19/02/2011
NEWS STORY
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Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel continues to set the pace in Barcelona, as the Red Bull demonstrates reliability and pace.
With the Austrian outfit's race team personnel present, it aimed to get through simulations of a race weekend P3, qualifying session and a race simulation.
The work went largely to plan as head of race engineering, Ian Morgan, explains: "Generally it was good today and we got through almost everything we wanted to. We had a few small problems, such as an issue with a heat shield. But that's why we do these tests, to iron out any little problems, and generally the simulations went well."
Mark Webber takes over tomorrow, when the team will run a similar programme. "The weather is forecast to deteriorate a bit overnight," said Morgan, "which may make it difficult to run the simulations, but hopefully we can do the same simulations with Mark that we did with Seb today."
Jaime Alguersuari completed his second and final day of testing here, during which he did 97 laps on his way to posting the second quickest time. The Catalan driver had a busy programme, all of which was completed by the time the flag fell. It included a continuation of yesterday's brake system evaluation and an assessment of different set-up configurations to suit various conditions and fuel loads. He also tried three of the four Pirelli compounds - hard, soft and supersoft - again working on car set-up to suit each one.
Once again, Fernando Alonso was at the right end of the timesheets though the Spaniard completed fewer than planned due to a couple of problems, one electrical, the other mechanical, which meant the team did not get through all its planned programme for the day. Despite all this, he still managed to do 90 laps gathering useful data for for the continued development of the F150 and to increase understanding of the Pirelli tyres.
Fourth quickest was Rubens Barrichello in the Williams as the Grove outfit focussed on engine mapping, KERS and reliability. The Brazilian completed 118 laps on his way to posting a 1:24.008.
"We had a very productive day which has helped make up for the time we lost yesterday," said Barrichello. "Today was the first time I was able to use KERS, running with it activated for about 75% of the day so I am feeling happy. We also did some longer runs and I feel we are getting better prepared with everything ready for the start of the season."
"It has been another good day of running concentrating on KERS, setup work, long runs and starts," added Sam Michael, "and we've had no mechanical issues with the Williams Cosworth driveline. Most of the parts on the car now have done quite a few miles so we're pushing into that zone where you can have high mileage failures. We need to do it now though to avoid failures on race weekends. We're learning more about the Pirelli tyres and how to extract the most out of them - there's definitely going to be some tricks to that this year! Right now the rate of performance development is high for all teams, so it's not possible to put any real indicators on pace order."
It was a more productive day for Lotus Renault GP which had Vitaly Petrov on duty in the morning before Nick Heidfeld took over in the afternoon.
The R31 was fitted with some new parts to the water system, which resolved the problems the team experienced in Jerez. The team also logged some useful data from its suspension set-up programme in the afternoon, evaluating changes to the front and rear systems.
"After losing the track time yesterday, it was nice to be back in the car this morning and we completed quite a lot of laps," said Petrov. "We found a lot of new things and worked on the general set-up, as well as understanding how the tyres are performing. It's quite cold here, especially compared to Jerez, so it was difficult to warm up the tyres to begin with, but we've learned quite a lot from the short runs we did."
"The balance of the car was not as good as it was in Jerez," added Heidfeld, "but we did improve things by the end of the day. We lost a bit of time at the start of the afternoon, but when I did get out we did some useful work including new tyre runs, data collection and some work on the car's systems. But we still need lots more mileage because there are a lot of things on our job list to try, especially for the set-up of the car."
"The main task of the day was to put some miles on the car to make up for the track time we lost yesterday," said Alan Permane. "We focussed on medium-length runs of eight to ten laps, and worked on the set-up and understanding the tyres on this track. We ran on three out of the four dry tyre compounds, evaluating both new and scrubbed sets."
On his second day of running Kamui Kobayashi enjoyed a trouble free day in the Sauber, completing 125 laps in the process of carrying out the planned programme.
"We completed 125 laps, which is good," said technical director, James Key. "It was a case of working through some programmes to understand more about the tyres. Barcelona is a good track to get a handle on tyres, but the cold conditions this morning made it a little tricky with high wear on the front tyres, although this was probably not unique to us. We ran through a race set up programme this morning using all three compounds - hard, medium and soft - to get an overview of the longevity of their performance. This also allowed Kamui to work on managing the tyres from a driver's perspective.
"In the afternoon we worked on the set-up and used a new package to improve mechanical grip, and this looks okay. We also worked with the different compounds, but this time with set-up changes between them to understand better their one lap performance, although it wasn't a qualifying simulation. We recovered well after a slightly tricky day yesterday, and Kamui did a very good job."
"We had no technical problems at all," added Kobayashi, "and I think this was the first time we were able to complete the whole programme. We worked on the set-up, and we now have a better understanding of the tyres. We collected a lot of data, and I'm happy with what we achieved today."
A positive day of running saw Nico Rosberg complete further acclimatisation work with the Mercedes KERS system, alongside set-up comparisons and aerodynamic evaluations in the morning session. During the afternoon, the team completed its second full race simulation of this week's test, including live pit stops.
The German completed 131 laps, which equates to over 600kms of running and is one lap short of two full race distances here. He will continue the programme tomorrow before Michael Schumacher resumes testing on Monday.
