2011 Formula 1 Pre-season testing

[jido]

Any update on the first day?

All I got is the pictures (interesting designs this year, I like the large gap between the nose and the front wing)

Thanks!

[Ed]

The 2011 Formula 1 pre-season testing has commenced with the first test taking place in Valencia between the 1st and 3rd of February.

The first day results were:

Rank Driver Team Best Time Total Laps
1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 1:13.769 93
2 Nico Hulkenberg Force India F1 1:13.938 71*
3 Gary Paffett McLaren Mercedes 1:14.292 91*
4 Paul di Resta Force India F1 1:14.461 28*
5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:14.553 98
6 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber 1:15.621 68
7 Jerome D’Ambrosio Virgin Racing 1:16.003 71*
8 Vitaly Petrov Lotus-Renault 1:16.351 28
9 Michael Schumacher Mercedes GP 1:16.450 15
10 Jaime Alguersuari Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:17.214 20
11 Rubens Barrichello Williams 1:17.335 78
12 Narain Karthikeyan HRT 1:18.020 45*
13 Nico Rosberg Mercedes GP 1:19.930 9

* denotes 2010 F1 Car

Testing continues tomorrow

[Ed]

Selected quotes from day 1

Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull

It was good today and I felt comfortable in the car, I enjoyed it. It was day one for most of us and there’s a long way to go with testing ahead of the season and a very long racing season after that – with 20 races – so things can change! We’ve only made the first step today, but we had a reliable day and can be very proud of what we have achieved so far

Kamui Kobayashi - Sauber

It was a bit of a trouble shooting day, as we had to check all the various new systems and sort things out. But that is no problem, as it is something you just have to go through. However, due to the work with the new systems we had no time for proper performance runs. The grip of the new tyres dropped off quite quickly. This is something you can improve with set up work, but for the reasons mentioned we did not really have time for that. Anyway we will continue to learn

Gary Paffett - McLaren Test Driver

The car we ran today ought to allow us to get the right loadings on the Pirellis to understand how they behave. The tyres have changed since we last ran them in Abu Dhabi last year, and they’ll change again before the start of the season.
Today was about trying to understand the tyres – we established a good baseline and then did some long runs. Happily, the wear issues we experienced in Abu Dhabi have definitely improved; we saw better wear patterns and fewer problems with the tyres.
It’s useful to understand how the tyres go off, and how the balance changes once they do. The Medium seems to last the longest and the Super-soft the shortest, but that’s exactly what you want from a tyre – and it should lead to different strategies once we start racing.

Nico Rosberg - Mercedes

The good thing is that I felt completely at home and comfortable in the cockpit straight away this morning. Initial impressions are very difficult to make as we've now changed to the Pirelli tyres but the feeling was very good. It just feels like a better car in general and it will be good to have a full day to really make progress tomorrow

Michael Schumacher - Mercedes

It has always been and is still very special to go out in a new car for the first time, and I very much enjoyed today even if it was just a few laps that we could do. Maybe you could sum it up with: interesting but short! It was mainly about doing a few system checks today and I am looking forward to the laps to come. All in all, I am very happy after today's launch of our new baby, and I can't wait for the season to start.

Rubens Barrichello - Williams

I couldn’t wait to get back in the car. Unfortunately we lost a lot of time in the morning so we were trying to play catch up in the afternoon. We did some good laps and some long runs in the car. It is too early to say how we are performing but we will now spend time to try and understand the car a little better

[jido]

Great, thanks Ed!

The coming season looks exciting with new technical solutions (where does Renault throw the exhaust fumes?). Ferrari is looking good with great reliability from day one.

[Ed]

Day 2 results from Valencia were:

Rank Driver Team Best Time Total Laps
1 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:13.307 108
2 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 1:13.614 43
3 Paul di Resta Force India F1 1:13.844 111*
4 Lewis Hamilton McLaren Mercedes 1:14.353 83*
5 Robert Kubica Lotus-Renault 1:14.412 104
6 Narain Karthikeyan HRT 1:14:472 80*
7 Nico Rosberg Mercedes GP 1:14.645 69
8 Timo Glock Virgin Racing 1:15.408 34*
9 Rubens Barrichello Williams 1:16.023 51
10 Sergio Perez Sauber 1:16.198 42
11 Pastor Maldonado Williams 1:16.266 28
12 Sebastien Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:16.359 46
13 Jaime Alguersuari Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:16.474 64
14 Mark Webber Red Bull Racing 1:17.365 17
15 Heikki Kovalainen Team Lotus 1:20.649 15

* denotes 2010 F1 Car

Testing concludes tomorrow

[Ed]

Selected quotes from day 2

Mark Webber - Red Bull

I didn’t get so long in the car today, so we will start the real work tomorrow. There was a bit of a problem with the installation, something with the pedals, so it took a bit longer than we expected. It wasn’t the smoothest day, but we’re back tomorrow – it’s great that the guys have got the car here for the first test and I’m looking forward to driving it more.

