2011 Formula 1 Pre-season testing

Discuss Formula 1 Testing

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Post by Ed » Sat Feb 12, 2011 7:11 am

2nd day results from Jerez were:

Rank Driver Team Best Time Total Laps
1 Michael Schumacher Mercedes GP 1:20.352 112
2 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:20.413 116
3 Jenson Button McLaren Mercedes 1:21.009 69
4 Jaime Alguersuari Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:21.214 72
5 Mark Webber Red Bull Racing 1:21.613 113
6 Adrian Sutil Force India F1 1:21.780 73
7 Sergio Perez Sauber 1:21.857 56
8 Timo Glock Virgin Racing 1:22.208 57
9 Vitaly Petrov Lotus-Renault 1:22.493 65
10 Pastor Maldonado Williams 1:22.591 37
11 Jarno Trulli Team Lotus 1:23.216 40

Testing continues tomorrow

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Post by Ed » Sat Feb 12, 2011 7:38 am

Selected quotes from day 2 at Jerez

Michael Schumacher - Mercedes
It clearly was a productive day, and obviously I am happy about that. We were focusing on long runs and being able to produce such a lot of mileage is positive in terms of reliability. It also gives us good data for the test days to come and for the developments we are working on. We are moving forward as we should during the testing period but at the same time, we are aware we have to keep pushing

Ferrari press statement:
Second day of testing for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro and ten other Formula 1 teams working until Sunday at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit in the south of Spain.
For the second day running, Felipe Massa was at the wheel of the F150th Italia. The Brazilian driver’s programme for the morning centred on analysing the behaviour of the four types of tyre brought here by Pirelli, while in the afternoon, Felipe did long runs of several consecutive laps. All the planned work was completed and now it falls to the engineers to analyse the mass of data gathered from the 116 laps completed. The best time of the day was 1.20.413.
Testing at this circuit continues tomorrow, when Fernando Alonso will be on track


