Comparing the 2015 teammates: Lotus

Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado side by side and head to head again. Some say it will be a disaster and some say that these two guys can bring a lot of points to Lotus in 2015. Personally I think that Grosjean will be better than his teammate even though Maldonado is a race winner.

Let's begin comparing! I'll start with Romain Grosjean. First I will write the year and then the teammate and how it went.

2009 - Fernando Alonso. Grosjean replaced Nelson Piquet Jr. because Flavio Briatore wasn't satisfied with his results. Grosjean on the other hand didn't do that much better. He had even worse results and didn't get a seat for 2010. Alonso won him in every race he finished.

2012 - Kimi Räikkönen. Grosjean got a second chance and was now better than in 2009. He had just won the GP2 series and was hungry for good results. But unfortunately for Grosjean's sake Kimi Räikkönen mopped the floor with him. Grosjean got 96 points and Räikkönen 207. Over twice the amount more than Grosjean. Only Alonso and Räikkönen got twice as much as their teammates in 2012. Was it because they were so good or because their teammates were just that bad? You be the judge.

2013 - Kimi Räikkönen and Heikki Kovalainen. Kovalainen drove in two races but it was pretty clear that he was a bit rusty or he had very bad luck. Grosjean won Kovalainen in the first race but in the second he retired. Räikkönen on the other hand won Grosjean in 11 races and would have won more but retired twice and didn't race in the last two races. Even though Räikkönen was again better it didn't mean that Grosjean had a bad season. Compared to 2012 it was a great year and he got better all the time. I wish him well and good luck.

2014 - Pastor Maldonado. I will compare these two when I have gone through Maldonado's teammates.

Then Pastor Maldonado...

2011 - Rubens Barrichello. Maldonado lost because he got 1 point and Barrichello got 4. Not a good year for Williams.

2012 - Bruno Senna. The only time that Maldonado actually was better than his teammate. He even won a race for Williams so 2012 was much better for them.

2013 - Valtteri Bottas. 2011 all over again but this time he lost to a rookie. 4 points to Bottas and only 1 to Maldonado. He stated to the media that even though he lost to Bottas it was his best season ever. He made it very clear that Bottas is not a regular rookie but a professional with just a little experience.

2014 - Romain Grosjean. Maldonado lost to his teammate 8-2 in points and we could also see clearly that Grosjean is nowadays a pretty good driver. Maldonado on the other hand is driving like an amateur. I don't know what has happened to him but he used to be much better. I am pretty sure that Grosjean will be better than Maldonado in 2015.

If you have any questions about the 2015 season's teammates or anything else then sen me a message to f14lifeblog@gmail.com or comment.

First impressions - team by team testing analysis from Jerez

After an intense period of development, a new crop of Formula One cars made their highly anticipated on-track debuts at Jerez this week. 

From rookie debuts to surprise performances, and from reliability issues to promising early pace, we take a team-by-team look at all of the action from an intriguing opening session in Spain… 

Ferrari
Kimi Raikkonen, 1m 20.841s, 200 laps
Sebastian Vettel, 1m 20.984s, 149 laps
Taken in isolation, Ferrari had the best of Jerez: fastest on three of the four days, they also emerged with the two quickest times and the fourth highest lap total.

However, there are obvious notes of caution - Kimi Raikkonen was fastest on the opening day of testing last year, for example, but that turned out to be a prelude to the team’s worst season for more than two decades. But Raikkonen himself summed up the new optimistic mood at Ferrari, saying the SF15-T was “definitely an improvement” on last year’s F14 T and talking of progress in every department. New team mate Vettel was similarly happy with the Scuderia’s early headway.

Such verdicts will certainly be welcome for the Italian team after the low of 2014 - and ultimately mean more than the Finn’s outright best time, which came on Pirelli’s soft rubber. Ferrari are certainly not getting carried away, even hinting at the likelihood of Mercedes still being the benchmark. But after a winter of discontent, the hope is that real progress has been made, and that they can reign in some of Mercedes’ advantage. On both fronts, Jerez offered cause for optimism.

Sauber
Felipe Nasr, 1m 21.545s, 197 laps
Marcus Ericsson, 1m 22.019s, 185 laps
Sauber arrived at the year’s first test with a neatly packaged new car, a distinctive new colour scheme and an all-new driver line-up. They left with some headline-grabbing times and a renewed sense of hope, having gone some way towards banishing the memories of a torrid 2014 campaign.  

But whilst the C34 seems to be a significant improvement on the troublesome C33 - thanks in part to improvements made by Ferrari in the power unit department - few people expect Sauber to be quite so high up the timesheets when the real racing begins. 

The Swiss team have shied away from the notion that they were doing low-fuel ‘glory runs’, though it must be said that Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson both set their best times on the softer rubber. But take nothing away from Sauber - all the early signs point to them moving firmly in the right direction. 

