Team reaction after day one in Jerez tests

Ferrari

First day of testing for Scuderia Ferrari and ten other Formula 1 teams, working from today until Sunday at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit, in southern Spain.

Felipe Massa was at the wheel of the F150th Italia. The Brazilian driver’s programme focussed on finding the best set-up for the car, on increasing understanding of the Pirelli tyres’ behaviour, aerodynamic testing and starts. Despite endless red flags which were especially prevalent this afternoon, Felipe was able to complete the planned programme, with any technical problems affecting the car. He completed a total of 101 laps, the quickest in a time of 1.20.709, the fastest overall on the day.

Testing continues at this circuit tomorrow, again with Felipe Massa on track.

The Sauber F1 Team had a productive and busy first day of testing in Jerez in Southern Spain with the young Mexican, Sergio Pérez, covering 94 laps in total at the wheel of the Sauber C30-Ferrari.

Sauber Ferrari

The Sauber F1 Team had a productive and busy first day of testing in Jerez in Southern Spain with the young Mexican, Sergio Pérez, covering 94 laps in total at the wheel of the Sauber C30-Ferrari.

James Key(Technical Director): “Today was a productive day for us. In the morning we started off with some base line runs. Before we concentrated on set-up and worked on the braking system we also planned to run out of fuel, which was why the car stopped out on the track. In the afternoon we carried out back to back comparisons to learn more about the mechanical set up of the car. Although there were several red flags in the afternoon, we have found some good directions for further work. We only used the medium and hard tyre compounds today. In the afternoon we used no more than three sets of the harder ones, and they certainly degrade, but not so badly that we could not learn anything from them. Sergio concluded the day with practice starts and will continue to drive tomorrow.”

Sergio Pérez: “I’m very happy with how the day went. We covered a good mileage today and again I learnt a lot. I’m getting more and more confident with all the procedures with the team and the car. I’m looking forward to another busy day tomorrow.”

After Sergio Pérez’ second day of testing in Jerez tomorrow, his team mate Kamui Kobayashi will take over driving duties for the 12th and 13th February.

Team Lotus Renault

Jarno Trulli: "The car does feel pretty good, but the problem this afternoon did limit our total time on track. Despite that we are still where we want to be - close to the midfield and in a car that we still have a lot more to add to. I think there is still a lot more to come from the car so I’m very positive and looking forward to getting back to work tomorrow."

Dieter Gass, Sporting director: "We started the day well and had a good morning session. For the first time we were able to do meaningful setup work and start being able to understand the aerodynamics of the car. Unfortunately we had a small problem this afternoon which limited our running, but the team worked well to rectify it and we managed to give Jarno another 45 minutes at the end of the session. We will take another look at the problem tonight and will make sure it does not affect us tomorrow."

Toro Rosso Ferrari

After last week’s launch and three days of testing, Scuderia Toro Rosso, along with all but one of the teams entered in the Formula 1 World Championship, began the second of four pre-season sessions. This one will last a total of four days and, so far, the weather in Jerez has been warm and sunny.

The team put in a lot of work at the factory, making changes to the STR 6 based on data acquired in Valencia and the first day in Jerez would suggest that those changes have delivered signs of progress. Today was a milestone for a product of the Red Bull Young Driver programme, as Daniel Ricciardo had his first ever drive in a Scuderia Toro Rosso car. The Australian, who will drive for the team in Free Practice 1 at most Grands Prix this year, completed 31 laps in the morning, before handing over to Jaime Alguersuari in the afternoon.

Daniel Ricciardo: “Jerez is where I first drove a Formula 1 car, when I tested for Red Bull Racing at the end of ’09 and the last time I drove an F1 car was last November, again with Red Bull in Abu Dhabi. It doesn’t sound like a long time, but three months out of a race car is long enough. It was good to be back in the cockpit. Fortunately, I seem to have remembered how to drive! Driving the Toro Rosso for the first time was another exciting experience for me. It went well and I did enough laps this morning to get settled in the cockpit, which is important, as I hope to get a bit more track time in testing, so that I can feel confident when I get to Bahrain and run in free practice on Friday morning at my first Grand Prix weekend. I also managed to use both of the important new elements, the KERS and the DRS (drag reduction system) which seemed to function as planned and I felt quite comfortable by the end of the morning.”

