Catalunya F1 test: team reaction after Day 1

Toro Rosso Ferrari

After the opening test of the season at Jerez, 11 of the 12 teams are now working at the Catalunya Circuit on the outskirts of Barcelona, with another four day session, running through to Friday. This circuit is very well known to everyone and therefore provides a good baseline and reference point for assessing data. With Daniel at the wheel of the STR7, the team worked on evaluating several set-up configurations with various fuel loads. The day was cut short with a technical problem that stopped the car out on track and with only one hour of the day remaining, there was not enough time to get Daniel back on the circuit. The Australian will drive his second and final day of this session tomorrow.

Daniel Ricciardo - 1.23:618 – P4 (76 laps: “It was a good day with 76 laps under my belt. In the morning, apart from working on the overall development of the car, we were also getting ready for Melbourne, running through various procedures, working to a set time scale, as if it was a race weekend. That went well and in the afternoon, we did some race-type runs which were successful until the car stopped with just the final hour to go.”

Sauber Ferrari

Sergio Pérez was at the wheel of the Sauber C31-Ferrari on the first day of pre-season testing at the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona. The day was hampered by some technical issues, which resulted in a total of 66 laps for the young Mexican.

Giampaolo Dall’Ara (Head of Track Engineering):“We obviously didn’t cover the mileage we wanted to today, but such things happen in testing. In the morning we had some doubts related to the structure, which didn’t occur in Jerez and therefore appear to be track related. It is important to discover something like this during testing instead of at a Grand Prix weekend. We touched base with our experts in Hinwil for analyses and at the same time found a mechanical solution here at the track. In the afternoon we then had another unforeseen break due to a mechanical issue with a rear anti roll bar. Not actually a big issue, but quite time consuming as the gear box had to be removed again, etc. So now we will concentrate on our test programme for tomorrow and hope for a rather smoother session then.”

Sergio Pérez - 1.24:219 – P7 (66 laps): “It wasn’t an easy day for us. Nevertheless during the 66 laps we collected some very useful data, which we will analyse tonight, so in this regard it was still a satisfying day. I am very much looking forward to tomorrow and I hope we can get a lot more work done then.”

Sergio will continue to drive tomorrow before Kamui Kobayashi takes over for Thursday and Friday.

Caterham Renault

Heikki Kovalainen - 1’26’’035 – P9 (31 laps): “That obviously wasn’t how we wanted day one here to go, but that’s what testing is for – pushing everything to the limit to make sure we get rid of the problems before we get to the first race. It’s hard to learn a lot from limited laps, but I’m back in the car on Friday and I’m sure we’ll be able to push on with the program between now and then and make sure we get as much as we can out of the next three days on track.”

Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer: “We had a rear track rod failure on Heikki’s third run this morning which brought him to a halt on track. As soon as we had the car back in the garage we identified the issue and managed to fix it on site, and we have more parts coming out tonight to make sure we don’t have the same problem again. We know that this car is fundamentally reliable, so the aim for the next three days is to complete the plan for this test and put ourselves back on schedule.”

Ferrari

First day of testing for Scuderia Ferrari at the Catalunya Circuit, near Barcelona. It fell to Fernando Alonso to give the F2012 its debut at this track. The Spaniard continued with the tasks of development and data acquisition relating to the behaviour of the new car. Fernando completed a total of 75 laps, the fastest in a time of 1.24.100.

The Scuderia continues testing at this circuit tomorrow, once again with Fernando Alonso on track.

Mercedes AMG

The MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS F1 W03 made its official debut today at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona. After an early morning unveiling in the pit lane by Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg, Michael then took the wheel for the day’s running.

— A smooth morning session enabled the team to begin set-up comparisons with the new chassis
— A hydraulic problem identified during the afternoon session brought an early end to the planned programme
— Michael completed 51 laps today, taking the F1 W03’s total mileage to 782 km to date
Nico will take over the programme tomorrow, with Michael back in the car on Thursday, and Nico concluding the test on Friday.

Michael Schumacher - 1.24.150 - P6 (51 laps): “My initial feelings with our new car are certainly good. I’m happy with the different evaluations that we have done over the last week, but obviously with the rule changes, we won’t know more until later. It’s certainly an improvement and we have worked hard on the areas we had defined last year. The aerodynamics figures look good so I’m not worried about the shape of the nose! Even though we had the hydraulic problem today, I’m pleased with all the mileage we have achieved so far with the new car.”

Williams Renault

Mark Gillan, Chief Operations Engineer: Bruno was on track today as we began the penultimate test before heading off to the first race of the season. We completed 97 laps around Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya, working successfully through a detailed aero correlation test programme in the morning before moving on to car set-up optimisation, utilising a range of tyre compounds throughout the afternoon. We continue tomorrow with Valtteri in the FW34 before Pastor takes over for the final two days.

Bruno Senna - 1.25:711 – P8 (97 laps): It has been a very interesting day working with different set-ups to assess the reliability of the FW34. We need to keep working hard to understand the car even better. The team will continue working over the next few days with Valtteri and Pastor, as we look to improve both pace and consistency.

The Williams F1 Team will be back on track tomorrow, Wednesday 22 February, with Valtteri Bottas driving the FW34 for the second day of the test.

Marussia Cosworth

Marussia F1 Team’s new driver Charles Pic made his on-track debut as a Formula One driver today at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, where the team began its pre-season testing programme.

Charles was at the wheel of the 2011 car - the MVR-02 - gathering valuable acclimatisation mileage ready for his Grand Prix debut next month.

The main focus of the day was reacclimatising the race team to pit stops after the winter break and providing an opportunity for Charles to practice these in representative conditions.