Mercedes
Nico Rosberg, 1m 21.982s, 308 laps
Lewis Hamilton, 1m 22.172s, 208 laps
They might not have set any headline lap times over four days at Jerez, but there was no concealing the fact Mercedes remain the class of the field.

The team focused almost exclusively on reliability, which proved their only Achilles’ heel in an otherwise totally dominant campaign last year. The results were emphatic, as Rosberg and Hamilton racked up a staggering 516 laps in total. No other team broke 400.

More important was how Mercedes focused their run plans. Where other teams alternated fast laps with ‘charge’ laps - to get full power in their ERS - Mercedes’ preference was for long runs with little fluctuation between laps. The length of these runs suggested the team were using heavy fuel loads; the unerring consistency suggested that performance was very low down on the priority list.

So while other teams may have gone faster, Mercedes went further and learned more - and all while already having the best platform on which to base their 2015 car. An ominous start then - at least as far as their rivals are concerned...

Williams
Felipe Massa, 1m 22.276s, 144 laps
Valtteri Bottas, 1m 22.319s, 134 laps
One of the bedrocks of Williams’ resurgent 2014 campaign was a trouble-free pre-season, and the Grove-based team made a similarly strong start in Jerez. Between them Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa completed 278 laps, and though they never cracked the top end of the timing sheets, there was a clear sense that Williams, like rivals Mercedes, were keeping their powder dry. 

Williams are being understandably coy about their chances in 2015, but chief test and support engineer Rod Nelson admitted the team were ‘very happy’ with the evolutionary FW37’s first runs in Spain, describing the new car as a ‘reliable package that is straight forward to work with.’

Massa and Bottas were similarly pleased with the new machine’s potential, the former describing the FW37 as ‘another step forward from where we left the FW36’. The team thus head to the second pre-season test in Barcelona quietly confident, safe in the knowledge that there’s still much more performance to come from the new car.

Toro Rosso
Max Verstappen, 1m 22.553s, 170 laps
Carlos Sainz Junior, 1m 23.187s, 183 laps
With two rookies making up the youngest driver pairing in Formula One history, mileage was the key requirement for Toro Rosso at Jerez. Both Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz Jr delivered on that front, as Toro Rosso clocked up more laps than any team other than Mercedes and Sauber.

The four days were therefore an exercise in the solid rather than the spectacular, but even so team principal Franz Tost saw enough to be encouraged about the team’s prospects.

“We had four profitable days testing, during which both our drivers managed to complete a high mileage,” he reflected. “That meant we were able to learn a lot about our car. If the team and drivers can keep this momentum going in the remaining two tests, then we will be very well prepared by the time we get to the first race of the season in Melbourne.”

That said, the test wasn’t without issues, including concerns about power unit reliability. Only when the Renault unit is running at maximum will we know if Toro Rosso can match their bullish pre-season target of finishing fifth in 2015.

Lotus
Pastor Maldonado, 1m 22.713s, 137 laps
Romain Grosjean, 1m 23.802s, 53 laps
Lotus arrived at Jerez hoping to extinguish memories of a dismal 2014, and while the car was one day late, the following three days hinted that major strides have been made.

For starters, the switch from Renault to Mercedes power appeared to pay dividends. A total of 190 laps spoke volumes for the reliability of the new system - which was particularly welcome given the team achieved just 111 laps in total over the first eight days of the 2014 pre-season.

“The team has made very good progress if you consider where we were this time last year,” was Romain Grosjean’s verdict. “Both the power unit and the chassis are going in the right direction. It’s a very good start and I’m a happy driver.”

It is too early to say just how competitive Lotus can be, of course. But where last year the team were listless, now they have a clear sense of progress and direction - and optimism is flowing as a result.

Red Bull
Daniel Ricciardo, 1m 23.338s, 84 laps 
Daniil Kvyat, 1m 23.975s, 82 laps
Twelve months ago Red Bull endured a catastrophic start to what would ultimately prove to be an enormously challenging pre-season test programme. In context, this year’s beginning was considerably more positive, even if a variety of technical niggles prevented the Milton Keynes team from completing as many laps with the RB11 as they would have liked.  

“We did lose track time over the four days and that’s always frustrating, as you inevitably have to scratch some things off the ‘to do’ list, but the major items were covered so I would say we’re leaving Jerez in pretty decent shape,” commented Red Bull’s head of race engineering Guillaume Rocquelin.

Having encountered ERS and battery issues, it remains to be seen as to whether Renault have indeed made the big step forward with their power unit that Red Bull crave. What’s certainly true is that having focused exclusively on medium and long runs in Jerez, there’s plenty more speed to come from the package.  

