Team reaction following day three at Jerez

Jaime Alguersuari set the pace first thing this morning at Jerez ahead of the rains that dominated the day. While frustrating for spectators at the Spanish test venue, most of the ten runners did complete a good number of laps.

One exception however was the new Virgin Cosworth team which is having something of a character building introduction to Formula One. After three days of testing, the team has notched up 24 laps with the VR-01...

Toro Rosso

As predicted, rain was the main factor today, although the team made the most of the first dry hour this morning to do a base line run, with Jaime Alguersuari taking over from Sebastien Buemi in the cockpit. It was during this period that Jaime set his best time of the day.

From then on, it was a case of the Catalan driver getting his first taste of this year’s rain tyres, starting on Intermediates, in the light drizzle that began to fall, before switching to the Extremes when the rain intensified. Later, conditions were so bad that testing was abandoned with around 45 minutes of the session remaining. Jaime completed long runs on both types of rain tyre: the car ran reliably and the driver made no mistakes in
the tricky conditions.

Jaime Alguersuari continues driving tomorrow, for the final day of this test, when rain is again on the radar.

Sauber

With changing and wet weather conditions today in southern Spain the Sauber team took the chance to test the C29 in the wet. Pedro de la Rosa was at the wheel and happy to drive the car under different conditions.

Giampaolo Dall’Ara, head of track engineering: "In the morning at about ten past ten it started drizzling and then we had some light rain until 2pm. Until a quarter past four we were testing but then we stopped when the rain became too heavy as there was no need to risk anything. In the morning we skipped our usual installation lap and went straight into the programme. We managed to do a baseline run in the dry and later focused on balancing the car in the wet.

"We scanned different set-ups and worked on the brake system. Pedro’s comments on the car were quite positive in the wet. Nevertheless we certainly hope for better and dry track conditions tomorrow.”

Force India

Adrian Sutil took over the VJM03 for the third day of the Force India’s testing programme at the Jerez circuit in Spain. Again heavy rain from approximately 10:00hrs blighted running for the majority of the day, however Sutil completed some dry laps before the weather front arrived. His best lap, 1:21.428s, was posted in this dry period and remained the third fastest time.

Sutil’s programme followed on from Tonio Liuzzi’s schedule of the previous two days, with systems checks, long runs and set-up evaluation. The heavy rain and frequent red flags compromised some of the schedule, however Sutil completed 48 laps before an electrical fault halted him on track some 90 minutes before the end of the session.

Adrian Sutil: "This morning it was nice to have some dry running. The car is good and I think it’s a positive place to start. I’m very confident on the general speed of the car. Unfortunately the rain came in quite early and then it was really waiting for reasonable conditions to go out.

"We had a problem in the afternoon that caused us to miss a bit of track time, but considering it was so wet it would have been very difficult to get a lot of running in anyway. I’m pleased to at least have had some dry running and some more time in the car and am looking forward to getting started again tomorrow."

Dominic Harlow, chief race engineer: "Today’s programme attempted to condense dry weather testing into the start of the day, and following the expected onset of rain at mid-morning we moved to aerodynamic testing. Some further new components were introduced successfully and the intermediate and then wet conditions allowed Adrian to look at tyre options for these conditions.

"We had an issue that resulted in some downtime in the afternoon, but with the weather worsening it didn’t cost us much track time and that is what testing with a new car is about."

Ferrari

The day’s activity was affected by the weather, as the track was only dry for the first hour of the session. Today, Felipe Massa was on duty for Scuderia Ferrari, having his third day at the wheel of the F10.

Massa was only able to complete around 20 laps on dry tyres - best time 1.21.603 - before having to run only with rain tyres, both intermediates and extremes. The Brazilian completed a total of 72 laps. Testing continues at this circuit tomorrow, again with Massa on track.

Felipe Massa: "Due to the rain we had to change the programme a bit and we checked the car’s behaviour and the tyres with this sort of track condition. I have to say that the F10 has confirmed to be a very well set up car; I’m very happy with the sensations I had today. Let’s hope that the weather is better tomorrow so we can drive more and start working on the set up.”

Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel drove Red Bull Racing’s 2010 championship challenger, the RB6, for the first time today, as he took over from Mark Webber on day three of the current four-day test in Jerez. After an initial run on dry tyres, Vettel was forced to use intermediate and extremes for the rest of the day as wet weather set in.