Jenson Button - McLaren
The morning was spent getting me satisfactorily fitted in the car, adapting to the hybrid – which is new to me – and getting used to how the system works. I like the power boost it gives you.
I felt a lot more comfortable with the car at the end of the day after we’d played around with a few things in the cockpit. We’ve made some good progress.
And we’ve tried the different Pirelli tyres – there are big differences across the compound range; not only in terms of laptime, but also with degradation and durability. It’s going to be fun for racing, I think, and it’s what everyone wanted. The TV viewers will certainly know the differences between the tyres.
It’s been a good first day. On Sunday, I hope we can start to have a crack at seeing what the car really has in it
Jaime Alguersuari - Toro Rosso
After another day and a half in the car here, following on from last week in Valencia, I feel we have made progress in terms of our understanding of the Pirelli tyres, which was one of our main targets this week. I tried all compounds except the Super-soft here and I had a good feeling from the car with all of them, getting an idea of their different behaviour. I also made progress in terms of using the KERS and the DRS (downforce reduction system) which to be honest, does not look as complicated as I expected it to be. The important thing is that we are making progress every time I go out of the garage. In performance terms, it is still a bit too early to start drawing conclusions, especially as the lap times here vary a lot from the morning to the afternoon, but I am reasonably confident that this side of the car’s progress is on the right track. Of course, there is still a lot of work to do, but now Buemi will drive for another two days, so I expect to find even more improvements when I get back in the car in Barcelona next week
Mark Webber - Red Bull
The car ran very well and we’re continuing to learn. It’s very early days at the moment in terms of performance and there’s a long way to go before the first race, but we’ve got some good mileage in, which is important.
Ian Morgan, Head of Race Engineering - Red Bull
We continued to evaluate the new Pirelli tyres today, as well as testing some new aerodynamic components and development parts. It was a productive day; we concentrated on long runs and completed our programme. We’ve had good reliability and Mark’s had a solid two days in the car.
Adrian Sutil - Force India
Today was really the start of testing for us as yesterday was principally a shakedown to make sure the systems all worked correctly. It went well, with a lot of laps completed. The car has a good balance and I think for the first real day of running we did a reasonable lap time. We had a reoccurrence of yesterday's problems with the floor and we know what the issue is, but to get a permanent fix we'll have to go back to the factory. I'm already looking forward to seeing how it goes in Barcelona with the KERS and the moveable rear wing, which should both give some extra performance.
Dominic Harlow, Circuit engineering director - Force India
A productive second day with the VJM04, with Adrian running all the available tyre compounds, carrying out some aerodynamic tests and just starting to look at setup of the car. There were no major reliability issues aside from a couple of sensors. That is encouraging, also good to see was a general improvement in laptime as we started to understand the car better despite the circuit probably dropping off a bit this afternoon. Paul will get his first opportunity to drive the car tomorrow and will pickup the programme where we left off this afternoon
Sergio Perez - Sauber
I’m fine but I feel sorry for the team, and especially the mechanics, because of the crash. I lost the rear in turn seven and we obviously lost working time. I hope the rest of the test will be good for the team and Kamui, and they cover a lot of mileage. For me it was another day during which I have learnt a lot
James Key - Sauber Technical Director
Generally it was going fine today, but unfortunately Sergio had an off in the afternoon. He lost the rear end when he was on hard tyres, but these things happen and are part of the learning process. Overall Sergio made a good step forward. He settled in pretty quickly and gave us a lot of useful information. It was a busy day up to the accident. We have tested chassis set-up directions and were cycling through a number of set-up scans on the car and with the tyres to get further mechanical directions. After we only used three sets of tyres yesterday, we were able to use new sets more often this morning. We did a run through from the hard to the super soft Pirelli compounds. We had no warm up issues with the medium and hard compounds, but we believe we should get more out of the softer ones. Compounds, however, will change. We have checked the car after the incident and have found nothing wrong with it. We will be ready to continue tomorrow
Timo Glock - Marussia Virgin
Today I was able to spend more time in the car and complete more laps than yesterday, so we are making steady progress at this early stage with the new car. We tested the moveable rear wing for the first time and it will be interesting to use during the races this season. I leave Jerez with a good feeling and now I can’t wait to jump in the car again next week in Barcelona.
John Booth - Marussia Virgin
Today we completed another 57 laps which provides us with more valuable information. It was very useful to run the car with the moveable wing operational for the first time. Timo has done a very good job in the car over the past two days and we are quickly understanding the MVR-02. We look forward to two more positive days of running and to feeding this information back into the development programme to ensure we maintain our current momentum.

Vitaly Petrov - Lotus Renault
We were not worried about the lap times and instead we focussed on the tyres to try and understand how they work. We also did some aero mapping in the morning and then spent a lot of time working on the brakes and the KERS. Unfortunately we lost some time with a water leak, which meant we could not do the race distance in the afternoon as we planned. After three days in the R31, I’m only just starting to feel really comfortable with the car and it was in the last two hours of the session that we found some good things with the set-up.
Eric Boullier - Lotus Renault
Our second day in Jerez was not the easiest because we suffered with some minor technical problems. However, we still managed reasonable mileage and we have ticked off some more items on the job list. In particular, the work we did on the brakes and the KERS has been very beneficial and we are learning how to get the most from the system. For tomorrow, Nick [Heidfeld] will get his opportunity in the car and this will give us the chance for a detailed evaluation before we make any decisions.