McLaren
Jenson Button, 1m 27.660s, 41 laps
Fernando Alonso, 1m 35.553s, 38 laps
With a brand-new car and power unit combination to bed in, Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button quite rightly predicted a steep learning curve ahead of the Jerez test - and that’s exactly what they got. Together the duo managed just 79 laps and a handful of unrepresentative lap times as McLaren and new power unit supplier Honda ran into early teething problems. 

“We’d anticipated there would be issues - this is a test, after all,” said Honda motorsport chief Yasuhisa Arai, “but the difficulties we faced here were more than we’d expected, so we weren’t able to get the running time we’d ideally wanted.” 

But despite the obvious frustrations of spending more time in the garage than out on the race track, it wasn’t all bad news for the revived combination. McLaren say that they were able to ascertain that the main car architecture worked as planned, and they also managed to do a reasonable amount of encouraging aero work.  

Clearly, there’s an enormous mountain to climb between now and the first race to bring McLaren up to a decent competitive level, but Arai insists that spirits inside the squad remain high: “There’s now an incredible amount of positivity within the organisation,” he commented. “We’ll return to the track in Barcelona - with some modifications - and will be stronger at the next two tests.”

(source: f1.com)

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

As ever with pre-season testing, reading too much into the timesheets - particularly after just four days of running at Jerez - can often be misleading, as differing objectives and priorities blur the picture of which teams have hit the ground running in 2015.

But while there is still an awful lot to learn, a close inspection of the data from the first four days of the new season does make for interesting reading...

This week’s unofficial aggregate test times from Jerez: 
1. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1m 20.841s, 200 laps
2. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1m 20.984s, 149 laps
3. Felipe Nasr, Sauber, 1m 21.545s, 197 laps
4. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1m 21.982s, 308 laps
5. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, 1m 22.019s, 185 laps
6. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1m 22.172s, 208 laps
7. Felipe Massa, Williams, 1m 22.276s, 144 laps
8. Valtteri Bottas, Williams, 1m 22.319s, 134 laps
9. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 1m 22.553s, 170 laps
10. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus, 1m 22.713s, 137 laps
11. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1m 23.187s, 183 laps
12. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1m 23.338s, 84 laps
13. Romain Grosjean, Lotus, 1m 23.802s, 53 laps
14. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull, 1m 23.975s, 82 laps
15. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1m 27.660s, 41 laps
16. Fernando Alonso, McLaren, 1m 35.553s, 38 laps

Total distance run - by team (power unit, where different): 
1. Mercedes, 516 laps - 2,284km
2. Sauber (Ferrari), 382 laps - 1,691km
3. Toro Rosso (Renault), 353 laps - 1,563km
4. Ferrari, 349 laps - 1,545km
5. Williams (Mercedes), 278 laps - 1,230km
6. Lotus (Mercedes), 190 laps - 841km
7. Red Bull (Renault), 166 laps - 735km
8. McLaren (Honda), 79 laps - 349km

Total distance run - by power unit: 
1. Mercedes, 984 laps - 4,357km (3 teams)
2. Ferrari, 731 laps - 3,236km (2 teams)
3. Renault, 519 laps - 2,298km (2 teams)
4. Honda, 79 laps - 349km (1 team)

Longest stints - by tyre compound: 
Soft compound - 19 laps (Pastor Maldonado, Day 3)
Medium compound - 29 laps (Nico Rosberg, Day 1)
Winter Hard compound - 34 laps (Nico Rosberg, Day 1)
Hard compound - 42 laps (Nico Rosberg, Day 1)
Intermediate compound - 25 laps (Nico Rosberg, Day 3)
Wet compound - 4 laps (Felipe Nasr, Day 2)

Jerez test comparison - Year on Year
2014 - 1,470 total laps (6,509 kilometres) completed in four days
2015 - 2,294 total laps (10,156 kilometres) completed in four days
That's a 56 percent increase

2014 fastest overall time - 1m 23.276s (Kevin Magnussen)
2015 fastest overall time - 1m20.841s (Kimi Raikkonen)
That's 2.9 percent faster

(source: f1.com)

Comparing the 2015 teammates: Mercedes

Last year I did a series where I compared each team's teammates with each other. This year I will do the same. Some of these drivers have been teammates last year so that means that I have to update last years post. My opinions and facts haven't changed so that's why I am not writing everything from scratch.

The first drivers I am comparing are Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg because they were under everybody's looking glass last year.

They used to be teammates also when they were teenagers but I only know a little about that so I'll focus on F1.

I'll do this the same way as I've always done. So first the year, then the teammate and how the season went.

I'm gonna start with Nico Rosberg.

2006 - Mark Webber. Nico started his career in Formula One with a bang. He set the fastest lap in his first ever race, got points and was 3rd in his second qualifying session. Nice start but his teammate was tuff! All of the races where they both finished Webber was always better. In the end of the season he also got more points (7-4).

