Silverstone, Day 1: Magnussen tops test for McLaren

Despite a laid-back approach to most of the day’s running at Silverstone Circuit, Kevin Magnussen ended the first day of the F1 Young Driver Test at the top of the timesheets following a blistering run set on the Pirelli medium compound only 20 minutes before the end of the session.

For much of the afternoon it had looked as though Antonio Felix da Costa would claim top honours for Red Bull. The Portuguese racer spent the morning trading fastest laps with James Calado before delivering more of the same in the afternoon, this time duelling with experienced racer Paul di Resta.

At the end of the morning’s running it was Calado who topped the timesheets for Force India with a 1m33.986s lap before handing the car over to race driver di Resta for the afternoon. Calado will be back behind the wheel of the VJM06 on either Thursday or Friday
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Also limited to a morning’s running was Marussia’s Tio Ellinas, currently leading the GP3 championship. After 36 laps behind the wheel of the MR02, having set a fastest lap of 1m36.767s, the Cypriot racer handed over the controls to Max Chilton, so that the team’s race driver could evaluate the new Pirelli tyres. But Chilton was affected by an ECU problem that kept the Briton in the garage for much of the session.

Late in the afternoon the Caterham – driven by Alexander Rossi – suffered hydraulics failure, costing the American racer his best chance at a quick lap. Despite the issue, Rossi was able to complete 69 laps before calling it a day.

Daniel Juncadella lost out on significant track time in the morning, completing only five laps for Williams. But the Spanish racer made up for it with a long afternoon stint that saw Juncadella end the day fifth on the timesheets, with 55 laps under his belt.

Another driver to see reduced running on Wednesday morning was Robin Frijns, who did not leave the garage in his Sauber until the pitlane had been open for two hours. Despite the slow start, the Dutch driver gave a strong showing in the morning session, running in third on the timesheets. By the end of the afternoon, however, Frijns had slipped down to seventh with a fastest lap of 1m34.236s.

Also testing today were Johnny Cecotto, who managed sixth for Toro Rosso after finding some late afternoon pace; Nicolas Prost, who was eighth for Lotus with a 1m34.810s; and Davide Rigon, who was hot on Prost’s heels with a 1m34.874s lap for Ferrari.
Testing resumes at 9am (BST) on Thursday 18 July.

Caterham Renault

Alexander Rossi: “It’s been a productive day and I think we’re all pleased we’ve completed such a good number of laps. Obviously for me today was another piece of the F1 jigsaw, adding more experience of the 2013 car on top of the Canadian GP FP1 session I did in June, but really my main priority was helping the team continue the push towards the cars ahead.

“After the installation lap we were straight into the program, running through a number of test items in both the morning and afternoon sessions that will help the team in the coming races. We didn’t have any reliability issues until late in the day when we had a hydraulics problem and that unfortunately meant I didn’t have a chance to put in a really quick lap, but we were still able to complete most of the day’s plan and that’s good, for the team and for me as it means we have both got pretty much everything we could from day one of the test.”

Toro Rosso Ferrari

A few weeks on from the British Grand Prix, Formula 1 returns to Silverstone circuit, with the slight difference that the teams are operating out of the old paddock on the short straight down to Copse corner. Also very different to our previous visit is the weather: with air and track temperatures approaching 30 and 45 degrees respectively, this is ideal weather for testing. Scuderia Toro Rosso has a busy schedule for the three days and for the first of those, Johnny Cecotto was at the wheel for the eight hours of track time available. The Venezuelan, who last drove for us at the 2012 Young Driver test at Abu Dhabi, once again produced a solid performance, working through a programme looking at the upcoming developments on the car. Overall, the results were positive and with a high number of laps completed, there is plenty of data in the bank. In addition, while it is our race drivers who are meant to evaluate the new Pirelli tyres later in the week, that work also began today, as the new compounds are being used throughout the three days.

Johnny Cecotto: “It has been another amazing experience, having another day working with Toro Rosso, who made me feel very comfortable in the team and in the car. It really confirmed my desire to try and get into Formula 1, especially as I felt the car was much more suited to my driving style than the GP2 machines. We managed to get through what was quite an ambitious programme of tests and being able to work on the car development programme was very interesting. I really enjoyed working with all the guys again during what was a very enjoyable day for me.”

In a change to our original plan for this test, Daniel Ricciardo will now get behind the wheel of the STR8 for the first half of tomorrow, before handing over to Carlos Sainz, who runs in the afternoon.

