Team reaction after Pirelli test day two

NB: This page will be updated with the teams’ press releases when available

Lotus Cosworth

The final day of on-track action of the 2010 season saw Lotus Racing’s Jarno Trulli enjoy his first taste of the new Pirelli tyres at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi.

As the whole paddock was busy packing up to head home for the winter break Jarno completed a total of 83 laps, recording a quickest time of 1.44.521.

Jarno Trulli (Chassis T127-02): “It’s been a very positive day. It was good to try the Pirelli tyres for the first time and while we have obviously got a lot of work ahead of us I think this was a good start. We will need to focus on the driveability of the tyres – on performance they were good, but we will need to work together in a clear direction to maximise the handling of the car. The hard compounds were pretty consistent, a little less so with the softs, but we have gathered a lot of data that will play an important part in the development of next year’s car. Now the season is over I want to thank the whole team for their work this year – we have finished where we wanted to be and everyone in the team has played their part in helping us reach our goals, so thank you to them and the fans for everything this year.”

Mike Gascoyne, Lotus Racing Chief Technical Officer: “Another successful day for us and a successful conclusion to both the test with Pirelli and the year in general. My thanks to Jarno for his work today – he gave us some excellent feedback which will give us valuable data for the development of the 2011 car. As this is the last run for the T127 I also want to thank the whole team for all their efforts in what has been a fantastic year and thank all our fans for giving us such great support throughout the season. Now we look ahead to 2011 and we are all excited about taking the next step forward with the new package in what is certain to be another very exciting chapter in our story.”

Force India Mercedes

The Force India F1 Team rounded off its 2010 racing year - its most successful season in F1 to date - by welcoming a new partner to the fold.

For the first time the team got experience of running with Pirelli tyres, which will be supplied to all teams in the FIA Formula One World Championship from 2011 onwards.

One day after the conclusion of the young driver test, Force India was back at the Yas Marina Circuit for the two day test, with Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta sharing driving duties on day one and Paul and Tonio Liuzzi participating in day two.

The trio completed tests designed to gather as much information as possible on weight distribution, aero settings and general balance to feed back into the development programme of the 2011 challenger, the VJM04, which continues apace back at the team’s HQ in Silverstone, UK. The team also ran extensive tests with the two types of compounds available at this test, the soft and medium tyre.

Dominic Harlow, chief race engineer: “We have been looking forward to this Pirelli tyre test since we received the first real information about the tyres from them in early September. Over these two days we’ve covered more than two race distances and have been impressed with Pirelli’s tyres.

We’ve allowed all three of our drivers to make an overall assessment in comparison to this year’s baseline, and then we’ve carried out further parameterised testing with the two compounds available. In addition we have run with a great many additional sensors and data acquisition systems to collect as much information as possible from the tyres on track. Having used eight sets, four option and four prime, we feel we’ve built a reasonable early picture of the tyres at a circuit which, although changing in condition, has proven productive for testing.

The next steps are for us to incorporate what we have learned into the development of VJM04, and for Pirelli’s engineers to analyse the data they have collected as they determine the tyre specifications that will be available to us when we are next testing in February 2011.”

Sauber Ferrari

The final day of running for 2010 was mainly dedicated to test items and also to work with the new tyres supplied by Pirelli. Both the team’s 2011 race drivers were at the wheel of the C29 on Saturday in Abu Dhabi. Kamui Kobayashi was on duty in the morning, Sergio Pérez took over for the afternoon.

Kamui Kobayashi: “Overall it was good to have this test with the new Pirelli tyres. Despite some technical problems with the car this morning I still gained a little bit more experience with these tyres and we got more data for next year. It was my last run with this car, so I want to say thank you C29! I also want to thank the team, and I’m looking forward to continuing to work with them.”

Sergio Perez: “It was a pretty good day for me even though we had a few problems, but we still got work done and have got a lot of data to be analysed now. It was important for me to do longer runs. I also felt a bit more comfortable with the car and more familiar with the procedures and the engineers, which enabled me to give better feedback to them. I’m quite happy and looking forward to pre-season testing.”