Jaime Alguersuari drives all day tomorrow (Friday) with Sebastien Buemi taking over for Saturday and Sunday.

Red Bull Renault

Red Bull Racing completed day one of the four-day test in Jerez today, with Mark Webber at the wheel of the team’s RB7.

With ambient temperatures reaching around 19°C, the team used the testing opportunity to evaluate a broader range of Pirelli compounds, compared with those used in Valencia last week.

Mark Webber: "It was pretty good today. There were a few red flags, but we did almost 100 laps and the car ran well. On the performance side I think we’re going okay; it’s very early and you don’t know who’s doing what, but we’re focusing on ourselves and seem to be going in the right direction. I’d like to add that my wishes are with Robert. It was a big shock for all of us, I couldn’t believe it. I’m happy, as it looks like the people involved have done an incredible job for him after the accident to keep him in the best shape possible. It’s a big loss for our sport that he’s not here this year and a big loss for us as competitors, as we’re motivated to race against the best guys in the world and Robert is one of them. I wish him all the best for his recovery; every day he’ll make progress and I’m looking forward to having him back when he is ready."

Mark will be driving again tomorrow for the second day of the four-day Jerez test.

McLaren Mercedes

A cautious start for the new MP4-26 as the team spent much of the day undertaking rigorous checks during the first day of track testing.

In the morning, we focused on short runs to enable Lewis and the engineers to run through a number of systems checks and make small set-up and tyre-compound changes in order to gauge the car’s reaction to adjustments.

At lunchtime, the car was routinely stripped for a more thorough check of the new systems, returning to the track for the final hour’s running.

While the day’s programme ran as planned without the engagement of the drag reduction system, the latter part of the day saw us running our new hybrid system for the first time.

Lewis completed 58 laps without problem and the team declared itself satisfied with the first day. Jenson begins testing tomorrow as we put more miles on the new car and ramp up our testing programme.

Lewis said: “Today was mainly about checking the car – not the most exciting day, but it was important to make sure everything was running okay.

“We didn’t do any particularly long runs, and I wasn’t too aggressive with the car, but we learned a couple of useful things. The car feels good compared to last year’s, which is positive. It feels like a good step over MP4-25.”

Virgin Racing Cosworth

After yesterday’s successful and reliable running for a promotional filming day at the Jerez circuit in Spain, the new MVR-02 was run for the first time in an official Formula One test session at the Circuito de Velocidad today.

The track was very cold this morning and during an initial installation lap the team experienced a fuel pressure problem which confined the MVR-02 to the garage. A solution was in place by lunchtime and in warm and sunny conditions, Timo was able to run the car in anger for the first time, initially focusing on shorter stints before building up to some longer runs towards the end of the session.

By the end of the day Timo had lapped the circuit 42 times, gaining valuable information about the car’s behaviour on track. The team will now analyse the data and use this information during the remainder of the test programme.

Timo Glock: “I was really looking forward to driving the new car for the first time and it’s been an interesting first day. We had a problem in the morning and lost a bit of track time, but when we were up and running we were able to complete a lot of laps in the time we had and collect valuable data. It was a little frustrating to have the car in the garage this morning but putting that aside I am feeling positive about what we achieved this afternoon and from that point of view it has been a very good start.”

John Booth: “It’s great to see the new MVR-02 car out on track for the first time after all the work and effort the team has put into it during the winter. We recovered well from a small setback and went on to complete 42 very valuable laps. We look forward to continuing in the same vein during the rest of the week.”

Mercedes GP

Formula One’s second winter test got underway this morning at the Circuito de Jerez in southern Spain as preparations continue for the start of the new season. Nico Rosberg was at the wheel of the MGP W02, with Michael Schumacher due to take over for Friday and Saturday, before Nico rounds off the programme on Sunday.

The team’s work focused on continuing the set-up programme from the first test in Valencia last week, along with further acclimatisation to the Mercedes KERS as Nico had his second test day with the system. Nico completed longer runs in the afternoon to conduct set-up comparisons and continue to develop the team’s understanding of the new Pirelli tyres. Nico completed 67 laps with the programme slightly shortened due to a repeat of the hydraulic issue experienced in Valencia which has enabled the team to confirm the source of the problem.