Sauber Ferrari

Wednesday in Silverstone saw the Sauber F1 Team test and reserve driver Robin Frijns on track. The 21-year old Dutchman is pretty familiar with the Sauber F1 Team, as well as the Silverstone circuit, having raced there numerous times. After driving a Formula One car for the first time last year at the Young Driver Days in Abu Dhabi, this is his second test with the team. The GP2 driver experienced perfect weather conditions and covered 72 laps at Silverstone today.

Tom McCullough, Head of Track Engineering: “The initial running this morning focused around gathering further aero and tyre data with additional test instrumentation fitted to the car. The rest of the day was spent evaluating development aero and mechanical test parts, along with set-up work to optimise the car around the 2012 Construction tyres. Having driven with us before, Robin was quickly up to speed and did a solid job in the car, performing many additional data gathering tasks as well as providing valuable driver feedback. We lost some track time around midday due to a reliability problem, the cause of which is being investigated now. Robin will continue in the car tomorrow morning before Nico takes over in the afternoon session.”

Robin Frijns: “It was quite a busy day. We started with some aero tests this morning and did a lot of installation laps. In the afternoon we lost a bit of track time, but the crew sorted the car quite quickly. I was continuously in the car from 2.30pm until the end of the session. It was my first time driving a Formula One car on a high-speed track, as the Yas Marina circuit is a bit slower. It’s fun at such high speed and I got used to it quite quickly. Maggotts, Becketts and Chapel are always a bit difficult, so I had to adapt to that, which went quite well at the end. I drove a lot of laps on the hard tyres, which felt comfortable. With the medium tyres I didn’t feel as comfortable yet, so that is something I still need to work on. At the end of the day we did a lot of mileage and tested a lot of things. Working with the team was good fun. The boys are quite fast.”

Tomorrow morning Robin Frijns will take to the track again, while Nico Hülkenberg will get into the car in the afternoon. On Friday Kimiya Sato (24/JP) will drive a Formula One car for the very first time.

Lotus Renault

Nico Prost completed the first day of running at the Silverstone Young Driver Test by setting the eighth fastest time of the day in the team’s E21. Nico ran through a programme of aerodynamic assessments over the course of a glorious day of sunshine at the Northamptonshire circuit.

Davide Valsecchi will take over tomorrow with Nico returning to the car on Friday in a change to the original programme – which had seen Kimi Räikkönen set to take the wheel – made following clarification of FIA rules stipulating that race drivers would be unable to test anything other than tyres.

Nico Prost: “It was a very positive day where we completed everything in the itinerary. We only ran with the hard tyres today; focusing on comparison assessments of the latest parts for the car as well as aero work which meant we didn’t make any setup changes. Considering this our pace was pretty good. I’m happy that I’ll be running again on Friday when hopefully we’ll be able to look for a bit more performance, but the important focus of this test is to complete a programme aimed at putting Kimi and Romain in the best position to be able to win the Hungarian Grand Prix.”

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: “Nico got our programme off to a strong start with fast and consistent laps all day meaning we have plenty of data to analyse overnight. We had a few niggles to sort in the morning, but were soon in our stride running with large aero-logging rakes and other data gathering equipment. We’ve evaluated some new updates which are looking promising and we have a good initial impression of Pirelli’s latest tyres. Tomorrow is Davide’s turn on driving duties and we expect another strong day of running. Looking to Friday, in a change to our original plan, we will now run Nico again. Once the details of what race drivers were allowed to do here became apparent, we would have only been able to conduct a very limited programme with Kimi. By running Nico again we can build on the work already carried out and hopefully be in the best position to develop the E21 ahead of Budapest.”

The Young Driver Test continues tomorrow with Davide Valsecchi in action.

Williams Renault

Xevi Pujolar, Chief Engineer: We are really pleased with Dani today. He adapted to the team and the car very quickly, and was straight up to speed with all the procedures. In terms of consistency, Dani drove clean laps and made no mistakes so we’re really happy with him. We were doing some aero development work this morning running lots of sensors on the car but we had a few problems getting everything to work together which meant we didn’t complete all the runs we wanted to. We now plan to do some more laps with him tomorrow afternoon to complete the programme including some longer runs to see how he can adapt.

