Mugello F1 test: team reaction after Day 1

Sauber Ferrari

Despite difficult weather conditions the Sauber F1 Team had quite a productive first day of testing at the Mugello circuit.

The programme for Kamui Kobayashi started on a damp track while carrying out some measurements related to the new aero package the Sauber C31-Ferrari is equipped with for this week’s test. The package includes a new front wing, new rear body work, a new diffuser and numerous other parts.

In the morning track conditions required full wet tyres, but later allowed for some base line running on intermediate tyres and even for a comparison of the new body work on a set of dry weather tyres, which were medium compound tyres that had been used at a pre-season test.

After the lunch break the weather conditions changed for the worse. Kamui managed to carry out baseline runs and did some practice starts in the wet before race control had to red flag the session due to a heavy thunderstorm shortly after 3pm. Later, when the cars were allowed out again, the Sauber F1 Team decided not to continue testing today. A lot of data will now be evaluated for tomorrow. Kamui will be at the wheel again on Wednesday and the weather forcecast for then looks much improved.

Caterham Renault

Rodolfo Gonzalez: "Despite the weather, which was obviously frustrating this afternoon, I’ve had a good day with the team here at the Mugello test. I love this track - I’ve won here in the past in International F3, so getting back out in an F1 car this morning was a great experience. Obviously I’d have preferred a lot more dry running, but today wasn’t about setting the fastest times I could, it was more about making sure I ran to the plan we’d set with the engineers, not making any mistakes, and continuing to learn as much as I could. After the morning session I was happy with my performance, particularly considering how stop / start the session was, and while the running was pretty much meaningless this afternoon it’s still been another very valuable day for me. Every minute I’m with the F1 team helps me develop as a driver, so even though everyone at the test was affected by today’s rain, for me this has still been another step in the right direction for my career."

Steve Nielsen, Caterham F1 Team Sporting Director: "The weather played its part today in limiting the running we had planned for Rodolfo. Despite that he still did a good, solid job for us this morning, making no mistakes and putting in consistent lap times on every run he completed. His is developing as a driver and we can measure his progress over the last couple of years against the data we accumulated from his previous outings with us, at the Abu Dhabi young drivers’ tests in 2010 and 2011, and in the way he conducts himself in and out of the car. He responds well to the instructions he is given and his technical feedback has improved markedly since he first drove for us in 2010, so overall we are pleased with the job he has done for us today, in what have been obviously frustrating conditions, and now we want him to take what he’s learnt back to his GP2 season with Caterham Racing and continue to develop his skills every time he is on track.

"Tomorrow we have Vitaly back in the car and he will be spending the day evaluating several new parts on the car, including a new spec rear wing, new bodywork and a number of revisions to the exhaust system. Hopefully we will have a better day with the weather so we avoid losing too much more valuable track time at this test."

Toro Rosso Ferrari

Eleven of the twelve Formula 1 teams are taking part in this three day test session at Mugello, Italy, the first time in four years that there has been a test other than the Young Driver session in the middle of a season. If the majority of teams from the UK thought they were going to escape the torrential rain and flooding currently affecting their home country by coming to Italy, they were to be disappointed today, as heavy rain only left a short window of dry running in the middle of the day. In fact, with more rain in the afternoon, the team aborted the session early, preferring to prepare for what is predicted to be a dry day tomorrow. Jean-Eric will drive in the morning, before handing over the STR7 to Daniel Ricciardo.

Jean-Eric Vergne: “This is my first ever visit to Mugello and I have to say, despite the weather, I enjoyed my time on the circuit as it is a really fantastic track to drive. The car felt fine for the few dry laps I completed, but from a technical point of view, there is not much to say, because although we have a full programme to work through, the rain meant we will have to wait until tomorrow to start assessing some of the new elements we have brought here. At one point this morning, I went off the track; I was pushing a bit too hard, spun and got stuck, as the rear wheels were in the gravel. But there was no damage to the car.”

Williams Renault

Mark Gillan, Chief Operations Engineer: Unfortunately our programme was compromised by the rain today, which at one stage was heavy enough to red flag the session. Valtteri drove well in what were very difficult conditions. Despite this limited running we managed to successfully complete a number of our planned test items. Thankfully the forecast for the next two days looks better and we hope to recover some of the lost time with both Bruno and Pastor scheduled to be driving the car on Wednesday and Thursday respectively.

Valtteri Bottas: It wasn’t ideal weather for testing unfortunately. However, we completed some aero runs this morning when the track dried out a little and gathered some useful data. I feel we made the most out of the conditions and got as much out of the day as we could. The track is really great so it’s a shame I didn’t get more running in the dry.

