Catalunya, day 1: Rosberg fastest at Barcelona

Formula One began its season pre-season test in Barcelona today, with Mercedes’s Nico Rosberg heading the timesheet at the end of day one at the Circuit de Catalunya.

The German’s lap of 1:22.616 narrowly shaded Kimi Raikkonen’s l:22.765 in the Lotus E21 and third-placed Fernando Alonso, three tenths further back in the Ferrari F138.

Rosberg’s glory-tinged end to the day was a far cry from his morning session, when after 14 laps he returned to the garage with a gearbox problem. The fix took all morning and the German only returned to the track after lunch, but then made up for lost time with 40 laps that established him as the quickest overall.

It was a similar tale at Red Bull Racing, where Sebastian Vettel completed a handful of early laps before a gearbox electronics problem sidelined him for much of the morning. The defending champion got back for regular runs in the afternoon, though his benchmark time from the morning wouldn’t stand and he was left in P4 at the end of running.

“I don’t think we were alone [with the gearbox issue],” said Red Bull Racing’s Race Engineering Co-ordinator Andy Damerum. “Looking at the lap times and number of laps done by other teams I think quite a few had a similar electronics problem to the one we encountered. We managed to fix it just before lunch but it meant that our laps in the morning were effectively systems checks. Everything went better this afternoon, though, and we were able to get through quite a few items on our checklist and in the end managed 308km, so I’m quite pleased about that.”

For Rosberg the afternoon was profitable, with Mercedes working on understanding the new Pirelli compounds on offer this season. “We had a mixed day today with some laps lost this morning. However we were able to work through a good programme this afternoon and, of course, it’s always nice to be quickest at the end of the day,” he said. “In general, I feel happy and comfortable in the car and it feels better than the last time we were here at this track. There is still some work to be done on tyre degradation and our programme this afternoon was helpful in understanding that.”

Day one in Barcelona was Fernando Alonso’s first experience of the new Ferrari F138 after he skipped the first test in Jerez and hustling the car through 110 laps of the Circuit de Catalunya, the Spaniard gave it a muted seal of approval.

“The feeling with the car was OK, as expected more or less,” Alonso told reporters in Barcelona.”It’s a continuation of the Brazil car, let’s say, so it’s more or less the same feeling. I have the same seat, I have the same pedals, I have the same everything, so when you jump in the car more or less the performance should be the same as Brazil.

“It’s not really surprising you when [you are] driving, so this is at least something good, not like last year when we drove for the first time we were a little bit surprised on the bad side,” he added. “We have a lot of work to do; a lot of work to do in the next days for the tyres, for the aerodynamics, for some new components and experimental things that we have in the car. We need to keep doing a lot of mileage; in Jerez we had some mechanical problems - especially with Pedro we lost one morning - so we need to put some good laps in this test to prove the car is strong enough to race.”

Elsewhere, Pastor Maldonado was getting his first taste of a new car, in the shape of the Williams FW35, which was unveiled in the morning. The Venezuelan claimed fifth place on the timesheet after 86 laps. However, it was not all good news for Williams, or for Caterham, after it became clear that the exhaust configurations both teams are running may fall foul of regulations if they are persisted with.

Behind Maldonado on the timesheet came Daniel Ricciardo, the Toro Rosso driver edging out McLaren’s Sergio Perez for sixth. Eighth went to Force India’s Paul Di Resta, while Esteban Gutierrez was ninth for Sauber. Marussia’s Max Chilton was tenth and the field was backed up by Caterham’s Charles Pic.

Toro Rosso Ferrrari

After four days in Jerez de la Frontera, the F1 circus has continued its Spanish travels, setting up on the outskirts of Barcelona, at the Catalunya circuit, which is home to the Spanish Grand Prix. As in Andalusia, Daniel Ricciardo is driving the STR8 for the first two days, before Jean-Eric Vergne takes over on Thursday. This is the first day of testing on a track that is actually used for a Grand Prix and therefore one that is well known to the teams from an engineering perspective. Today, the morning was given over mainly to aerodynamic work to gain a better understanding of the car. In the afternoon, work began on the actual set-up of the car, to find the best direction in which to move forward. Daniel only used the Hard Pirelli compound today.

Daniel Ricciardo: “This was my first time back in the car since the second day in Jerez and we had a full programme of things to try. Because of some of the changes we chose to make to the car set-up, this involved quite a bit of time in the garage, therefore this was not a day for a lot of laps. I’m glad I’m driving tomorrow, because I feel I need to get a better understanding of what we started today. We have some homework to do overnight, but we know which direction to go in.”

Williams Renault

Mike Coughlan, Technical Director: It was a very good day for us, with Pastor completing 86 laps, the second-highest of any team today. Pastor was very comfortable in the car which was shown by his early lap times. We had a small water leak this afternoon on a development part, but we were able to fix it quickly to complete our tyre programme. We feel confident in the core reliability of the FW35 and look forward to continuing with Valtteri tomorrow.

