Catalunya, day 4: Rosberg fastest on last testing day

After Lewis Hamilton yesterday highlighted the forward steps taken by Mercedes over the winter months, team-mate Nico Rosberg reinforced the message by setting the fastest time of the final day of pre-season testing and the fastest time of the second four-day spell the Circuit de Catalunya.

Rosberg’s time of 1:20.130 was set in the morning as the lunch break neared on a single-lap run. As with Hamilton’s lap yesterday the time stood until the end of the day as teams focused on longer runs and race simulations in the afternoon.

Mercedes had more reason to happy, as allied to Rosberg’s pace was impressive reliability. The German completed 131 laps on the final day, the largest tally of any driver.

Afterwards, Rosberg admitted that he feels the team has improved greatly on the car with which it ended last season.

“I’m pleased with our pre-season testing programme,” he said. “We have achieved a lot of mileage and I can feel that the balance of the car is good. I have the general feeling that we are in a better position than in the second half of last year but this is testing not racing, of course. The conditions in the first race will be completely different to here as it will be much hotter in Melbourne and Sepang so we need to wait and see.”

The only other driver to go under the one minute, 20-second mark today was Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard’s lap of 1:20.494, recorded shortly after Rosberg’s, was also on the soft tyre. Jenson Button was third for McLaren with a time of 1:21.44, though the Briton’s time was set on the unmarked tyre Pirelli brought to this test, believed to be a medium compound.

While the top three are likely to feel satisfied with their final efforts in Barcelona, one potential front-runner who left the circuit unimpressed by the final week’s work was defending champion Sebastian Vettel.

The Red Bull Racing driver got through 100 laps on his way to eighth place on the last test outing at the wheel of the RB9 but afterwards Vettel said testing had been inconclusive due to the behaviour of Pirelli’s tyres.

“I think we’ve never had a winter that was less conclusive that this one,” he said. “If you sum up all three tests I think all the teams were linked in to what the tyres could do and at times it was extremely difficult to read the set-up changes and find a direction because the tyres were always pretty challenging. The tyres last, if anything, one lap, so it’s impossible to read the pace of the car and to make out who is favourite is not easy.

“The last two days weren’t as good as we expected but we still have time before the first race,” he added. “I think it’s extremely difficult to pinpoint the exact area [in which we need improve] as the tyres are not consistent enough. The last two days were pretty good in terms of weather, it wasn’t cold and the asphalt was quite warm but the tyres were still poor. We need to look into the data to understand what awaits us in Melbourne. But lap times are not important and where we are now on the time sheet is not that important.”

Kimi Raikkonen, returning from the illness that sidelined him from Saturday’s running also had an unhappy final day, with a morning gearbox problems restricting the Finn to garage for most of the opening phase of running. Once he did take to the track, Raikkonen climbed the order to end the day with the fifth-fastest time, behind Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg.

“I was sick yesterday and the car was sick this morning,” he said. “It’s not what you want, but you go testing to find out if there are any problems with the car. For sure, we haven’t completed all the laps we wanted during pre-season, but that is often the case. Personally, I felt much better today and I was fine driving.”

Lotus Technical Director James Allison was more forthright, saying the day’s running was a mirror of the team’s test programme whole programme in Barcelona.

“Today was something like this entire test in microcosm; we spent too much of the day in the garage, but when we did get out on track we made good progress,” he said. “A definite positive is that we are not finding it difficult to be on the pace. Today’s gearbox problem was the same as we experienced previously but we’re confident we have a solution and are not concerned about it causing us any issues in Melbourne.”

Paul Di Resta ended Force India’s test with sixth place and the Scot was followed by Williams Pastor Maldonado and Vettel. Ninth place went to second Williams driver Valtteri Bottas, while a good day for Caterham saw Charles Pic complete 116 laps and claim the day’s 10th-quickest time. The remaining spots on the timesheet were filled by Marussia’s Jules Bianchi, Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo and Max Chilton, who took over from Bianchi at the wheel of Marussia’s MR02 in the afternoon.

Mercedes

Nico Rosberg completed the final day of pre-season testing for MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS at the Circuit de Catalunya today. With twelve days of track action completed over three tests, the team will return to base to make the final preparations for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne in two weeks time.

— Nico’s programme today focused on set-up evaluations over short runs in the morning and longer runs this afternoon
— His fastest time of the day was set during the morning session on the soft compound Pirelli tyres
— Nico completed 131 laps, just under two race distances, which was the highest mileage recorded today

The F1 W04 has completed 5224 km over the three tests, with Nico and Lewis totalling 2640 km & 2584 km respectively.

