Massa quickest on third day at Jerez

After two quiet days of testing, Ferrari’s new F138 jumped to the top of the timesheet in Jerez with Felipe Massa running almost nine tenths of a second quicker than nearest rival Nico Roberg.

On the opening two days of the first pre-season test, Massa had finished sixth and eighth but today Massa, running soft tyres and on a short run, set the week’s fastest time with a lap of 1:17879.

The Brazilian admitted afterwards that though it was nice to see his name at the top of the timesheet, his three days in the car had not been about proving raw speed.

“It was an important three days, even if I did so many things that are like straight line tests, doing slow laps, constant speed runs,” he said.

“It’s always nice to arrive at the end of the day and see your name in first position but honestly it doesn’t count for anything,” he added.

Massa will now make way for new Ferrari tester Pedro de la Rosa, who will complete the team’s work in Jerez tomorrow.

Rosberg’s second-quickest time of the day, a 1:18.766 was a fillip to Mercedes, who until today had endured a tough time in Jerez. Even more welcome were the 148 laps Rosberg racked up, the German providing much-needed data after the team had registered just 29 laps of track time over the past two days.

“I’m very happy with today and I think it was probably a personal record for me to do almost 150 laps,” he said. “To drive the distance from Silverstone to Spa in one day with no problems whatsoever is a fantastic achievement from the team. It really made up for the last two days and put a smile on everybody’s face.”

The day’s third quickest time went to defending world champion Sebastian Vettel, at the wheel of Red Bull Racing’s RB9 for the first time. After two smooth days with Mark Webber at the wheel, Vettel put in a further 102 trouble-free laps to continue the defending Constructors’ champions apparently serene progress towards the start of the season.

“It was great to get back in the car, to get rid of the rust and to get back in the groove again,” he said. “The first feeling is good and the car is working well. It’s difficult to judge the speed, but in terms of reliability it looks pretty good.”

Vettel’s time of 1:19.052 was over a second off Massa’s laptime but the German was unconcerned.

“At this stage it’s very difficult to judge anything,” he added. “In terms of the times, it’s always nice to be on top, but if there’s one phase of the year where it matters least, it’s here. Now is the time to do our homework. It’s good for us to do a lot of laps, to see that the car is working well and we’ll go from there.”

Kimi Räikkönen was also getting his first taste of 2013-spec Formula One in the new Lotus E21 and finished just 1500ths of a second behind Vettel. It wasn’t all plain sailing for the Finn, however, and his running was cut short late in the day with a clutch failure.

“The E21 feels quite good so far, even if the balance isn’t quite to my liking yet,” he said. That didn’t stop us going through the programme we wanted to do which had a lot of aero runs in it. We know the car can go faster, we were just running through what we needed to achieve. It’s a shame that we had a clutch issue at the end of the day, but that’s why we come testing so we can find these problems and fix them.”

Over at Toro Rosso, Jean-Eric Vergne took over from Daniel Ricciardo and set the day’s fifth-quickest time. The Frenchman caused a minor delay to proceedings, however, a puncture when leaving pitlane causing the red flags to briefly come out while his STR8 was wheeled back to the garage.

Jenson Button also had a troubled outing. The McLaren driver put in 83 laps in the first part of the day’s running but in the afternoon was forced to stop on track, a halt the team called “precautionary”. Button will again make way for new McLaren signing Sergio Pérez tomorrow.

Pérez’s replacement at Sauber, Esteban Gutierrez, was in action for the Swiss team and recorded the day’s eighth best time, ahead of Marussia’s Max Chilton, Williams’ Valtteri Bottas, Caterham’s Charles Pic and Force India’s Paul Di Resta, who completed just seven laps in the afternoon before an exhaust problem ended his day’s work. Earlier in the day the VJM06 was piloted by James Rossiter who notched the day’s sixth-best time.

Caterham Renault

Charles Pic: "It was very good to get back on track and for my first day with the team it’s been pretty good. We had a technical issue late in the morning session that stopped the car on track but the team did a good job to fix it and give me enough time in the afternoon session to complete 57 laps in total.