Pastor Maldonado - Williams
Yesterday we were aero testing so weren’t focusing too much on out right lap times. This morning we covered good mileage testing different things on the car. After a bit of time in the garage so the team could check the KERS, I went back out later this afternoon. We were just starting a race simulation when a couple of laps in I lost the car at T4 which put me out for the rest of the day
Sam Michael - Technical Director - Williams
Today started well, then late morning we had a warning message on the KERS battery. That required us to strip the battery to check if there was a problem or if we just had a sensor error - fortunately it was the latter. It cost us 3½ hours though. Despite that, we made some really useful progress understanding the car's aero characteristics with the setup changes we ran in the morning. We started this afternoon with a long run but went off at T4, the high speed left hand
Jarno Trulli - Team Lotus
The morning went well for us. We managed to do a decent number of laps and put in a couple of quite long runs but then we had to stop with a mechanical issue which could not be fixed in time for me to go out again today. I would have liked to have had more running today but this is all part of testing a brand new car - we need to iron out the problems now so when the races start we have ironed out all the problems. Hopefully Heikki can put in some decent mileage over the next couple of days and really start to push the development of the car.
Dieter Gass - Sporting Director - Team Lotus
We had a promising start to the day. We found some interesting results from the setup work we did and have continued to learn more about the Pirelli tyres and how to maximise their grip levels on the car. Overnight we were able to fix the issues we had yesterday but unfortunately we had a mechnical problem at the front of the car that we were not able to fix in time today, but the spare parts we need are arriving from the factory tonight so we will be in good shape for Heikki to get into the car tomorrow.

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Post by Ed » Sat Feb 12, 2011 9:48 pm

Day 3 times at 12:30 pm from Jerez:

Rank Driver Team Best Time Total Laps
1 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:20.493 49
2 Michael Schumacher Mercedes GP 1:21.054 39
3 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber 1:21.242 37
4 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 1:21.685 43
5 Sebastien Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:21.790 53
6 Nick Heidfeld Lotus-Renault 1:21.849 26
7 Lewis Hamilton McLaren Mercedes 1:22.057 12
8 Heikki Kovalainen Team Lotus 1:22.793 37
9 Rubens Barrichello Williams 1:23.063 27
10 Paul di Resta Force India F1 1:23.635 35
11 Jerome d'Ambrosio Virgin Racing 1:25.471 33

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Post by Ed » Sun Feb 13, 2011 8:57 am

Day 3 results from Jerez

Day 3 times at 12:30 pm from Jerez:

Rank Driver Team Best Time Total Laps
1 Nick Heidfeld Lotus-Renault 1:20.361 86
2 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:20.493 131
3 Michael Schumacher Mercedes GP 1:21.054 114
4 Lewis Hamilton McLaren Mercedes 1:21.099 36
5 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber 1:21.242 84
6 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 1:21.574 98
7 Sebastien Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:21.681 92
8 Heikki Kovalainen Team Lotus 1:21.711 61
9 Rubens Barrichello Williams 1:22.227 99
10 Paul di Resta Force India F1 1:22.945 64
11 Jerome d'Ambrosio Virgin Racing 1:25.471 72

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Post by Ed » Sun Feb 13, 2011 9:11 am

Selected quotes from day 3 at Jerez

Nick Heidfeld - Lotus Renault
I really enjoyed the day. It was fun driving the car, although it obviously takes time to get used to things when it’s your first time in a car and working with a new team. We had a good day, without too many problems, and luckily all the changes we made to the car went in the right direction and improved things, so I was able to push harder and harder. In terms of the lap times, it’s very difficult for me to compare with the other teams because we don’t know the fuel levels or what the others were doing. My first impressions of the car were positive, although there are always areas where you can improve.
Eric Boullier - Lotus Renault
Today we had the chance to give Nick time in the car and we carried out a big evaluation. Our first feelings are very positive: he worked well with the team, gave good feedback and improved the car during the day. We managed to cover 86 laps and the times are encouraging, which is also thanks to Robert and Vitaly’s early feedback and the hard work of everybody in the team.
Ferrari press statement:
Third day of testing for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro and ten other Formula 1 teams, working again today and up to the end of Sunday at the Jerez de la Frontera track, in southern Spain.
Today, Fernando Alonso was at the wheel of the F150th Italia. The Spanish driver worked through a similar programme to the one that team-mate Felipe Massa completed yesterday. Fernando ran with an image of his friend Robert Kubica’s helmet on his own one and in the morning, he worked on a comparison between the four types of tyre that Pirelli had brought for this test. Then, in the afternoon he concentrated on a long run. He completed a total of 131 laps, with a best lap time on the clock of 1.20.493.
Testing continues at this circuit tomorrow, again with Fernando Alonso on track