Nico Rosberg: I’m pleased with our pre-season testing programme. We have achieved a lot of mileage and I can feel that the balance of the car is good. I have the general feeling that we are in a better position than in the second half of last year but this is testing not racing, of course. The conditions in the first race will be completely different to here as it will be much hotter in Melbourne and Sepang so we need to wait and see. Thanks to the team here at the track and back home at the factory for all their hard work over the last month. I hope it pays off and we can look forward to a positive season ahead together.

Ross Brawn: With the conclusion of our testing programme, I am pleased with the progress that the team has made over the last month and the steps forward that have been made with the car. We have achieved our objectives for the test programme and the mileage that we have been able to complete has been very satisfying. Lewis has settled into the team extremely well and everyone has enjoyed working with both him and Nico throughout the three tests. We now have one final week back at the factory to complete our preparations; both drivers will be at the factory this week and, as always, there is a lot of work to do in a short space of time. We’re realistic about our performance here and our position once we get to Melbourne, and we look forward to the challenge of a new season ahead.

Caterham Renault

Charles Pic: "I’m pleased with how the last day of testing has gone. We’ve finished everything we planned for this test and completed 116 laps today, including a race simulation and full pitstops so we’ve done everything we can to prepare for the start of the season in a couple of weeks.

"It was also important to use the tests to familiarise myself with the whole team. I’ve really enjoyed working with everyone - there’s a good atmosphere inside the team and we’re realistic about what we can achieve this year so we’ll go into the season with a good spirit and aim to take advantage of anything that comes our way when the races start."

Ferrari

Fernando Alonso was at the wheel of the F138 as winter testing concluded today for Scuderia Ferrari and the other ten Formula 1 teams ahead of the start of the 2013 World Championship. Another day of sun allowed the team to complete an intensive programme of work without problems.

In the morning, Fernando made progress with the development of the F138, working on different car set-ups and comparisons between the various types of tyre – including some experimental ones brought to the Circuit de Catalunya by Pirelli.

In the afternoon the team continued with tyre comparisons before switching the focus to checking some aerodynamic solutions and ending the day with some pit-stop simulations.

The next on-track action is scheduled for Friday 15 March at Melbourne’s Albert Park, when the curtain opens on the first session of free practice for the Australian Grand Prix.

Force India Mercedes

Sahara Force India wrapped up its winter testing programme in Barcelona today with Paul Di Resta completing 112 laps in the VJM06.

Paul Di Resta: “My last day in the car before Melbourne and we made the most of it. The race distance this afternoon was straightforward and there were no red flags while we were running. The weather was much warmer today and that gives us useful tyre information, which we can compare with the data we have from Adrian’s work yesterday in similar conditions.”

Jakob Andreasen, Chief Race Engineer: “Winter testing comes to an end with another full day and a race simulation for Paul. Combined with the race distance for Adrian yesterday, we’ve achieved our mileage target and have a much better understanding of the performance windows of the tyres. Two weeks today we will be racing in Melbourne and we are feeling positive and pretty well prepared. Our reliability has been good and we’ve made steady progress through the job list. As always at this time of year, it’s a case of all hands on deck, both at the track and back at base, but everybody has played their part to ensure a smooth winter programme over the last few weeks.”

McLaren Mercedes

A positive end to three weeks of testing in Spain. Jenson concluded the 12 days’ running with a productive 122 laps of the Circuit de Catalunya today.

At the conclusion of the test, sporting director Sam Michael said:

“After completing over 5,000 kilometres, through dry and wet conditions, we have collected plenty of data from MP4-28A. A large part of winter testing is taken up with methodically working through many systems checks and verifying that the correlation between design and track is solid – that’s more important in modern F1 as track testing opportunities are so limited.

“A special thank-you to everybody put so much effort into the testing program. We’re all really looking forward to the first race in Melbourne in two weeks – from the laptimes we’ve seen the season is going to be incredibly close!”

Toro Rosso Ferrari

With the twelve days of pre-season testing coming to an end in Barcelona today there are now just twelve days to go until the Formula 1 cars are back on track for the first Free Practice session for the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne’s Albert Park. On another warm and sunny day here in Spain, Daniel Ricciardo rounded off our programme, evaluating various set-ups in the morning, before completing a couple of long runs in the afternoon.

Over the course of the 12 days, split equally between Vergne and Ricciardo, the STR 8 completed a total of 4504 kilometres.

Daniel Ricciardo: “We had some shorter runs to do in the morning, during which we tried most of the tyre compounds, while getting through all the items on our job sheet. In the afternoon we managed a few long runs, which was good, as we hadn’t done many at this test, because of the bad weather. I think we learned a bit there. I’m now looking forward to Australia and hope that we’ll be able to produce some good speed at my home race.”

