Massa sets record pace as Red Bull's struggles continue

There were contrasting fortunes on display on the third day of the final pre-season test in Bahrain on Saturday.

Whilst Williams’ Felipe Massa was able to record the fastest time seen at the Sakhir circuit so far this winter, reigning world champions Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull had another day to forget as they failed to complete a single lap.

The Milton Keynes-based team had hoped to carry over momentum from Friday, their best test day of the year so far. However, no sooner had Vettel headed out on track - almost three hours into the session - then he was forced to once again park the Renault-powered RB10.

The car was returned to the pits and eventually emerged again just before lunch, but this time Vettel made it only to the end of the pit lane. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the car would remain in the garage for the rest of the day.

“Given how well the car behaved yesterday we were anticipating a solid run for Seb today but almost as soon as he went out there was an electrical problem, which meant stopped him on track,” said Red Bull’s race engineering co-ordinator Andy Damerum. 

“We brought the car back, identified the issue, which is one other teams have had but which hadn’t affected us so far, and set about fixing it. We got ready for another run but this time the car stopped in pit lane. We brought it back again and discovered a leak, which we thought we could fix but it turned out that it had caused enough damage that we weren’t able to go out again.

“Having run so well yesterday it is frustrating to have had these problems today, but all we can do is keep solving the issues.”

As Red Bull were struggling to get their new car working, Felipe Massa and Williams were focused on extracting performance from theirs. The Brazilian was fastest as the teams paused for lunch and lowered the bar again in the afternoon. Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg briefly knocked the FW36 off the top spot, but a late day surge returned Massa to the head of the timesheet.

“We had a very good day today doing almost 100 laps,” Massa enthused. “We did a lot more performance work in the car which is something that we haven't done so much of so far. 

“I'm really happy with the car and feel we found a good balance. We did so much work on the set-up but it is very important that we go to Australia prepared. Of course you are always happy when you see your name at the top in first place, but as well as performance, today was good for the mileage and reliability of the car which we know is needed for Australia. 

“You can never be sure that you are 100 percent ready for the first race, but I feel that what we have done in these days testing has been important for making sure that we have a car that can not only get to the end of the race, but that will have good performance as well.”

There was over two seconds between Rosberg, who completed 103 laps despite a morning engine change, and the next man on the timesheet, Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, who was spending his final day in the F14 T before the first race in Australia.

“I’d hoped to do more laps, but this wasn’t an easy day,” said the Finn. 

“We lost some time this morning when we had to fix something on the car, but then we managed to make up for some of it in the afternoon. Running a race distance, we continued to get more data relating to fuel consumption strategies and tyre degradation, even though the strong wind upset the driving a lot. 

“I’d like to be able to say we did better, but there’s still one more day with Fernando to continue our preparation for Melbourne.”

Below Raikkonen, in P4 and P5, were rookies Kevin Magnussen and Daniil Kvyat, both of whom were also having their final runs before Australia. Compared to Magnussen, Kvyat has had limited track time so far this winter, so he was delighted to lap 81 times on Saturday.

“(It was) a very positive day because we managed to complete a good amount of laps,” the Russian commented. 

“The work all went in the right direction and we carried out many important tests and did some longer runs. That means I am feeling much more confident with the car now. The next stop is Melbourne and I don’t want to make any predictions about how we will get on in Australia, although the one thing I can say is that I am really looking forward to my first Grand Prix.”

Sixth position on the day went to Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg who concentrated on race simulation work in the afternoon after a morning experimenting with setups on the VJM07. The German completed 115 laps – just two fewer than the days mileage leader Marcus Ericsson. The Caterham rookie finished just behind Marussia’s Jules Bianchi in the standings having clocked the eighth best time.

The day’s final time went to Romain Grosjean who had a stop-start day in the Renault-powered Lotus E22. After a tardy start, a promising 33 lap afternoon session was cut short by an MGU-K issue.

Similarly afflicted with technical problems were Sauber. Having completed their highest lap tally so far on Friday, the Swiss team went to the other extreme on Saturday with Adrian Sutil managing just one lap before encountering an engine problem. 

“Unfortunately today we have encountered an anomaly on the engine and as a precautionary measure we decided to change it, which meant that we could only manage one lap in the morning,” explained Giampaolo Dall’Ara, Sauber’s head of track engineering . 

“However, assembly takes considerably longer and at a certain stage during the afternoon we decided to focus on tomorrow and be ready for the final day of testing. The crew worked tirelessly and hopefully tomorrow we can get on with our programme.”

