Vettel fastest on Day 1 at Jerez test; Sauber’s Felipe Nasr 2nd with Bottas 3rd
Jerez (Spain) 2 Feb 2014: Sebastian Vettel: “ Sebastian Vettel It’s too soon to give a verdict on the true level of this car, especially as we can’t make a comparison with the other teams, who can be running different programmes. However, I’d say we have a good basis to work from. We did a lot of running, even in the rain, when we tried the new intermediate tyres, which worked well, getting up to temperature despite the cold: that’s a definite step forward. The applause in the garage at the end of the session? Well, everyone was happy we’d even managed to run in the wet with nothing bad happening. The boys have got enough to do in the garage
as it is…”.
James Allison: “ James Allison A bit like yesterday, in that even if we did a good number of laps, you can never claim to have done enough kilometres. However, I agree with Sebastian on the fact that, for the moment, we have a good basis”.
Other driver quotes:
Lewis Hamilton
That was a satisfying day. We did a lot of laps and I got a feel for the car quite quickly. We’re in the first days of testing so it never feels that great as the car is at the worst it will be all season. But it feels the same as it did last year which is a good thing. A little more downforce maybe but otherwise it handles exactly the same. The balance obviously wasn’t perfect as we’re not working on setup yet, so it could be a lot better. But the priority right now is to put in the laps, not set fast times, and there were lots of positives today. We got good mileage and hopefully we’ll get even more in the next two days. Testing isn’t the exciting part as a driver – I live to go racing. But this is where you build your foundations for the year and we’re all working hard to understand the car. Everything from drivability to tyres you have to learn now to stand you in good stead for the season. You can’t get excited at this point as there’s a long way to go before Melbourne but there’s a really good energy in the team. Everybody is feeling positive and working hard but we’re basing nothing on last year. We start again with the same aim as everyone else – to win. I can’t wait to get to that first race.
Pastor Maldonado:
“It was fantastic to get behind the wheel for the first ever lap of this exciting new car. Even though it’s early days we achieved a lot today. It was already exciting to feel the potential of the car and I can’t wait to get back in the car tomorrow. We did stop running early, but then it started to rain so everyone else came in too so it was not a big drama. The car certainly looks fantastic and I know we have a lot of potential for the season ahead.”
Valtteri Bottas: We have had another good day. We managed to get through all of our programme and it was only the final run that we were compromised due to the rain. The morning was dedicated to obtaining aero data, then this afternoon we focused on the longer runs, making set-up changes and analysing the results. We are learning all the time and at the moment I am really pleased with what I have felt when in the car.
Felpe Nasr:
“It was a great day. I was able to complete a lot of laps, and I was happy with everything I saw. I was getting used to the systems, the procedures and the characteristics of the car. It was definitely a good start to understand where we are now. It was important for me to get used to this new environment, but after such a long day, with both dry and wet conditions, I was able to adapt to all the situations. Now we can start working on the details.”
Max Vertstappen (Car 33)
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