Jerez testing Day 2: Grosjean on top; Good run by Paul

David Bodapati February 6, 2013

437 7 minutes read

Lotus

Romain Grosjean ended the second day of testing at Jerez as comfortably the fastest man on track as the team continued its evaluation programme with the E21.

Under blue skies with occasional cloud coverage, Romain completed 95 laps; many of which dipped into the 1min 18s. He ended the day with the best time set thus far this week – a 1min 18.218secs – with no other car running under 1min 19.000secs.

Fast Facts:

Chassis: E21-01
Weather: Sunny, ambient 5-22°C, track 7-28°C
Programme: Systems checks, temperature monitoring, data correlation, evaluation of the performance of the car with its initial aerodynamic package, tyre performance assessment.
Laps Completed: 95.
Classification: P1, 1:18.218.
Interruptions: Stopped out on track on lap 96 (fuel).

What’s Next?

Kimi Räikkönen will take to the wheel of the E21 for the first time tomorrow, before wrapping up the opening test on Friday.

Romain Grosjean: “It was good today; the programme went to plan and we showed we have good reliability. For me, the whole test has gone well which bodes well for the year ahead. My feeling in the car is good and it was great to be at the top of the times. Even if it doesn’t mean anything during testing, it’s still good to be at the front. We used the soft, medium and hard compounds and whilst we’re not 100% yet on the differences between each we have a good idea. Kimi will be working on this area for the next two days so we’ll have a better understanding when we head to Barcelona. It’s not easy to understand everything about the car and tyres yet, but I think we’re working quite well and it’s up to us to find the best solutions.”

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: “I’m very happy with today’s performance. The pace looks good and we haven’t had any issues with reliability meaning we could complete all of our programme without interruption. We focused on learning more about the 2013 Pirelli tyres and ran with the soft, medium and hard compounds with a variety of different set-ups, both mechanical and aerodynamic, to understand how they react. This combined with a good mileage today to give us some very good data to work through ahead of Kimi getting in the car tomorrow.”

Sahara Force India

Sahara Force India enjoyed another productive day in Jerez as Paul Di Resta and James Rossiter split driving duties in the VJM06

Day Two Statistics:

Chassis: VJM06-02

Laps: Paul = 95 laps / James = 19 laps

Mileage: Paul = 421 km / James = 84 km

Fastest lap: Paul = 1:19.003 / James = 1:21.273

Classification: Paul = P2 / James = P10

Paul Di Resta: “I managed to do 95 laps today, which was a good effort, and we got through the programme without any issues. We did some more good aero work this morning and then tried some set-up changes on the car. Testing is a good chance to make bigger changes than you would make during a race weekend and that’s allowed us to really see how they affect the car and has given us valuable data on tyre performance. The handling of the car so far is good and I’m feeling comfortable after two days in the car.”

James Rossiter: “It felt great to be back in a Formula One car and I was impressed with the performance straight away. It’s only the second day of running, yet the car already feels quite nicely balanced with a lot of potential. Having already done work on the team’s simulator, it’s good to get a feel for the real car and get acclimatised today so that I can really make the most of my running tomorrow morning.”

Jakob Andreasen, Chief Race Engineer: “Another very productive day of work as we completed a similar technical programme to yesterday with aero passes, balance work and longer runs after lunch. Paul’s feedback and consistency have given us lots of direction for improving the set-up and with 114 laps completed we are gathering lots of data to continue understanding the tyres. We put James in the car late this afternoon to give him time to acclimatise ahead of tomorrow. He’s doing a lot of simulator work for us back at the factory so it’s important that he has a good understanding of the real car to be able to make a valid comparison.”

Ferrari

Driver: Felipe Massa; Car: Ferrari F138

At the wheel of the F138, Felipe Massa continued the work of acquiring data on the car’s behaviour which began yesterday. Also on the day’s programme was an assessment of various configurations of exhaust and some long runs.

Felipe completed a total of 78 laps, the quickest in a time of 1.19.914.

Felipe Massa: “Today, we concentrated 100% on the aerodynamic side and on the exhausts.

In the morning, I didn’t even do a flying lap because we used the time available to do constant
speed runs and to analyse various aerodynamic solutions. All the changes to the car took longer than planned, but in the afternoon, I managed to do three long runs which were very important in order to understand which direction we need to follow in the coming days.” Testing continues at this circuit tomorrow, again with the Brazilian driver on track.