He made the most of the car’s excellent reliability to clock up no fewer than 121 laps - the highest of the day - working with the Pirelli P-Zero hard, medium and soft tyres over long runs to understand the behaviour of the 2012 rubber.

Charles Pic - 1.28:026 – P11 (121 laps): “It has been a very good first day for me and a positive way to begin the new season. The car has worked very well all day so we were able to push through with the programme. We made a lot of pit stops this morning and practiced all the procedures, which was very helpful for me, and this afternoon we completed a race simulation. I learned a lot from the day and I’m looking forward to running again tomorrow.”

John Booth, Team Principal: “It’s great to be back in action after almost three months away from the race track. Although it is disappointing that we are not here with our 2012 car, the opportunity to use the MVR-02 with its impressive reliability to complete a whole series of pit stop scenarios with the race team and Charles is invaluable. For the past two months the team have been practising every day in the factory and this hard work came to fruition today. There seems to be a genuine improvement in the standard of the stops and Charles’ practice today will stand him in good stead for the opening race in Melbourne. We finished the afternoon off with a full race simulation for Charles stepping through the three options of tyres suited to this circuit and also completing live pit stops. Overall a positive way to start our 2012 season testing and we look forward to a continuation of Charles’ development over the next few days and to seeing Timo in the car briefly on Thursday.”

Nico Hulkenberg was back in the VJM05 today for the start of Sahara Force India’s second winter test in Barcelona. The programme included tyre comparison work, aero sweeps and long runs in the afternoon.

Nico Hulkenberg - 1.23:440 - P2 (79 laps): “Once gain it’s good to do so many laps and I’m pleased with how things went today. It was only my second day in the car and I’m still bedding in and getting used to things, but after each run I felt a bit more comfortable. We started with some aero runs and more data gathering this morning, and then moved to longer runs in the afternoon. The car feels consistent and the drivability is good so I feel positive heading into tomorrow.”

Jakob Andreason, Chief Engineer: “Another busy day with a lot of mileage for Nico as he continues to build up his feel for the VJM05. We began the programme with aero sweeps and also evaluated some mechanical components to address some improvements we felt could be made to the car following the Jerez test. The car has performed well throughout the day with good reliability, which allowed us to focus on adding performance. We completed the majority of the programme and got through our long runs in the afternoon, which helped build up Nico’s knowledge of the hard and medium compound tyres.”

Formula 1’s second test of the winter kicked off at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya today, with Lewis Hamilton taking on testing duties for the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team.
Lewis’s day began with some initial data collection, including aero work on newer rubber before his engineers began a more comprehensive programme of tyre and set-up evaluation for the remainder of the morning.
After completing a number of shorter runs, focus in the afternoon turned to longer runs, with Lewis declaring himself pleased with the MP4-27’s behaviour, particularly in the high-speed corners.

“With more than 500km under our belt, this was an extremely productive day,” said team manager David Redding. “The car ran reliably and without problem all day and Lewis was happy with the car. Given the cooler temperatures we experienced today, we’re optimistic that we’re headed in the right direction with our tyre and set-up work for the start of the season.”

After a week of analysis following the first test of 2012, it was back to track action for Red Bull Racing in Barcelona today. After 79 laps of the Circuit de Catalunya, Sebastian Vettel emerged with the day’s quickest time, recording a 1:23.265 in the latter stages of the afternoon.

Sebastian Vettel - 1.23.265 - P1 (79 laps): “It’s clear that the cars have less grip than last year, but we try to come back from that slowly. It’s difficult to judge where we are compared with the others right now. It’s all based on feeling and the feeling I have inside the car at the moment is fine. I think we had a good day today, with no trouble. We had a long lunch break when we made some changes, but not because anything broke down. All in all, it was a good day.”

Head of Race Engineering Ian Morgan said that the changes over lunch had lost the team some time, but that the day’s work had gone according to plan.
“We got through most of what we wanted today,” he said. “We had a longer than usual break for lunch, in order to change some things, but that had always been planned. So, while we lost a little time, it wasn’t at the expense of getting the tasks completed.

“These tests are a process of continuous development and the programme today was influenced a bit by what we learned at the last test. We also had to test some items that were put into development before the car even took to the track. The next two days will be somewhat different,” he added. “We will be doing race simulations and will have the whole race team here, so we will try to mix that with continuing the development. There aren’t many chances to run through a whole race weekend before the season starts and we’ll do a simulation with each driver. Those should keep us on our toes for the next couple of days.”

Lotus F1 Team will not run for the remainder of the second test at Barcelona, scheduled from today until Friday.
During initial runs this morning with Romain Grosjean at the wheel, the team identified an issue with the chassis. After investigation at Enstone, initial plans to bring out chassis E20-01 to Barcelona have been held in order to give the team enough time to rectify the situation.
Lotus F1 Team will be back on track next week in Barcelona (1-4 March)

James Allison, Technical Director: “Before we were due to fly chassis E20-01 out to Barcelona in replacement of chassis E20-02 - damaged this morning - we ran a series of simulations at the factory based on the data provided by our brief running on track today. As a result, we were able to identify an area which requires some additional work. It will be more productive for us to carry out these modifications to both chassis at Enstone rather than send E20-01 out to this week’s test. We’ll put the right measures in place and we will be able to fix the problem before next week.”

Eric Boullier, Team Principal: “Not running this week has been a tough decision to take, but we feel that our choice is the right one. On the positive side, we have quickly identified the issue with the chassis and our design office has already devised a solution. We will be present at next week’s test in Barcelona. We draw faith from the fact that the E20 was quick out of the box in Jerez and showed its reliability there. We have a lot of work ahead of us over the next week but everyone at Enstone is ready for this challenge.”