Michael Schumacher - Mercedes
At the end of my two test days in Jerez, I can only be happy with what we have achieved here. Once again today, we completed a lot of mileage, and with the exception of some smaller issues, we ran very well which enables us to steadily progress with our testing programme. This is exactly what you want at this period of time. I am now looking forward to continuing the development at the next test in Barcelona starting on Friday

McLaren press statement
A shortage of spares meant Lewis was only able to record 36 laps during the third day of this week’s Jerez test. While this hampered running, on-the-spot repairs were effected, and the relevant new components will be delivered overnight ahead of tomorrow’s running.

Despite the lack of mileage, the team was pleased with the progress made: Lewis and the engineers made some positive new steps with car set-up and understanding tyre performance, and also re-confirmed some concepts we’d previously tested.

The team conducted some running with the new-for-2011 drag reduction system – but will fully focus on the adjustable rear wing at next week’s Barcelona test.

Jenson concludes the four-day programme tomorrow, carrying on from where Lewis left off, focusing on confirmation of today’s set-up direction and, hopefully, some long-run tyre comparison work on the Pirellis.


James Key - Sauber Technical Director
After not having been at the wheel in Valencia for a long time, today was Kamui’s first day of proper testing with the C30 and the latest Pirelli tyres. We have been running on used tyres and did some general set up work, but actually not a huge amount of performance work. In the morning we did general mechanical work and set up changes, checking directions we found when Sergio was driving. In the afternoon we also tested some new development items and concentrated on longer runs, which in the end were cut short due to an engine problem. We are also looking forward to a full test programme for tomorrow
Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull
Testing has gone well today. It’s quite tricky with the rear wing; it acts in a similar manner to the f-duct last year, so naturally, as a driver, you want to use it as much as you can. When the tyres go off, it’s not as easy to use as when the tyres are fresh, but you get used to it. KERS is not so easy to use, but again it’s a case of getting used to it – its practice in the end.
Sebastien Buemi - Toro Rosso
The team has done a good job moving on with the development of the car since I last drove it in Valencia. It is definitely better, although at the moment there is no point in talking about its performance level, as we are still working mainly on understanding everything about it. So I am happy with what we did today, when I also tried the Hard compound Pirelli, which worked well and that means I have now run with all four compounds. We have one more day here, which we will use to work through many other elements
Heikki Kovalainen - Team Lotus
Today was very encouraging and I really enjoyed driving the car. I still have the same feeling that I had in Valencia - it's fundamentally a good car and there's a lot more to come from it. We managed to make very good progress today, even though we had a problem with the exhaust we still managed to get through most of the programme. The guys worked well to fix the problem, and by the end of the day we had made a number of setup changes, run through all the tyre compounds and had run on a variety of fuel loads. This morning we tried the DRS in race mode and even though I had thought the procedure to initiate it might be pretty complicated it actually all worked easily. Once you get used to it the system is pretty simple. I used it in both race and practice mode and it returns to position well so I have no problems under braking and am very happy with how it all works. By the time the day ended we finished right in the mix so we're all pretty happy with the day's work.
Dieter Gass - Sporting Director - Team Lotus
I think we are all quite pleased with how the day went. The morning and late afternoon sessions were good and even though we lost some time on track around the middle of the day with the exhaust problem we were still able to learn a lot more about the car and complete most of the programme. One of the key learnings from today is with the tyres. I think there we have a lot more work to do to really understand how to get the best out of the tyres but we have definitely taken a step forward with Pirelli today. We also tested the DRS in race conditions today and it was our first chance to try the proximity system - that worked very well and it was good to see that in action as it will be used in race scenarios.
Sam Michael - Technical Director - Williams
After a couple of setup runs this morning we had a problem with the KERS onboard cooling system. We had to stop and remove some components to ensure the car was safe, and that cost us three hours. In the afternoon we made good progress with the aero setup of the FW33 on long runs, with Rubens generating some good data for the wind tunnel
Paul di Resta - Force India
Today was really about me getting used to the new car, plus getting as much information about the new tyres and set-up options as possible. We've still got a bit of work to do, but today was about determining the right way to go. We did find that there were a couple of issues with getting temperature in the brakes on some set-ups, and on the final run of the day I locked up into turn nine and went off into the gravel. Overall I think we can be fairly positive with the progress we've made over the past couple of days and have a good idea of where we can go tomorrow.
Dominic Harlow, Circuit engineering director - Force India
Today was Paul's first opportunity to drive the VJM04 so was very much about acclimatisation to the car and looking at various set-up options. We continued to learn about the car, and found some good and some bad directions. Unfortunately Paul locked the brakes at T9 on his final outing and had a small spin. There wasn't any damage but with another red flag almost immediately afterwards there wasn't time to continue so we missed a few laps. Tomorrow Paul will conclude the test, taking the opportunity to try the DRS [drag reduction system] rear wing in simulated race mode during the morning and further set-up work planned for the afternoon
Jerome d'Ambrosio - Marussia Virgin
I was really looking forward to today and it’s fantastic to finally be driving the new car. I was able to complete many laps and spend a lot of time in the car, which is what testing is all about. I am quickly getting used to driving the MVR-02 and tomorrow I hope we can continue to gather plenty of useful data to help us to continue moving forward.
John Booth - Marussia Virgin
Today has been a very productive day as the time we spent confined to the garage was limited and we were therefore able to get plenty of track time and useful mileage under our belts. Jérôme has done a great job in his debut run in the MVR-02 and it is great to see him developing with each time out in the car. We hope for more of the same tomorrow to ensure we end a very good first test on a high.
Last edited by Ed on Mon Feb 14, 2011 12:19 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Post by Ed » Mon Feb 14, 2011 12:18 am

