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View Full Version : Mercedes Teams Lead The Way In Bahrain Test — Day One Recap



bigbadbrother
02-28-2014, 06:26 PM
Testing action resumed in Bahrain today with the first day of the third and final session of the winter. It’s the final chance for the teams to gain some knowledge before the cars hit the track in Australia in 15 days.

Overall times meant little today as no one approached the best laps recorded last week, but there was a familiar pattern as the Mercedes teams were at the top of the table, and the Renault teams at the bottom – both in terms of times and laps completed.

Three Mercedes teams managed to complete over 100 laps today, with Valtteri Bottas and Williams managing 128, McLaren 109, and Force India 105. At the other extreme it was a bad day for Caterham, with Kamui Kobayashi running only 19 laps.

Sergio Perez topped the times after a good day for Force India, the Mexican outpacing Bottas by 0.9s as both cars ran without major dramas.

“We really needed a good day to start this week and today we had it,” said Perez. “We managed to do a lot of laps, try several different compounds and mappings, and it’s been a fantastic day in terms of learning about the car. Tomorrow is my last day in the car before the season starts so hopefully we can have another solid day to be in good shape for Melbourne.”

“It’s been another good day for us,” said Bottas. “It was nice to get the whole run plan done. We didn’t have any issues all day so well done to all the team for getting the car running so well. We have a lot of data to analyse tonight after doing some aero work this morning and a race distance and set-up work this afternoon. We did some very interesting tests and there are still plenty of things to improve so we’ll keep pushing.”

Meanwhile Kimi Raikkonen was third fastest for Ferrari after losing a lot of track time early in the day.

“We had a small problem today, which limited the number of laps but still managed to learn some new things about the car,” said Raikkonen. “You always want to do better, but every team has unexpected things happen and we are still trying to do all we can to be ready for Melbourne. During the race weekends there will be little time to try different things in terms of set-up, so it was important today to keep on this track to find out what’s the best direction to go in. On the final day of the test, we will put everything together that we have learned so far, and will concentrate on the conditions we will encounter in the races.”

Mercedes completed 89 laps despite stopping early due to a series of problems after Rosberg set the fourth fastest time of the day.

“That was not a fantastic day for us,” said Rosberg. “We tried some new parts on the car and you find out a lot through doing that. But unfortunately we did not only discover good things today. I managed to do a couple of good laps before lunch but in the afternoon we had a few small problems which ended my running a bit earlier than planned. This shows that we are pushing everything to the limit and we still have a massive challenge in front of us during the last three days of testing. We need to maximise our time here to be prepared for Melbourne. But after a difficult day overall we are on the right path.”

The Mercedes mileage was matched exactly by Adrian Sutil and Sauber after a better day for the Swiss team.

“We did a lot of mileage today,” said Sutil. “However, we have to work on our performance. We still had a few issues. Nevertheless, we were able to do qualifying runs and almost a complete race simulation. We have collected a lot of valuable information, and we know we still have to make further progress. Also I was able to gain experience on all dry tyre compounds. Generally they are all a bit harder than last year, but I have no concern about them as they should last well over the race distance.”

Kevin Magnussen was a modest sixth fastest today, but the team said that a lot was achieved: “Without any new parts to evaluate, the first two days of running will focus on mileage and reliability. Kevin spent the morning in Bahrain undertaking a series of short, set-up runs. After the lunch break, he completed a full-race distance, and fitted in some further set-up work.”

Daniel Ricciardo ran a modest 39 laps after an exhaust problem kept him the garage for most of the afternoon. He set the seventh fastest time, although he was only a few tenths faster than the Marussia of Max Chilton. However, the RB10 was the quickest of the four Renault engined cars.

“The morning was much better for us with a few longer runs,” said Ricciardo. “Behind the wheel, that’s the best I’ve felt so far. The package seems to be coming together better. We still had a few issues today, but at least when the car was on track it was much more useful running and we made progress in the morning. It’s getting there. I’d love to keep going, but at least Seb has two days after me in the car, so I think we’ll be looking pretty good for the next three days.”

Toro Rosso lost most of the afternoon to what the team simply termed a ‘technical failure.’

“It was nice to be in the car,” said Daniil Kvyat, “even if we didn’t get through the entire programme we had planned for today. However, I feel we have made some progress. We ran the Hard Pirelli most of the time, as we were definitely not chasing performance today. I hope Jev manages to get a full day’s running tomorrow, before I drive again on Saturday.”

Lotus had the 10th best time, ahead of only Caterham both on speed and laps completed. Pastor Maldonado tried a new exhaust that failed and led to damage which kept the car off track. The older exhaust will be run tomorrow.

“For sure it wasn’t what we wanted today,” said Maldonado. “But we are all working very hard to make progress and I’m sure we’ll have solutions quite soon as a team, and it’s clear we have good potential and the car is not bad. We have had some problems but we are fixing them and we are making improvements with electronics and software every day we run.”