Pastor Maldonado: It was a good day today. I felt happy after the first run this morning and we then completed a busy day of testing. It was great to get out on track in the new car. The FW35 feels like we have made a real step forward. There is still a lot to discover with the new car, but this is a good starting point for us for the season.

Marussia Cosworth

The Marussia F1 Team embarked on its second week of testing with the new MR02 race car today with the first day of a four day programme at the Circuit De Catalunya.

Not only is this track more representative for the tyres than the Circuito de Jerez, it is also a real ‘barometer’ track for all aspects of car performance, given that its characteristics offer up a bit of everything the Team will encounter at this year’s 19 Grand Prix circuits.

Max Chilton was in the MR02 to work through a programme of systems checks in the morning before moving on to some constructive set-up work this afternoon. This will provide the first indications of where the car’s performance can be further honed and developed in the intervening weeks between Barcelona and Melbourne. Throughout the day, Max worked with the Medium and Soft Pirelli PZero tyres.

Max Chilton: “It took a little while to get into our rhythm this morning as the track conditions were cool and green and the early part of our programme consisted mainly of checks with the KERS and other on-car systems. This afternoon we were able to get into a proper set-up programme and the initial results from that are quite promising. I am pleased with where I ended the day – P10 – in respect of the teams around us. Tomorrow we look forward to building on our performance after a night absorbing the data from the car. All in all, a good start for the Team here in Barcelona.”

John Booth, Team Principal, Marussia F1 Team: “After a week at the factory analysing the data from our opening test in Jerez, it is good to be back on track in Barcelona applying what we have learned to the development of the MR02. The fact that this circuit is more representative is extremely beneficial at this stage in our programme and we have been able to start to understand the tyres better from the word ‘go’ this morning, whereas Jerez shed relatively little light in this regard. After completing our systems checks and running through some revised engine mapping work, we were able to turn our attentions rather more to set-up work, the first we have done with the new car. Overall the results have been positive, although we will need to put some further thought into how we can get the tyres working better in these cool conditions. We are looking forward to another solid day’s running tomorrow. Max has performed well here today and his feedback, coupled with the data from the car, is helping us to make good progress.”

Mercedes

MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS began the second pre-season test today with the track action having moved from Jerez to the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain. Nico Rosberg was at the wheel of the F1 W04.

— Nico had completed 14 laps this morning when a gearbox issue required some work in the garage

— Nico was back out for the afternoon session, with the team focusing on car balance and tyre management

— By the end of today’s running, Nico had completed a total of 54 laps and set the fastest lap of the day

Lewis Hamilton will take over the programme for the second day of the test tomorrow.

Nico Rosberg: We had a mixed day today with some laps lost this morning. However we were able to work through a good programme this afternoon and, of course, it’s always nice to be quickest at the end of the day. In general, I feel happy and comfortable in the car and it feels better than the last time we were here at this track. There is still some work to be done on tyre degradation and our programme this afternoon was helpful in understanding that.

McLaren Mercedes

The second of Formula 1’s three pre-season Spanish tests kicked off today at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya, an aero-dependent tract that will provide teams with a clearer idea of the state of their preparations ahead of the 2013 season.

Sergio Perez kicked off the running this morning, his second outing behind the wheel of MP4-28. As at last week’s test at Jerez, the team spent the morning running through a series of aero tests before breaking to reset the car for some set-up comparison work.

After lunch, Sergio began a series of longer runs to evaluate the effects of the mechanical set-up changes. He also took the opportunity to more fully acclimatise himself to the cockpit controls and team communications that he will start to encounter in the races.

The afternoon concluded with a live pitstop practice. It was a productive day.

Sergio concludes his running. Jenson takes over for Thursday and Friday.

Caterham Renault

Charles Pic: "49 laps on the first day of the second test isn’t the total we wanted, but we’ve still been able to complete quite a bit of today’s program and with every lap I’m getting more and more comfortable in the car.

"In the morning session we ran through a similar program to the second day in Jerez last week, and we had planned more tyre work in the afternoon. When I went out for a stint after the lunch break I had a mechanical problem going into Turn 3 and after we got the car back to the garage we found out it was a gearbox issue and that brought the day to an early end. We’ve already started work on the fix and I’m sure we’ll be ready for tomorrow morning when we can get back to work."

Sauber Ferrari

Today, the Formula One teams resumed testing on the Circuito de Cataluna near Barcelona. In the morning, Esteban Gutiérrez mainly concentrated on aero work, while in the afternoon he did tyre comparisons with the medium and the hard compounds, and he worked on the set-up of the car. He completed 68 laps.

Tom McCullough, Head of Track Engineering: "We spent a lot of the morning evaluating some aerodynamic and mechanical parts on the car. We were also working on the hard and the medium tyres, but the track conditions were not ideal. We gathered a lot of data with some special instrumentation, and now we need to look at it. Due to a few small issues we weren’t able to complete our full programme, but we are confident we will be back on track tomorrow.

Esteban Gutiérrez: "It was quite a tricky day with the tyres. We were struggling with tyre management and, as a result, degradation. We tried different things in the morning, but then in the afternoon we had some issues with the set-up of the car. The good thing is we have a lot of data to analyse. This will be the basis for us to understand everything.“

Tomorrow, Nico Hülkenberg will take over from Esteban.