James Key: “It was another useful day with the new tyres but both drivers suffered from technical failures which compromised our programme. We will look into these issues when we are back in the factory. We learned a little bit more about how the tyres are behaving and it was important for Sergio to get his first run on Pirelli tyres. We had only two sets for him. The main part of his programme was to run on race fuel levels to get a feeling for the car in race condition. Thank you to the team for all the hard work this year! We are looking forward to returning with the new car.”

Renault

Le Renault F1 Team a terminé sa deuxième journée d’essais à Abu Dhabi, Robert Kubica toujours au volant de la R30 afin d’évaluer le comportement des nouveaux pneumatiques Pirelli.

Robert Kubica: « La journée a été plutôt constructive et il a été très utile de boucler autant de tours avec les nouveaux pneumatiques. Comme hier, nous avons utilisé les deux mélanges à notre disposition et avons collecté beaucoup d’informations, qui seront utilisées par nous comme par les ingénieurs de Pirelli. D’une manière générale, les deux jours ont été positifs et il nous faut maintenant en extraire les renseignements les plus déterminants. Mes sentiment initial est bon et il semble que les pneumatiques se soient améliorés avec les conditions de piste tout au long de la journée. »

Debrief Technique avec Alan Permane, Chef Ingénieur : « Nous avons connu une deuxième journée positive avec les pneumatiques Pirelli et avons bouclé des roulages de durée moyenne avec les mélanges tendres comme medium. Nous n’avons rencontré aucun problème. Cela nous a permis de commencer à comprendre les caractéristiques de ces enveloppes et d’en évaluer le taux de dégradation. Nous avons eu du mal avec le sous virage aujourd’hui et nous ne sommes pas arrivés à nous en débarrasser totalement, il nous faudra donc tenter de comprendre pourquoi. Ces deux prochains mois, nous allons renforcer notre collaboration avec Pirelli en échangeant des données, de manière à être prêts pour reprendre les essais, en Février prochain. »

Williams Cosworth

The AT&T Williams team have now completed this week’s Abu Dhabi young driver and Pirelli test.

The team will next be on track in February for the first of four winter test sessions in preparation for the 2011 FIA Formula One World Championship.

Tom McCullough, Senior Test Engineer: “We evaluated different braking systems today from which we have some interesting results. The rest of the session was spent concentrating
on performance set-up work and understanding the new tyres. In summary,
the team has had a productive week in Abu Dhabi. We’re pleased with the
progress made with Pirelli, and we’ve collected plenty of valuable
information to work on before returning to the track with the new car
next year.”

Rubens Barrichello: “ Another full day of testing today. We did a lot of laps! We learnt
everything about the tyre we needed to and have a good amount of data
check out over the winter. I want to thank all of the team for the
effort they have put in over the year. They have been great to work
with. I am now looking forward to going home and recharging over the
next two months and coming back refreshed in 2011.”

Ferrari

This was the last of two days of testing during which all the Formula 1 teams evaluated the new Pirelli tyres.

The last of the Scuderia Ferrari drivers to take to the track was Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard completed a total of 105 laps, the quickest in a time of 1.40.529.

“Overall, it was a positive day,” commented Fernando Alonso at the end of the session. “We had no particular problems with the Pirelli tyres and we were able to gather a lot of data for their engineers to work on. We are pleased with the way we worked and in how we were able to adapt the set-up of the car to suit the new tyres, especially in terms of the work we can do on the new car in preparation for next season. From what we could see, the switch from Bridgestone to Pirelli should not be a traumatic one. Being back on this track after the disappointment of Sunday? It’s normal that all of us still feel very disappointed, but that’s part of sport. I would think it’s the same thing the Dutch football players felt when they lost the World Cup final back in July: then, after a few weeks, they realised they had achieved something, while so many others had not even got anywhere close. The same goes for us: the final victory eluded us, but in any case we had a great season, with a fantastic fight back in the second part of the year. Next year we will try again, because we are Ferrari!”

