Barcelona II, day 2: Team and driver quotes

Toro Rosso Ferrari

James Key (Technical Director)

“A positive and productive day today. We completed more laps than we planned for, so the programme was well covered. In the morning we ran some aero tests and several new chassis developments, continuing to learn more about the STR11 chassis. In the afternoon we concentrated on race runs, as we did yesterday. Carlos did a good job with several long runs in quick succession and gave very useful feedback for us to work on this evening. To accomplish such a high mileage again today with 166 laps is another positive and testament to the good work the team have done over the last few months with the new car. We look forward now to the last two days of the test, only one day left of final preparations for each driver before we head to Melbourne.”

Carlos Sainz

“What a wonderful day for myself and the whole team! It was a trouble-free one and we managed to run through the planned programme. I’m very happy. Everything is feeling great and I feel better in the car every day that goes by, which is promising. I’m also very pleased to have completed a further 166 laps today, it shows once again that the car is reliable and it gives us confidence before the start of the season.”

Force India Mercedes

Sahara Force India continued its testing programme in Barcelona as Sergio Perez completed 128 laps with a best time of 1:25.593. Nico Hülkenberg returns to the car tomorrow.

Sergio Perez

“It was a very good day and it was great to go well over 100 laps, even if the conditions, especially at the end, were not ideal with a lot of wind. It was a good effort from everyone in the team to go this far without any issues and to complete our programme. I think we learnt a lot from today and we have plenty of things to analyse tonight. The long runs we did in the afternoon were very important to help us learn about the tyres and how to manage them. The next couple of days will be important to make more gains and I am looking forward to getting back in the car on Friday. There is still a lot of work to be done to be as prepared as possible for Melbourne.

Tom McCullough, Chief Race Engineer

"It has been another positive day in which we were able to cover extensive mileage and tick off all the items in our test plan. Sergio got back in the car after his first experience last week and it was important to be able to evaluate his feedback compared to Nico’s from yesterday. Like Nico, he was able to count on the car’s reliability, covering 128 laps without issues. This morning, we continued our work on aero data correlation, fitting sensors to the car to collect more information for our engineers. In the afternoon, the focus shifted to long runs, working on the set-up and on understanding the new tyres even further. The increasingly windy conditions didn’t make for the best setting but in general it was a good day, which helped us increase our overall understanding of the VJM09. We have two more days ahead in which we will continue our work in a similar fashion, with Nico getting back in the car tomorrow."

Red Bull Renault

Day two of the final pre-season Formula One test in Barcelona saw Daniel Ricciardo take over from Daniil Kvyat at the wheel of the Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer RB12. And it proved to be an extremely busy day for the Australian, as the team worked through some intense pit stop practice in the morning before switching to a successful race simulation in the afternoon. The result was 135 laps on the board for the Aussie and a best time of 1:25.235.

Commenting on a full day in the cockpit, Daniel said: “Quite a lot of laps today. Obviously we did a race simulation, which was definitely on the to-do list and I’m glad we got through it successfully. It was important to do that today and also important for me to do the laps to see how my body feels and it was positive on both sides. The car feels very decent. The last half hour on track the wind picked up a bit and the sun got a bit lower so that made it a bit more challenging but otherwise a pretty good run today.”

Head of Race Engineering, Guillaume Rocquelin added: “A very busy day for the whole team out here today. In the morning we did a lot of pit stop practice, all of which went very smoothly. We also built some aero mapping and normal running into the morning session, which was productive. In the afternoon, we moved across to race simulation. I don’t think we were alone in that, as plenty of teams were out there working through race programmes and I’m happy to say that ours went well. We got through 135 laps today, the most we’ve done in a single day at these tests so far and we didn’t encounter any problems. We are hoping to run through a similar programme with Dany for tomorrow when he takes over the driving again.”

Renault F1

Kevin Magnussen completed his pre-season test duties with Renault Sport Formula One Team, notching up 126 laps with a best lap time of 1min 23.933secs, the third fastest of the day. Over his four days behind the wheel of the R.S.16, Kevin completed a total of 509 laps.

Jolyon Palmer will be in action for the penultimate day of pre-season testing tomorrow.

Kevin Magnussen

“It’s been a positive pre-season of testing for me and I couldn’t have wanted much more from the team. I’ve enjoyed four reliable test days with over 100 laps completed on each day. The car does feel good and we know what we want from it: more power and more downforce – which is what every race driver wants from his race car! Importantly, we have a good balance and a car that’s nice to drive. The reliability we’ve seen is a bonus as we head to the first race of the season and for me it’s been a real pleasure working with my new team. I can’t wait for Melbourne.”

Remi Taffin, Engine Technical Director

“We completed more than 500km again today which is good news. We had no issues to report aside from a small water leak at the end of the day. We are still fine tuning and making improvements ahead of Melbourne but everything is looking positive at this stage; everything’s running to plan.”