Pre-season testing concludes at Bahrain on Sunday.

Unofficial Saturday test times from Bahrain
1. Felipe Massa, Williams, 1m 33.258s, 99 laps
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1m 33.484s, 103 laps
3. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1m 35.426s, 87 laps
4. Kevin Magnussen, McLaren, 1m 35.894s, 88 laps
5. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, 1m 36.113s, 81 laps
6. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India, 1m 36.205s, 115 laps
7. Jules Bianchi, Marussia, 1m 37.087s, 78 laps
8. Marcus Ericsson, Caterham, 1m 38.083s, 117 laps
9. Romain Grosjean, Lotus, 1m 42.166s, 33 laps
10. Adrian Sutil, Sauber, No time, 1 lap
11. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, No time, 0 laps 

(source: f1.com)

Force India quickest again as Red Bull rally in Bahrain

For the second day in a row, Force India’s Sergio Perez was the fastest man on track at the final pre-season test in Bahrain on Friday. 

As on Thursday, Perez set his timesheet-topping lap during a short run in the morning session. The Mexican went on to complete over a 100 laps for the second consecutive day, bringing his winter test programme to a successful close.

"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 set-up 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 another to show good pace on his penultimate day of running before Melbourne. The Ferrari driver, who conducted a comparison of aerodynamic parts in the morning before moving on to a race simulation in the afternoon, clocked 122 laps (over 600km) and a best lap that was only 0.064s slower than Perez’s.

“Six hundred kilometres are always welcome, but it’s still too early to say we are a hundred percent
ready for Melbourne,” explained the Spaniard. “We still have a lot to learn, but I am happy with the way the day went.”

Just behind Alonso on the timesheet was Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo, whose quickest time of 1m 35.743s was comfortably the world champion team’s best lap of the winter.

“(It was) a very much better day’s work for us today,” said Red Bull’s race engineering co-ordinator Andy Damerum.

“We were a bit late out in the morning, but that was simply due to the repairs we had to make overnight because of the damage we had yesterday. That was pretty much a ‘fix in the field’. 

“When we did send Daniel out this morning we again put him on short runs just to test everything, as obviously you don’t want to push too hard, have a problem and then wreck the rest of the day. That cautious approach also allowed us to do some pit stop practice, which we haven’t done as yet and also to do some aero work on the car. 

“We were back in the garage over lunch to make some changes, though nothing drastic, and then in the afternoon we were very much better again. Daniel was able to do a longer run of 20 timed laps, our longest so far. 

“The car is still difficult to drive for Daniel but we’ll tune that out. We have more parts to fit overnight and hopefully we’ll be able to get some more decent runs in with Sebastian over the next two days and also give him the opportunity to do some performance runs. Overall a good day today and very encouraging.”

Felipe Massa was the second-fastest Mercedes-powered runner on the day in Williams’ FW36, just ahead of McLaren’s Jenson Button whose running was interrupted by red flag-inducing technical problems. 

“We had a problem within the gearbox - it took a while to change, as anything within the power-unit does these days - but we got back out at the end, and everything ran smoothly, which was good,” explained Button. 

“It was a shame to lose that time - it’s the first major issue we’ve had this winter; but it’s better to suffer it here, rather than at a race weekend.

“We were still able to do a long-run on high-fuel this afternoon. The basic car is good, and there’s a great deal of potential there, but there’s still a lot of work to do. We have a good understanding of the power-unit, and we know how to race it, but, in terms of balance and grip, the car isn’t quite there yet.

“But I know we’ve got some good improvements in the pipeline – and they should help us close the gap to the front of the grid.”

Marussia’s fortunes continued to show improvement with Jules Bianchi completing 75 laps in the Ferrari-powered MR03 for the sixth fastest time. The Frenchman finished ahead of Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton who endured a stop-start day in the F1 W05. The 2008 world champion brought out the first red flag of the morning after becoming beached in the gravel, and then suffered a day-ending gearbox problem in the afternoon.

“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,” said Hamilton. 

“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. Today was a fairly average day but I've got one more to go before we get to Melbourne, so hopefully that will be a bit more productive.”

Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne and Sauber’s Esteban Gutierrez filled places eight and nine on the timesheet, the former evaluating various suspension settings and the latter one of three drivers to surpass the 100-lap mark on Friday.

