Bottas puts Williams on top on final day of pre-season testing

Valtteri Bottas signed off the 2015 pre-season in style by going fastest for Williams on the final day of testing at Barcelona on Sunday.

The Finn hit the front early and was never deposed, as a qualifying simulation on Pirelli's supersoft tyre yielded a 1m 23.063s - which left him almost half a second clear of the chasing pack.

"It was a really good day and a great way to finish the test," Bottas said. "One of the main points we have learnt is that the FW37 is very reliable. The car we are taking to Melbourne is very competitive and should make for an interesting start to the season."

Sebastian Vettel was second fastest for Ferrari, while Sauber's Felipe Nasr was the last man to get within one second of Bottas's benchmark in third. Like Bottas, Vettel and Nasr set their best times in morning runs on the supersoft.

Toro Rosso's Max Verstappen improved several times in the afternoon, eventually slotting into fourth ahead of Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo. The Australian also made gains in the afternoon, having missed much of the morning with an ERS problem.

McLaren's day was similarly disrupted by technical gremlins. Jenson Button was only able to get out for two untimed laps in the morning, as a sensor problem meant the Honda power unit had to be removed. The afternoon proved slightly more productive as Button slotted into eighth, although he managed just 30 laps in total. Nasr, by comparison, was the day's busiest driver with 159 laps.

"Looking back at the last four weeks, our winter test programme has been difficult," racing director Eric Boullier admitted. "The lack of mileage means we won't be as ready as we'd have liked, but we can take away the positive that all the running and data gathering we've done have confirmed that we're achieving the targets we set ourselves. 

"Even if it's likely to be a difficult start to the season, we know we can develop hard and fast, and that we'll surely unlock the huge potential that lies within the McLaren-Honda MP4-30."

Sergio Perez also broke past 100 laps in what was his first day in the delayed Force India VJM08, with the Mexican's best time - a 1m 25.113s - just enough to shade Nico Rosberg's Mercedes for sixth.

Rosberg nevertheless had the honour of setting the outright best time of the test, after recording a blistering 1m 22.792s on day two.

Lotus's Pastor Maldonado rounded out the timesheet in ninth, and also triggered the red flags when he hit the barriers at Turn 4. Lotus subsequently said a "systems issue compromised Maldonado's braking".

"It was a shame to end the day early, but that was the only issue we've had like this during testing," Maldonado explained. "I was able to brake and slow, just not as much as the maximum otherwise possible. The car was not too badly damaged and I am fine, so we can look to the positive that we have a lot of information to take the car in the right direction."

Verstappen and Ricciardo also caused stoppages when they came to a halt on circuit. 

Teams now have just under two weeks for final preparations ahead of the season-opening 2015 Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix. Opening practice commences at 1230 local time on Friday, March 13.


Unofficial Sunday testing times from Barcelona:
1. Valtteri Bottas, Williams, 1m 23.063s, 89 laps
2. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1m 23.469s, 129 laps
3. Felipe Nasr, Sauber, 1m 24.023s, 159 laps
4. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 1m 24.527s, 85 laps
5. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1m 24.638s, 72 laps
6. Sergio Perez, Force India, 1m 25.113s, 130 laps
7. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1m 25.186s, 148 laps
8. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1m 25.327s, 30 laps
9. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus, 1m 28.272s, 36 laps

(source: f1.com)

Hamilton doubles up for Mercedes in Spain

For the second day running it was a Mercedes atop the timesheet on Saturday, as the Formula One teams carried out their penultimate day of pre-season testing in Barcelona.

Felipe Massa set the morning pace for Williams on Pirelli’s supersoft tyre, but it was Lewis Hamilton who clocked the ultimate benchmark - a 1m 23.022s, recorded on soft rubber - a quarter of a second up on the Brazilian.

Kimi Raikkonen all but matched Massa’s time to finish third, also on a qualifying-type supersoft run in the Ferrari, while Carlos Sainz put Toro Rosso fourth, albeit over a second down on Hamilton’s marker.

