Team reaction following day two at Jerez

With the rains taking a break from soaking the Jerez circuit, five drivers today posted over a hundred laps each as they took advantage of the more favourable conditions. Kamui Kobayashi moved to the top of the timesheets right at the end of the session as the ten teams present continued to develop the new championship challengers.

Sauber Ferrari

The second day of testing in Jerez was held in lot better weather conditions as the track dried quickly in the morning. With Kamui Kobayashi being one of the drivers completing in excess of 100 laps and setting the quickest lap time of the day on his final run, the team enjoyed a busy and productive day of testing.

Giampaolo Dall’Ara, head of track engineering: “It was a good day of testing as we managed to complete our programme. In the morning we did some aero tests. After the lunch break we concentrated on set-up and tyre evaluation. For most of the day we were running with a high fuel load prior to a run with a lighter car before the end of the session. For tomorrow the weather forecast is not really promising, but we will cope with what we get.”

Toro Rosso Ferrari

Sebastien Buemi completed a good number of laps, important as more rain is forecast for tomorrow. On the agenda for today was an evaluation of a few aero parts, an assessment of different mechanical set-ups and runs with different fuel loads. Buemi also tried all three compounds brought here by Bridgestone – the Soft, Medium and Hard.

Sebastien Buemi: “I am pleased with how the past two days have gone and although rain is never ideal, yesterday’s damp conditions meant we could try the wet weather tyres. Today, in the dry, we were able to do a lot of laps, as the car ran reliably. We tried various set-ups and ran with different fuel loads, so we are beginning to get a better understanding of STR5 in general.”

McLaren Mercedes

Today was the second and final day of testing for Jenson Button at Jerez this week. The team began the day with a continuation of the early-morning aero mapping it started yesterday. After a successful number of aero runs, the morning’s running centred on finding suitable mechanical and aero set-ups with the MP4-25.

In the afternoon, the programme focused on longer running, evaluating tyres on a number of varying fuel-loads. At the conclusion of his test, Button declared himself much happier with the seat and installation and was happy with the progress the team is making with the new car.

He made a precautionary stop just before the day’s end when a warning light came on in the cockpit. Lewis Hamilton will continue the running on Friday and Saturday.

Williams Cosworth

Nico Hulkenberg: "Today was quite a difficult day as we had some technical problems, but I’m still feeling positive about the car. Of course, I would like to have had more running time, but that’s sometimes the way it goes. Overall, it’s been a good two days and the car feels good."

Sam Michael, technical director: "We had some mechanical problems with the hydraulic system and the driveline today. We had a leak first thing this morning, which we identified relatively quickly, but it took us a long time to correct because the clutch was covered with hydraulic fluid. That effectively ruled us out of most of the morning session. We encountered a smaller issue this afternoon with a driveshaft component. It was quicker to rectify, but obviously wasn’t ideal in terms of track time. We still made our way through three or four set-up changes and we’ll just have to target higher mileage tomorrow with Rubens."

Force India Mercedes

Tonio Liuzzi put the VJM03 through its paces on its second official test day, completing 80 laps with a best time of 1:20.754. In contrast to yesterday’s rain-lashed session the weather remained clear and dry throughout, allowing the team to gather vital systems data.

The morning’s programme concentrated on aero development while the afternoon’s running included comparison runs of the new Bridgestone tyre compounds available this year. Adrian Sutil will take over for the second part of the test tomorrow and will conclude running on Saturday.

Tonio Liuzzi: "I think that we can be pretty happy about today. We covered a lot of laps and a lot of the test items we wanted to. For sure we still have to look into a few more areas but overall the car is responding well and reacts to all the changes. We tested different settings and different conditions and overall it was always positive, so I have to say we can be really satisfied about how it’s going. The team did a good job and now we have to keep pushing for the next days of testing as we still have to extrapolate the best out of the car."

Dominic Harlow, chief race engineer: "We used the morning for various aerodynamic measurements today and made some comparisons of the 2010 dry tyres in the afternoon along with getting a balance in the VJM03. Since it was the first time the car has run in the dry we have a fair amount of new data to analyse, but so far the car appears to be performing as we expected. Adrian will continue work tomorrow as he takes over the car for the remainder of this test."

Mercedes

Michael Schumacher joined the team in Jerez today for the second day of this week’s four-day test. After yesterday’s downpours, the weather stayed dry throughout the day enabling the team to complete a comprehensive test programme with the MGP W01 car.

Schumacher spent the morning evaluating the different tyre compounds provided by Bridgestone alongside some chassis set-up work, before working through a race simulation programme in the afternoon. Michael completed 124 laps today making the most of the available dry track time. Nico Rosberg will be back in the car tomorrow for the third day of the test.

Michael Schumacher: "I am very happy with how the day went today even if we could not finish our schedule completely due to red flags. However I managed to complete a lot of laps which is very precious to me. A new car, a new team and new conditions, therefore our first goal has to be to make the car reliable. Days like today help massively in that respect, especially as the weather forecast for the next few days isn’t looking quite so rosy. I felt very comfortable driving the car and it was good fun today."

Ferrari

Thursday marked the second day of testing for Ferrari and nine other teams at the Jerez circuit, in Andalusia. The weather improved, so that all running was carried out on dry weather tyres.

Fernando Alonso worked mainly on the overall development of the car, its performance over a long run and, in the afternoon, on a comparison between different types of set-up. The Spaniard covered a total of 129 laps, the quickest in a time of 1.21.424.

Testing continues at this circuit tomorrow, when Felipe Massa will be on track for the team.

Renault

Dry conditions allowed the team to complete good mileage, making use of the dry tyres saved from yesterday. The technical programme was focussed on set-up work and continued assessment of the narrower front Bridgestone tyres.

Robert Kubica: “We started the day with a damp track so we had to wait for conditions to improve before we started our main programme. We made good progress with the workload and did some set-up evaluation and tried to understand how the changes influenced the balance and behaviour of the car. We saw some nice results and learnt some interesting things so overall it was a good day.”

Alan Permane, chief engineer: “Another very productive day as we completed over 100 laps and did a lot of set-up work with the car. We had made a lot of changes for Robert since the last test in Valencia and he’s now much more comfortable and happier in the car. We steadily improved the balance and grip throughout the day and hopefully we can continue with this tomorrow if the rain holds off.”

Red Bull Renault

The second day of the current Formula One pre-season test in Jerez provided far better weather conditions than day one and gave Red Bull Racing its first real chance to test the RB6 in the dry.

Any remaining damp track conditions had dried by 1000hrs and, after yesterday’s rain-soaked session, the team were keen to get going. With Mark Webber at the wheel they began its working though their large development programme and concentrated on set-up work, clocking up 100 laps. Sebastian Vettel gets his first drive of the RB6 tomorrow.

Mark Webber: “It’s been a very productive two days. We’ve had a few little niggles here and there with reliability, but despite that we’ve managed to complete quite a few laps with the new car. We’ve had one wet and one dry day and learned a lot on both. We’ve still got quite a bit of testing to go before we get to Bahrain, which we’re going to need to continue to understand the car and keep finding performance. But I’d say we’re off to a pretty solid start and we’ve got a great base to build on.”