Mercedes AMG Petronas

Lewis Hamilton’s first day of testing for Mercedes AMG Petronas was brought to an early conclusion today by a technical problem on the F1 W04.

Lewis completed 15 laps this morning before suffering a loss of rear brake pressure
The front brakes enabled him to slow the car however he could not avoid hitting the barrier
The problem was traced to the hydraulic brake line connecting to the right-rear calliper
The team did not go out for the remainder of the day as work continued to complete the required repairs

Nico Rosberg will be back at the wheel of the F1 W04 tomorrow for the third day of the test.

Lewis Hamilton: We had a good start but then unfortunately we had a failure which brought our day to an early end. These things happen and it’s all part of testing. Of course, it’s better that we get these small issues out of the way sooner rather than later, and the guys are working really hard to overcome them. From the few short laps that I completed this morning, my general feeling was very positive. I got a good understanding of where the base of the car is and, whilst we need to do work in certain areas, it was good to have some laps to get a feel for what those areas are. I’ve told the guys that we just need to keep pushing and I know that we all will be doing that.

Caterham

Driver: Giedo van der Garde, car #21
Chassis: CT03-05
Total laps: 88
Best lap: 1.21.311

Giedo van der Garde, car #21, chassis CT03-05: “Giedo van der Garde, car #21, chassis CT03-05: “Another solid day on track and with 88 laps completed we can be pleased with what we’ve achieved today. For the second day running we didn’t have any real issues and we’re working through the program so the team on track and back in Leafield have a lot of data to work on.

“In the morning session we ran through a number of aero programs and then switched to comparing setup options on a variety of the tyre compounds. I think we found a good direction in the last run in the afternoon so now the team can keep making progress in the next two days. The other important thing for me is that I’m getting more and more comfortable in the car. The time I spent on track last year with the team was obviously a big help and it’s meant I’ve come into this test knowing my way around the team, and to have completed over 150 laps in my first two days of testing is very positive.”

Sauber

Jerez de la Frontera, 6th February 2013 – The Sauber F1 Team had a productive second day of testing. In the morning, when the track’s temperature was still cold, the team concentrated mainly on aerodynamic tests. Later in the morning and in the afternoon – in better track conditions – the engineers and Nico started with some basic set-up work, and then made some runs on heaviear fuel loads. The car ran without any technical problems all day. At the end the team did a fuel system check, and Nico ran out of fuel.

Driver: Nico Hülkenberg

Weather: Sunny all day, air 7-20°C, track 7-28 °C

Chassis/engine: C32-2/Ferrari 056

Laps today: 99 laps

Fastest lap : 1 :19.502 min

Tom McCullough, Head of Track Engineering : “It was a very good day with Nico achieving all our goals. Nico is building up a good working relationship with the engineers, which is important. We continued our work on understanding the Pirelli tyres. Without doubt the temperatures will be different once we go racing, but we still got to understand them well. The car was, again, very reliable, which gives us a solid basis.

Nico Hülkenberg : “For the second day in a row it was pretty successful. We went through a lot of test items and did a comparison of the compounds – soft, medium and hard – which was quite interesting. Otherwise I was able to continue my familiarisation with the car and I did some long runs. Like yesterday, it was a positive day.“

What comes next: This was the final day of testing for Nico in Jerez. Tomorrow and on Friday, Esteban Gutiérrez will take over.

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes

Driver Sergio Perez

Location Circuito de Jerez

Track length 4.428km

Laps 81

Km covered 359

Best laptime 1m19.572s

Programme After yesterday’s encouraging start, today’s focus switched to preparing Sergio for his first run behind the wheel of a Vodafone McLaren Mercedes.

The morning kicked off with a continuation of yesterday’s aero calibration work, carried out across a number of shorter runs. Attention then turned towards acclimatising Sergio to his new office, running through a prescribed programme of mechanical and aerodynamic adjustments with MP4-28 to give him a greater understanding of the inherent feel of the car and the way it reacts to set-up changes.

The acclimatisation session continued throughout the afternoon, concluding in a number of longer runs. Sergio racked up 81 laps – a positive start to his Vodafone McLaren Mercedes career.

What’s next Jenson returns for his second and final day of Jerez testing, continuing the aero and mechanical work that has been established over the past two days.

Pos Driver Constructor Best time Laps

1 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m 18.218s 95

2 Paul di Resta Force India 1m 19.003s 95