Sebastian Vettel: “After three months, it was good to come back and drive the car – it felt okay and we didn’t have any big issues. Obviously the weather is not ideal for us to find out more about the car, but we knew the rain was coming so we didn’t mess around this morning and went straight out to do some laps. It then rained all day, but you could face these conditions in a grand prix, so it’s important to do laps in the wet. Overall, we didn’t do enough because of the weather, but I’m pretty happy.”

Renault

A dry start lasted for just over an hour before the rain returned making for damp conditions for the rest of the day. The team adapted its programme and Vitaly completed 68 laps acclimatising to the R30 in the wet and completing some practice starts.

Vitaly Petrov: “In the morning we managed to do a bit of dry running and the car felt good and well balanced. Then, when the rain arrived, we did quite a lot of work as it was important for me to understand how the car behaves in the wet conditions and the characteristics of the wet and intermediate Bridgestone tyres. That went well and we also did a lot of practice starts as I learn the procedures and systems on the car.”

Alan Permane, chief engineer: “Another very wet day, but we managed to complete a couple of dry runs early this morning and Vitaly was pretty happy with the car. Then it started raining and remained wet for the rest of the day so we spent our time putting mileage on the engine and on some new parts. The wet conditions also gave Vitaly the chance to try both the wet and intermediate Bridgestone tyres and he seemed comfortable with both of them.”

Mercedes

Nico Rosberg was back at the wheel of the MGP W01 car in Jerez today for the third day of this week’s test session although the rain returned to southern Spain to once again interrupt the track activity.

Rosberg had just one short run on the dry track early this morning before the rain began to fall pretty much continuously throughout the day. Adapting the test programme for the wet conditions, Nico evaluated the intermediate and wet Bridgestone Potenza tyres, alongside with race simulation exercises.

Conditions eventually became too wet by the late afternoon for any meaningful running and after a couple of practice starts and pit stops in the final thirty minutes, the team called an early end to the day, with Nico having completed 53 laps. His quickest lap time was set during the brief dry window this morning.

Michael Schumacher will take over from Rosberg tomorrow for the final day of the test.

Nico Rosberg: "It’s unfortunate that it was once again a wet day today but we still achieved some valuable testing working on our race weekend procedures such as pit stops and pit entries. The positive side is that I felt very much home in the car and could attack on the half lap that I did in the dry so that gives me confidence and a good feeling for the test days ahead."

Williams

Rubens Barrichello: "We basically only had a few laps in the dry this morning but then the rest of our running was done in the wet, so it was hard to find where the limit was and evaluate our performance. I’m looking forward to getting back in the car tomorrow and getting some more mileage in."

Sam Michael, technical director: "We went straight into a race run on slick tyres in the morning as we knew we would only have a short window before the rain came. After that, it was a wet programme for the rest of the day. We spent the session working on control strategies, systems checks, race starts and a couple of small set-up changes. We had no mechanical problems.

McLaren

With wet weather forecast to hit the circuit today, the test team had specifically devised a run programme to make best use of the day. The only dry running of the day took place in the morning, which the team used to undertake a number of aero mapping runs. Conducted at lower speeds, the only dry times of the day were therefore not representative of the team’s overall pace.

As the rain started falling, focus shifted towards evaluating Bridgestone’s wet and intermediate compounds. The colder temperatures made progress difficult, particularly as extra attention needed to be paid to brake material choice in the cool conditions.

For the afternoon, Lewis Hamilton focused on a number of longer runs to understand how the tyres behaved – but the poor weather eventually became too much, even for the full-wet option. For tomorrow, the team is hoping for dry running in order to give Lewis an opportunity to put miles on MP4-25 in more representative conditions.

Virgin

Nick Wirth, technical director: “Once again, despite working round-the-clock to remedy yesterday’s problem, we not only missed the opportunity for dry running early this morning, but it was so wet this afternoon that we and all the other teams lost a lot of running later in the session when we were finally able to get going.

"This was particularly annoying given the great efforts by Wirth Research who, rather than just dispatching existing parts from our Bicester base, designed and manufactured new parts, R&D tested them and got them out to the circuit within a 24 hour period.

"Nevertheless, as was the case with the early issues we encountered with last year’s Championship-winning LMP1 Acura, the harder you work, the luckier you get and with the hours we are putting in at the moment we are all hoping that our fortunes will change soon.

"The drivers remain positive, the data we are gathering is as expected and we’re all keeping our heads down and just getting on with what we need to do at this early stage in our development.”