“The mileage we covered today was great, and these were the most laps in one day for the team so far,” said a happy Gutierrez. 

“From a reliability point of view, I think we are doing well so far. After some aero work this morning I was able to get into the long runs and race simulation. I also managed to get a feeling for different settings, including fuel saving, and that worked quite well. The pit crew and the engineers are working incredibly hard, and together we were able to get used to race weekend procedures.”

For the second day in a row, the slowest times were recorded by Renault-powered teams Lotus and Caterham. Pastor Maldonado and Marcus Ericsson both suffered fires at the rear of their cars which curtailed their running. 

Both teams will be hoping for an improved day of running when testing resumes in Bahrain on Saturday.

Unofficial Friday test times from Bahrain
1. Sergio Perez, Force India, 1m 35.570s, 108 laps
2. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari, 1m 35.634s, 122 laps
3. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1m 35.743s, 66 laps
4. Felipe Massa, Williams, 1m 36.507s, 103 laps
5. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1m 36.901s, 52 laps
6. Jules Bianchi, Marussia, 1m 38.092s, 75 laps
7. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1m39.041s, 89 laps
8. Jean-Eric Vergne, Toro Rosso, 1m 39.636s, 61 laps
9. Esteban Gutierrez, Sauber, 1m 39.976s, 106 laps
10. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus, 1m 41.613s, 31 laps
11. Marcus Ericsson, Caterham, 1m 42.516s, 55 laps

(source: f1.com)

Perez the pacesetter at final pre-season test in Bahrain

Force India’s Sergio Perez finished with the fastest time on the opening day of the final pre-season test in Bahrain on Thursday.

Perez took his Mercedes-powered VJM07 around the Sakhir circuit in 1m 35.290s in the morning session, and with many teams opting to concentrate on long runs, the Mexican's time was not bettered in the afternoon.

"We really needed a good day to start this week and today we had it,” said a delighted Perez, who completed 105 laps in total. 

“We managed to do a lot of laps, try several different (tyre) 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.” 

Second on the timesheet was Valtteri Bottas in the Williams, who used a short run in the afternoon to vault up the standings. Prior to that, the Finn had concentrated on longer race simulation runs, racking up a day-high 128 laps in the process.

"It was nice to get the whole run plan done," said Bottas. "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."

Behind Bottas was countryman Kimi Raikkonen. Technical issues restricted the Ferrari driver to just 12 laps in the morning, but the F14 T featured heavily in the afternoon’s running, completing a series of set-up tests over short runs before stopping again just before the chequered flag. 

Last week’s overall pacesetter Nico Rosberg set the fourth quickest time of the day in Mercedes’ F1 W05 and was another to work on longer runs and set-up before a technical gremlin brought his programme to a slightly premature end.

“That was not a fantastic day for us,” Rosberg explained. “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.”

Adrian Sutil was the second fastest of the two non-Mercedes-powered runners in the top six, finishing with the fifth best time for Sauber, but he wasn’t entirely happy with his progress.

“We did a lot of mileage today,” he said. “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.” 

In sixth place was rookie Kevin Magnussen who had another productive day at the wheel of McLaren’s MP4-29. The Dane completed a number of short set-up runs in the morning and a full race distance in the afternoon as he continued preparations for his Grand Prix debut in Australia.

Daniel Ricciardo gave world champions Red Bull some hope in the morning session when he took the so-far problematic RB10 around 32 times for P5. However, the overheating issues that have plagued the Milton Keynes-based team throughout pre-season returned in the afternoon and the Australian was only able to add another seven laps to his morning tally. Despite this, Ricciardo was upbeat about the progress the team have made.

“Behind the wheel, that’s the best I’ve felt so far,” he explained. 

“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.”

Another team looking to bounce back from a poor test last week were Marussia. Max Chilton showed the squad had put their IT problems firmly behind them by recording 44 laps and the eighth fastest time.

“We are all very pleased that we have made such good progress today and achieved our target of being able to run the MR03 in high and low fuel specification,” said Marussia team principal John Booth. 

“We are reasonably happy with the performance of the car and the reliability is also starting to come, although these are complicated cars and we are treading carefully. There is only a short space of time now until Melbourne, so the work we will do over the next three days will be crucial. 

“We have helped that process significantly by putting in place some firm building blocks for the rest of the week. We have had a challenging time in pre-season testing so far, but it looks like we are starting to turn the corner and motivation within the team is high.”

