Silverstone, Day 2: Ricciardo tops test for Toro Rosso

Red Bull hopeful Daniel Ricciardo was first and third on the timesheets at the end of the second day of testing at Silverstone, thanks to a split programme that saw the Australian running for Toro Rosso in the morning and Red Bull in the afternoon.

The morning’s running was interrupted by a red flag brought out by the spinning Sauber of Robin Frijns, who managed to avoid causing major damage to his car during the incident at Luffield. In the afternoon, Nico Hulkenberg took over and spent the rest of the day testing tyres.

Another race driver taking to the track this morning was Pastor Maldonado, who completed 71 laps of tyre testing for Williams before handing over to Daniel Juncadella.

Davide Rigon and James Calado were back testing for Ferrari and Force India respectively. Calado had set the pace on Wednesday morning, and the Briton improved on his second day behind the wheel. Slightly faster still was Oliver Turvey, who finished Wednesday fifth on the timesheets, with 97 laps under his belt for McLaren.

At the end of the morning’s running it was Ricciardo who topped the timesheets for Toro Rosso with a 1m32.972s lap. The Australian was back on track testing for Red Bull in the afternoon, effectively auditioning for the role of Mark Webber’s replacement. It did not get off to the smoothest of starts; Ricciardo found himself in the gravel at Luffield early on, but the rest of the afternoon passed without incident.

In the morning Ricciardo was testing the new Pirelli tyre construction for his current team, and as a consequence was restricted to a tyre testing programme. Taking over from the Australian in the afternoon was Carlos Sainz Jr., who completed 39 laps and ended the day second on the timesheets, with a fastest lap of 1m36.016s that saw the Toro Rosso junior sandwiched between Ricciardo’s times for both teams.

Davide Valsecchi impressed for Lotus, finishing in fourth with a best time of 1m34.554s after 91 laps. Slightly less impressive was the much celebrated Antonio Felix da Costa, who had the disadvantage of running only in the morning, second on the timesheets at the lunch break but down in seventh when the day’s running was complete.

Also testing today were Will Stevens, who managed 13th for Caterham after 98 laps of running with a best time of 1m36.082s; Paul di Resta, who was 14th with a 1m36.016s after an afternoon spent doing more tyre evaluation; and Rodolfo Gonzalez, testing for Marussia. The Venezuelan managed a fastest lap of 1m37.949s after a long day behind the wheel that saw Gonzalez complete 92 laps of Silverstone.

Testing resumes at 9am (BST) on Friday 19 July.

Caterham Renault

Will Stevens: "It’s been a really good day and I want to thank everyone who’s helped make my first run in an F1 car happen. For me the main focus of the day was learning as much as I could. It was obviously my first time driving the F1 car and even though I’d prepared for the test with simulator sessions and time back the factory, nothing really prepares you for the step up in performance compared to what I’ve been racing so far, and the whole track setup.

"However, to be honest, it didn’t take long to start feeling comfortable in the car. In the early runs we were mainly focusing on aero work, so it was all about working to the very precise plan the engineers set, and then, from mid-morning, we started looking at more normal test work - setup options, different bodywork, all the test items the team needed to work through for the races to come.

"We stopped for lunch after nearly 50 laps and I was feeling good, ready to get straight back in and carry on! The afternoon session was much the same - we tried a few different setups and then ended with more aero work.

"Overall it’s been a really good day, one where I think I did just what the team wanted and learned a lot. I’m off straight away to the next World Series round in Austria, but I can’t wait to get back into an F1 car!"

Toro Rosso Ferrari

The English heatwave continued for the second day of testing as Scuderia Toro Rosso accommodated two drivers in the cockpit of the STR8. In the morning, Daniel Ricciardo was at the wheel, which meant that the Pirelli tyres, the Hard and Medium compounds were the focus of the team’s attention, running to a programme prescribed by the tyre supplier. The team worked methodically through all the planned tests. At lunchtime, having set what would be the fastest time of the day, Daniel had a quick change into Infiniti Red Bull Racing overalls for a run in the RBR 9. For Carlos Sainz, this will be a day to remember, as the 18 year old Spaniard got his first taste of driving a Formula 1 car, when he took to the track in our car for the afternoon session. Because of his status as a “young driver” there were no restrictions relating to testing and the engineers were able to continue with the development programme initiated yesterday when Johnny Cecotto was driving. Sainz delivered a solid performance, completing a good number of laps, without making any mistakes, delivering plenty of useful data and producing respectable lap times.