Sergio Perez - Sauber

It was a difficult day with not much running and we obviously could not complete our programme. But for me it was still good to get my first laps in the new car, and I am beginning to feel confident with it. I’m looking forward to tomorrow and hope we can do a lot of running with proper set up work

Lewis Hamilton - McLaren

It felt great to be back in the car. I haven’t been driving for a while, so it felt good to brush away the cobwebs, and I felt at home straight away.
Even though we were using the 2010 car, we had quite a productive day. We were trying to replicate 2011 downforce levels on the old car – so it wasn’t 100 per cent accurate – but we still got a good understanding of the new Pirellis and covered quite a lot of ground.
The new tyres are easy to get a feel for; there’s not as much grip on the Pirellis as we had last year; they drop off quite a bit, too, and they’re a little bit harder to control over a longer stint – but it’s the same for everybody.

Nico Rosberg - Mercedes

It was an interesting day and important that we completed a lot of laps. We ran with part of the KERS system for the first time, so much of the focus was on learning how to handle the system. It is challenging but just a matter of getting used to the buttons and how the car feels under braking out on track. Today's running confirmed my initial good feelings about the car. We had a few issues which is normal with a new car but fixed them quickly

Rubens Barrichello - Williams

We have improved the car from yesterday. We had an electrical problem in the morning and the boys did a great job to sort everything out. We then had to do some quick work as I had to hand the car over to Pastor this afternoon. The work done last night on set-up has improved the car a little. We are still not there with the balance but we are going in the right direction

Pastor Maldonado - Williams

It was great to adapt myself to the new car. It was my first time in the FW33 so I am really happy to get started. Tomorrow I will get more experience and keep working to understand the car

Paul di Resta - Force India

Another good day of testing for the team, gathering lots of information for the guys to work on as we prepare for the debut of the VJM04 next week. We're now understanding a lot more about the performance of the Pirellis and the differences between the compounds, particularly with regards to long and shorter runs and different fuel loads. At this stage we're not going for times, just trying to get representative data to work on. I'm feeling good and well integrated into the team and my new role, there's a really positive atmosphere, which will set us up extremely well for next week when the new car testing programme starts.

Jaime Alguersuari - Toro Rosso

A much better day than yesterday, as we managed to complete many more laps this morning, getting a lot of useful data. There is much we have to learn at this stage, especially regarding the elements that are new in the regulations. It was particularly interesting using the KERS and I am beginning to understand how to use it, especially in the power recovery phase. I’m looking forward to getting back in the car next week in Jerez and moving the development along still further.

Sebastien Buemi - Toro Rosso

This afternoon was my first time in the car and it felt good to be driving again after the winter break. I ran for about three hours managing 46 laps which is quite encouraging for a first day. It is going to be an interesting evening studying all the data as so much is new to us and we need to understand as well and as soon as possible how the car behaves. So tomorrow, will be a case of carrying on down this route.

Heikki Kovalainen - Team Lotus

Despite the limited running today the car felt fantastic. It immediately felt like it was much better balanced than last year’s car and the grip level felt ok, but it’s a bit hard to make any real judgements as we weren’t going for performance. Today was basically our shakedown and we managed to get through most of the checks we’d aimed to – it wasn’t about pushing today, it was about checking the systems and making sure the new engine, gearbox and hydraulics are all working as we want them to. The whole team has had a very busy winter and everybody has been working flat out to make sure we could be at the first test of the season which wasn’t the case last year. This morning we were the first car out on track and that’s been the story all winter – we’ve hit all our targets and it was the same today

[Ed]

3rd and final day results from Valencia were:

