18/02/2010
NEWS STORY
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Rubens Barrichello topped the timesheets on the second day of testing at Jerez de la Frontera today as the weather continued to compromise pre-season preparations.
While the rain did ease off a times, there was never a moment when the track was completely dry, with strong gusting winds adding to the teams' obvious frustration what with the season opener being only three weeks away.
While there weren't as many red flags as yesterday, there were a few, most notably when Heikki Kovalainen crashed shortly after 13:00, thereby bringing his team's day to an early end.
While times are almost impossible to compare at the best of times, what with drivers running different fuel loads, in these conditions when drivers have the smallest of windows in which to 'go for it', it is almost impossible to draw any form of reasonable conclusion.
Barrichello completed 98 laps - the most today - on his way to posting the best time, albeit almost 7s off the pace he was running last week.
"Rubens finished off another wet day in Jerez having covered a lot of mileage for reliability," said Sam Michael. "He also completed some systems checks and carried out a programme of pitstop practice. All the pit stops were done under wet conditions and we're working on some refinements for tomorrow when Nico will take over."
"It was cold and wet but we still did some useful work and practiced pit stops, which is good experience for me," said Vitaly Petrov, who ended the day second quickest. "I'm now hoping that the final test in Barcelona will give us better weather so I can do some dry running before we arrive in Bahrain."
"It was another frustrating day with the changeable weather," added Alan Permane, "but we made the most of it to run both the wet and intermediate tyres. In the afternoon, when the track was damp, we chose to carry out some procedural work, including practice pit stops. Overall Vitaly was quite happy with the car and showed good pace today."
Yesterday's pace-setter, Sebastian Vettel, was third quickest as the weather forced Red Bull to abandon its plans for aero-testing and set-up work. Consequently, the German used full-wet tyres in the morning and wet and intermediate tyres in the afternoon. He completed 71 laps and the car ran reliably all day.
"Generally, the feeling with the car is good," said Vettel. "The weather has been pretty bad over the last couple of days, which meant we couldn't do a lot of our planned testing, although it's been the same for everyone. It's a shame, as this is one of our three pre-season tests and last week the weather was quite bad also - it seems that Spain is not so happy to have us here! Nevertheless, we have still got some important work done and the car has been reliable; we didn't have any problems. Hopefully we will have better weather in Barcelona next week and conditions will improve here for Mark over the next couple of days."
Nico Rosberg took over the W01 from Michael Schumacher as Mercedes - like its rivals - worked to make the best of the ever-changing conditions. Rosberg completed a wet set-up programme in the morning before focusing on race procedures including practice pit stops in the afternoon when the track conditions became too poor for any meaningful running.
"On the positive side, we achieved some good mileage today," said the German, "despite the conditions and completed a lot of our systems work. It was useful for me to practice pit stops and get into the routine for the races. However it has been difficult and frustrating with the weather as we're obviously not able to learn as much as we could with a dry track. But that's the same for everyone and we will hope for an improvement over the next two days."
Ferrari described its day as being not very fruitful and in many respects the Maranello outfit had good reason to feel frustrated.
In the morning a mechanical problem seriously reduced Felipe Massa's track time, the Brazilian having to kick his heels for almost two hours. Once he was able to get going, the conditions meant the programme had to be altered with the team dedicating the remainder of the session to practicing race procedures, such as pit stops.
"Those were no good two days, like the ones last week," said Massa. "Yesterday and today the track was almost always completely wet. Nevertheless driving many kilometres was useful for the reliability and for fixing some small problems. And we are all in the same boat, so we shouldn't complain. Obviously those who didn't have many possibilities to drive on the dry, might be penalised, because there are only six days of testing left. From this point of view I'm really happy that our team has done more laps than any other, but obviously I hope that we'll have sun in Barcelona!
"The car is set up very well, on the wet and on the dry," he continued. "This morning's problem? Nothing to worry about. We know what we have to do to fix it."
Asked where he feels the strongest challenge will come from this season, the 2008 runner-up said: "I'd say that Red Bull has a good car, but that's no surprise considering how they concluded last season. I expect to fight against them, McLaren and Mercedes, but it's still too early to say anything concrete. For now we're concentrating on our work."
A special guest of the Italian team this afternoon was Emilio Botin, president of team sponsor Santander, the Spanish banking giant. The Spaniard met with Massa and also local hero Fernando Alonso.
If Ferrari was frustrated so too was Sauber, the Swiss team taking one look at the conditions and essentially deciding that it wasn't worth running. Consequently, Pedro de la Rosa only completed 8 laps.