In a productive day’s running, only two drivers failed to reach the 100 lap mark - Hamilton on 76, and Kevin Magnussen, who managed 39 on his first outing in the 2015 McLaren. Busiest man of the day was Nico Hulkenberg, who put another 158 laps on the new Force India following its Friday debut.

The day’s two red-flag stoppages both came in the final hour, with first Marcus Ericsson’s Sauber coming to a halt at Turn 3 and then Sainz’s Toro Rosso stopping at the same corner.


Unofficial Saturday testing times from Barcelona:
1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1m 23.022s, 76 laps
2. Felipe Massa, Williams, 1m 23.262s, 102 laps
3. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1m 23.276s, 136 laps
4. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1m 24.191s, 132 laps
5. Romain Grosjean, Lotus, 1m 24.200s, 116 laps
6. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, 1m 24.477s, 123 laps
7. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India, 1m 24.939s, 158 laps
8. Kevin Magnussen, McLaren, 1m 25.225s, 39 laps
9. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1m 25.742s, 128 laps

(source: f1.com)

Rosberg and Mercedes fire ominous warning on day two

Mercedes finally hit the front in 2015 pre-season testing on Friday, as Nico Rosberg set an imperious new benchmark on day two in Barcelona.

Elsewhere there was encouragement for McLaren, as Jenson Button completed more than 100 laps on the team's most successful day to date, and Force India, who rolled out their new car for the first time and clocked up close to 80 laps across the afternoon.

But it was Mercedes who stole the show. Despite being the early favourites given their dominance in 2014, the Silver Arrows had not troubled the top of the timesheets over the opening nine days of testing. That changed, however, as the team bolted on Pirelli's soft compound for the first time this year, allowing Rosberg to clock a blistering 1m 22.792s on his first run.

The German came close to bettering that on subsequent runs, but it was ultimately good enough to keep him comfortably top, more than a second clear of the field - and more than 2.5s faster than Lewis Hamilton's 2014 pole time at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Williams locked out second in Mercedes' wake courtesy of Valtteri Bottas, who took over from day-one pacesetter Felipe Massa, with Sauber's Felipe Nasr fractions of a second down the road in third.

Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel was fourth, albeit 2.5s off Rosberg's pace, while Button earned McLaren fifth place, a welcome boost to add to their lap tally. 

Lotus's Pastor Maldonado shaded Toro Rosso's Max Verstappen and Red Bull's Daniil Kvyat for eighth, with Nico Hulkenberg rounding out the day's runners in ninth for Force India.

Verstappen was one of the day's busiest men with 139 laps, although his running was cut slightly short by an electrical problem on the STR10.

"Another good day as we did a lot of laps," Verstappen said. "From my perspective, the most important part was this afternoon's race distance, when the pace looked very promising. It was my first time driving the car with the latest updates and they seemed to be working very well and I felt very comfortable with it."

Button also hit issues late on when he stopped out on track between Turns 7 and 8, bringing out the red flags for only the second time of the day. Kvyat had prompted the first stoppage when he was instructed to halt out on track as a precaution after Red Bull discovered a hydraulic sensor issue.


Unofficial Friday testing times from Barcelona:
1. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1m 22.792s, 106 laps
2. Valtteri Bottas, Williams, 1m 23.995s, 90 laps
3. Felipe Nasr, Sauber, 1m 24.071s, 141 laps
4. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1m 25.339s, 143 laps
5. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1m 25.590s, 101 laps
6. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus, 1m 26.705s, 140 laps
7. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 1m 26.766s, 139 laps
8. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull, 1m 26.965s, 84 laps
9. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India, 1m 28.412s, 77 laps

(source: f1.com)

Massa fastest for Williams as McLaren toil on day one

Felipe Massa laid down an impressive marker for Williams on the opening day of the final pre-season test of 2015 in Spain, as McLaren were once again restricted by technical problems.

Massa hit the front early on Thursday afternoon, bolting on Pirelli's soft-compound tyre and scything down to a 1m 23.500s - the fastest time seen so far this year in Barcelona, and enough to leave him almost a second clear of the field at the chequered flag.

Sauber's Marcus Ericsson, the day's busiest man with 122 laps, moved into second following late runs on the supersoft tyre, but his best was still 0.776s adrift of Massa.