Ferrari

After a break of over three years, Formula 1 returned to the Mugello Circuit, to be met by a large crowd – over fifteen thousand filled the paddock, the grandstands and the trackside areas, despite the less than favourable weather. Eleven teams were present for the start of the final available test session of 2012.

Fernando Alonso took to the track for Scuderia Ferrari. The Spaniard’s programme for the day included development of new components and increasing the understanding of the behaviour of the tyres. Unfortunately, the track conditions, with only a small window of dry time in the late morning, required a drastic revision of the programme. The afternoon was particularly limited, when the only work carried out was some practice starts. At the end of the day a total of 46 laps had been completed, the quickest in a time of 1.22.444, which was the fastest outright.

Fernando Alonso: “It’s a shame about the rain, which complicated the running of this first day of testing and a shame for the spectators who deserved to see more of a show. We had a pretty busy work programme, but we only managed to get through a part of it. Therefore, it’s impossible to give a serious evaluation, especially as we did so little dry running. I can only say that, for me, it was a pleasure to be driving at this track again: the first and only other time was back in 2001, when I was testing for Minardi. It’s a spectacular track and it would be nice to be able to race on it!”

The Scuderia continues testing at the Mugello Circuit tomorrow, when Felipe Massa will be on track.

Marussia Cosworth

The first in-season test since 2008 got underway in extremely wet conditions at Mugello today where Charles Pic was on track for the Marussia F1 Team. The objective for day one was an evaluation of the latest aerodynamic upgrades, set for introduction in Spain next weekend, as well as a tyre programme designed to facilitate a deeper understanding of the Pirelli P-Zero rubber.

The overnight rain had receded for the start of the morning session, albeit the track was damp and the extreme wet tyre was required for the installation run. As the track started to dry, Charles conducted much of his running on the Intermediate tyre before switching to the Hard slick compound later in the session. The weather remained changeable and the absence of consistent conditions interrupted progress with the team’s intended programme.

This afternoon the rain intensified and the team elected to conclude the day’s running early in favour of making some planned changes to the car for tomorrow.

The engineers were at least able to gather some useful data with which to evaluate the aerodynamic package but the emphasis on this aspect of the plan will now move to later in the test, when more conducive conditions are expected.

Charles continues in the car tomorrow morning when he will focus on tyre evaluation work before handing over the MR01-01 to Timo Glock for the balance of the test.

Charles Pic: “Today it has been difficult to find any kind of rhythm as the weather was changing all the time. All running is good for us because there is always more we can learn about the car, but it will be good to spend tomorrow morning focusing more on the tyre work in the drier conditions. The aero developments look good, but there is plenty more to explore in the next two days to help us prepare for Barcelona. A short day, but useful.”

John Booth, Team Principal: “The rain has rather intervened with our plans today and it goes without saying that we would have been a lot happier had we been able to knuckle down to our full planned programme. Nonetheless, we have seen encouraging early signs from the new aero developments and we have some data to start working with. We did not run the DRS or work with the tyres this morning, so we don’t have any representative lap times with which to gauge the true benefit of the package. Hopefully we’ll get closer to those conclusions in the next couple of days, weather permitting. Charles has done a solid job for us and the car has been working well, so we look forward to more progress from tomorrow onwards.”

Mercedes

Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher were both in action today as the MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS team began this week’s test programme with the F1 W03 car at the Mugello circuit in Italy.

— With poor weather hitting the circuit, Nico completed 49 laps in the morning session in changeable conditions
— The team were able to use the time to work on set-up with the intermediate tyres, switching to dry hours for the last hour
— Conditions deteriorated in the afternoon, and Michael was only able to use the wet tyres for limited data collection work
— He completed only 5 laps and the team finished the programme early in order to prepare the car for tomorrow

Michael will continue at the wheel of the F1 W03 tomorrow, with Nico concluding the test on Thursday.

Nico Rosberg: “It was a good session for me this morning and a positive start to our testing programme. It’s nice to see that we have some new parts for the car and that the ongoing process of in-season developments is working well. We were able to learn some things in the wet conditions this morning which is always useful, and we picked up a few lessons. Mugello is an impressive track which is very fast and good fun to drive. It’s also good preparation for the next race in Barcelona with the high-speed corners. I’m looking forward to getting back in the car again on Thursday and continuing our programme.”

Michael Schumacher: “Unfortunately we were not able to achieve much productive work on the track this afternoon as the weather made it nearly impossible to drive. Therefore it’s good that we collected some data this morning so that we can prepare the car in the best possible way for tomorrow. This afternoon, I was literally able just go out to check if it made sense to run – which it did not - and at least I could show the spectators who were waiting in the rain a running car for some short moments. Still, it was nice being back in Mugello after so many years, and I must say it was also nice being welcomed back by the tifosi so warmly.”

