Team reaction after day three in Valencia test

Toro Rosso Ferrari

The first test session of the season came to an end this afternoon, after Jaime Alguersuari had given the STR6 its track debut on Tuesday. Sebastien Buemi took over yesterday afternoon and ran through all of today. Three days of testing is not enough to draw any real conclusions about performance and comparison with others is definitely not on the cards, given that some teams were still running 2010 cars, while Pirelli provided no less than three different types of tyres. While the trucks now travel south to Jerez de la Frontera, the engineers have a few days to analyse data and prepare a programme for the next four day test session which gets underway on Thursday 10 February.

Sebastien Buemi: “Another interesting day, my first full one in the new car. I was able to have a good look at all three compounds of tyre from Pirelli, from the Medium through to the Super-soft. I used KERS all day and we had no issues with the system. The first three days of running with the new car have been productive, and now we must prepare to make progress in Jerez next week.”

Sauber Ferrari

Sergio Pérez and the Sauber F1 Team enjoyed a very productive third day of testing in Valencia with the new Sauber C30-Ferrari covering over 100 laps in ideal track conditions.

James Key, Technical Director: “It was a much better day today and we covered over 100 laps. It was good for Sergio to spend lot more more time in the car and with the team. He has already learnt a lot and did a good job. Having had more time working with the car, we have been able to start changing the set up to match the tyres better, which is giving us some useful directions for the next test. We have also been using different tyre compounds for the first time and the super soft is very fast on the first lap, but degrades quickly. Meanwhile the medium compound is faster than we thought over the first lap, but certainly more consistent. Now we head to Jerez where we will start to introduce new development parts.”

Sergio Pérez: “I’m very happy with how things went today. It was a busy day and I learnt a lot about the systems and the car, while the team also collected a lot of information. We will keep working hard to improve – me personally from a driver’s perspective and all together, of course, with regards to the car. I’m already very much looking forward to the next test in Jerez and can’t wait to run the C30 again.”

The next pre-season test will take place in Jerez and see Sergio Pérez driving the Sauber C30-Ferrari on February 10th and 11th. Kamui Kobayashi will take over driving duties for the 12th and 13th February.

Ferrari

Third and final day of testing for Scuderia Ferrari, working again today along with eleven other teams, at the Cheste circuit, near Valencia.

It was Felipe Massa’s turn to continue development work on the F150, concentrating mainly on acquiring an understanding of the car and the Pirelli tyres. Unfortunately, on his very first run this morning, the car suffered an oil leak, which caused an off-track excursion and started a fire on the car: it took around four hours to carry out the necessary repairs. Despite this contretemps, Felipe managed to complete a total of 80 laps, the quickest in a time of 1.14.017.

The Scuderia’s testing at this track ended today. The next test is scheduled to start on 10 February at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit, when Felipe Massa will get the work underway in the F150.

Lotus Renault GP

Robert set the pace on the final day in Valencia as the team completed its first test with the R31.

— The team measured the downforce produced by the car with some aero runs this morning. This involves running the car at constant speed on the straight. Everything ties up well with the wind tunnel figures.

— Initial set-up work was very productive and the team found some good directions.

— Almost all of the routine systems checks have now been completed, allowing the team to focus on performance work and tyre evaluation in Jerez next week.

Robert Kubica: “I think we can split the day into two halves because we had some problems in the morning and we only managed to do our first real run about 1:30pm. But, after we solved the issues with the car, we managed to do a bit of set-up evaluation and some tyre work. However, because of the time we lost this morning we didn’t complete the laps we targeted, but it’s better to get any reliability issues with the car during testing, rather than when we get to the first race in Bahrain.”

James Allison: “After months of effort from the whole team, it was great to be on the track for the first time with the R31 this week. Our first three days of testing have not been without incident, but we have managed a good amount of running, proving out the reliability and functionality of all the key systems on the car notwithstanding its rather unusual layout. The first test has shown that management of the tyres this season will be absolutely critical, so it was good to have made some progress in this regard. We move on to the second pre-season test next week looking to make further progress with set-up and tyre management prior to getting the first race package together in the later tests.”

Alan Permane: "It was a tricky morning with some electrical gremlins on the car. We eventually got to the bottom of them, but it took us longer than expected, so we lost some track time.

"The afternoon was much more productive. We ran a set-up programme, which was the first time we had made any significant changes to the car and steadily improved the balance.

"In the latter part of the afternoon we concentrated on reliability work with some long runs and it’s encouraging to have covered 95 laps."

McLaren Mercedes

More tyre testing using the new Pirelli P Zero tyres. Jenson’s input – along with that of Lewis and Gary – has given us a very broad dataset with which we can begin to understand and hone the tyres and car set-up for 2011.

