Barcelona II, day 3: Team and driver quotes

Toro Rosso

Daniil Kvyat (Car 26):

“I’m pleased with today. It’s the first time I can say I’ve really had some fun out there this year! It was good to be able to complete so many laps; it was definitely a very productive day for both myself and my engineering crew. We continued to prepare ourselves for the season ahead and completed performance runs and race simulations, which was important to do after losing some valuable track time last week. We also managed to do some experimental tests and we now have a lot of valuable data to go through. I’d say we are now decently ready for Melbourne, so bring it on!”

Jody Egginton (Head of Vehicle Performance):

“Overall, we can be fairly pleased with today in terms of what we have learnt. We have conducted both short runs and race simulations and the data we have gathered will be very useful heading into the final day of the test and beyond. The set-up items evaluated for today has meant that the balance of the car has been reasonable on all the tyre compounds we used throughout the day, with the car also reacting in a sensible way to these. The behaviour of the various tyre compounds during longer runs has been very interesting and we have evaluated a number of ways to optimise the tyres through the various phases. We also have a few more tests planned for tomorrow in order to tick a few more boxes. Short-run performance has also been interesting and we have worked hard to understand specific requirements and how best to meet them. We have a packed run plan for Carlos tomorrow and we expect this to take us a further step forwards in our preparations for Australia. We will continue to push hard in order to make up for as much of the track time we have lost earlier during testing.”

Sauber

The Sauber F1 Team had another productive day of testing on the Circuit de Catalunya. Both drivers worked through the planned, intensive programme with Markus Ericsson on long runs in the morning and Pascal Wehrlein on short runs during the afternoon session. The Swede was able to complete 88 laps overall, the German was running 44 laps in total.

Marcus Ericsson:

“This morning we focussed on race preparation and we were able to do a full race simulation. This was of course important and a positive sign for us. On the long runs we are still struggling a bit on the medium tyres, to get them to work properly. On the other hand the race stint on the soft tyres was a good step forward.”

Pascal Wehrlein:

“I took over the car for the first time in the afternoon for another half day in the C36, which all in all was very positive. I am very happy just getting more used to the car. Today we tried the supersoft and the ultrasoft tyres, and it was very interesting for me to see how they behaved with the temperatures in the afternoon. ”

What comes next:

Tomorrow, for the fourth and last testing day ahead of the 2017 FIA Formula One Championship, Marcus Ericsson will be behind the wheel of the Sauber C36-Ferrari again for the morning session and Pascal Wehrlein will take over once more in the afternoon.

Red Bull

The penultimate day of pre-season testing saw Daniel Ricciardo post the largest lap total of his four days at the wheel of the RB13 before the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, with the Australian driver working through 128 laps of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. With no recurrence of the issues that hampered progress yesterday, Daniel was able to complete a full programme including a race simulation in the afternoon.

Commenting on his final pre-season test day at the wheel of the RB13 Daniel said: “We did almost 130 laps with no issues, so that was positive. For me, today was pretty good. The race sim was OK, it was good for me to get the laps in, to put myself through it physically. You do feel it, it is definitely more physical, but I think I pulled up well and I’m pretty happy about that. In terms of our performance, I would say on day one of this week’s test we looked competitive, within a couple of tenths, but today it was maybe a little more. I do think our true pace is closer though. We have a bit to learn still, but I think Melbourne will be another story and I think we’ll see a bit more on both the power and aero side. I think we’ll be competitive.”

Head of Race Engineering Guillaume Rocquelin added: “Today everything worked as it should and we were able to run as we wanted. Beyond that there’s not much to say really: short runs in the morning, a race simulation in the afternoon, albeit slightly interrupted, the car behaved as we expected and we got through the full programme. All in all, it was a good day’s work by the whole team. For tomorrow, our last day here in Barcelona, Max will take over driving duties and we’ll try to mirror what we did with Daniel on day one of this week’s test – so that will be some short runs, more test items to get through and hopefully at some point we’ll see what performance we can achieve.”