Ericsson's surge bumped the Mercedes of reigning champion Lewis Hamilton to third. The Briton had set the morning pace courtesy of an early run on medium tyres, but was then restricted by a failure of the MGU-K which curtailed his afternoon running.

McLaren fared even worse, as their troubled pre-season continued with the discovery of a hydraulic leak that effectively ended Jenson Button's running after just seven laps. The Briton languished in eighth in the timesheet, almost eight seconds off Massa's pace.

"After just seven laps, Jenson noted a vibration and brought the car back to the pits, where we discovered a hydraulic leak that required a full power-unit change," McLaren said. "The time required to complete the change unfortunately meant that our running for the day was over before lunchtime."

Red Bull's Daniil Kvyat was fourth fastest, narrowly ahead of Lotus's Romain Grosjean - who set the outright pace in the previous test at Barcelona - and Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen.

Carlos Sainz Junior was seventh for Toro Rosso, as the team introduced radical revisions, including a new front nose, to the STR10.

The Spaniard caused the second of two red flags when he stopped at Turn 10 early in the afternoon session, although Toro Rosso were able to get him back out for the final half hour of the day. Kvyat had triggered the first red flags when he stopped in the pit lane just a few minutes after the session commenced.

Testing continues on Friday, when Force India are aiming to run their new VJM08 for the first time. Nico Hulkenberg is primed for driving duties, with the team hopeful of clocking up the first miles in their 2015 machine in the afternoon. 


Unofficial Thursday testing times from Barcelona:
1. Felipe Massa, Williams, 1m 23.500s, 103 laps
2. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, 1m 24.276s, 122 laps
3. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1m 24.881s, 48 laps
4. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull, 1m 25.947s, 75 laps
5. Romain Grosjean, Lotus, 1m 26.177s, 75 laps
6. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1m 26.327s, 80 laps
7. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1m 26.962s, 86 laps
8. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1m 31.479s, 7 laps

(source: f1.com)

More rambling before the last test venue in Barcelona

Tomorrow's the last tests in Barcelona before the season starts at Melbourne in two weeks. I have a few things to say so thought some of you might be interested.

So before the previous tests I said that Ferrari is going to continue being fast and Lotus is going to surprise us. This happened so I was not surprised but maybe some of you were.

It almost looks like the other teams have reached Mercedes and that they will not be as dominant this year. I am very happy because of that! Mercedes is still strong though and don't forget that.

Ferrari looks like they are now probably better than Red Bull, and Lotus might even challenge them (Red Bull) and maybe Williams too.

Williams on the other hand have said that they are going to be stronger than last year but why haven't we seen anything in testing. Are they hiding their speed or what's going on? I really hope they are doing well because they became my favorite team last year. Let's see if I will cheer for them this year as well. My favorites sometimes change even during races. I just love the sport I guess...

McLaren-Honda is not looking that good at the moment but I am sure they will get much better during the season. I am counting on it!

I haven't compared all of the 2015 teammates yet but I will do that during the two weeks before the first race. If you haven't read the ones that I have already written then please do. You can find them by making a search up to the left.

Also remember that we are starting our PREDICTORS LEAGUE right away from Melbourne this year so remember to send me your predictions! TOP3 of the race, pole position and who sets the fastest lap of the race.

Tomorrow I will post the results from Barcelona after the tests are over and if you wanna know what's going on during the day then I'll try to keep you posted on the F1 4 LIFE Facebook page.

That's it for today ;)

Happy 60th Birthday Alain Prost!

His place in Formula One history as one of the sport's greatest drivers is secure, though a career full of conflict and controversy detracted somewhat from his considerable achievements. He won four championships but also left teams acrimoniously on four occasions. He made winning races - 51 times - look easy but was less successful at the politics in which he was invariably embroiled. His bitter feud with Ayrton Senna brought out the best and worst in them both. And yet among the champions only Michael Schumacher and Juan Manuel Fangio won more than Alain Prost.