Rank Driver Team Best Time Total Laps
1 Robert Kubica Lotus-Renault 1:13.144 95
2 Adrian Sutil Force India F1 1:13.201 117*
3 Jenson Button McLaren Mercedes 1:13.553 105*
4 Mark Webber Red Bull Racing 1:13.936 105
5 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:14.017 80
6 Timo Glock Virgin Racing 1:14.207 114*
7 Pastor Maldonado Williams 1:14.299 101
8 Sergio Perez Sauber 1:14.458 104
9 Michael Schumacher Mercedes GP 1:14.537 110
10 Sebastien Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:14.801 73
11 Narain Karthikeyan HRT 1:16:535 63*
12 Jarno Trulli Team Lotus No Time 38

* denotes 2010 F1 Car

The next test session will take place at Jerez from the 10th of February

[Ed]

Selected quotes from day 3

Robert Kubica - Lotus Renault

I think we can split the day into two halves because we had some problems in the morning and we only managed to do our first real run about 1:30pm. But, after we solved the issues with the car, we managed to do a bit of set-up evaluation and some tyre work. However, because of the time we lost this morning we didn’t complete the laps we targeted, but it’s better to get any reliability issues with the car during testing, rather than when we get to the first race in Bahrain

Mark Webber - Red Bull

Today was the first good long run in the car for me, so we learnt a lot. There are some quick cars out there, but it was a good finish to the test for us. We had a good day one and day three, day two wasn’t quite so productive, but overall the team has done a bloody awesome job – to get the car here for the first test and do the work we’ve done straight out of the box, it’s impressive

Jenson Button - McLaren

Today was mostly about tyre work, it was an interesting day and a new experience for me to try the Pirellis. They obviously work in a different way to last year’s tyres – but most of my runs were reasonably good. I was quite happy with the way the car was working; we did a lot of good work on set-up. We’re moving in the right direction.
There’s degradation – but you’ll find that on any tyre – particularly on the Super-soft tyre, but that’s to be expected. Now I’m looking forward to seeing the new car tomorrow and starting to test it properly next week.

Sergio Perez - Sauber

I’m very happy with how things went today. It was a busy day and I learnt a lot about the systems and the car, while the team also collected a lot of information. We will keep working hard to improve – me personally from a driver’s perspective and all together, of course, with regards to the car. I’m already very much looking forward to the next test in Jerez and can’t wait to run the C30 again

Michael Schumacher - Mercedes

We were able to achieve a lot of valuable mileage and it was a positive day. I am pleased with that, and with how the car was behaving. Again, of course, this is not our final race car for the season but a lot of elements have already proved to be a significant step forward. I felt totally comfortable in the car immediately and noticed how much I had missed driving since November. We have a lot of work ahead of us, and this week gives us a very good idea of where we should concentrate our work. I look forward to going to Jerez now

Pastor Maldonado - Williams

I am feeling much more confident in the car now using both the KERS and the rear wing. I am also working even better with the team and developing the car over both long and short runs. I am feeling better every time I get in the car

Adrian Sutil - Force India

It felt good to be in the car again after a few months away!. Everything went pretty smoothly, as we expected with the VJM03, so we could complete the work we wanted to do. Paul and Nico had collected a lot of data on the tyres in the previous two days, so my aim today was to continue this work on alternative set-ups and fuel loads. We got all the information we needed and I feel like we understand the tyre performance pretty well now. Having got back into the car again I now can't wait to get my first taste of the VJM04 next week in Jerez.

Sebastien Buemi - Toro Rosso

Another interesting day, my first full one in the new car. I was able to have a good look at all three compounds of tyre from Pirelli, from the Medium through to the Super-soft. I used KERS all day and we had no issues with the system. The first three days of running with the new car have been productive, and now we must prepare to make progress in Jerez next week.

Jarno Trulli - Team Lotus

It has been a very positive first day, despite the fact we deliberately didn't set any meaningful laptimes as the car is missing a few parts that will be with us tomorrow. Nevertheless, the car feels great – it has good grip and today we were able to concentrate on carrying out work on the systems which we were going to have to do at some point anyway. Now we can concentrate on building up the performance levels tomorrow and in the next tests, so while it's a shame I couldn't have a full taste of the car, it was still a very positive first day in the new car

[Ed]

Team Lotus will remain in Valencia for a private test and filming day as they didn't take part in the first day of testing

[Capriman]

Hi, i just joined this site today Thanks for the updates on the testing

[GhoGho]