“Today was mostly about tyre work,” said Jenson. “It was an interesting day and a new experience for me to try the Pirellis. They obviously work in a different way to last year’s tyres – but most of my runs were reasonably good. I was quite happy with the way the car was working; we did a lot of good work on set-up. We’re moving in the right direction.

“There’s degradation – but you’ll find that on any tyre – particularly on the Super-soft tyre, but that’s to be expected. Now I’m looking forward to seeing the new car tomorrow and starting to test it properly next week.”

Finally, this was the conclusion of the much-loved MP4-25’s active service. MP4-26 will be unveiled tomorrow in Berlin and begins its duties at Jerez next week.

Mercedes GP

The first winter test of the 2011 Formula One season concluded in Valencia today with Michael Schumacher rounding off the three-day programme for the MERCEDES GP PETRONAS team.

The focus was once again on reliability and mileage accumulation with the new MGP W02 car, as well as giving Michael the opportunity to familiarise himself with the Mercedes KERS system for the first time. A strong day of running saw Michael complete 110 laps in total.

Michael Schumacher: "We were able to achieve a lot of valuable mileage and it was a positive day. I am pleased with that, and with how the car was behaving. Again, of course, this is not our final race car for the season but a lot of elements have already proved to be a significant step forward. I felt totally comfortable in the car immediately and noticed how much I had missed driving since November. We have a lot of work ahead of us, and this week gives us a very good idea of where we should concentrate our work. I look forward to going to Jerez now."

Ross Brawn: "A good day’s work today with Michael, and we have been able to cover some significant mileage which is important for our reliability checks. We’re starting to get an insight into the car’s behaviour and its responses to various set-up changes are proving to be very consistent. After a few difficulties at the start of the test, we have finished with a strong day providing plenty of data and options to take forward to the next test in Jerez."

Team Lotus

Jarno Trulli: "It has been a very positive first day, despite the fact we deliberately didn’t set any meaningful laptimes as the car is missing a few parts that will be with us tomorrow. Nevertheless, the car feels great - it has good grip and today we were able to concentrate on carrying out work on the systems which we were going to have to do at some point anyway. Now we can concentrate on building up the performance levels tomorrow and in the next tests, so while it’s a shame I couldn’t have a full taste of the car, it was still a very positive first day in the new car."

Mike Gascoyne: "We had a limited programme today due to the lack of power steering on the car. Under those circumstances 38 laps was the full programme and I want to say well done to Jarno for completing the plan in a car that was clearly hard work to drive. On the positive side we have now completed the systems checks on fuel, aerodynamics and cooling and were able to do start simulations, so with the fact we have another full day of testing tomorrow with both race drivers and the power steering we are aiming to step up to focusing on performance on our third day in Valencia."

Red Bull Renault

Mark Webber was back in the RB7 cockpit today, for the final day of testing at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit in Valencia.

The majority of today’s test focused on the new Pirelli tyres, as the team worked to gain a greater understanding of how they behave and how to get the best out of them. As Mark didn’t attend the Abu Dhabi tyre test at the end of last season, it was the first chance he had had to experience them for a full day – as well as the new RB7.

Mark Webber said: “Today was the first good long run in the car for me, so we learnt a lot. There are some quick cars out there, but it was a good finish to the test for us. We had a good day one and day three, day two wasn’t quite so productive, but overall the team has done a bloody awesome job – to get the car here for the first test and do the work we’ve done straight out of the box, it’s impressive.”

“It’s been an encouraging start,” added Head of Race Engineering, Ian Morgan. “We’ve
had good reliability and a reasonable performance; it’s a solid foundation to start
developing towards the first race of the season.”

The team will be back in action next week, when testing moves further south in Spain to
Jerez. The four-day test starts on Thursday 10 February.

Force India Mercedes

Adrian Sutil was back on duty for the Force India F1 Team on the final day of the first pre-season test in Valencia, Spain. The German completed more than 100 laps with the VJM03, the first time he has driven the car since the tyre test in Abu Dhabi last November.

As with Paul and Nico over the previous two days, Adrian’s programme was focussed principally on collecting further data on the performance of the Pirelli tyres under different set-ups and fuel loads. In a productive session, Adrian posted the second quickest time of the day, a 1:13.201 behind the Lotus Renault GP car of Robert Kubica.

The team will now move to Jerez for the second test next week from 10 - 13 February, where the VJM04 will be run for the first time.