McLaren Mercedes

Second day of testing on new Pirelli rubber and the last of four days’ testing at Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina circuit.

As the track surface and tyre continued to evolve, it was useful to note that both Oliver and Gary’s
comments on car balance dovetailed closely. The team managed to gather significant modelling data for both the car and the tyre, which will prove extremely useful over the winter.

The team has already developed a very harmonious working relationship with the Pirelli engineers and has helped to provide the Italian manufacturer with considerable feedback on the new tyres, most notably on tyre-life and durability.

Virgin Cosworth

Virgin Racing concluded its final day of running of 2010 today and ended the year on a high by achieving more mileage on a single car than on any other day of its debut season.

The team were on track at Yas Marina for the second of two days of testing with the sport’s new tyre
supplier Pirelli, with Timo Glock at the wheel of the VR-01:04 for one final outing before the winter break.

The programme for day two was a continuation of the tyre evaluation work started yesterday, with four more sets of the medium and soft compound rubber providing a further opportunity to understand their
characteristics and behaviour. The team have also been running some mechanical developments for next year’s car which, thanks to the excellent mileage achieved, has allowed the team to gather even more meaningful results to feed into the design for next year.

The race team now pack up and head home for a well-earned break, whilst the technical team, armed with the information gathered at Yas Marina this week, go headlong into two months of intensive preparation for the 2011 season.

TIMO GLOCK

"First of all my thanks to the team for one final push this week. It’s
been another busy week for us all at the end of the season but the
information that we have collected will be invaluable for next year’s
programme. We had a very good day of running and we have been able to
gather a huge amount of data from the tyres and the development parts
for 2011. With regard to the Pirelli tyres I think we have seen some
positive things and also some things that need to be addressed, but
that
is to be expected. The Option looks very good and is very consistent
but
there seems to be a lot of rear degradation with the Prime, so that’s
something to be worked on. Generally though a very good test and now
it’s over to the technical guys to feed all that back into the
programme
and make sure we have a strong package next season."

JOHN BOOTH, TEAM PRINCIPAL

"We said we wanted to end the season on a high and that is exactly
what
we’ve done here in Abu Dhabi this week with four very positive days of
running. We’ve done some good work with the tyres over the last two
days
and this has been an important step towards our 2011 programme. We
have
also been able to demonstrate just how far we have come this season by
achieving over 400kms of running today. I would like to thank Pirelli
for a very positive start to our working relationship. They have been
a
pleasure to work with. Once again, my thanks to everyone in the team
for
another week of hard work and I wish everyone a well-deserved break
before the big push gets underway for next year."

Toro Rosso Ferrari

It fell to Sebastien Buemi to give the STR5 it’s very last outing of
2010, on the final day of testing this year when as yesterday, the
focus was on evaluating tyres from the sport’s new supplier, Pirelli.

“This has been a productive day,” commented Chief Engineer LAURENT
MEKIES. “We got through a lot of laps, with a mix of short and long
runs and it was especially useful that Sebastien was able to do a very
long run, equivalent to a race distance on the soft Pirelli tyre, so
there is a lot of data from which we can learn for next season. Apart
from the work on the tyre front, we also tried a couple of mechanical
components aimed at next year’s car and we ran trouble free throughout
the day. That marks the end of testing for 2010, and the team worked
well to complete these four additional track days in Abu Dhabi on the
back of a very busy end to the season. However, it will not be long
until we start all over again at Valencia in early February.”

“I am pleased with my first test day on the Pirelli tyres,” said SEBASTIEN BUEMI. “We got through a lot of work, although it is difficult to draw any conclusions regarding actual performance, even if the feeling from the tyres is pretty good at this early stage. Now, our engineers will have a lot of work back at the factory to ensure the new car suits the characteristics of the tyres. Overall, I do not think we could have done a better job at this test, so it is nice to see the 2010 season end on a positive note.”

