prove-out of new components prior to the start of the season. We’ll continue with our planned test programme tomorrow with Fernando, and keep pushing to make the most of the day’s running.”

YUSUKE HASEGAWA

“After completing 29 laps, we lost power to the PU. Our priority was to minimise the loss of track time and continue with our testing programme, so we took the decision to change it. We know we had a mechanical issue and we will not be reusing the power unit for this test, but we’ll have to investigate fully to identify the cause.

“Stoffel was back out on track by late afternoon and we were able to recover our schedule.

“Of course, it was disappointing to encounter further problems today, but tonight we’ll carry on our hard work to make further progress for Fernando’s session tomorrow.”

Mercedes

Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport completed 168 laps of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Tuesday, as 2017 pre-season testing continued in Spain with Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas taking turns at the wheel of the F1 W08 EQ Power+

Lewis emerged for his first run as the track opened at 09:00, completing 66 laps before the hour-long lunch break at 13:00

Valtteri took over in the cockpit for the afternoon session, completing 102 laps before the pit lane closed at 18:00

Lewis kicked off today’s programme with aero data collection and vibration logging, moving on to analysis of the softer tyre compounds and setup work

In the afternoon session, Valtteri completed a race simulation before rounding off the day with further aero tests

Mercedes-Benz Power Units today completed a total of 1,238km

Valtteri will take the wheel of the W08 tomorrow morning, with Lewis behind the wheel in the afternoon on the third day of pre-season testing in Barcelona

Lewis Hamilton:

Today’s been a really positive day. It was an easier morning and we started off on the right foot. Yesterday, there was an element of brushing off the cobwebs, it being the first day in the car, so it took a little longer than normal to really acclimatise in the car and to find exactly where to exploit the its ability.

I didn’t do a huge amount of laps today but I got a really good feel for the car. I think we’ve made some steps forward in development. My quick lap felt fast and tidy. We’ve not really exploited the potential of the car, so it’s all good foundation building at this stage.

These new tyres seem to be lasting a lot better than they did previously, so I think you can push them more and fight harder, lap after lap, so that’s a good step in the right direction.

I’m finding the car is much more physical to drive than in the past. It’s so much faster in the corners. The force you feel on your body and on your neck is much higher. I’ve got bruises and bumps where I’ve never really had them before. Physically I feel fine though, as it’s only half a day of testing. I’ve trained enough over the winter to be ready for more.

Valtteri Bottas:

I think it was another good test day for the team. We did so many laps again and completed all the runs that we had planned to do.

I worked on race simulations this afternoon. It was quite tricky with the windy conditions but I’m sure that we can learn a lot from the data.

I had a small off but it wasn’t anything serious. I lost the rear end with a gust of tail wind that was quite sudden. This is testing – you need to find the limits.

It’s interesting to learn more about the new car – not just for me personally, but for us as a team. All the set-up work we’ve done has been very valuable. Two more days to go – I’m looking forward to it.

Ferrari

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