"The important thing for the first day was starting to get used to the car, particularly working with KERS and my new team. Everyone’s been very helpful since I first went to the factory and I’ve already spent time in the simulator there, and with my engineers and mechanics, so nothing was completely new to me.

"Obviously it’s important for me to feel comfortable in the car as quickly as possible and we’ve worked through a lot of the normal procedures today so I’m pleased with what we’ve achieved.

"Tomorrow we’ll keep working through a similar program, as well as some aero tests, and just keep adding to the mileage."

Force India Mercedes

Sahara Force India continued testing in Jerez as James Rossiter completed 42 laps in the VJM06 this morning. Paul Di Resta completed a small number of laps this afternoon before an exhaust failure cut short the programme.

James Rossiter: “It has been four and a half years since I last drove a Formula One car, but with the simulator experience I’ve built up recently it didn’t take too long to get back up to speed. The programme today has been very useful for getting a feel for the car as a reference for the simulator. The cars have changed quite a lot and it was the first time I’ve used KERS. It’s important to know how the tyres behave and we’ve worked hard to try and understand them this week. That will help make the simulator model more representative as a way of exploiting the car’s potential.”

Jakob Andreasen, Chief Race Engineer: “The programme this morning with James went very well. We continued with the aero work and focussed on getting James comfortable with the car and back in the groove. Once the aero passes were complete, we had a chance to give James some short and long runs with both the medium and soft tyres, which will give him an important reference when running on the simulator. After lunch we installed Paul in the car, but an exhaust failure forced us to end the day early. Fortunately, good work by the engineers using the telemetry meant the damage was only superficial.”

Sauber Ferrari

Esteban Gutiérrez was behind the wheel of the Sauber C32-Ferrari for the first time today. He immediately felt comfortable in the car and was able to complete a comprehensive programme over 110 laps, which included aerodynamic measurements, tyre and brake material testing and several long runs with high fuel loads, without any technical problems.

Tom McCullough, Head of Track Engineering: "Another good day and 110 laps completed without any reliability problems, which is very encouraging. Esteban has a total of six testing days before going to Melbourne, so we had a comprehensive programme from a driver and car point of view, and we got a lot of that achieved today.

Esteban Gutiérrez: "It was a very positive day with 110 laps. I had the chance to get to know the car and the tyres that are behaving quite differently. Because of this it was important to understand the warm-up characteristics and the behaviour on long runs with high fuel loads. It was very interesting to feel the progress - something that gets me up to speed. I’m positive about the new car and I immediately felt comfortable in it.“

Esteban Gutiérrez will be at the wheel of the Sauber C32 for the final day of testing in Jerez de la Frontera tomorrow.

Mercedes

Nico Rosberg completed a successful third day of pre-season testing for MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS today in Jerez, Spain. Following a difficult start to the week with limited mileage, Nico was today able to complete a total of 655 km – over two race distances - to make good progress through the team’s test items.

— Nico’s work today focused on reliability running to put mileage on the car and aerodynamic evaluations
— Nico ran the medium and hard compounds throughout the day, setting his fastest time on the medium tyres
— He evaluated a new front wing design this morning and ran with the new parts throughout the afternoon
— His total number of laps exceeded the highest single-day total from last year’s pre-season test in Jerez (132 laps for Michael Schumacher on 8 February 2012 in the 2011 car)
— Nico also completed pit-stop practice during the final hour of today’s running

Lewis Hamilton will complete the fourth and final day of the test tomorrow.

Nico Rosberg: I’m very happy with today and I think it was probably a personal record for me to do almost 150 laps. I’ve never been so well prepared physically as I am this season; I feel on top form and it was no problem to complete the programme. To drive the distance from Silverstone to Spa in one day with no problems whatsoever is a fantastic achievement from the team. It really made up for the last two days and put a smile on everybody’s face. In terms of driving the car, I have a good feeling, I can push it and feel comfortable - but obviously we still have plenty of work to do to continue improving.