Times
Driver Car Time Laps
1. Felipe Massa Ferrari F150 1:20.709 101
2. Sergio Perez Sauber C30 1:21.483 94
3. Mark Webber Red Bull RB7 1:21.522 94
4. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso STR6 1:21.755 31
5. Lewis Hamilton McLaren MP4-26 1:21.914 58
6. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso STR6 1:22.689 42
7. Adrian Sutil Force India VJM-04 1:23.472 28
8. Vitaly Petrov Renault R31 1:23.504 57
9. Nico Rosberg Mercedes W02 1:23.963 67
10. Jarno Trulli Lotus T128 1:24.458 54
11. Timo Glock Virgin MVR-02 1:25.086 42
12. Pastor Maldonado Williams FW33 1:34.968 13

[Ed]

Thank you GhoGho for updating this thread with the first day's test times from Jerez

[Ed]

Selected quotes from day 1 at Jerez

Ferrari press statement:
Felipe Massa was at the wheel of the F150th Italia. The Brazilian driver’s programme focussed on finding the best set-up for the car, on increasing understanding of the Pirelli tyres’ behaviour, aerodynamic testing and starts. Despite endless red flags which were especially prevalent this afternoon, Felipe was able to complete the planned programme, with any technical problems affecting the car. He completed a total of 101 laps, the quickest in a time of 1.20.709, the fastest overall on the day

Sergio Perez - Sauber

I’m very happy with how the day went. We covered a good mileage today and again I learnt a lot. I’m getting more and more confident with all the procedures with the team and the car. I’m looking forward to another busy day tomorrow

James Key - Sauber Technical Director

Today was a productive day for us. In the morning we started off with some base line runs. Before we concentrated on set-up and worked on the braking system we also planned to run out of fuel, which was why the car stopped out on the track. In the afternoon we carried out back to back comparisons to learn more about the mechanical set up of the car. Although there were several red flags in the afternoon, we have found some good directions for further work. We only used the medium and hard tyre compounds today. In the afternoon we used no more than three sets of the harder ones, and they certainly degrade, but not so badly that we could not learn anything from them. Sergio concluded the day with practice starts and will continue to drive tomorrow

Mark Webber - Red Bull

It was pretty good today. There were a few red flags, but we did almost 100 laps and the car ran well. On the performance side I think we’re going okay; it’s very early and you don’t know who’s doing what, but we’re focusing on ourselves and seem to be going in the right direction. I’d like to add that my wishes are with Robert. It was a big shock for all of us, I couldn’t believe it. I’m happy, as it looks like the people involved have done an incredible job for him after the accident to keep him in the best shape possible. It’s a big loss for our sport that he’s not here this year and a big loss for us as competitors, as we’re motivated to race against the best guys in the world and Robert is one of them. I wish him all the best for his recovery; every day he’ll make progress and I’m looking forward to having him back when he is ready

Daniel Ricciardo - Toro Rosso Test Driver

Jerez is where I first drove a Formula 1 car, when I tested for Red Bull Racing at the end of ’09 and the last time I drove an F1 car was last November, again with Red Bull in Abu Dhabi. It doesn’t sound like a long time, but three months out of a race car is long enough. It was good to be back in the cockpit. Fortunately, I seem to have remembered how to drive! Driving the Toro Rosso for the first time was another exciting experience for me. It went well and I did enough laps this morning to get settled in the cockpit, which is important, as I hope to get a bit more track time in testing, so that I can feel confident when I get to Bahrain and run in free practice on Friday morning at my first Grand Prix weekend. I also managed to use both of the important new elements, the KERS and the DRS (drag reduction system) which seemed to function as planned and I felt quite comfortable by the end of the morning

Lewis Hamilton - McLaren

Today was mainly about checking the car – not the most exciting day, but it was important to make sure everything was running okay. We didn’t do any particularly long runs, and I wasn’t too aggressive with the car, but we learned a couple of useful things. The car feels good compared to last year’s, which is positive. It feels like a good step over MP4-25

Adrian Sutil - Force India

A successful first day of testing for the new car - a big well done to all the team. Out of the box it runs well and feels generally better than the 2010 car in every area. We had a good baseline set-up and balance, already the car is very smooth, which is always positive as then you can focus on improving performance. Despite a bit of downtime this morning with a problem with the floor we could still do 28 laps, which isn't too bad for a new car, and got in all our baseline runs. I've got a good feeling and tomorrow we're going to aim to put in some more laps, longer runs and look at different tyre compounds. It's too early to say where we are, but at this stage in testing I think we can be quite pleased and proud that the hard work everyone back in the factory and wind tunnel has - so far - paid off.