McLaren Mercedes

Overnight rain and morning fog caused a slow start to the day. The weather steadily cleared until lunchtime when heavy, driving rain returned for the remainder of the afternoon.

Oliver Turvey began the week’s programme with a number of short, data-collection runs on slicks. The heavy rain at lunchtime meant that the scheduled driver changeover to Gary Paffett was less productive: the wet weather, coupled with circuit closures due to the low visibility, rendered meaningful running pointless. As a result, the team opted to end the day early and start preparations for tomorrow, when clearer weather is anticipated.

Red Bull Renault

Formula One returned to in-season testing for the first time since 2008 today, but heavy rain at Mugello disrupted most teams’ planned programmes.

Initial forecasts had suggested there would be a 30% chance of rain at the Tuscan track, but damp conditions in the early morning led the team to run a re-worked plan, which included some running on Pirelli’s intermediate tyres. The Team used those outings to test a number of aerodynamic and mechanical development parts, which had been brought to Italy for the test.

A brief lull in the wet weather later in the morning gave Mark a couple of dry tyre runs and the team maximised the opportunity before the heaviest rain of the day arrived. During that spell, Mark set the day’s second quickest time, recording a lap of 1.23:648

Mark Webber: “Obviously, the weather wasn’t great today, so we didn’t get to do much running in the dry. Really, we only got one decent run on the slicks. Then it rained after lunch and with limited sets of wets available, you can’t do that much. We’re hoping for better over the next couple of days.

“It’s an important test. We have a lot of information to gather and, while today didn’t quite work out as expected, I’m optimistic that over the course of the next few days we’ll get the information we need.

“I have to say this is a fantastic track. It’s very challenging for the driver and very quick. I don’t know if we’ll ever race here in the future, you never know, but to see the crowd here today was very special. A lot of people came to watch and that’s great.”

Lotus Renault

Lotus F1 Team completed only morning session running due to inclement weather on the first of three days testing at the delightfully located Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello in Italy. Jérôme D’Ambrosio sampled the E20 for the first time, completing 40 trouble free laps. Because of today’s weather-induced reduced running, Romain Grosjean will drive for the next two days - contrary to the original plan of Kimi Räikkönen running tomorrow and Romain only on Thursday - due to the uncertain weather predictions for the next two days.

Jérôme D’Ambrosio: "It was great to finally get my hands on the E20 and I’d like to thank the team again for giving me this opportunity. It’s a fantastic car and I felt confident with it straight away, especially in the dry. It’s a real shame we’ve been limited by the weather today in terms of what we could achieve, but we had known for a few days that rain was forecast so it’s not a big shock. We managed to complete 20 laps in both wet and dry conditions which gives me a good knowledge of the car and will help me be a better asset to the team with this experience."

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: "It was not the most ideal day, but in spite of the weather we managed to get some useful laps on the board. Of course, it was the first taste of the E20 for Jérôme who was very happy with the car including his seating position and all the controls. This is important, as it means he will be much better prepared if called upon again further into the season. The mixed conditions, running intermediates to start and then switching to the medium compound slicks, also gives us a good base line for Romain over the next two days. We’ve opted for one driver for the next two days so we can make better use of the time after losing this afternoon’s running."

James Allison, Technical Director: "We had a busy programme lined up for Jérôme including a fair amount of aerodynamic work, sensor measurement work and of course preparing foundations for Romain over the next two days. We’ve been able to do some of that work in the limited dry running that was available, but there is now a lot more we need to fit in to Wednesday and Thursday. The important thing is we now have base line to build on, so the next two days should be much more productive."

Force India Mercedes

Sahara Force India kicked off its Mugello test today as Jules Bianchi got behind the wheel of the VJM05 to complete limited running in the wet conditions.

Jules Bianchi: “This morning we had to wait a long time for the track to dry. We did some runs on the intermediates just to check the car’s systems and when the conditions improved I went back out on the dry tyres [medium] to get confident with the car and to feel the track conditions. There was a chance to do some aero checks and we got some good aero data, but it was difficult to test all the developments so that will need to be done later this week.”

Jakob Andreasen, Chief Engineer: “We expected the wet weather conditions today so we tried our best to work around them and made sure Jules was out on track when the track was at its driest. After some installation laps on the intermediates, he switched to the medium compound just before lunch and did a couple of runs to get a dry baseline and measured some of the aerodynamic pressures on the car. With the rain intensifying in the afternoon we opted to run a very limited programme and prepared the car for tomorrow. Jules got out towards the end of the session to do a final systems check, which leaves us well placed to maximise tomorrow when we expect much drier conditions.”