"With the same mixed conditions as yesterday, it simply wasn't worth doing much driving today," said the Spaniard. "We have a good understanding of the car, and I'm looking forward to the next test in Barcelona, hopefully on a dry track."
"We gathered a lot of data yesterday in mixed conditions," added test engineer, Thomas Hunsicker, "which is why it didn't make sense today to complete a lot of laps just for the sake of running the car. The weather forecast is better for tomorrow. That will give us the opportunity to continue working on our scheduled programme."
Force India chose to modify its testing schedule slightly in order to allow its race drivers the best chance of the better weather expected later in the week. Therefore, Paul di Resta got another half day testing in the VJM03 before Tonio Liuzzi took over in the afternoon.
The Silverstone-based team made the most of the amended programme running through further set-up evaluation, plus race preparation and fuel and hydraulic systems checks. With no major issues the two drivers completed over 250km in total.
"I was back in the car this morning to get a bit more running," said di Resta. "Unfortunately the weather was again very bad, but at this stage any running gives me more experience of the car and how the team works. I ran with the intermediate and wet tyres over the morning, which at least means I have got some solid experience of wet running and it won't be such a novelty when I am faced with similar conditions in places such as Malaysia."
"The weather was so difficult today with the constantly changing conditions," added Liuzzi. "It seemed to rain every hour and then dry, but it never reached a stable level: it was either too dry for wets or too wet for dry tyres so you couldn't get a consistent indicator of the performance. We did a few pit stop simulations and runs to get a bit more information and the car still seems to be responding well to changes. In these conditions though it's very difficult to get a good understanding of what's going on but everyone has the same weather, we just have to do what we can."
"We worked on general race preparation and some fuel system and hydraulic system tests," said Dominic Harlow, the team's chief race engineer. "Paul took the car for the morning, this time handing over to Tonio who finished up this afternoon. With the track as it was we didn't have a chance to use dry tyres properly, but are hopeful for better conditions for the rest of the week."
Virgin experienced an altogether more productive day today. The team completed an encouraging 72 laps with Timo Glock posting the 8th fastest time of the 12 cars on track.
"After a great overnight effort from the team, we managed to complete more than a race distance today," said Nick Wirth, "which is very satisfying after our frustrations of yesterday. We also managed to prove out some development parts which gave results completely in line with the performance prediction from the development programme at Wirth Research. This is always satisfying as it gives the team and drivers a great and confidence-inspiring introduction to our development program for this car. We continue to work around the clock to fix issues as they arise, and we're looking forward to Lucas's comments on the car's progress tomorrow."
Unable to continue with the day's planned programme, Lewis Hamilton undertook further systems checks, successfully signing off a large number by the end of the day. While today's overall times are not representative due to the poor weather (Hamilton only completed three complete laps on dry tyres), the team is happy with MP4-25's competitiveness.
With performance testing not really an option, Toro Rosso worked through a programme that included practice launches and some race pit stops. Sebastien Buemi completed a 25 lap race stint simulation, which at least produced some useful data in terms of running in race trim in wet conditions.
"The bad weather meant we could not get through all of our planned programme for today and we also lost a bit of time with a hydraulic problem," said the Swiss. "So, it's a bit disappointing, but now I'm looking forward to the Barcelona test and hopefully some dry running."
First out on track at exactly 9:00, Heikki Kovalainen completed his installation lap and returned to the pits to give positive initial feedback to the team about his first drive in the Lotus T127.
30 laps later and a mistake saw the Finn leave the track, bringing the team's day to an early close, but not before useful data had been accumulated and more insights into the car's performance had given Chief Technical Officer Mike Gascoyne reasons to be positive.
"Unfortunately a small off and a lack of spare parts curtailed the amount of laps we were able to do today," said Gascoyne, "but fortunately we've got spare parts arriving this evening. Up to that point we had got on top of some reliability issues from the previous day and the car was running very smoothly. Although we have lost some track time, the changing conditions made it very difficult, so we haven't lost too much and we'll be ready to continue with Heikki in the morning."
"My initial feeling from the car is good," said Kovalainen, "it fundamentally feels right. I'm disappointed the day came to an early end, but feel good about the team and I'm looking forward to getting back in the car tomorrow."
Team principal Tony Fernandes made his first visit to the Jerez test to see his team in action and left feeling very positive: "Still a great day in many ways. You get the highs and the lows and you get the reality but overall I'm happy. The team is very motivated, there's a lot of good morale and, while it's unfortunate Heikki went off, these things happen. Something else I'm very pleased with is the reaction from the public to Lotus Racing."