Day 4 times at 3:00 pm from Jerez:

Rank Driver Team Best Time Total Laps
1 Rubens Barrichello Williams 1:19.832 84
2 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber 1:20.601 85
3 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:21.074 97
4 Sebastien Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:21.213 64
5 Bruno Senna Lotus-Renault 1:21.990 55
6 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 1:22.222 55
7 Jenson Button McLaren Mercedes 1:22.278 60
8 Nico Rosberg Mercedes GP 1:22.773 18
9 Jerome d'Ambrosio Virgin Racing 1:22.985 18
10 Paul di Resta Force India F1 1:23.111 84
11 Heikki Kovalainen Team Lotus 1:24.023 35

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Post by Ed » Mon Feb 14, 2011 10:25 am

Day 4 times from Jerez:

Rank Driver Team Best Time Total Laps
1 Rubens Barrichello Williams 1:19.832 103
2 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber 1:20.601 86
3 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:21.074 115
4 Sebastien Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:21.213 90
5 Bruno Senna Lotus-Renault 1:21.400 68
6 Heikki Kovalainen Team Lotus 1:21.632 43
7 Nico Rosberg Mercedes GP 1:22.103 45
8 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 1:22.222 90
9 Jenson Button McLaren Mercedes 1:22.278 70
10 Jerome d'Ambrosio Virgin Racing 1:22.985 45
11 Paul di Resta Force India F1 1:23.111 99

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Post by cmlean » Tue Feb 15, 2011 6:20 pm

All the teams are all playing things very close to the chest. About the only certainty that has emerged so far is that Ferrari have a car that will be in the mix this season. They are always near the top in all test sessions conducted so far.

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Post by Ed » Fri Feb 18, 2011 5:43 pm

The 3rd Formula 1 test of 2011 about to start at the Catalunya circuit near Barcelona. This will be a 4 day test

We will be posting comments and results here throughout this test

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Post by Ed » Fri Feb 18, 2011 6:53 pm

First day of testing at Barcelona is underway.