Alain Prost was born on February 24, 1955, near Saint Chamond in the Loire region of central France, where his father Andre manufactured kitchen furnishings. Alain was a busy little boy with a boundless energy that more than made up for any shortcomings he might have in terms of physical height. He threw himself into wrestling, roller skating and playing football with such vigour that his prominent nose was broken several times. Athletically inclined, he thought about becoming a gym instructor or parlaying his proficiency at soccer into a professional career. Instead, his passion turned to kart racing which he discovered at 14 while on a family holiday in the south of France. What began as fun quickly became an obsession and he won several karting championships. In 1974 he left school to become a full-time racer, supporting himself by tuning engines and a becoming a kart distributor. His prize for winning the 1975 French senior karting championship was a season in Formula Renault, a category in which he went on to win two driving titles before moving to Formula Three. In 1978 and 1979 he won both the French and European F3 championships, by which time he was on the shopping lists of several Formula One teams. After carefully considering his options he chose to sign with McLaren for 1980.  

In his first Formula One season he finished in the points four times but also had several accidents, breaking his wrist in one of them and suffering a concussion in another. Some of his crashes were caused by worrying mechanical failures and Alain also had misgivings about the way the McLaren team was run. Amidst some acrimony he chose to break his two-year contract and signed with Renault.

His first Formula One victory came at home: a French driver in a French car in the 1981 French Grand Prix at Dijon. For Alain the momentous occasion that marked the beginning of his winning ways was memorable mostly for the change it made in his mindset. "Before, you thought you could do it," he said. "Now you know you can." The victories kept coming - he had nine during his three seasons with Renault - but the winner found himself increasingly at odds with the home team's management, who made him the scapegoat for failing to win a championship, and with the French fans, who much preferred the homely appeal of his ragtag team mate Rene Arnoux, with whom Prost had a running feud. Fed up with it all, Alain moved his wife Anne-Marie and their son Nicolas to Switzerland and went racing again with the British-based McLaren team in 1984.

In his six seasons with McLaren Alain Prost won 30 races and three driving titles and was runner-up twice. In 1985 he became the first French World Champion. In 1986 he became the first back-to-back champion since Jack Brabham 26 years earlier. In 1987, his 28th Grand Prix victory beat Jackie Stewart's 14-year-old record. In 1988, Prost contributed seven wins to his McLaren-Honda team's one-sided season total of 15 victories from 16 races. However, his brilliant new team mate Ayrton Senna won eight races and the driving title. Thus began the sensational rivalry that conspired to push two of the sport's greatest drivers to unprecedented heights of success and controversy.

Alain Prost, nicknamed 'The Professor' for his cerebral approach to racing, needed all his brainpower and driving skill to take on the formidable Senna. Unable to match him in pure speed, The Professor (like his heroes Stewart and Lauda) managed to hold his own by perfecting an economical style: starting a race conservatively, taking it easy on the brakes and tyres and then making a late race challenge. Meanwhile, the Brazilian's tendency to go flat out all the time (even in the rain, which Prost hated) left his French team mate behind in terms of public appeal, which was another contributing factor in what became the most bitter feud in Formula One history.

McLaren's domination continued throughout 1989 and the Prost-Senna struggle for supremacy put them on a collision course. Mutual admiration turned to all-out hatred, with the Frenchman accusing his Brazilian team mate of dangerous driving and of receiving more than a fair share of attention from both McLaren and Honda. Their embittered season ended in a controversial clash in the chicane at Suzuka, where Prost deliberately shut the door on Senna and clinched his third driving title, whereupon he promptly stalked off to join his new employers: Ferrari.

In his first year with Ferrari Prost won five races and again came to the 1990 season finale in Japan with only his McLaren adversary capable of depriving him of the championship. Senna did just that, taking his second driving title by deliberately driving into the Ferrari at Suzuka. "What he did was disgusting," Prost said. "He is a man without value."

In 1991 Ferrari fell off the pace and for the first time in ten years Alain Prost failed to win a race. He blamed the Italian team for losing the plot, went public with his criticism and was fired before the end of the season. With no time to find another ride he took a sabbatical from driving and spent 1992 as TV commentator, before returning in 1993 with Williams-Renault to win seven more races - bringing his total to a then record 51 - and take his fourth driving title. Faced with the prospect of having the hated Senna becoming his Williams team mate The Professor announced his retirement, saying: "The sport has given me a lot but I decided the game wasn't worth it any more."