The other rookie on track on Thursday - Daniil Kvyat - had a mixed day for Toro Rosso. The Russian, who has struggled for mileage in pre-season, completed 43 laps in the morning, but a technical failure with the Renault-powered STR9 shortly after lunch confined him to the garage for the rest of the afternoon. 

Rounding out the times were two other Renault-powered runners - Lotus’s Pastor Maldonado and Caterham’s Kamui Kobayashi. Both drivers suffered issues, Maldonado’s being an exhaust problem which sidelined him whilst he was evaluating new components. 

“Today started well and we evaluated new aero parts in the morning,” said Lotus’s trackside operations director Alan Permane. 

“Unfortunately, our new specification exhaust system failed, causing a small amount of damage to the surrounding area of the car. This stopped us running early due to the rectification work required. 

“For tomorrow, we will run with our previous specification of exhaust and we do not expect to see any similar problems to those we saw today.”

The final test continues in Bahrain on Friday.

Unofficial Thursday test times from Bahrain
1. Sergio Perez, Force India, 1m 35.290s, 105 laps
2. Valtteri Bottas, Williams, 1m 36.184s, 128 laps
3. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1m 36.432s, 54 laps
4. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1m 36.624s, 89 laps
5. Adrian Sutil, Sauber, 1m 37.700s, 89 laps
6. Kevin Magnussen, McLaren, 1m 37.825s, 109 laps
7. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1m 37.908s, 39 laps
8. Max Chilton, Marussia, 1m 38.610s, 44 laps
9. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, 1m 39.242s, 56 laps
10. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus, 1m 40.599s, 31 laps
11. Kamui Kobayashi, Caterham, 1m 42.285s, 19 laps

(source: f1.com)

Red Bull's pre season interviews with Vettel, Ricciardo, Horner and Newey

Testing analysis - the big talking points from Bahrain

Whereas the opening pre-season test at Jerez last month was all about systems checks and the reliability of the new 1.6-litre turbo power units, the second session in Bahrain last week saw a shift of emphasis towards outright performance - or at least it did for some teams…

While Mercedes and the similarly-powered Williams and McLaren teams were racking up around 300 laps over the four days, world champions Red Bull remained on the back foot, managing little over 100. We review this and the other major talking points in Sakhir…

Mercedes in pole position
There’s no denying that Mercedes are the current favourites for victory at next month’s season-opening Grand Prix in Australia. Not only did Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton clock the fastest times of the week in Bahrain, they put in 315 laps between them - a total only surpassed by Williams - and carried out both qualifying runs and race simulations in impressively efficient fashion.

Rosberg’s fastest lap of 1m 33.283s, set on Pirelli’s soft compound tyre, was within a second of his 2013 pole time at the circuit, proving that the 2014 cars are no slouches, and he could almost certainly have gone quicker, especially with a set of supersofts. Mercedes’ running was not without its problems, but being further down the development path than many rivals meant the team could diagnose and resolve issues quickly and get the F1 W05 back on track, ironing out the kind of difficulties others may not even discover until Melbourne.

It was generally good news for the other Mercedes-powered teams, too. McLaren’s MP4-29 was consistently on the pace, while Williams were sufficiently confident of their progress to spend significant time practising pit stops and to give an F1 rookie - new tester Felipe Nasr - a complete day in their FW36. Force India had one or two problems with the VJM07 in Bahrain, but it too looked capable of a decent turn of speed. 

Lotus - and Renault - recovering
After missing the opening test in Spain, Lotus had a lot to do in Bahrain. Predictably, their programme with the asymmetric-nosed E22 did not run entirely smoothly - only Marussia completed fewer laps - but things improved each day, with the last being the team’s most productive.

Encouragingly, Pastor Maldonado also set the fastest time for a Renault-powered car. Less encouraging was the fact that it was over five seconds off Rosberg’s leading pace. Renault admit they are still playing catch up, but at least their reliability looks to have improved, as shown by the 253 laps chalked up by Caterham.

Red Bull yet to bounce back
After managing a meagre 21 laps in Spain, Red Bull were hoping for dramatic improvement in Bahrain. There was improvement, but it was far from startling. They completed 116 laps - fewer than anyone bar Lotus and Marussia - and Daniel Ricciardo’s best lap of 1m 39.837s put them just 15th on the aggregate timesheet. The team were pleased to have resolved the problems of Jerez, but then kept running into new ones - and with the engineers still getting to grips with working on such a radically different machine, fixing them was rarely the work of a moment. That, of course, was an issue affecting most teams - Ferrari technical chief Pat Fry suggested that jobs on the 2014 cars are currently taking around twice as long as on their 2013 counterparts.