Williams

Rod Nelson, Chief Test & Support Engineer:

It was a pretty solid day concentrating on race distances. We achieved this with Lance in good style this morning and despite a couple of red flags this afternoon, we still completed a good distance with Felipe too. We also looked at tyre degradation and stability through a race run. We’re looking forward to tomorrow with Lance back in the car, where we’ll be aiming to do some qualifying simulation work and some more race work in the afternoon. The team is now getting back on target and we are looking forward to the final day tomorrow.

Lance Stroll:

It was a good morning. I was doing long runs on medium tyres and getting used to the car on them, which is good. We did a lot of laps. I am still getting to know the car a bit better, so it was a positive morning. I will be in the car all day tomorrow. I still have the ultrasoft to try, but I am getting to grips with things so I am happy with that.

Felipe Massa:

The car did 165 laps in total today. Because of the red flags we couldn’t do the full race simulation, with pitstops but we more than managed to cover the distance we were targeting without issue. With the car doing two full race distances today it shows the FW40 is reliable, and that’s positive. Now I’m just ready to start the season! I’m not driving tomorrow but I hope the team has another great day with Lance. I just hope that we can start the season well in Australia and we can use everything we’ve learned here in the test to prepare the car for the first race.

Force India

Sahara Force India and Esteban Ocon made the most of good conditions in Barcelona to complete a very ambitious testing programme.

Esteban Ocon:

“It has been a big day in the car and I am really happy with what we achieved. We did some shorter runs in the morning and longer stints in the afternoon, and by the end of the day I was happy with how the car felt. I was satisfied with our pace and I think we’ve made really good progress with understanding the VJM10. The next time I will be in the car is in Melbourne and I am really excited about the start of the season. It’s been a busy winter with lots of hard work behind the scenes and now I just want to go racing!”

Tom McCullough, Chief Race Engineer:

“We were able to make the most of our good reliability and complete a comprehensive test programme. Our understanding of the VJM10 is getting better and we are still making good progress with the car. It was Esteban’s final day of driving before Melbourne, so we were able to continue practicing with the procedural tasks he will need during race weekends. He has settled in the team really well, building a good working relationship with the trackside team and everyone back at base. We feel we have prepared him as well as we could for Australia: we had prepared a plan for him during the winter and we have ticked all the boxes. The plan for the final day of testing is more of the same to complete Sergio’s preparations for Melbourne too.”

Renault F1

Renault Sport Formula One Team concluded the penultimate day of pre-season testing with Jolyon Palmer at the wheel of the R.S.17 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Jolyon completed 31 laps in the morning with his best lap time of 1min 22.418secs the then eighth fastest time. He returned to the car in the afternoon and completed a further 22 laps.

Both drivers are scheduled to be back in action tomorrow, with Nico taking to the wheel first.

Jolyon Palmer:

“It was rather frustrating today with interruptions from our side and also with other disruptions on track too. We never seemed to be able to get into a rhythm and I didn’t get the same feel with the car that we had previously. We’re having a good look at the data to understand where we need to improve as we know the scope and potential is there. I’m hoping for a better day to end the test tomorrow.”

Remi Taffin, Engine Technical Director:

“We have a completely new power unit for 2017 and we have been mileage-limited with an element on the ERS side this week. We saw some similar issues in development on the dyno, however testing on track has magnified this. Fixes are already underway and we expect to have them in place for Melbourne so we achieve the appropriate level of reliability for the start of the season, however this has impacted on our running here in Barcelona. Today we revised our driver run-plan so Jolyon was in the car in the afternoon as well as the morning to gain more laps in the R.S.17, as he’d experienced more down-time than Nico so far this test. In terms of performance we are satisfied we have taken a positive step forward and there is more to come over the season ahead. We are learning with every day with the car, so it is a case of continual progress.”

Ferrari

Sebastian Vettel finished his winter testing today with a full grand prix simulation shared out between morning and afternoon, and a series of other tests that brought today’s total of laps completed to 156. In addition to the 168 laps he put in on Tuesday that makes a total of 1,508km for the German Scuderia Ferrari driver during this second week of testing.

Vettel said: “The important thing is that we have completed a lot of laps and, compared to the same time a year ago, we feel better prepared because of that. At this point lap times don’t mean anything: we followed our programme and made progress but there’s still room for improvement.”