But he wasn't yet finished playing the game. He went back to TV commentating and worked as an adviser and test driver for McLaren, before buying the Ligier team in 1997 and renaming it Prost Grand Prix. Beset by political and financial problems the team was an embarrassment for the four-time champion, who closed up shop at the end of 2001.

(source: f1.com)

The Barcelona test in numbers - who went fastest, and furthest

With four days of running at Jerez already under their belts, the teams were able to change focus slightly and begin discovering the true potential of their 2015 machines over the four-day pre-season test at Barcelona.

But which teams have made a jump forward, and which are at risk of dropping down the order? We crunch the numbers to shed some light on whose preparations appear to be coming on the strongest for the forthcoming season...

This week's unofficial aggregate test times from Barcelona:
1. Romain Grosjean, Lotus, 1m 24.067s, 111 laps
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1m 24.321s, 197 laps
3. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus, 1m 24.348s, 173 laps
4. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1m 24.574s, 202 laps
5. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1m 24.584s, 164 laps
6. Felipe Massa, Williams, 1m 24.672s, 143 laps
7. Sergio Perez, Force India, 1m 24.702s, 155 laps
8. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 1m 24.739s, 223 laps
9. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1m 24.923s, 201 laps
10. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull, 1m 24.941s, 216 laps
11. Felipe Nasr, Sauber, 1m 24.956s, 152 laps
12. Valtteri Bottas, Williams, 1m 25.345s, 178 laps
13. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1m 25.604s, 188 laps
14. Fernando Alonso, McLaren, 1m 25.961s, 79 laps
15. Jolyon Palmer, Lotus, 1m 26.280s, 77 laps
16. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1m 26.312s, 181 laps
17. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, 1m 26.340s, 166 laps
18. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India, 1m 26.591s, 36 laps
19. Pascal Wehrlein, Force India, 1m 27.333s, 113 laps
20. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1m 28.182s, 45 laps
21. Pascal Wehrlein, Mercedes, 1m 28.489s, 48 laps
22. Susie Wolff, Williams, 1m 28.906s, 86 laps

Total distance run - by team (power unit, where different): 
1. Mercedes, 446 laps - 2,076 km
2. Red Bull (Renault), 418 laps - 1,945 km
3. Toro Rosso (Renault), 411 laps - 1,913 km
4. Williams (Mercedes), 407 laps - 1,894 km
5. Lotus (Mercedes), 361 laps - 1,680 km
6. Ferrari, 345 laps - 1, 605 km
7. Sauber (Ferrari), 318 laps - 1,480 km
8. Force India (Mercedes), 304 laps - 1,415 km
9. McLaren (Honda), 124 laps - 577 km

Total distance run - by power unit:
1. Mercedes, 1,518 laps - 7,066 km
2. Renault, 829 laps - 3,858 km
3. Ferrari, 663 laps - 3,086 km
4. Honda, 124 laps - 577 km

Longest stints - by tyre compound:
Supersoft compound - 5 laps (Felipe Nasr; Sergio Perez; Pascal Wehrlein)
Soft compound - 16 laps (Valtteri Bottas)
Medium compound - 24 laps (Max Verstappen)
Prototype medium compound* - 14 laps (Daniel Ricciardo)
Hard compound - 27 laps (Valtteri Bottas)
Intermediate compound - 7 laps (Sebastian Vettel)

*Being assessed by Pirelli for development purposes

Second test comparison - Year on Year*
2014 (Bahrain) - 2,322 laps (12,566 km) completed in four days
2015 (Barcelona) - 3,134 laps (14,587 km) completed in four days
That's a 16 percent increase

2014 fastest lap in qualifying at Barcelona - 1m 25.232s (Lewis Hamilton)
2015 fastest lap in testing at Barcelona - 1m 24.067s (Romain Grosjean)
That's 1.4 percent faster

*Bahrain hosted the second pre-season test in 2014

(source: f1.com)