The track is damp and hence there isn't much running yet.

Best time so far is Rubens Barrichello with a 1:43.551

(for reference, the fastest lap at Barcelona in 2010 was a 1:24.357 by Lewis Hamilton

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Post by Ed » Fri Feb 18, 2011 8:56 pm

It is nearly mid-day in Spain and the top 10 times so far are:

Position Driver Team Fastest time
1 Barrichello Williams 1:31.334
2 d'Ambrosio Virgin 1:34.359
3 Kobayashi Sauber 1:36.254
4 Alonso Ferrari 1:36.978
5 Vettel Red Bull 1:37.172
6 Schumacher Mercedes GP 1:37.466
7 Button McLaren 1:38.429
8 Alguersuari Toro Rosso 1:40.408
9 Kovalainen Team Lotus 1:41.115
10 Karthikeyan HRT 1:43.575

Track continues to dry

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Post by Ed » Fri Feb 18, 2011 10:34 pm

Times from day 1 at lunch:

Position Driver Team Fastest time
1 Alonso Ferrari 1:25.495
2 Alguersuari Toro Rosso 1:26.117
3 Button McLaren 1:26.365
4 Vettel Red Bull 1:26.640
5 Barrichello Williams 1:27.447
6 Schumacher Mercedes GP 1:27.661
7 Kovalainen Team Lotus 1:30.667
8 d'Ambrosio Virgin 1:32.068
9 Karthikeyan HRT 1:32.068
10 Kobayashi Sauber 1:36.254

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Post by Ed » Sat Feb 19, 2011 12:15 am

Times from day 1 at 3:10 PM

Position Driver Team Fastest time
1 Alonso Ferrari 1:25.495
2 Alguersuari Toro Rosso 1:26.117
3 Button McLaren 1:26.365
4 Vettel Red Bull 1:26.640
5 Barrichello Williams 1:27.447
6 Kobayashi Sauber 1:27.470
7 Schumacher Mercedes GP 1:27.512
8 Karthikeyan HRT 1:28.393
9 Kovalainen Team Lotus 1:30.173
10 d'Ambrosio Virgin 1:32.068

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Post by Ed » Sat Feb 19, 2011 8:28 am

Best lap times at the end of the first day in Barcelona

Position Driver Team Fastest time Total Laps
1 Vettel Red Bull 1:24.374 37
2 Alonso Ferrari 1:25.495 101
3 Alguersuari Toro Rosso 1:25.638 57
4 Kobayashi Sauber 1:25.641 78
5 Button McLaren 1:26.365 77
6 di Resta Force India 1:26.575 26
7 Barrichello Williams 1:26.912 52
8 Schumacher Mercedes GP 1:27.512 90
9 Karthikeyan HRT 1:28.393 116
10 Kovalainen Team Lotus 1:30.065 54
11 d'Ambrosio Virgin 1:30.950 116
12 Petrov Lotus-Renault 1:35.174 20
13 Heidfeld Lotus-Renault 1.44.324 27
Last edited by Ed on Sat Feb 19, 2011 8:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Post by Ed » Sat Feb 19, 2011 6:44 pm

Selected quotes from day 1 at Barcelona

Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull
Unfortunately, we didn’t complete many laps today, as we had a long break – longer than expected. It wasn’t anything big, nothing broke, but at the test if you think there might be a problem then you’d rather take the car apart and check. The boys did their best and we still got some runs towards the end of the day – not as much as we’d like, but the car feels good and hopefully we’ll do more tomorrow.
Ian Morgan, Head of Race Engineering - Red Bull
It was frustrating today, as we lost some time making checks to the car during lunch. It’s what testing is for, but we would have liked to complete more laps today.
Ferrari press statement:
First day of testing for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro and the eleven other Formula 1 teams, working from today until Monday at the Montmelo circuit, outside Barcelona.
Fernando Alonso was at the wheel of the F150th Italia, still in the same configuration seen at the first test. As has been the case right from the start of the new car’s on track development, the main subjects on the agenda were increasing understanding of the Pirelli tyres and on working on the overall reliability of the car. The day went smoothly with no technical problems on the car and by the end, a total of 101 laps had been completed, the quickest in a time of 1.25.485.
Testing at this track continues tomorrow, again with Fernando Alonso at the wheel.