The dark (prancing) horse
While the headlines tended to focus on Mercedes’ might and Renault’s plight, it was more a case of ‘no news is good news’ at Ferrari. Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen totalled a highly respectable 287 laps, and just two-tenths of a second separated their best times, suggesting a fascinating battle in prospect between the two former champions this season. They finished sixth and seventh respectively in the aggregate times and, along with Esteban Gutierrez in the Ferrari-powered Sauber, were the only non-Renault runners in the top 12. The only slight blot on the landscape was Raikkonen’s late crash in the final ten minutes of the week, one that highlighted the increased torque of the 2014 power units - something all drivers will need to be wary of this year, both in terms of driving style and managing tyre wear.

Marussia on the back foot
After beating perennial rivals Caterham to tenth in the 2013 constructors’ standings, Marussia were hoping to carry that momentum into the new campaign. Unfortunately for the Banbury-based team, they experienced several technical issues at the first test in Jerez, and they were similarly beset by difficulties in Sakhir. The John Booth-led squad bounced back from a computer virus on the first day of running, only to encounter a number of other issues which contributed to their position at the bottom of the mileage charts. On the plus side, things can only get better.

Williams’ second Felipe
It seems one Brazilian driver named Felipe wasn’t enough for Williams. Joining veteran countryman Massa, 21-year-old Felipe Nasr was announced as the team’s new test driver on Saturday morning. They wasted no time in putting him in the car, as that same day he got his very first taste of F1 machinery. And a very impressive debut it was too: 87 laps, fourth fastest on the day, and 12th quickest of the 24 drivers in the week’s aggregate timesheet.

(source: f1.com)

Bahrain test in numbers - who went fastest, and furthest

Whereas the opening pre-season test in Spain was effectively an extended shake-down, this week’s session in Bahrain allowed at least some of the teams to start discovering the true performance of their 2014 machines.

Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg topped the overall times, but which teams completed the most mileage - and with which power unit?

This week’s unofficial aggregate test times from Bahrain
1. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1m 33.283s, 174 laps
2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1m 34.263s, 141 laps
3. Kevin Magnussen, McLaren, 1m 34.910s, 127 laps
4. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1m 34.957s, 169 laps
5. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India, 1m 36.445s, 137 laps
6. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari, 1m 36.516s, 161 laps
7. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1m 36.718s, 126 laps
8. Felipe Massa, Williams, 1m 37.066s, 65 laps
9. Esteban Gutierrez, Sauber, 1m 37.180s, 151 laps
10. Valtteri Bottas, Williams, 1m 37.328s, 171 laps
11. Sergio Perez, Force India, 1m 37.367s, 76 laps
12. Felipe Nasr, Williams, 1m 37.569s, 87 laps
13. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus, 1m 38.707s, 85 laps
14. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, 1m 38.974s, 57 laps
15. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1m 39.837s, 43 laps
16. Kamui Kobayashi, Caterham, 1m 39.855s, 83 laps
17. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, 1m 40.224s, 73 laps
18. Adrian Sutil, Sauber, 1m 40.443s, 89 laps
19. Jean-Eric Vergne, Toro Rosso, 1m 40.472s, 77 laps
20. Romain Grosjean, Lotus, 1m 41.670s, 26 laps 
21. Marcus Ericsson, Caterham, 1m 42.130s, 102 laps
22. Max Chilton, Marussia, 1m 42.511s, 21 laps
23. Robin Frijns, Caterham, 1m 42.534s, 68 laps
24. Jules Bianchi, Marussia, no time, 8 laps

Total laps run - by team (power unit, where different):
1. Williams (Mercedes), 323
2. Mercedes, 315
3. McLaren (Mercedes), 296
4. Ferrari, 287
5. Caterham (Renault), 253
6. Sauber (Ferrari), 240
7. Force India (Mercedes), 213
8. Toro Rosso (Renault), 134
9. Red Bull (Renault), 116
10. Lotus (Renault), 111
11. Marussia (Ferrari), 29

Total laps run - by power unit:
1. Mercedes, 1147 (4 teams)
2. Renault, 614 (4 teams)
3. Ferrari, 556 (3 teams)

(source: f1.com)

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