Laurent Mekies (Head of Vehicle Performance): “As the STR8 is fundamentally a new car, with plenty of crucial changes for example on the suspension, on the aero side and in terms of the architecture of the car, we had a very big work load to tackle this month in Spain. Even if we did not win any records for high mileage, we got through a lot of work over the three weeks on track, during which the car ran reliably, with no serious issues. Apart from our car, the other new element was the Pirelli tyres, which have different characteristics to last year’s. Getting a full understanding of how the new rubber works is something that will take longer than we had expected. Alongside these challenges, the growth of our team has involved the introduction of some new engineers and a revised organisational structure and that too was being tested over these twelve days, so it’s been a case of a very different team and a very different car.”

Red Bull Renault

Sebastian Vettel today brought the curtain down on Infiniti Red Bull Racing’s pre-season test programme in Barcelona, with an untroubled 100-lap run during which the team focused on race preparations. Afterwards the triple world champion said that after a successful winter the team is looking forward to the 2013 season opener in Australia in two weeks’ time.

Sebastian Vettel: “We’re in good enough shape I think. Overall testing has been good for us and we didn’t have too many problems. But if you sum up all three tests I think all the teams were linked in to what the tyres could do and at times it was extremely difficult to read the set-up changes and find a direction because the tyres were always pretty challenging.

“In terms of how we did this week, well, over the past couple of days we maybe didn’t tick all the boxes that we wanted to but we have bit of time left to prepare before the seasons starts. The target is there to improve and we will do that. I’m looking forward to Melbourne now and can’t wait for the racing to begin.”

Race Engineering Co-ordinator Andy Damerum: “We had a good day to finish off winter testing. We had the best conditions of the pre-season so we were able to get quite a lot done. We started with a whole session of data gathering today on some of the components we had put on the car. It was a tricky day because we were evaluating multiple aerodynamic elements, so it was pretty busy work. But not too bad for the final day.

“Testing overall has been good. It’s impossible to give any indication of where we are in the mix at the moment, to be honest. We think we’ve done some good work during all three tests but you never know until Saturday in Melbourne and that’s what we’ll focus on now.”

Sauber Ferrari

The weather conditions were again good for testing. Nico started the day with aerodynamic comparisons and then made a qualifying simulation. In the afternoon he attempted a race simulation which was aborted due to some technical issues. However, Nico completed 118 laps.

Tom McCullough, Head of Track Engineering: "On the final day of winter testing we had some technical issues, which didn’t allow us to complete the full race simulation. We will go back to our technical base and analyse all the data to exploit the full potential of the car at the first race in Melbourne. Overall the three winter tests were quite successful for our team. We completed a lot of laps and got a good understanding of our new car which will allow us to make the right decisions in the forthcoming weeks."

Nico Hülkenberg: "We did most of the planned programme with a qualifying and a race simulation. The qualifying simulation went quite smoothly, but we have some potential left with the balance of the car and some homework to do before Melbourne. But I think that we found some interesting directions, and overall I’m quite satisfied. The race simulation didn’t go hundred percent according to plan. Tyre degradation at the beginning is very high, and it’s quite challenging to keep tyres alive."

For all teams, this was the final day of testing, before the season starts in Melbourne.

Lotus Renault

Kimi Räikkönen returned to the cockpit of the E21 following yesterday’s absence through illness, only for the gearbox of his car to issue its own sick-note causing a lengthy interruption to running on the final day of pre-season testing at the Circuit de Catalunya.

The E21 remained in the garage for much of the morning as the team diagnosed, rectified and replaced the gearbox for Kimi to run in the afternoon; the Finn eventually completing 50 laps and setting the fifth fastest time of the day.

We head to Melbourne for the first race of the season.

Kimi Räikkönen: “I was sick yesterday and the car was sick this morning. It’s not what you want, but you go testing to find out if there are any problems with the car. For sure, we haven’t completed all the laps we wanted during pre-season, but that is often the case. We’ve found a few issues and we have solutions for them, which is positive. Personally, I felt much better today and I was fine driving. We ran through a lot of assessments this afternoon and the feeling in the team is that we have a strong basis to start the season; even if we haven’t shown that every day. I’m happy with the car and looking forward to going racing.”

James Allison, Technical Director: “Today was something like this entire test in microcosm; we spent too much of the day in the garage, but when we did get out on track we made good progress. A definite positive is that we are not finding it difficult to be on the pace. Today’s gearbox problem was the same as we experienced previously but we’re confident we have a solution and are not concerned about it causing us any issues in Melbourne. We were able to confirm some aspects of the Melbourne aero package this afternoon and have some more new parts to be run in Australia. Overall we would have been happy with far more pre-season running, but we have not had any difficulties getting a good lap time out of the car without resorting to low fuel runs at any of the tests.”