Williams Mercedes

Rod Nelson, Chief Test & Support Engineer

It’s been another good day for us. It was the last time Valtteri was due to be in the car before he gets in for the race weekend in Melbourne and so it’s important that we covered a lot of the work we have had to do this week - and so far so good. We have done a reasonable number of laps and we did all the tests we had planned for today, so overall it’s been very successful. He is very comfortable in the car and his race engineers are tuning it around his requirements, so we are feeling positive.

Valtteri Bottas

It’s been another good day. That’s it for me now for testing before we go to Melbourne. I’m feeling prepared and good in the car. I’m glad we have made progress during testing and I’m sure we will do even more before Melbourne. That’s it now for driving from my side. There’s more to follow in the next two days as we will discover more with Felipe. Thanks to everyone in the team for all their hard work over the last two tests and thanks also to Mercedes HPP.

Mercedes

MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS continued the second pre-season test of the 2016 season today at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, with Lewis Hamilton at the wheel of the Mercedes-Benz F1 W07 Hybrid in the morning and Nico Rosberg in the cockpit during the afternoon.

— Lewis emerged for his first run at 09:05, completing 73 laps before the hour-long lunch break at 13:00. Nico completed a further 91 laps in the afternoon – finishing for the day at 18:00
— Today’s programme focused on low fuel runs (morning) and a race simulation (afternoon)
— Mercedes-Benz Power Units today completed a total of 2230 km
— Mercedes-Benz Junior driver Pascal Wehrlein completed a total of 368 km (79 laps) for Manor Racing
— Nico will be at the wheel of the F1 W07 Hybrid tomorrow morning, Lewis in the afternoon

Lewis Hamilton

Reliability is our strength at the moment. The strength within the team has grown even further. It’s really motivating for the season. The car was good, quite strong, we did some lower fuel running today but some work needs to be done balance wise. Getting onto the softer tyre was a good experience but we’ve got some work to do still.

Nico Rosberg

It was another useful day of testing. I did a full Melbourne race simulation and I feel well prepared now for the first race. The team have done a great job so far both in the factory and here on track. The car feels great out there and I haven’t had a major problem yet. I hope this will continue for the last two days.

Ferrari

The second day of the second test saw Sebastian Vettel post a best time of 1.24.611, running on Medium tyres. This afternoon’s programme focused on the usual set-up work, running various different fuel loads. Tomorrow, Kimi Raikkonen will take to the track for his final day at the wheel of the SF16-H prior to the first race of the season.

Sebastian Vettel

“I would have liked to drive a little bit more but we are happy with what we have so far. I am not concerned about what happened to Kimi. Obviously, you don’t want these things to happen but if they do here, during a test, it’s ok. It would be worse if they happened in a couple of weeks, so it is not an issue. This is a test and it takes time to look and check everything. We still have time and two days left here, so let’s try to use them and the we’ll see. We will push and try to do everything. Our President already said a couple of times he is expecting Ferrari to be in the front row in Australia, so at least he is consistent. We will push and will try everything we can.”

Sauber Ferrari

Marcus Ericsson

“It was a difficult day, which was very much compromised, especially in the morning, by issues on the technical side. And late in the afternoon, in turn 4, I felt something strange at the right rear, which made me lose control of the car. Therefore we didn’t complete as many laps as we wanted to. We were still able to do some useful running, with longer stints in the afternoon, which was good for me to get a feel for the new car for the first time. However, sometimes this sort of thing happens with a new car when testing. Let’s look forward to the next time I test on day four.”

What comes next:

Tomorrow, Felipe Nasr will be behind the wheel of the Sauber C35-Ferrari.

Haas Ferrari

A solitary installation lap was the only running Esteban Gutiérrez was able to accomplish Wednesday during preseason testing at the Circuit de Barcelona – Catalunya. The brief outing was enough to diagnose an anomaly with the VF-16’s turbocharger, which had been changed overnight following Tuesday’s test session.

The team had to remove the turbocharger to properly source the issue, whereupon the rest of the day was spent preparing for an on-track return Thursday, the penultimate day of preseason testing.

Esteban Gutierrez

“As you can imagine, today has been a bit frustrating. However, we’re working really well as a team to resolve the situation. Testing is about solving these issues ahead of the first race. The team has been doing a great job working very closely together, preparing the car day and night. I’m confident we’ll have a positive outcome for the rest of the test.”

Gunther Steiner

“We changed the turbocharger last night and this morning on the installation lap we saw an anomaly. When the car entered the garage we decided to take the turbocharger off and check it to see what was going on. The aim was to get out again today. Obviously, that wasn’t possible and we didn’t manage any further running.

“These cars are very complex. However, everybody is working hard to get the car ready for tomorrow. We’re very positive we can achieve that and get us back on track. We’ll keep on trying, we’ll keep working hard and then we’ll have success.”

Next Up

Romain Grosjean returns to the VF-16 on Thursday and will remain in the car through the end of preseason testing on Friday. Once the track goes cold at the end of Friday, it will be only 13 days until the VF-16 returns to action with the rest of the field for Round 1 of the 2016 FIA Formula One World Championship – the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. Practice begins March 18, qualifying takes place March 19 and the race runs March 20.