Daniel Juncadella: From the first lap I could feel the speed of the car and it was a great experience today. I’m really happy with the chance the team gave me. In the end, we couldn’t complete our full programme but I think we had some good runs this afternoon. I was happy with the balance of the car and it was good to try the new tyres. Physically I feel good, it was just quite warm today but as I’m used to closed cars in DTM I can’t complain really! I get on well with the engineers and team and we worked well together. The team has given me all the support I needed which has been really nice so I’m looking forward to getting another chance tomorrow.

The Williams F1 Team will be back on track tomorrow, Thursday 18 July, with Pastor Maldonado driving for the second day of the test and Daniel Juncadella also getting behind the wheel during the afternoon.

Red Bull Renault

Infiniti Red Bull Racing’s Young Driver Test got underway at Silverstone today, with António Félix da Costa at the wheel. After a change to the team’s schedule, António spent the full day in the RB9 and afterwards said the experience of driving an F1 car at Silverstone had been one to savour.

António Félix da Costa: “It was nice to get the full day’s running, especially here. If there’s a circuit where you really feel that you’re in an F1 car it’s here at Silverstone, with all these fast corners. It something completely different and something you have to get used to but it was a great day, a great feeling.

“In terms of the work, it was a good day. Obviously, it’s not the first time for me in a Red Bull car, so everything is sort of familiar. It’s an important test for the team and my job is simply to drive consistently and not make mistakes. I think we achieved the goal of being consistent and working through the programme.”

Race Engineering Co-ordinator Andy Damerum: “António did a good job today. It’s not always easy for a driver, as there’s a lot to take and a lot of different demands being made of them. António obviously drove for us at last year’s Young Driver test, but that was some time ago and getting back into an F1 car again isn’t always easy. But he did almost 350km before the lunch break and was feeling fine, which was good. In the morning we had him doing some specific things which didn’t provide him with the chance to set a quick lap, but after lunch when that opportunity did arise he was able to find a rhythm very quickly, which is not always easy to do and he set a decent time. As for the team’s work, there’s always a few niggles with a test car, but we did manage to get through a lot of things on our plan, so I think we can mark it down as a successful day overall.”

Marussia Cosworth

The Marussia F1 Team got its Young Driver Test programme underway on the opening day of running at Silverstone’s National circuit.

GP3 Series leader Tio Ellinas, who drives for the Marussia Manor Racing GP3 squad that is part of the Marussia F1 Team’s Young Driver Programme, was at the wheel of the MR02 this morning. This was Tio’s second outing in a Formula 1 car, the first occasion being the Team’s straight-line test at Kemble last month. It was however his first taste of the MR02 on a more typical racing circuit. In hot and sunny conditions, Tio had a clear run at his programme, which began with some acclimatisation runs to familiarise him with the car’s systems before building up to the deployment of KERS and the DRS, and further systems and controls tasks.

This afternoon, an ECU problem gave rise to a longer than anticipated break in the run plan. Max Chilton, scheduled for the full afternoon, commenced his programme of tyre testing with only an hour of the session remaining.

Tio Ellinas: “Without doubt, today has been the best moment of my life. It was a fantastic experience that I know I will remember forever. I feel very proud to be representing my country and to have so much support from the people back home in Cyprus. I have driven the car once before, at the Team’s straight-line test at Kemble, but this was my first time out in a Formula 1 car at a proper circuit and so it felt like the first time all over again. There was a lot of familiarisation to do at the start of the day. I obviously have some experience of things like the very complex layout on the steering wheel; it’s still so much to take in though. I was also using KERS and DRS today for the first time and there is such a lot to think about over the course of a lap. I soon built up my confidence though and after a few single lap runs I was building up to longer runs and I was really able to start putting a lap together. I am happy with my performance today and the Team seem pleased with me. I have received some great feedback and support from them so I can’t thank them enough for that. Everything has gone according to plan so I can’t ask for any more than that right now. Now I will try to refocus on the GP3 Championship and my ambitions for that this season.”

Max Chilton: “My afternoon programme has been very brief due to a problem with the ECU, so I didn’t get much time in the car - just 58 minutes. At least we were able to complete some of the planned work with the tyres though and any running is always useful. It has been another long break between races but Hungary holds such special memories for me from my GP2 win there last year, so I’m really looking forward to returning next week. In the meantime we have the important occasion of Moscow City Racing this weekend and I will be heading there tomorrow.”

