Ferrari signed off from the test at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya with a flourish on Monday. Felipe Massa’s best lap, a 1m 22.625s, was the fastest time of the four-day session at the Spanish circuit and almost four seconds quicker than the Brazilian’s quickest lap on Sunday.
Massa covered 121 laps as he worked through a comparison of the Pirelli tyres whilst running different fuel loads and car set-ups.
It was a good day for Red Bull too with Mark Webber taking the second spot, ahead of Sebastien Buemi in Toro Rosso’s STR6. Webber covered 69 laps as the team evaluated development components on the RB7.
“Today we got through quite a lot of work in evaluating some development components on the suspension, brakes and aero package,” explained Red Bull’s head of race engineering Ian Morgan. “We got through the whole programme without any difficulties so, all in all, a useful day’s work.
“We set out a pretty ambitious schedule for this test and I’m pleased to say that we managed to get through almost all of it. Obviously, the weather yesterday hampered us a little but even then we got some wet weather running in, which helps us understand the tyres a bit better. Overall, I think we are quite pleased with the progress we’ve made here.”
Buemi covered 90 laps. The Swiss driver completed a mix of short and long runs, evaluating tyres and completing car set-up work.
“Today went well and I am happy with what we achieved,” he said. “We got through the entire programme we had planned and did enough laps to improve our understanding of the various types of Pirelli tyre. The team, at the track and back at the factory worked well to deliver a car reliable enough to do plenty of laps, which is always the most important thing at this point in the year.”
Robert Kubica’s stand-in Nick Heidfeld continued to become acquainted with his new charge for the foreseeable future, clocking the fourth fastest time in Renault's R31. He completed 95 laps.
“In the morning we were not able to do most of our programme because we had an issue with the KERS,” said Heidfeld. “It’s a shame because track time is so limited, but it’s obviously better to have problems during testing before the season starts.
"In the afternoon we started the race simulation, which went reasonably well. We were using different tyre compounds and tried both scrubbed and new sets. We learned a lot by running the car on high fuel and have lots of useful data about the degradation rates. Then, at the end of the day, we returned to the set-up work.”
McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton took up the fifth slot on the timesheets in the MP4-26. Pastor Maldonado finished in sixth for Williams. Maldonado managed to complete 121 laps despite an early issue with the FW33’s KERS system, which forced the team to disable it for the entirety of the day.
“It has been another productive day but it certainly didn't start out like that!” explained technical director Sam Michael. “We had a problem with the KERS cooling system just before the session opened, so we had to disable KERS for the day. Pastor then spent the morning doing some mapping runs for Cosworth and running some new exhaust components for aero to check temperatures for the last test aero upgrade that is coming - all of that worked okay. In the afternoon we completed a race simulation with no problems.”
Force India’s Adrian Sutil in seventh. Eighth spot went to Sauber’s 2011 rookie Sergio Perez, who covered 74 laps. “It was another positive day,” said Perez. “I learnt a lot, in particular about the tyres. They kept changing, but now we have the final spec for the beginning of the season, so it was good I was able to run them today to learn how to maximise their potential. We did a lot of work over the two days, so I’m quite happy.”
Virgin’s new signing Jerome D’Ambrosio was ninth. Tenth quickest was Mercedes GP’s Michael Schumacher, who completed 114 laps in the MGP W02. Schumacher’s programme included aerodynamic evaluations, further race weekend preparation work and set-up development. He also continued his familiarisation with the KERS system.
“We’ve had another busy day, focusing on set-up work and improving our understanding of the car,” said the German. “The reliability was good, which gave us a solid platform to work from, and we made progress in terms of finding set-up directions. On the performance side, this isn’t the package we will start the season with, so we are not drawing too many firm conclusions. Overall it has been a productive test for us in Barcelona as we continue our pre-season preparations.”
Lotus’s Jarno Trulli completed the day’s runners in 11th. Trulli had completed just 18 laps when a car failure caused the Italian to crash at Turn Nine. Despite the early ending to the day, chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne was encouraged by progress.
“I still think there are a great deal of positives to take from the test in terms of the pace of the car and the fact that we are on top of the reliability issues,” Gascoyne said. “With that in mind we leave here with work to do but still on target for where we want to be.”
The final pre-season test is now expected to be held in Barcelona from March 8-11. It had originally been scheduled to take place in Bahrain from March 3-6.
Unofficial Monday test times from Barcelona:
1. Felipe Massa, Ferrari, 1:22.625
2. Mark Webber, Red Bull, 1:23.442
3. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso, 1:23.550
4. Nick Heidfeld, Renault, 1:23.657
5. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, 1:24.003
6. Pastor Maldonado, Williams, 1:24.057
7. Adrian Sutil, Force India, 1:24.177
8. Sergio Perez, Sauber, 1:24.515
9. Jerome D’Ambrosio, Virgin, 1:26.501
10. Michael Schumacher, Mercedes GP, 1:27.079
11. Jarno Trulli, Lotus, 1:29.992
Credit: Formula One Administration Ltd (www.formula1.com)
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