Lotus Renault

Kimi Räikkönen had his first taste of the E21 on track during the third day of testing in Jerez, Spain, ending the day with the 4th fastest time after a programme of aerodynamic assessment.

A crisp morning gave way to glorious blue skies as the team ran through a variety of exhaust evaluations. Running for Kimi ended early due to a clutch issue.

Kimi Räikkönen will take the wheel of the E21 for final day of the Jerez test tomorrow.

Kimi Räikkönen: “It was good to get behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car again. The E21 feels quite good so far, even if the balance isn’t quite to my liking yet. That didn’t stop us going through the programme we wanted to do which had a lot of aero runs in it. We know the car can go faster, we were just running through what we needed to achieve. It’s a shame that we had a clutch issue at the end of the day, but that’s why we come testing so we can find these problems and fix them.”

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: “Although we haven’t covered as many laps as we have on the previous two days we have still have been very productive. We spent much of the morning testing various exhaust exit specifications for our Coandă system. The car isn’t yet fully to Kimi’s liking, but we improved this through the day. We still have work to do with the balance, which is something we’ll work on tomorrow. Running ended early for us with a clutch failure which we’re investigating, but overall we’ve had a productive day of aero and exhaust testing.”

Williams Renault

Mike Coughlan, Technical Director: We’ve had a productive day today with Valtteri completing a busy test programme without issue. We did a number of higher fuel runs as Valtteri clocked up 86 laps on his first outing as an official race driver for the team. The Jerez circuit is quite aggressive on tyres and we have already gained a lot of data over the last two days, so we decided to switch our focus. Aside from some core mechanical work in preparation for the FW35, we focussed on further aero evaluations throughout the day and gathered all the data we required.

Valtteri Bottas: It was my first day as an official race driver today and it’s been a long wait. Since the announcement last year I’ve been looking forward to this day and it’s great to finally get the season underway. Everything went as planned and we completed a lot of laps doing both aero and tyre work to gather some good data. It was a great start to 2013 for me.

The Williams F1 Team will be back on track tomorrow, Friday 8 February, with Valtteri Bottas continuing in the FW34 for the final day of the test.

Red Bull Renault

After two days with Mark Webber at the wheel of the Infiniti Red Bull Racing RB9, today it was Sebastian Vettel’s turn to get acquainted with the new car. The triple world champion wasted no time in exploring its potential and set the day’s third-quickest time, with a lap of 1:19.052. After 102 laps Sebastian said it had been good to get behind the wheel again after the winter break.

Sebastian Vettel: “So far, I think we can be pretty happy. Mark had a good couple of days to start with and I took over today. It was great to get back in the car, to get rid of the rust and to get back in the groove again. The first feeling is good and the car is working well. It’s difficult to judge the speed, but in terms of reliability it looks pretty good. For today we accomplished what we set out to achieve – which was to put a lot of laps on the car.

“At this stage it’s very difficult to judge anything else,” he added. “It could be that there is a favourite after these three tests, but it could turn out to be completely different in Australia because it’s a different track with different characteristics. I expect the Championship to be at least as tight as last year, as the regulations haven’t changed so much.

“In terms of the times, it’s always nice to be on top, but if there’s one phase of the year where it matters least, it’s here. Now is the time to do our homework. It’s good for us to do a lot of laps, to see that the car is working well and we’ll go from there.”

Race Engineering Co-ordinator Andy Damerum commented: “Obviously today was Sebastian’s first chance to drive the RB9 and, as with Mark, the car behaved well. We were a little delayed getting out this morning because of a few changes we wanted to make, but it didn’t hamper progress and another 102 laps is very respectable. Today was about carrying on the work of the past two days, evolving the car and how it’s performing. We worked on set-up in the morning, did some aero work in the afternoon and also put in some longer runs to check durability and to continue assessing the tyres. Tomorrow, it’ll hopefully be more of the same.”

Marussia Cosworth

The Marussia F1 Team embarked on its third day of testing at the Circuito de Jerez today, where Max Chilton was back in the car for his second day of running.