John Booth, Team Principal: “It has definitely been a day of two halves. The whole team was pleased to see Tio in the car this morning as just reward for his very positive debut season in GP3 last year. He got off to a good start, conducting some aero measurements similar to those he ran through in Kemble and then he set about completing some timed laps. It is clearly a huge amount for the young drivers to take in, stepping up from GP3 to F1 and working with not only many more people but more complicated systems on the cars. However, Tio took all of this in his stride and achieved the objective of improving every run, running two good qualifying simulations on the soft tyres. The plan for lunchtime was to switch the drivers over and start a tyre test for Pirelli in the afternoon but unfortunately we experienced several issues with ECUs on the car. The Team has worked hard with MESL to try to solve these issues, however there is still a lot to understand. Unfortunately all of this meant that we severely compromised Max’s tyre test this afternoon, although we were at least able to provide Pirelli with some information on the new prototype hard tyre.”

McLaren Mercedes

Formula 1’s annual Young Driver Test kicked off at a sunny Silverstone today, with Vodafone McLaren Mercedes represented by three of its test and development drivers; Kevin Magnussen (Wednesday), Oliver Turvey (Thursday), and Gary Paffett (Friday).
For Danish driver Kevin, it was his second outing behind the wheel of a McLaren – he took part in last November’s Young Driver Test at the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi.

The engineering team spent the morning conducting investigative work into aerodynamic car changes and evaluating Pirelli rubber, with the 20-year-old completing a number of longer stints.

This afternoon, Kevin undertook more long runs, continuing the team’s focus on aero and tyre evaluation. He also took the opportunity to acclimatise himself to the MP4-28’s cockpit controls.

Kevin Magnussen: “This is the first time I’d driven at Silverstone in a Formula 1 car, and it was a fantastic experience. We covered a lot of mileage – almost two race distances – and, given there isn’t a great deal of testing these days, that opportunity was invaluable. The process of providing feedback to the engineers about the car, and testing new set-ups can only make me a stronger driver. I have to thank Vodafone McLaren Mercedes for giving me this opportunity, and I’m going to apply everything I’ve learned today. Getting a taste in the car only makes me more hungry to one day realise my ambition of racing in the highest level of motorsport. Without a doubt I learnt a great deal today.”



With Kevin having concluded his programme, Oliver takes over for tomorrow, concentrating on a number of different areas of development.

Force India Mercedes

The first day of the Young Driver Test saw James Calado complete his first-ever laps in a Formula One car in the morning session, while Paul Di Resta took over driving duties in the afternoon.

James Calado: “Getting to drive a Formula One car was a lifetime ambition and even coming to the track this morning was quite emotional. It was a completely different experience from what I am used to in GP2 but it took only a few laps to get a hold of it. I was able to set some sensible lap times and to give quite accurate feedback on the tyres within ten laps, which was quicker than I expected. I am here to do the best job possible and hopefully we will learn a few things from my work that can help Paul and Adrian in the rest of the season.”

Paul Di Resta: “The focus of the test is to help Pirelli get all the data necessary to understand the new tyres. It is very early days and we’ve only just started the programme so it’s hard to say too much. The conditions here are perfect for what Pirelli want to do, especially so soon after the Silverstone race. This is the ideal venue for them to learn as much as they can.”

Ferrari

Scuderia Ferrari got through its planned programme on this opening day of the Young Driver Test. Exceptionally this year, alongside the youngsters aspiring to make it to Formula 1, the ten teams taking part are allowed to use their official race drivers to test the new Pirelli tyres.

Davide Rigon was at the wheel of the F138 at Silverstone, working on a series of tests that were mainly aerodynamic in nature. He completed a total of 447.716 kilometres around the English track, where the hot and sunny weather, which can also be expected at the next round of the championship in Hungary, provided ideal testing conditions.

The Italian driver completed 76 laps, on the way to posting the ninth fastest time of the day in 1.34.874.

Davide Rigon: “We got through a lot of work today, starting off mainly with me adapting to the car, because apart from a filming day in Barcelona, I hadn’t driven it on track. I had raced here at Silverstone in a GT car before, but Formula 1 is a completely different world! We weren’t looking at the lap times, but worked mainly on acquiring data from comparing different aero configurations, which is a very important part of my work on the simulator. There were no particular problems with the tyres, although we didn’t do any particularly long runs. Compared to last year’s test at Magny-Cours, the demands are different and the programme is longer, but I am happy to deal with this responsibility and I am grateful to the team for the faith they have shown in my efforts. I really hope it is of use to them.”

Rigon continues testing for the Scuderia here tomorrow.