Eric Boullier, Team Principal: “Pre-season testing was not perfect for us but we are confident in what we have seen from the E21. We had glitches and we didn’t complete as many laps as we wanted, yet we still completed most of the assessments we required and have a good platform heading to the first race of the season. It was good to see Kimi back in the car today to take over from Davide and Romain’s work yesterday. It’s certain going to be a highly competitive season but I’m confident that we’ll be right in the battle at the front.”

Williams Renault

Mike Coughlan, Technical Director: We’ve concluded a very successful couple of tests with the FW35, without any major problems to stop us running. We completed the tests with one set of car parts, including using the same gearbox, so we have a good reliability record. We brought an upgrade package here and in race trim the car looks competitive. We’ll now analyse all the data we have and then will go to Melbourne with the best package for the elevated temperatures we expect to find.

Pastor Maldonado: Winter testing has been good for us. The FW35 has been very reliable but we are still learning how the car behaves. The FW35 is completely different to drive compared to the FW34, mainly because of the new Coanda exhaust. It has given us greater overall downforce but we still have a way to go to make sure we get the maximum benefit. We have a good base to work from though so now we just need to unlock the full potential of the car. We have some great data to compare from this year and last, so it’s all to do back at the factory now.

Valtteri Bottas: We were focussing on shorter runs today and I now feel ready for a qualifying session. We did a high fuel run at the end of the day but we are still working hard to get the most out of the package we have. Overall, it has been a productive winter test and I’ve achieved what I wanted to from it. The car has been really reliable and now I feel fully prepared for the start of the season.

The Williams F1 Team will be back on track when the new season begins in Melbourne for the Australian Grand Prix, 15 – 17 March.

Marussia Cosworth

The fourth and final day of pre-season testing provided ideal conditions for the two race drivers Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton to run through some final race weekend preparation and pitstop scenarios ahead of their Formula 1 racing debut in Melbourne in two weeks’ time.

Jules was in the car for the morning and completed 62 laps to end the session 9th out of 11 drivers. His fastest time was a 1:23.167. This now brings his pre-season testing mileage up to 632kms/136 laps over one and half days in the MR02.

Max took over the car for the afternoon where he completed a similar programme in his first session on a dry track with the new aero upgrade. His best time was a 1:24.103 after 49 laps.

Jules Bianchi: “I think it was a very positive morning for me and the Team as we did a lot of work and kept improving throughout. The pit stop work was very important and although this took away some of my time for performance work, I think it is essential for us to be fully prepared. We have maximised the one and half days of running I have had and the weather has remained good for me, so I feel happy with what we have achieved. I am ready for Melbourne. Next week I will visit the UK to do some work on the simulator and I will also go to the Marussia Technical Centre for the first time to meet the rest of my new Team. There is a lot to squeeze in over a very short space of time, but I can relax on the plane next weekend. Before that, I want to fit in as much as I can. My thanks again to everyone for a very quick but warm introduction to the Marussia F1 Team. I think we can have an exciting and positive season together.”

Max Chilton: “Overall I’m very pleased with the work we’ve done this week, exploring different set-ups in varying conditions. This range of experience will help us a lot in the first few races when we are likely to experience a few different extremes I think. The work we’ve done this afternoon with live pitstop scenarios will also be very useful. It would have been nice to have ended a positive week with a little more performance focus, as in the short amount of time we had at the end of the day I wasn’t able to get the best out of the tyres when the conditions were cooling again. From the positive signs in the dry earlier in the week though, I’m happy and feeling prepared and confident for Melbourne now. The Team have done a great job to get the most out of the three pre-season tests and let’s look to the season now for a positive reward for all the hard work.”

John Booth, Team Principal, Marussia F1 Team: “The main focus of the morning session was practice for Jules and the race team. The pit crew were quickly up to speed after all the practice over the winter and Jules had a good grasp of all the various procedures pretty early on. It was a vital element of our pre-Melbourne preparation and although it took two hours out of our performance programme, I am sure it will pay dividends. It was good to get an hour’s worth of testing as this produced some interesting results. Initially we struggled on the Medium tyre and Jules was much happier on the Soft. Nonetheless we captured some good data as there were some reasonably significant set-up changes during the runs.

“This afternoon the programme was broadly the same for Max, but obviously with the performance work falling at the end of the respective sessions, he didn’t get the best track conditions and therefore the best experience with the tyres.

“Overall I think we have achieved as much preparation as possible to take us into the opening race in Melbourne in two weeks’ time. Max has a bit of everything under his belt after so much time in the car across a variety of conditions and set-ups. Jules has done a good job in the limited amount of time he has had in the MR02. I’m not sure we could have asked any more of either of them.

“Finally, a great job by everyone in the Team, both trackside and back at base, for a very positive pre-season testing period. We’ve achieved 904 laps and 4003kms, which is a very healthy foundation with which to begin our season.”