The race simulation took place in two phases – using Soft, Super Soft and Ultrasoft tyres during the late morning before covering a race distance (66 laps) with two sets of Soft tyres and one set of Mediums in the afternoon.

Tomorrow it will be Kimi Raikkonen’s turn to take to the wheel of the SF70H for the fourth and final day of winter testing. Then preparations will begin back at base for the first race of the world championship at Melbourne. The cars will leave from Maranello next Thursday.

Mercedes

Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport completed 147 laps - 684 km - of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on the penultimate day of 2017 pre-season testing 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 52 laps before the hour-long lunch break at 13:00

Valtteri took over in the cockpit for the afternoon session, completing 95 laps before the pit lane closed at 18:00

Today both drivers completed similar test programmes, focusing on data collection with the 2017 Pirelli tyres and further set-up work to tune the new car for the early races

Mercedes-Benz Power Units today completed a total 2,090 km

Valtteri will take the wheel of the W08 tomorrow morning, Lewis in the afternoon

Lewis Hamilton:

It was good to get some laps in this morning with slightly lower fuel. We worked on balance and made quite a few changes. I learned a lot about the car before handing over to Valtteri. We were trying to simulate something a bit more like qualifying and the car felt good on lower fuel. It’s great to feel it come together.

I think Ferrari are bluffing and that they are a lot quicker than they are showing. They’re very close to us. It’s difficult right now to say exactly who is quicker. But they are very close, if not faster.

Whatever the case, I can’t wait to go out and compete. Just a couple more weeks to go…

Valtteri Bottas:

It was another strong day for me and the team. I did some good mileage - 95 laps - and some very interesting long run testing this afternoon on the different tyre compounds, as well as set-up work and evaluation of all the parts we’ve got for the car.

We’re still finding out which of these parts are the best suited to our car and how exactly we can draw 100 per cent out of the package. Every day is still a massive learning curve for us and we’v e still got a lot of work to do to get it right.

It’s going to be a tight competition in Melbourne so we need to make the most of our last day of testing tomorrow and maximise our mileage.

Haas F1

Haas F1 Team driver Kevin Magnussen knocked down an impressive 119 laps Thursday in his final preseason testing drive of the Haas VF-17 at Circuit de Barcelona – Catalunya. It was the highest single-day lap tally for Haas F1 Team so far this season, with Magnussen besting his own 118-lap mark set Feb. 28 during the first week of testing at the 4.655-kilometer (2.892-mile), 16-turn circuit and equaled by teammate Romain Grosjean March 2.

Grosjean takes over the Haas VF-17 for the final day of testing Friday, but in the penultimate day of on-track running, Magnussen brought his testing total to 369 laps or 1,717.695 kilometers (1,067.326 miles).

Magnussen’s best lap of the day was his best lap of the entire two-week test – a 1:20.504 set on his 62nd lap while utilizing the Pirelli P Zero Purple ultrasoft tire. The time placed Magnussen fifth among the 13 drivers participating in Thursday’s session.

Haas F1 Team’s morning run plan consisted of a series of early reconnaissance laps followed by ongoing setup work. Magnussen ran on the White medium tire for his installation lap and first three timed stints to log 22 laps. A change to the Yellow soft tire brought increased track performance, which was elevated further when Magnussen switched to the Red supersoft tire 30 minutes prior to the mandatory lunch break. His best time of the morning came on supersofts – a 1:20.863 secured on his 39th lap.

Following a brief outing on a set of used softs to begin the afternoon, Magnussen switched to the Purple ultrasofts for two timed stints. With the grippiest tire in Pirelli’s lineup, Magnussen delivered his quickest lap. The latter part of the day was spent in race simulation, with Magnussen securing a mileage total just short of a race distance. He ran twice on Yellow softs for a combined 35 laps before a 15-lap outing on White mediums that concluded the day’s activities.

Scuderia Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel set the quickest time (1:19.024) and ran the most laps (156).

Kevin Magnussen:

“Another good day. I’m really happy with testing in general. I think we’ve learned a huge amount about the car. We know where we need to work between here and Australia. I’m looking forward to getting back in the car for the race in a couple of weeks.”