Adrian Sutil: It felt good to be in the car again after a few months away! Everything went pretty smoothly, as we expected with the VJM03, so we could complete the work we wanted to do. Paul and Nico had collected a lot of data on the tyres in the previous two days, so my aim today was to continue this work on alternative set-ups and fuel loads. We got all the information we needed and I feel like we understand the tyre performance pretty well now. Having got back into the car again I now can’t wait to get my first taste of the VJM04 next week in Jerez.

Dominic Harlow, circuit engineering director: During the final day’s testing in Valencia Adrian got a chance to compare the different tyres, but also looked at some set-up alternatives, brake material and the range of weight distribution available to us. It was another productive day, and now we shift our focus to the VJM04 for the roll out next week, which everyone in the team is tremendously looking forward to. The lap times today are interesting when you consider the technical differences between 2011 and 2010 cars like the VJM03, and relative levels of downforce, but of course we must be careful not to read too much into them.

Sam Michael, Technical Director: The main target for today was to get the KERS running and for Pastor to familiarise himself with the FW33. He did a good job learning all the control systems. There is a lot for a driver to think about in the cockpit now with the KERS, the rear wing, the brakes as well as keeping the tyres up to temperature. We did more set-up changes today to keep learning about the car and some longer runs for stabilised temperature checks. We ran 100 laps trouble-free so are quite happy with that. Overall it has been a good shakedown test for us.

Pastor Maldonado: I am feeling much more confident in the car now using both the KERS and the rear wing. I am also working even better with the team and developing the car over both long and short runs. I am feeling better every time I get in the car.

AT&T Williams will be back on track to continue pre-season testing in Jerez, Spain from 10 – 13 February. Pastor Maldonado will drive for days one and two with Rubens Barrichello taking over for days three and four.

The first three days of pre-season testing for 2011 in Valencia have been very constructive for the Marussia Virgin Racing Team. Although still only running with the 2010 VR-01 car, the team was able to gain valuable information that will be useful for the development of the new car ahead of the first race in Bahrain.

Timo Glock was at the wheel of the VR-01 for the last time before driving the new MVR-02 car in Jerez next week, and was able to complete a total of 114 laps, in excess of the combined total of laps achieved over the past two days. The German driver completed a total of 461.8 km and established a new record for the team.

After 3 positive days of testing in Valencia, the team is now focused on presenting the new MVR-02 car next Monday at Television Centre in London.

Timo Glock: “Today was a very productive day. The team worked very hard to gain more running after yesterday and as a result I was able to complete many laps and we were quite competitive. However, this is still last year’s car so we hope for good things with the new car. I think these first three days in Valencia have been very useful for the team though. I really can’t wait to drive the MVR-02 next week.”

John Booth, Team Principal: “We have started the 2011 season well. There is still a lot of work to do, but these first few days of testing will be very helpful to ensure we are heading in the right direction. The next week is going to be very important for the team, as we are launching the new 2011 MVR-02 car and testing it in Jerez for the first time. For now though it was great to end this week’s test, and our last running of the VR-01, on such a positive note by completing such an impressive number of laps.”

HRT F1 Cosworth

In this third and last day of testing at the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Cheste, Hispania Racing has achieved its goals and leaves Valencia with the homework done. The shiny sun and blue sky have been once again the principal characters of the day, obviously after the drivers and their single-sitting cars.

Narain Karthikeyan hit the track and completed in this last day a total of 63 laps, improving his time as the day wore on and the track was taking grip until posting a time of 1.16.535, the best one clocked over these three days, which gives an idea of what the Indian driver can offer to the team. Racing Hispania sees their expectations fulfilled after this first contact between driver and the car, and hopes to incorporate all the information collected to the new F111.

Colin Kolles, Team Principal: “Narain did a very good performance today, and he keeps on improving, what is very positive for us all. Regarding to Pirelli tyres, it is a fact that this year they will be a very interesting element since there will be a lot of pit stops, which will generate more action to the show”.

Narain Karthikeyan: “Today obviously I felt a little more comfortable with the car, the more running you do the more you get used to the brakes, the engine and the car in general, so I think we planned the program and we could carry it on. We mainly tried different setups on the car. All in all I feel quite satisfied with the day´s work. Anyway I know I can improve a lot more, for sure, because after such a long break I am driving back in Formula 1 and I just have to get used to it again, so I am happy that everything just went all right. Besides, we tried different compounds of tyres today, as yesterday, just to get the feeling, to see how they work. So to sum up I just can say that these days have been very positive for me and for the team”.

Toni Cuquerella, Chief Race and test engineer: “Today we have completed our program all what we wanted to try with Narain in order to better understand Pirelli tyres. During these three days Narain has well adapted both to the car and the rubbers, posting a considerable high amount of laps”.