Pos. Driver Car Time Laps
1 Sergio Pérez Force India 1:35.290 105
2 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:36.184 128
3 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:36.432 54
4 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:36.624 89
5 Adrian Sutil Sauber 1:37.700 89
6 Kevin Magnussen McLaren 1:37.825 109
7 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1:37.908 39
8 Max Chilton Marussia 1:38.242 44
9 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:39.242 55
10 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 1:40.599 31
11 Kamui Kobyashi Caterham 1:42.285 19

bigbadbrother
02-28-2014, 06:27 PM
For a second successive day, Sergio Perez topped the times for Force India in Bahrain.

On a day when a lot of teams managed to avoid serious reliability issues, five cars managed to complete over 100 laps, while others enjoyed their best days of the winter thus far. However, it was a less productive day for Lotus and McLaren, with both teams missing out on a lot of running.

Perez was still some way off the best times set last week, and the pace is expected to ramp up at the front over the next couple of days as teams take the opportunity to pursue qualifying-spec runs.

“It feels very good to have another full day and to do so many laps,” said Perez. “It’s my last time in the car until we arrive in Melbourne and I’m feeling positive about how things are going. The setup work today was very useful because we tried some different things to have a better direction for the first race. Everything went to plan and we managed to complete all the long runs in the afternoon.”

Fernando Alonso was second fastest for Ferrari after successfully completing a race simulation in the afternoon, and logging a total of 122 laps for the day – the highest achieved by anyone.

“Six hundred kilometers are always welcome, but it’s still too early to say we are a hundred percent ready for Melbourne,” said Alonso. “We still have a lot to learn, but I am happy with the way the day went. In the morning, we did some setup work which taught us what was the best direction to go in, while in the afternoon, we managed to complete a race simulation and every lap we did can be added to the learning phase, which is the normal situation to be in during winter testing. On the performance front, it’s still difficult to have a clear idea of what our rivals are up to and I think we will only find that out in Australia.”

Red Bull had a much better say as Daniel Ricciardo logged 66 laps and set the third best time of the day, despite a late start after overnight work in the garage.

“It went a lot better today,” said Ricciardo. “This morning it was important to have the race crew here to do the pit stops, as they haven’t had the chance to get to grips with the car yet, so we didn’t do that many laps in the morning. However, in the afternoon we did some good stuff. We had a go on the soft tyre, which was nice, to see how the car responds with a bit more grip.”

Felipe Massa didn’t get much running last week, but he enjoyed a full day in the Williams which saw the Brazilian log 103 laps.

“I think it was another important day for us,” said Massa. “We are starting to understand the car a lot more. It was really my first full day driving, after only getting half a day last week, so I’m still looking forward to understanding more tomorrow and doing everything we can do to be as prepared as possible for the first race. I am happy with how we are working as a team and tomorrow will be another important day.”

Jenson Button’s day was spoiled by a gearbox failure that saw the McLaren driver complete only 52 laps, a figure that bettered only the 31 achieved by Lotus.

Marussia had a much better day, with Jules Bianchi finally getting some proper mileage in and setting the sixth best time.

“I am really happy with what we have achieved today,” said the Frenchman. “The car feels good and we have had the reliability to really build our mileage. We would have liked to have some more laps for sure, but we were able to enjoy some good runs and get a really good feeling for the car in high and low fuel conditions. I am looking forward to my second day of running tomorrow and I hope we can continue the good work of the last two days.”

Lewis Hamilton was a long way down the order after gearbox problems ended his day early. The Mercedes driver also spun off the circuit in the morning, without doing any serious damage.

“Like every team, we’re encountering problems every day and we’ve still got some work to do in terms of both reliability and speed. There are no specific problem areas, just lots of different things we need to improve. It’s important to get as much mileage under our belts as we can and just as important to discover any problems before we get to Melbourne. It might be frustrating at times but finding them at this stage is actually a positive. We really don’t know where anyone stands right now and we have enough to concentrate on without looking at how other teams are getting on. The focus is on ourselves and will continue to be right up to the first race.”

Pastor Maldonado’s final test day with the Lotus was curtailed by a fire which did sufficient damage to keep the car in the garage for the rest of the day.
Pos. Driver Car Time Laps
1 Sergio Pérez Force India 1:35.570 108
2 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:35.634 122
3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1:35.743 66
4 Felipe Massa Williams 1:36.507 103
5 Jenson Button McLaren 1:36.901 52
6 Jules Bianchi Marussia 1:38.092 75
7 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:39.041 89
8 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:39.636 61
9 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 1:39.976 106
10 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 1:41.613 31
11 Marcus Ericsson Caterham 1:42.516 55
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