After two abbreviated days with the new MR02, the Team were keen to add further mileage to the car, including achieving its first race distance.

This morning, a few difficulties with the on-board electronics gave rise to a slightly broken programme, so the early part of the race distance work was rather stilted as a result of time spent in the garage. The engineers worked well with the Team’s technical partners to resolve these issues to allow a shift of focus towards understanding the mechanical systems of the car.

This afternoon the Team completed the race distance work before heading into a performance programme.

Max Chilton: “I’m really pleased with how my second day in the car has gone and I’m happy to have been able to reveal a little more of the car’s potential. Obviously these are very early days for all of us, but there are some very positive signs and I’m excited about that. The race runs went very well and we’re starting to understand how the 2013 tyres are going to wear. Having completed the long run work we needed to, it was nice to have a new tyre run at the end of the day to explore more of the car’s performance. What we found was very encouraging and this has given the Team a nice boost at this early stage of the MR02’s development.”

John Booth, Team Principal, Marussia F1 Team: “Overall, today has been a much more positive day and we are certainly moving in the right direction. We are less happy with the mileage we are putting on the car, but we can take encouragement from having identified some of the areas for improvement now that we have completed our initial race distance work. As it was Max’s final day in the car this week, we opted to give him a performance programme to work through. We are still a long way from having any kind of optimised set-up on the car and we can see some areas where we need to work on this very early performance package. We look forward to starting to explore some of these tomorrow with Luiz Razia after completing some reliability work in the morning. Credit to Max for another great day’s work. It hasn’t been easy for either driver so far, but Max has responded well. He clearly appreciates the highs and lows which go with testing and he has applied himself well as the Team worked to resolve the teething issues.”

Ferrari

Third day of testing for Scuderia Ferrari at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit, in southern Spain. For the third consecutive day, Felipe Massa was at the wheel of the F138, getting through the planned programme established before the start of the test, without any problems.

In the first part of the day, the Brazilian completed the work which began yesterday and from mid-morning onwards, moved on to a comparison of the various compounds supplied by Pirelli. Back on track after the lunch break, Felipe had a harmless spin and was thus able to end the day, concentrating on long run tests.

The total number of laps completed was 85, with a best time of 1.17.879.

Testing continues at this circuit tomorrow, with Pedro De la Rosa making his debut.

McLaren Mercedes

Jenson returned to the cockpit this morning to complete his second day of running at Jerez, concluding his programme for this test.

As in previous days, the morning kicked off with further aero evaluation work – conducted over a number of shorter runs. The team then ran through a suite of larger mechanical changes in order to understand key changes in set-up – these were fully evaluated over a series of longer runs throughout the afternoon.

The team also conducted a number of live pitstops during the afternoon’s running.

Jenson made a precautionary stop on the track during the session’s dying minutes, and the car was recovered safely.

Sergio returns tomorrow for the final day’s running. As before, he will conduct a mix of aero and mechanical work, also running through a similar series of larger mechanical changes in order to better understand the set-up characteristics of MP4-28.

Toro Rosso Ferrari

On this the third day of testing, Jean-Eric Vergne had his first encounter with the STR8, therefore the first item on the programme was ensuring he was comfortable in the car. The focus of the early laps was on allowing the Frenchman to familiarise himself with the new machine, before moving on to a programme that looked at set-up work, some aero development, as well as assessing cooling solutions. Jean-Eric is back behind the wheel tomorrow, for the final day of this test.

Jean-Eric Vergne: “It was really nice to be back behind the wheel for the first time this year. At the start of the morning, I was getting used to being in a Formula 1 car again and a brand new one of course, the STR8. After that, we immediately started doing some useful work and again in the afternoon we learned some important things about the car. Our aim today was not to find the perfect balance but to get as much work done with what we had, to get through the items on the test schedule and learn a lot. Today was also the first time I have worked with my new race engineer, Phil Charles and I must say it went well and I think that the acclimatisation period between us will be much shorter than I had anticipated.”