Gunther Steiner:

“A pretty good day. We got almost a race distance in. We ran just a few laps short, something like 20 laps short of a full distance this afternoon. We got a lot of information. We ran to a quite tough program, but it was good. We are very happy with the day today and how it went, and how to get the best out of the data. There’s just one more day to go and then we’ll get ready for Australia.”

Grosjean returns to the Haas VF-17 Friday to complete preseason testing at Barcelona. Round 1 of the 2017 FIA Formula One World Championship is the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. Practice begins March 24, qualifying takes place March 25 and the race runs March 26.

McLaren

Stoffel got back behind the wheel for his final day of pre-season testing today in Barcelona. The morning started well, with more aero correlation and data gathering consistent with the programme undertaken each morning on previous test days. The team also completed work on power unit settings and set-up configurations.

After 24 laps, Stoffel lost electrical power to the car and stopped out on track. Once back in the garage, the team ran diagnostics, restarted the car, and Stoffel returned to the cockpit for a further nine laps.

The issue reappeared shortly before lunch, bringing Stoffel to a halt on track once again, and leading to another set of red flags. The team then elected to strip down the car to investigate further and replace various electrical components – although the origin of the issue couldn’t be identified.

Stoffel returned to the track at 15:45, completing more runs with different handling settings, and running through set-up procedures required in preparation for Melbourne.
Stoffel finished the day on 48 laps, and will hand over the reins to Fernando in the morning for the final day of the test.

STOFFEL VANDOORNE

“It’s not been the best test for us in terms of mileage over the four days I’ve had in the car, but it’s all part of the learning. I feel positive and confident in the car – when I’m out on track I feel comfortable to push straight away and get the maximum out of it. We’ve had some problems and it’s far from an ideal situation, but we’re aware of it and we’re working very hard to make sure we make big improvements before we go to Melbourne.

“It’s difficult to know exactly where our pace is. There are a lot of things that we’re focusing on and a lot of procedures we’re going through, so we’re working hard to get on top of the issues and I hope we can make a step forward for Melbourne.

“I feel 100% ready; over the past couple of years I’ve had very good preparation with McLaren. Even though I haven’t had the mileage in the car that I would’ve liked, I’m still very excited. I’ll prepare very hard with the team over the next week, spend some more time in the simulator and go through the data we have brought back from the test, and hopefully we can go to Melbourne with some upgrades and some positive signs.”

ERIC BOULLIER

“Today started productively, and we again managed to complete some good sections of our aero testing programme and Melbourne set-up preparation. Stoffel provided us with excellent feedback and we’re gradually making progress as we move closer to the first race of the season.

“Unfortunately, an electrical issue halted our momentum, and we experienced it twice within a few laps just before lunch. We believe it was the same issue both times, but we don’t know yet what happened. We spent a lot of time checking the car over and Stoffel got back on track in the afternoon, but we opted to finish our programme slightly early as a precaution and to avoid the same issue recurring.

“Overnight, we’ll be hard at work preparing our chassis for the final day of running tomorrow. We’re hoping to get some solid track time as it’ll be our last chance before Australia. The most important aim for any day of testing is to learn a lot about the car and validate what our simulations tell us, and so far, that’s going in the right direction. We’re due some better luck on the reliability front, and we’ll be pushing as hard as ever to make the most of the final pre-season track session tomorrow.”

YUSUKE HASEGAWA

“It was a challenging day for us today. Our track time was somewhat limited after detecting an electronical issue during Stoffel’s morning session, but it was encouraging once again how incredibly hard the team worked to enable Stoffel to head back out on track in the afternoon. The issue is now under investigation to find the root cause.

“Facing these issues is of course not ideal, since it forces us to use our time in the garage, but this is testing and the more time we have, the more we learn.

“After finishing seven days of winter testing, we now have good insights into how the car and power unit function as a whole package, and we’ll continue to run through our testing programme tomorrow and make up for lost time.

“Friday will be another busy day for us, since it’s necessary for us to gather as much data as possible before Melbourne, and we’ll put all of our effort into the last day of testing.