Carlos Sainz: “First of all, I want to thank Red Bull and especially Toro Rosso for this opportunity. When I got out of the car at the end, I went round to every mechanic and said ‘thank you for being part of the happiest day of my life!’ Driving the car was an incredible feeling and this track helped, because if there is one circuit where you are really going to feel you are in a Formula 1 car, it’s Silverstone. As for my impressions of the car, everything about it was amazing, but if I had to pick on one aspect it would be the car’s agility and the way it can change direction at 300 km/h. That’s something I had never experienced before and it was the most impressive thing for me. Tomorrow, I will get the chance to drive the Infiniti Red Bull Racing car, but to start like this with Toro Rosso, which was not part of my plan for the year, makes this the best day and tomorrow, to sit in a world champion’s car thanks to Red Bull, who have supported me since I was fifteen, will I hope be just as good.”

Tomorrow, the final day of this session, Jean-Eric Vergne will drive in the morning, continuing the tyre evaluation work, before handing over to Daniil Kvyat for the afternoon.

Sauber Ferrari

The second day of the Young Driver Training Test in Silverstone saw Sauber F1 Team test and reserve driver Robin Frijns on track again in the morning. Frijns coverd 17 laps carrying out aero tests. Unfortunately, a spin into the gravel ended his day slightly earlier than planned. In the afternoon Sauber F1 Team driver, Nico Hülkenberg, took over. Hülkenberg tested the new specification P Zero tyre that will be used from the Hungarian Grand Prix onwards. He added 52 laps to the day’s tally.

Tom McCullough, Head of Track Engineering: “The initial running was again dedicated to installation laps where we were gathering aero data with test instrumentation fitted to the car. Unfortunately we lost some valuable track time due to some minor car problems, but we completed the most important aero tests in the morning. Shortly after that we started the performance runs, but Robin had a spin into the gravel in turn 7 which limited his number of timed laps. After lunch Nico got his first experience of the 2012 construction tyres with the C32 while conducting a tyre test programme for Pirelli.”

Robin Frijns: “This morning we did a lot of installation laps again. At around 12pm we finally did a performance run. After the first lap we changed the settings on the car. Following that I felt the car wasn’t as balanced as before, so I spun off and that ended my day with just one flying lap.”

Nico Hülkenberg: “I had a good half day on track completing 52 laps in total. That’s not a bad effort in less than three hours. The updates on the car felt quite positive. However, it is difficult to compare that to the race weekend here, because the weather conditions were very different. Today was much hotter, and, of course, the tyres were different. Also the work on the Pirelli tyres was quite successful. I have a good feeling on them. I now I look forward to going to Budapest to see how competitive we are.”

Tomorrow Kimiya Sato (24/JP) will drive for the whole day and get a taste of a Formula One car for the very first time.

Marussia Cosworth

Day Two of the Young Driver Test at Silverstone saw the Marussia F1 Team’s Reserve Driver Rodolfo Gonzalez at the wheel of the MR02 for both the morning and afternoon sessions.

Rodolfo has taken part in three FP1 sessions so far this season, so the opportunity to work through a more detailed programme and accrue greater mileage was most welcome for the young Venezuelan. Over the course of the day he completed 92 laps, which equates to more than 500kms, the same distance as one and a half Grands Prix.

Tomorrow, Rodolfo will return to the car for the morning session before Jules Bianchi takes over for the afternoon.