Dominic Harlow, Circuit engineering director - Force India

Today was the roll out for VJM04, and as such we were looking to install and shakedown the car whilst increasing our run lengths and looking to reach stabilised temperatures. The plan from there was to begin taking measurements and adjusting the car into our normal operating envelope and perhaps starting to sweep some set-up and control parameters. We lost a few hours today with a problem with the exhaust blast shields, which required some ingenuity to solve, but once that was done we covered the first of our objectives and completed just over 120km with no further issues. It was great to see the new car on track, and we have made a positive start to the test

Vitaly Petrov - Lotus Renault

Things were much better for me today compared to Valencia and at least we managed to do quite a lot of laps. We still lost some time because the car had an oil leak in the middle of the day, but we made the most of the time on track and I managed to do some set-up work in the afternoon. At the moment it’s important to understand how the tyres are working and we found there was quite a lot of degradation with the rears, and that’s one of the reasons why it’s difficult to find the right set-up. I also continued using the KERS and moveable wing today and that went well with no issues.

Eric Boullier - Lotus Renault

After a difficult few days, it’s good for the team to be back at the track and to have our minds focussed on developing the car. Things went pretty well, but it’s early days and there is still so much for us to learn about the new car, especially at a track like Jerez with some high-speed corners. We had a small oil leak on the car in the morning, which kept us in the garage for a while, but the aero programme went well today and has taught us some useful things.

Nico Rosberg - Mercedes

We had a reasonable day and I was able to complete quite a few laps, which is positive. It's important for both me and the team to get good mileage and we're really learning about the car all the time. We had a few little issues, which you always expect from a new car, so we just have to keep putting the miles on it. The KERS was working well and having more time to get used to the system is a real help; it's not just a question of using the buttons but also understanding the effect of the KERS under braking. We are starting to understand the tyres better and that will be one of the key factors to success over the race weekends

Jarno Trulli - Team Lotus

The car does feel pretty good, but the problem this afternoon limited our total time on track. Despite that we are still where we want to be - close to the midfield and in a car that we still have a lot more to add to. I think there is still a lot more to come from the car so I'm very positive and looking forward to getting back to work tomorrow.

Dieter Gass - Sporting Director - Team Lotus

We started the day well and had a good morning session. For the first time we were able to do meaningful setup work and start being able to understand the aerodynamics of the car. Unfortunately we had a small problem this afternoon which limited our running, but the team worked well to rectify it and we managed to give Jarno another 45 minutes at the end of the session. We will take another look at the problem tonight and will make sure it does not affect us tomorrow.

Sam Michael - Technical Director - Williams

It has not been a productive day for us I'm afraid. After the installation lap we had a problem with a bleed screw for the rear wing hydraulic actuator. It is straightforward to correct, however during the day it caused a lot of downtime as we shuffled parts around to get the car out on the track. On the positive side, in the late afternoon we did complete all the aero testing that required the front tyre rake, so that will come off tonight

[GhoGho]

Times
Driver Car Time Laps
1. Michael Schumacher Mercedes W02 1:20.352 57
2. Felipe Massa Ferrari F150th Italia 1:20.413 56
3. Mark Webber Red Bull RB7 1:21.613 46
4. Jenson Button McLaren MP4-26 1:21.614 28
5. Sergio Perez Sauber C30 1:21.857 45
6. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso STR6 1:22.019 14
7. Adrian Sutil Force India VJM-04 1:22.445 42
8. Pastor Maldonado Williams FW33 1:22.591 31
9. Vitaly Petrov Renault R31 1:23.041 30
10. Jarno Trulli Lotus T128 1:23.216 35
11. Timo Glock Virgin MVR-02 1:25.874 15

[jido]

Nice on Webber's part...

I’d like to add that my wishes are with Robert. It was a big shock for all of us, I couldn’t believe it. I’m happy, as it looks like the people involved have done an incredible job for him after the accident to keep him in the best shape possible. It’s a big loss for our sport that he’s not here this year and a big loss for us as competitors, as we’re motivated to race against the best guys in the world and Robert is one of them. I wish him all the best for his recovery; every day he’ll make progress and I’m looking forward to having him back when he is ready