Nico Rosberg: “We had a reasonable day and I was able to complete quite a few laps, which is positive. It’s important for both me and the team to get good mileage and we’re really learning about the car all the time. We had a few little issues, which you always expect from a new car, so we just have to keep putting the miles on it. The KERS was working well and having more time to get used to the system is a real help; it’s not just a question of using the buttons but also understanding the effect of the KERS under braking. We are starting to understand the tyres better and that will be one of the key factors to success over the race weekends.”

Lotus Renault GP

Vitaly Petrov was back in the R31 as the team got its second winter test underway in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain. The team ran two of the four Pirelli tyre compounds, gathering further important data for evaluation. Some aero runs this morning allowed the team to continue evaluating the car’s aero performance on a track that has several high-speed corners. Vitaly was able to begin his first set-up programme in the R31.

Vitaly Petrov: “Things were much better for me today compared to Valencia and at least we managed to do quite a lot of laps. We still lost some time because the car had an oil leak in the middle of the day, but we made the most of the time on track and I managed to do some set-up work in the afternoon. At the moment it’s important to understand how the tyres are working and we found there was quite a lot of degradation with the rears, and that’s one of the reasons why it’s difficult to find the right set-up. I also continued using the KERS and moveable wing today and that went well with no issues.”

Eric Boullier: “After a difficult few days, it’s good for the team to be back at the track and to have our minds focussed on developing the car. Things went pretty well, but it’s early days and there is still so much for us to learn about the new car, especially at a track like Jerez with some high-speed corners. We had a small oil leak on the car in the morning, which kept us in the garage for a while, but the aero programme went well today and has taught us some useful things.”

Alan Permane: "We started the morning doing some aero work with a fully instrumented floor, front and rear wing. Vitaly lost some track time in the middle of the day with an oil leak, but we managed to get back out after lunch and completed some reasonable mileage. We ran with two of the four dry compounds that are available and will continue evaluating the remaining compounds over the coming days."

Force India Mercedes

The Force India F1 Team’s 2011 challenger, the VJM04, completed its first-ever laps today, with Adrian Sutil on driving duties at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit in southern Spain. Today proved to be a successful debut, with the major systems checks completed and new components shaken down. After installation laps in the morning, Adrian gradually increased the lengths of his runs and clocked up 28 laps in total over the day.

Adrian will continue in the car tomorrow with the objective of running through further checks before moving onto performance work in the afternoon.

Paul di Resta will get his first outing in the new car on Saturday.

Adrian Sutil: A successful first day of testing for the new car - a big well done to all the team. Out of the box it runs well and feels generally better than the 2010 car in every area. We had a good baseline set-up and balance, already the car is very smooth, which is always positive as then you can focus on improving performance. Despite a bit of downtime this morning with a problem with the floor we could still do 28 laps, which isn’t too bad for a new car, and got in all our baseline runs. I’ve got a good feeling and tomorrow we’re going to aim to put in some more laps, longer runs and look at different tyre compounds. It’s too early to say where we are, but at this stage in testing I think we can be quite pleased and proud that the hard work everyone back in the factory and wind tunnel has - so far - paid off.

Dominic Harlow, circuit engineering director: Today was the roll out for VJM04, and as such we were looking to install and shakedown the car whilst increasing our run lengths and looking to reach stabilised temperatures. The plan from there was to begin taking measurements and adjusting the car into our normal operating envelope and perhaps starting to sweep some set-up and control parameters. We lost a few hours today with a problem with the exhaust blast shields, which required some ingenuity to solve, but once that was done we covered the first of our objectives and completed just over 120km with no further issues. It was great to see the new car on track, and we have made a positive start to the test.

Williams Cosworth

Pastor Maldonado completed 14 laps of running on day one in Jerez after a problem early this morning resulted in him losing running time during the day. With 28ºC track temperature, the objective was to put more Mileage on FW33 as well as doing some aero testing. His time of 1:34.968 was set in the final minutes of running today in Spain and the Venezuelan will be back in the car tomorrow for day two of the test.

Sam Michael, Technical Director: It has not been a productive day for us I’m afraid. After the installation lap we had a problem with a bleed screw for the rear wing hydraulic actuator. It is straightforward to correct, however during the day it caused a lot of downtime as we shuffled parts around to get the car out on the track. On the positive side, in the late afternoon we did complete all the aero testing that required the front tyre rake, so that will come off tonight.