Toro Rosso press statement:
The third of four pre-season test sessions got underway in the same conditions that brought the previous one to an end: last week, rain arrived for the final minutes at Jerez de la Frontera and a wet track from overnight rain, was the main feature up until around eleven this morning at the Catalunya circuit.

The opportunity was not wasted and our local boy, Jaime Alguersuari, immediately put in a good 20 lap run on Pirelli’s intermediate tyre, gathering useful data for ourselves and the sport’s new tyre supplier. Once the track dried, the slicks came out and two runs were completed before the lunch-break which is compulsory at this track. The afternoon’s work included a brake system evaluation. The Catalan driver continues at the wheel for tomorrow’s test.

Kamui Kobayashi - Sauber
We couldn’t complete the whole programme due to a technical problem. We had wet conditions in the morning so this was fine to collect some information on wet tyres. In the afternoon we couldn’t do everything we planned, so we have some work left for tomorrow.
James Key - Sauber Technical Director
It was a wet start this morning, so we decided to do a wet tyre programme. Pirelli brought the wet race spec tyre here and, as we had already tried the intermediate race spec, we decided to use the opportunity to get to know the wet tyres. This was useful because the track started to dry up by mid-morning, and we were able to learn how both, the wet and the intermediate tyres behave on a drying track, which is always useful. We then suffered a problem with the powertrain, which delayed us a little bit this morning, but after this we recovered in the afternoon. We did another fuel system check test by running out on the track, and then worked on the tyre compounds we have here - the hard, the medium and the soft. We finished the day with a long run. Kamui did a good job on this and was fairly consistent, which is good for the medium tyre on a track which is hard on tyres. It wasn’t really until this afternoon that we were able to start to set up the car for Barcelona. We found some useful directions and we will carry on with that work tomorrow.
Indy Lall, Test team manager - McLaren
We learnt a lot from running the MP4-26 for the first time in Jerez last week, and, as a result, we’ve been able to set ourselves a very clearly defined programme for this week’s Barcelona test.
We’d planned to begin the test by conducting a number of aero-mapping runs, but these were slightly disrupted because the track was still damp from last night’s rain. As a result, we’ll repeat that test tomorrow morning – weather permitting.
Still, we didn’t lose too much track-time, and quickly switched our focus to a series of shorter runs towards the end of the morning. These were used to evaluate set-up and establish a general direction for the afternoon’s long-run programme, which gave us a very solid understanding of the behaviour of the Pirelli tyres over the course of a stint.
We also satisfactorily ran our drag reduction system for the first time in anger, and continued work with the F1 hybrid. It’s been a very solid day and we’re pleased with our progres.
Paul di Resta - Force India
The guys did pretty well to get the car out on track today and towards the end of the afternoon we did some productive running to get a good baseline set-up for tomorrow when we'll have a much more extensive test programme to carry out. I definitely feel there is more to come from the car and I'm looking forward to getting back out there to help the team get as much out of this test as possible.
Dominic Harlow, Circuit engineering director - Force India
We didn't run this morning as we were waiting for some parts to arrive at the track until early in the day, and the knock on effect of the turnaround from Jerez meant there was a lot to do to complete the car build. The track conditions weren't good anyway, with wet, cold and slippery conditions so we felt we did not miss too much. The afternoon's session was much better and we started our testing with some aerodynamic tests and tyre comparison looking at the new soft.
Rubens Barrichello - Williams
We did some laps in the wet this morning which was good as it allowed us to get a feel for the car on intermediate tyres. Unfortunately, we didn’t get much running in the dry. I had a short run after lunch, but we had to make a precautionary engine change so my day was cut short.
Sam Michael - Technical Director - Williams
We didn't have enough set-up time today. The track was moist to start and didn't start ramping up until late morning, at which point we encountered an issue with the engine. Over the break, we changed the engine and did just one proper run at the end of the session. All of our running was carried out on the medium compound tyre. Despite the downtime, we actually tested and measured quite a few aero and systems items in the background. Tonight, we will re-activate KERS in preparation for tomorrow’s running.
Michael Schumacher - Mercedes
We had a good day and it is certainly satisfying to finish a race distance with all of the systems operational and to have everything working fine. Now we have to turn our focus to performance and it was important to complete today's simulation to understand how the car and tyres behave going from a heavy to lighter fuel load.