Rodolfo Gonzalez : “It’s been really good to be back in the MR02 and for a whole day rather than the 90 minute FP1 sessions I have taken part in so far. I’ve had a really full programme today and I’ve been able to put some longer runs together and find a good rhythm. After a very intensive day I’m looking forward to getting back in the car tomorrow morning to finish the work we started today and focus more on some performance runs.”

John Booth, Team Principal : “Today has been a more productive day. This was the first opportunity in a long time for us to perform testing with many sets of tyres and so the focus of our programme has been to evaluate a whole series of test items that have been in our development plan for some time. As is usual, when carrying out this work we have not really been focusing on lap times but more engineering comparisons. We are pleased with the results of the test in the areas of control systems, suspension and set-up oriented around the new tyres. We have gathered a large amount of data which will be analysed over the coming days before Budapest and hopefully some of the items that we have worked on will yield benefit.”

Williams Renault

Xevi Pujolar, Chief Engineer: This morning we did a tyre test with Pastor following a programme given to us by Pirelli. Ideally we would have liked to have modified the car set-up to better suit the tyres, but we couldn’t do this as part of today’s test so we couldn’t get the most of the performance out of them. We saw some differences compared to the tyres we have been running so far this season but we’ll do more fine tuning in Hungary. It looks interesting from what we have seen so far, so it could make the racing slightly different. We did another 30 laps with Dani this afternoon to complete our programme with him and give him the opportunity to learn more. We did some performance runs and a long run, and again he made no mistakes and coped well in the different conditions. We are really pleased with what we have seen from him over the last two days.

Pastor Maldonado: It was a good day today. We completed all of the planned programme for Pirelli. The tyres feel quite different but we need to see how we compare against other cars on the track with the same compounds. We didn’t get performance from the car with them so we need more time in Hungary as we couldn’t make any set-up changes today. It was good to be back in the car though, in preparation for getting back to racing next week.

Daniel Juncadella: It was nice to be able to have another go in the car today. The conditions were different today with the wind changing direction so I struggled to get used to the balance of the car a bit. However, I think it was good for to have another opportunity in the car and I’ve really enjoyed the experience a lot.

The Williams F1 Team will be back on track tomorrow, Friday 19 July, with Susie Wolff driving for the final day of the test.

McLaren Mercedes

Test and development driver Oliver Turvey took to the wheel today for his first taste of the MP4-28, on the second of this week’s three-day Young Driver Test at Silverstone.

Oliver began the day with a number of iterative aero tests, running through mechanical set-up changes and conducting tyre evaluation runs.

After lunch, he then began a series of longer runs aimed at testing modifications made in the morning. The day also enabled the team to improve correlation between the simulator and the track.

Oliver Turvey: “It was a really busy day given we tested lots of things on the car. Hopefully it will help us to improve our understanding. Mid-seasons test are very important, which is why I hardly got out the car all day. I loved the experience. There are limited opportunities to drive a Formula 1 car these days, so to do nearly 100 laps was great. I’m in my fourth season with the team and really enjoying it. I want to thank them for choosing me to drive here, it was fantastic.”

After a full day in the cockpit, Oliver hands over to Gary Paffett, who will conduct the final day of testing tomorrow.

Force India

The Young Driver Test at Silverstone continued today with British driver, James Calado, completing 48 laps this morning before handing over to Paul Di Resta for a Pirelli programme in the afternoon.

James Calado: “It has been fantastic to get an opportunity to drive this week. It’s another world compared to what I am used to with so much to learn and so many names to remember! Yesterday was more about getting comfortable with the car and today I was able to do a bigger programme with some aero work. The team also gave me the chance to try some pit stop practice, which was good experience. As a British driver it has been amazing to drive a Formula One car at my home track – it’s certainly a memory that will stay with me. The car is just phenomenal – the high speed grip, the brakes and the g-forces. I’m really happy with how things have gone and I hope the work we’ve done will help the race drivers in Hungary.”

Red Bull Racing

Day Two of the Young Drivers’ Test saw Infiniti Red Bull Racing split its workload in two, with António Félix da Costa at the wheel of the RB9 in the morning and Daniel Ricciardo taking over in the afternoon for testing of Pirelli’s new specification tyres.