McLaren Honda

Jenson Button got behind the wheel of the MP4-31 again today for the first time at the final pre-season test. Heavy cloud cover early in the day meant the track temperatures were more stable than yesterday morning, however strong winds in the afternoon made driving conditions difficult and affected the balance of the car on track.

The run plan was a continuation of Fernando’s work yesterday, testing engine modes, balance and set-up, as well as evaluating a number of new aero components that had been added to the car overnight.

Shortly before lunch, a small suspension issue stopped the car temporarily, but it was identified and fixed quickly during the break, and Jenson returned to the track at 14:00. The team covered a solid afternoon programme, where attention turned to slightly longer runs. In total, Jenson completed 121 laps today – the most so far for the MP4-31 during pre-season testing.

Tomorrow, Fernando returns to the cockpit to continue the correlation of more new aerodynamic components that will be fitted overnight, as well as focus on further balance, integration and power unit evaluation.

Jenson Button

“The important thing is that we’ve been able to do quite a few laps over the last two days – we know we need to keep pushing in terms of reliability so that we can reduce any niggly problems at the first race. In terms of set-up work this afternoon, it was quite difficult because it was so windy out there, and I don’t think it was just us that were affected.

“The package seems to be running smoothly and you can feel a difference from last year, which is positive. There’s still a lot of work to do over the two days we have left, for us to feel that we are really ready for the first race. In terms of the electronics and understanding the driver switch settings for the race start, that’s all sorted, but we haven’t done a lot of the more general set-up work, in order to really fine-tune the car.

“This is the biggest improvement in the power unit that I’ve felt in the last 14 months. The progress with the deployment has been massive – Honda has done a great job over the winter and we’ve had no reliability issues with it during testing so far. Honda has been working very closely with Mobil1 and Esso and I think they’ve made a good step forward, but there’s a lot more that we need to achieve before we are competitive.

“In testing it’s very difficult to judge how quick people are, but we need some big gains in order to really get closer to the front. There are still areas which need some attention, so hopefully over the next two days we can do lots of laps, spend time on the new tyres, learn more about the car and find a set-up that works for us, because we’re not there yet.”

Eric Boullier

“It’s satisfying to get so many laps done today. We’ve been able to debug the car and the engine and find some useful information in order to develop the car ahead of Australia. As I’ve said before, testing is testing and we are here to do just that; it’s the best opportunity we have to work on reliability and integration of our new components before we go racing.

“There isn’t much to read into the timesheets at the moment, as we haven’t yet turned our attention to the performance of the package. However, the numbers we can read from the track show the car is behaving as we predicted. We’re gradually bringing more new parts over the final two days of the test, so it’s going to be a heavily updated chassis by the time we get to Australia. If the correlation is good with these too, it will be a positive step.

“In terms of the power unit, the slightly updated version we have been running since yesterday is a step forward compared to last week, but it’s still very early days, and we need to do a lot more mileage with it before we can exploit it to its full potential.”

Yusuke Hasegawa

"Our main focus for today’s running was to set up Jenson’s car for the first race in Australia, and finish then the remainder of our planned run programme. During these simulations, the power unit side was working hard to set up and finalise the many engine modes for the race. We are fairly satisfied with the results of the data setting today. From tomorrow onwards, we are hoping to test race distance running, and then use this data for even more analysis."

Manor Mercedes

Pascal Wehrlein banked a further 79 laps for Manor Racing today on his third day of running in the new MRT05. That’s a further 987 km of race preparation experience and tyre evaluation, including the softer spectrum rubber that was not part of last week’s programme.

Pascal Wehrlein

“I’m happy to be back in the car. It was a week since I last drove here but it was good thinking time to soak up everything I had experienced last week and prepare for a different programme this time around. These two days are about race simulation and qualifying preparation; my last chance until the first race in Melbourne. We worked our way through a pretty detailed programme and it’s been a really positive day. We continue to learn a lot, myself especially. One more day in the car and I think I’ll be as ready as I can be for our first race of the season.”

Dave Ryan, Racing Director

“Today has been another relatively good day for us and were able to achieve a reasonable number of laps. It wasn’t without its challenges though; it took us a little while to find the right set-up but later in the day we were in pretty good shape and we’re looking forward to more of the same tomorrow. Pascal did his usual good job and gave us some real quality feedback, so we end our sixth day of testing in a reasonable place. I really do want to make mention of the incredible job that our mechanics, engineers and support staff are doing here. The hours they are putting in - and will continue to put in right through to the end of this test - have been unbelievable, with everyone working to the highest standard. All credit to them and to the team back in Banbury, who have also been burning the midnight oil. We’re proud to have such a great group of people on board. We have had a couple of glitches out here, particularly this week, but that’s what testing is about. It’s provided us with a valuable opportunity to put our operational response through its paces and I’m pleased that we’ve addressed our issues swiftly and thoroughly. Testing is as much about preparing the team as it is about the car and drivers. Now we have two very busy days to go and a lot to get through, with Pascal tomorrow and Rio finishing up for us on Friday.”