Red Bull Renault

World Champion Sebastian Vettel completed 66 laps today on the second and final day of
the Pirelli Tyre Test at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi.

Another four sets of Pirelli tyres were available for the second day of running, made up of two sets of prime tyres (medium compound) and two of option tyres (soft compound). The team continued to evaluate the performance of the RB6 on the new tyres and find the best car set-up to suit them.

Sebastian Vettel said: “We have had two busy days on track, getting our first impressions of the new tyres, analysing how they perform and looking at some things for next year. There is still a lot to do, but I think the tyres are already better than expected. Since February we haven’t really had time to do any in-depth testing on track, so these two days have given us a chance to reflect on things we have tried during the season.”

Head of Race Engineering, Ian Morgan said: “It’s been interesting to work with different tyres here and it was good to have the opportunity to get information using a car we know well – the RB6 – before starting to work with the new car next year. Overall we have done everything we planned to and we’re looking forward to working with Pirelli in the future. It’s sad that this is the last day of running for the RB6 – it’s a car that we have enjoyed a great
deal of success with this year – but we’re looking forward to 2011.”

Mercedes

Michael Schumacher was in action for the MERCEDES GP PETRONAS team today for the second and final day of the Pirelli tyre test at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi.

Michael continued the programme begun by team-mate Nico Rosberg yesterday and revisited many of the set-up evaluations to further improve the team’s understanding of the new tyres. Michael covered 74 laps and finished the day in second place on the timesheets.

Michael Schumacher: "Today was my first day of testing for 2011 and I feel that we had an interesting session. We gathered a lot of data and insights, and have positive feedback from our first impression of the new tyres. I am probably the only driver to have driven with Pirelli tyres before but
it was 20 years ago and I didn’t have any certain expectations before today.
In terms of consistency, it looked quite good but we were using the 2010 car today and it will be all about how these tyres suit our 2011 car. I am already curious to try it out but at the same time I am looking forward to having a break now. I am sure the guys are too and they clearly
deserve it. I would like to thank all of them for the good job they have done over
the season and I have massively enjoyed working with them."

Ross Brawn: "Michael and Nico have now completed their first days in the car on Pirelli tyres and both have been impressed. This week’s test has been very productive for us and comes at a time when we can use the information gathered here to fine-tune the detail of our 2011 car and optimise the areas which we believe will be critical. Pirelli have done an excellent job to get these tyres to where they are now after such a short period of time and we are looking forward to working closely with them through the winter test programme at the start of next year."

HRT Cosworth

After a week of tests at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, today was the second and last day of the Pirelli tests and the end of the 2010 season.

Pastor Maldonado was driving for the Hispania Racing team again and completed a total of 65 laps (361.010 km) after doing many short runs to continue helping the Spanish team understand and get used to the new Pirelli tyres.

With these useful days in Abu Dhabi, Hispania Racing’s first ever season in Formula 1 comes to an end.

Dr. Colin Kolles, Team Principal: “After gaining a lot of data about the new Pirelli tyres, we used last night to analyze all of it and define our testing program for today. We tried to get more data at the last day of testing and we have been able to learn more about the tyres and how to use them. During this week we have given three talented young drivers the opportunity to get experience in a Formula 1 car. It was good to work with them and we hope to see them in Formula 1 soon. Our aim during this testing week was to do as many laps as possible and to have as much information about the new Pirelli tyres and the car behavior into the winter break to be able to keep on working with and be well prepared for the next tests before the new season begins.”

Pastor Maldonado: “I am very happy to have been able to do the two days of the Pirelli test with Hispania Racing. Today we tried different settings on the car to find the right set-up with the new tyres. Our focus was not on doing the best lap time but on getting a lot of data which will be important for the development of the car for next year. I really enjoyed being in a Formula 1 car and getting more experience. I am already looking forward to the next season when I hopefully can make use of it in Formula 1.”