"We completed a great deal of mileage," said Rosberg, "and that was important for me to understand more about the tyre behaviour. There is a lot for the drivers to learn about how the Pirelli tyres are performing, and about how to make them last over the long runs; it's going to be a key factor this year in the races and I think we made good progress on that front today. The reliability was ok but everybody in the team knows we need to keep pushing to make sure we are trouble-free for the start of the season."
It was a frustrating day for McLaren, where a hydraulics failure after just a handful of laps of aero-mapping cost Jenson Button the majority of the morning's track-time. A similar failure towards the end of the day also brought an early end to proceedings.
"We're not doing as many laps as we'd like," said the Englishman, "so we're a little behind some of the other teams, which is a bit of a disadvantage, but that's something we're addressing. Over the next two days, hopefully our reliability will be better, and we'll be fully equipped with spare parts.
"Mileage not only helps reliability, but it's also useful for set-up work. It's difficult to balance the car with the front wing when you're trying a variety of tyre compounds and fuel loads. And it's taken a bit of a time, especially at a circuit like this, where getting the aero balance right is important.
"There's a lot more performance still to come from this car," he insisted, "now we just need some proper mileage to see what it can do. Hopefully, Lewis will be able to achieve that over the next two days."
At Force India, Paul di Resta continued his preparations for his debut season, completing 80 laps split over a variety of run lengths and set-ups. He also tested different tyre compounds over longer runs and, with only one period of downtime, largely completed his programme.
"Today was a definite improvement over yesterday's running with a lot more laps under our belt," said the Scot. "We ran through a lot of set-ups with the different tyre compounds and the car felt more balanced, which showed in a generally better lap time. Apart from the problem with the throttle sensor in the afternoon everything went pretty much to plan and we've got a lot of information to feed into Adrian's programme tomorrow and for the rest of the test."
"Paul again concentrated on long run comparison of the tyres with some further aero, brake material and set-up tests today," added Dominic Harlow, the team's circuit engineering director. "A sensor problem later in the afternoon resulted in the only real down time of the day. It was a reliability issue, but in testing and we are confident it is understood and can be addressed. Adrian takes over the car tomorrow and will continue with the tyre programme."
Lotus had two drivers on duty today, Heikki Kovalainen in the morning while in the afternoon Portuguese youngster Ricardo Teixeira was given his first real outing in an F1 car.
"That was a much more encouraging day today with 84 laps in total on the car," said Mike Gascoyne. "We did have a couple of minor issues with the fuel pressure and a water leak but overall it was a better day for reliability.
"We were able to give Ricardo his first proper run in an F1 car after he had helped us out in Valencia with our filming and he did just the job we wanted him to. He made no mistakes and consistently brought his lap times down on the medium tyre which I think all the teams have said is probably the slowest tyre we have.
"With Heikki we wanted to do a race distance which was slightly hindered by the water leak but overall we definitely made progress today."
"I think the positive feeling with this car is growing even though we have had a couple more reliability issues today," said Kovalainen. "They're all teething problems and we are patient while we fix them one by one. We'll get through this and put the reliability issues behind us as we have experienced people in the right positions who know how to deal with them. We still managed to complete a lot of work today and I can't wait to get back in the car."
"First I want to thank the whole team for the chance to drive again today," said Teixeira. "It was really good to be able to get some more laps done and everyone worked really hard to make me feel comfortable in and out of the car. I enjoyed myself out on track and by the third run I was able to start pushing a bit more so I think I did what I was asked to today and have taken another step forward in my development as a driver."
Tonio Liuzzi was in action for Hispania, the Italian spending the day getting used to the team and the car. The target for the day was to achieve a lot of mileage and make small improvements to adapt the car balance to Liuzzi's driving style. It was also a good opportunity for the Italian to test the latest spec Pirelli tyres, alternating between the medium, soft and supersoft compounds.
"Today was a positive day," said the Italian. "We made a lot of changes on the car, focusing particularly on the set-up and the tyres. It was a chance for me to get to know the new tyres and the team as it was my first day with Hispania Racing. We couldn't do a lot of laps since we had a problem with the gearbox in the afternoon, but we were able to clock a good time given the circumstances. We did long runs and short runs to test the performance of the car. Overall, I believe we've taken a step forwards with the balance of the car".
"It was nice to see Tonio driving for us today," added Colin Kolles, "our aim was none other than to have him get used to the car. We tested different settings on the car balance during both sessions and, looking at the times, we clearly improved as the day went on. We are very happy with Tonio's work today."
Timo Glock was on duty for Virgin as the Russian team spent the morning concentrating on system checks. However, the cold and low grip track made it difficult to get heat into the tyres and for them to reach optimal temperature. During a series of short runs the German was able to try different gearbox settings and conduct pit-stop practice.
After the lunch break, the team further mileage with some set-up runs, in which the team worked to further understand the behaviour of the
MVR-02 with new and used Pirelli PZero tyres.
"It's great to be back in the car again," said Glock. "It has been another very useful day for the team today which is important for us to keep understanding and refining the new car. We are also making good progress understanding the new Pirelli tyres and the team is really doing a good job getting ready for the start of the season."
"Another constructive day for us in Barcelona with yet more good mileage under our belts," said John Booth. "With the Bahrain test and race being something of an unknown quantity at this time, we are pushing extremely hard to ensure we maximise the opportunity that this test provides to refine the car and achieve as much data as possible."
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