Force India Mercedes

Sahara Force India began its Barcelona test session today as Paul Di Resta spent the day in the VJM06 and clocked up 82 laps of the Circuit de Catalunya.

Paul Di Resta: “The first day of running was mainly about tyre work and making some comparisons with Jerez. I was running on the hard and the mediums and we got a good feel for them once again. We also did an aero programme this morning, which is part of the correlation work as we evaluate some of the new parts going on the car. The plan is for more of the same tomorrow.”

Jakob Andreasen, Chief Race Engineer: “It has been a solid first day of work in Barcelona with Paul. We’ve put into effect what we learned in Jerez and made some useful comparisons, especially in terms of tyre evaluation. After the aero programme this morning, we did some shorts runs with new aero components and then moved to longer runs later on. The track conditions were not at their best this morning, but from midday onwards things started to improve and the cloud cover kept the track temperatures relatively low. With Melbourne less than a month away the team is gelling nicely and the new personnel and structures we have put in place are working well.”

Lotus Renault

Kimi Räikkönen conducted the first day of running for E21 chassis #2 in Barcelona, completing 44 laps at the Circuit de Catalunya. Though Kimi completed the fewest laps of any driver today, he was nevertheless the second fastest for most of the day, including at the end of the afternoon session.

Telemetry data-logging issues meant the team completed fewer laps than desired, but nevertheless concluded a productive day of assessment of the second E21.

Kimi will drive tomorrow with the team targeting a greater haul of laps.

Kimi Räikkönen: “It wasn’t an ideal day in terms of the number of laps we completed, but the car feels strong and we’ve made some good progress. After Jerez it’s nice to be at a circuit where we race and the E21 is definitely a step in the right direction. There’s lots of work yet to do this week but I’m happy with where we are at the moment.”

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: “It’s been a positive debut for the second chassis here in Barcelona. Kimi was happy with where the car started the day, and the setup changes we’ve made have been positive. We had a few issues on the electronics side with the telemetry data-logging and this has cost us track time as well as the ability to conduct longer runs. Other than that, we’ve been able to take over from where we left off in Jerez so we’re happy with that. All we need is more laps, which is our focus for tomorrow.”

Ferrari

First day of testing for Scuderia Ferrari and the ten other Formula 1 teams, running at the
Catalunya circuit, on the outskirts of Barcelona, from now until Friday. Fernando Alonso made his seasonal track debut, driving the F138 for the first time.

The entire day was dedicated almost entirely to acquiring data for use in the development of the car and on gaining a greater understanding of the Pirelli tyres. Fernando completed a total of 110 laps, with a best time of 1.19.952.

Fernando Alonso: “I feel reasonably pleased with this first day and I can say I share Felipe’s opinion that the car is on another planet compared to the one we began with on the first day of testing last year. The programme for this first session in Barcelona is aimed mainly at improving reliability, with the target of completing more than a hundred laps every day. Then, at next week’s test we can concentrate on performance. Tomorrow, we will complete what we were unable to do today and we will focus on car set-up, to adapt it as well as possible to the tyres. I knew from looking at the Jerez data what sort of car I would find here today, as in fact we know more or less what we will see at the first race in Australia, in terms of what new parts we will have and how many tenths they will produce. This is down to all the work done over the winter in the wind tunnel and the numerous tests which confirm that the parts that are on their way will give the expected results.”

Testing continues tomorrow at this track, again with the Spaniard at the wheel.

Red Bull Renault

After ten days spent analysing data obtained from the first pre-season test in Jerez, Formula One’s teams today returned to action in Spain for further intense exploration of their cars’ potential, this time at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya.

The early part of today’s running was hampered by a software issue but once the problem was solved Sebastian Vettel ran quickest for much of the day. The defending champion eventually claimed P4 on the timesheet.

Sebastian Vettel: “It’s very important for us to put good mileage on the car and this morning that wasn’t really possible. We had a small software issue this morning, I think many teams had. That wasn’t ideal but we got it fixed and after that it was another decent day.”

“It is good to back in Barcelona. It is a good circuit to judge a car on and a good indicator of where you are but we need to be careful of doing that as it’s pretty cold at the moment and it’s quite tough to keep the tyres alive for many laps. So hard to know. But overall, not a bad day again.”

Commenting on the morning, Race Engineering Co-ordinator Andy Damerum said: “It was a slow start, which was a bit frustrating. However, I don’t think we were alone in that. Looking at the lap times and number of laps done by other teams I think quite a few had a similar problem to the one we encountered. We managed to fix it just before lunch but it meant that our laps in the morning were effectively systems checks. Everything went better this afternoon, though, and we were able to get through quite a few items on our checklist and in the end managed 308km, so I’m quite pleased about that.”

“In the afternoon we were again working on some aero test items. The guys at the factory have been flat out since Jerez and as well as the things planned some time ago for this test there have been quite a few developments based on what we learned from Jerez. So there are plenty of things to get through here. Seb is driving again tomorrow.”