António picked up where he left off yesterday and though he managed just 19 laps, the Portuguese driver was pleased with his day and half’s work with the team.

“To drive the car for half of the three days of testing has been a fantastic opportunity,” he said. “It’s a good sign that the team believes I can carry such a heavy workload and get the job done. To be working with a world championship-winning team is the best learning experience you could have.”

Taking over in the afternoon, Daniel set about testing Pirelli’s tyres and working through the manufacturer’s programme.

“It was good today but very busy, so it’s still a bit of a blur,” he said. “I did quite a few laps this afternoon, so I’m happy with that. I had a small off but otherwise it was a trouble-free day. The off was my mistake, I just lost the rear on the entry. It was a good opportunity to get behind the wheel and experience two different beasts today. In terms of the inevitable speculation, I think this test is something for Red Bull to look at, but there’s still the rest of the season with Toro Rosso to do, so I’ll switch my focus back to that and won’t get too caught up in any rumours.”

Commenting on the day’s running Race Engineering Co-ordinator Andy Damerum said: “The morning was a bit frustrating as we were late going out. We discovered a problem with the car last night and that set us back. Despite that we did get some good data and António was excellent throughout. As for the afternoon, Daniel had only about 45 minutes to swap over from his morning tyre test to driving our car, a completely different machine, but he was up to speed very quickly. As ever his feedback was exemplary and he gave us a lot of information to go through.”

Ferrari

Another session held in very warm conditions, as Davide Rigon was at the wheel of the F138 for his second day at Silverstone for the Young Driver Test, where once again the conditions were ideal for testing. The Scuderia Ferrari driver completed 97 laps, with a best time of 1.34.053, the Italian having already taken part in this test for youngsters last season, at the wheel of a Ferrari. Today’s programme centred on a continuation of yesterday’s work of evaluating various aerodynamic packages, alongside an analysis of the Soft and Hard tyres brought here by Pirelli for all ten teams present.

Davide Rigon: “Today, we continued to move forward with the programme we begun yesterday, studying various aerodynamic packages. It was only in the afternoon that we began an evaluation of the performance of the Soft and Hard tyres. Once again, we were not looking at lap times, but instead we got through a lot of work to gather data which could help us to improve for the rest of the season. Compared to yesterday, I had a much better feeling from the car and I also knew the track better, which meant I was able to tackle the programme with more confidence, thanks in part to the work of the whole team”.

Scuderia Ferrari continues testing tomorrow, with Felipe Massa driving in the morning and Rigon in the afternoon.

Lotus Renault

Davide Valsecchi completed the second day of running at the Silverstone Young Driver Test as the third-fastest driver of the day. After completing 91 laps, Davide recorded the fourth-fastest time overall due to Daniel Ricciardo setting lap times in two different cars.

Davide ran through a programme of aerodynamic assessments including analysis work on the team’s rear wing ‘Device’. Nico Prost returns 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.

The Young Driver Test concludes tomorrow with Nico Prost returning to driving duties.

Davide Valsecchi: “Today was the highlight of my season and I really enjoyed my time in the car. Everything seemed to be going well and I hope that I’ve been able to contribute to the team’s efforts ahead of the next race in Budapest. We completed all the jobs on the schedule and I think I got some extra laps in too. I did miss the pit board for a few laps when the team was trying to call me in as the radio was broken. I stayed out until I thought they were going to throw the pit board at me, then I thought it was better that I came in!”

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: “Another excellent day from our perspective, with a full programme completed enabling us to develop our rear wing ‘Device’. It was perfect to test it here as we previously ran with the ‘Device’ at the British Grand Prix, so the data from that event combined with today’s work has allowed us to further refine it. Within today’s running we used the hard and medium tyres in high and low fuel configurations. We’re beginning to get a good understanding of the latest tyre evolution and have been looking at how best to get and keep them in their optimum operating window. We have some good data to study the tyre degradation characteristics and we’re well placed to go into the final day of the test and make further progress.”