Sakhir, 2 March 2014: The last day of testing at the Bahrain International Circuit here, brought to an end the three Testing sessions before the new season begins in Melbourne, with the first of the 19 races scheduled for March 16.
The talk of the town is the lack of speed for champions Red Bull, but as the teams try to finalise different issues, the ten days before the season opener become crucial. Sebastian Vettel finally was able to complete 77 laps for Red Bull, the highest on a day, thus far.
Many feel that the time sheets may not reveal the true pace right now, but one important factor may be the “homologation” . Teams will not have much leeway once the engines are homologated and the last date ended on Feb 28. So Renault-powered Red Bull may not be as dominant as they were for the last three years. However, the team is still capable of pulling back as the season progresses and one should not forget that the points are doubled for the last race. So the battles will still be interesting.
At the moment, the Mercedes-powered teams are in the forefront and Sahara Force India, have put behind the problems to Sahara Group’s chief, and completed its pre-season testing programme in Bahrain as Nico Hulkenberg clocked up 74 laps in the VJM07.
Day Four Statistics:
Chassis: VJM07-01
Laps: 74 laps
Mileage: 401 km
Fastest lap: 1:35.577
Classification: P4
Nico Hulkenberg: “The final day of testing went pretty well. In the end we didn’t do the race simulation, but we did some long runs and signed off a lot of other things on the job list. We didn’t do as many laps as yesterday, but we still made progress and learned some new things. So it’s been two good days for me and I’m feeling pretty satisfied. You always want more time to prepare, but I think we’re in good shape. The car has come a long way since the first Jerez test and we have made progress every day.”
Andrew Green, Technical Director:
“The final day in Bahrain saw a continuation of yesterday’s work improving the car balance, collecting tyre data, and some long runs. Our programme ended slightly early with a suspected component failure, which was a result of high mileage, and so we didn’t manage to complete our target number of laps. Nonetheless our time in Bahrain has gone largely to plan with the mileage achieved during the previous three days leaving us in good shape going into Melbourne. We’re feeling positive about our reliability and have explored some encouraging directions for improving car performance. The other focus has been on our race readiness and we’ve done a great deal of homework to prepare the drivers for the challenge that awaits them in Melbourne.”
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Hulkenberg completes testing for Force India on Sunday. A Sahara Force India photo