Narain Karthikeyan - HRT
Today was a very productive day for me because I got a lot of laps in. I was able to use various types of Pirelli tyres; the morning was damp so we started with intermediates and as it dried up we moved on to medium, soft and supersoft tyres. The most important thing was to get the mileage done, a few more days like this and we will be ready for the start of the championship.
Colin Kolles, Team Principal - HRT
We did a lot of laps today, 116 in total, more than any other team. The good news is that the car got through the sessions without any problems. Today was a great opportunity for Narain to get to learn more about the new Pirelli tyres. I’m delighted to see that Narain is growing accustomed to the car, the progress is clear for everyone to see with his improving lap times.
Heikki Kovalainen - Team Lotus
It was good to start the day with some runs on the intermediates in proper damp conditions. There wasn't a lot of standing water on the track but it was pretty damp all round - we needed to try out the inters in these conditions so we've now amassed some very useful data on those. After that we wanted to do a race distance but the gearbox problem meant we couldn't complete that part of the plan. Despite this I'm still finding that the car has good balance and is basically a decent package - we'll sort out the problems and tomorrow we'll try the race distance again and see where we are after that.
Mike Gascoyne - Chief Technical Officer - Team Lotus
It was a reasonably productive day although we had to stop slightly earlier than planned due to a gearbox lubrication issue. This morning we were able to run on the inters on a damp track for the first time and we have obtained some useful data from those runs. We worked through the rest of the compound choices throughout the day on high fuel loads which is helping us learn more about how to maximise the performance of the Pirellis with the car.
Jerome d'Ambrosio - Marussia Virgin
Today was another very productive day in the car. It was good to be able to feel what it’s like to drive in the wet and use the intermediate tyres for the first time today. I felt very comfortable driving at a track I like. I’m quickly getting used to the car and the team are doing a fantastic job. Now I can’t wait to jump in the car again on Monday.
John Booth, Team Principal - Marussia Virgin
It’s always good to be back in Barcelona as the characteristics are such that it provides us with the perfect opportunity to work on race simulation and hone car set-up. We also have the full range of tyre compounds here again, which will provide us with the chance to thoroughly evaluate the car’s behaviour in highly representative conditions. We continue to be encouraged with the level of reliability we are seeing and this is enabling us to gather a vast amount of data that is being fed back into the development programme all the time. All in all, things are looking promising.
Nick Heidfeld - Lotus Renault
I was in the car for just an hour this morning to do some pit stop practice. It was a bit damp to begin with, so we started on the wet tyres and I got my first feel for them. I didn’t do a proper run, just one timed lap and then came in and out for pit stops. It was the first time I have used the new traffic light system and it worked okay, but we found some small things to improve for next time.
Vitaly Petrov - Lotus Renault
A difficult day for us because we lost a lot of time finding the problem with the KERS, but at least I got out for the final 40 minutes so that we could do the practice pit stops with our new lighting system. Because we didn’t manage to do much running today, the team will give me some more time in the car tomorrow morning before Nick takes over.
Last edited by Ed on Sun Feb 20, 2011 1:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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