2007 - Alexander Wurz and Kazuki Nakajima. This time Nico got more points than these two got combined. His "training" season was over and he really showed who was boss when he managed to beat his much more experienced teammate (Wurz). Later Wurz decided to retire from Formula One and the test driver Nakajima replaced him. He wasn't nearly as good as either one of the original drivers of 2007.

2008 - Kazuki Nakajima. Now Nakajima had a new chance to show what he was made of but lost by 8 points to Rosberg (17-9). Williams wasn't that good at the time but Nico managed to get his first ever podium in F1 at Melbourne.

2009 - Kazuki Nakajima. This season Nico was even better than the previous season. You could clearly see that Rosberg was the better driver and Nakajima had to leave the series after this season. Nico got 34,5 points and Nakajima didn't get a single point that season.

2010 - Michael Schumacher. The 7 time world champion came back as a Mercedes driver and became Rosberg's teammate. People said that Rosberg has a lot to learn from Michael but in the end he was better than Schumacher! It was probably because Michael had been away from the sport for a few years but still. Rosberg got 142 points and Schumacher only 72. That's almost twice the amount of points! Rosberg also got three podiums and Schumacher got none.

2011 - Michael Schumacher. Same thing continues in 2011, Rosberg is getting better results than Schumi but now the score is only 89-76. The car wasn't as good in 2011 than it was in 2010. They didn't get a single podium that year.

2012 - Michael Schumacher. Schumi's last year in F1 was worse than the seasons before. Rosberg got 93 points and Schumi only 49. Rosberg won his first race in China that year. It was also the first for the Mercedes GP team.

2013-2014 - Lewis Hamilton. I will compare these two after I have first listed Hamilton's teammates.

Lewis Hamilton on the other hand started a year later than Rosberg and got a chance right away in a better car (McLaren of course). He was 3rd in his first race.

2007 - Fernando Alonso. Probably the worst possible teammate to beat that year. Alonso had just won the last two championships and was planning to win his third in a row. He could probably have done it that year but he focused too much on the young rookie Hamilton when he should have been keeping an eye on Räikkönen. Hamilton and Alonso got exactly the same amount of points and Kimi won them with one single point. That was the tightest fight in Formula One history! Because Hamilton had more 2nd places than Alonso he was higher up in the standings. In a way you can say that he was "better than Alonso".

2008 - Heikki Kovalainen. He got 53 points and won a race. Lewis on the other hand got 98 points and won the championship! You can't beat that!

2009 - Heikki Kovalainen. This was a very bad season for Heikki and McLaren as well so it was easy to beat him. Lewis got 49 points and Heikki only 22. McLaren didn't wanna continue Heikki's contract any further.

2010 - Jenson Button. The 2009 world champion joined McLaren as the 2008 world champion's teammate. People were sure that Jenson had no chance against Lewis but made everybody shut up by winning a race before him. In the end the score was 240-214 between the two of them which ment that Lewis was better (as the press had predicted).

2011 - Jenson Button. This time Jenson was hungry to beat his teammate and did just that with a score of 270-227. Button was runner up in the championship and Hamilton was 5th.

2012 - Jenson Button. Hamilton's last year with McLaren and also the deciding year; who was better Hamilton or Button? Hamilton won 4 races and Button 3. If we look at the points it was 190-188 between them. Very close but Hamilton won with two points.

2013 - Nico Rosberg. The points were 189-171 between Hamilton and Rosberg in 2013. Very close! We also have to remember that in the same race where everybody were focusing on multi21, Ross Brawn told Rosberg to back off and keep his position. He had more speed than Hamilton but the Mercedes team didn't want them to fight and perhaps take each other out of the race. Rosberg also retired 3 times in 2013. Lewis only once.
Lewis won one single race and Nico two (one of them was in Monaco!). The points say that Hamilton is better but if you look at the whole picture it looks like Rosberg was better than Hamilton in 2013.

2014 - Nico Rosberg. This year it was totally different and even though Nico drove well he lost to Lewis clearly. Hamilton was a much better driver in 2014!
The points were 384-317 but Lewis also got 50 points for winning in Abu Dhabi. They both retired more than once but when they managed to finish it was usually Lewis who won. He won 11 races and Rosberg only 5.

This year the story continues...

Raikkonen puts Ferrari back on top as Jerez test ends

Kimi Raikkonen ensured Ferrari ended the first pre-season test of 2015 on top by going fastest on the fourth and final day at Jerez.

The Scuderia's new SF15-T had already topped the first and second days in the hands of Sebastian Vettel, and Raikkonen carried on that momentum by setting the best time of the test on Wednesday, dipping down to 1m 20.841s to finish comfortably clear of the chasing pack.

Behind him, Marcus Ericsson continued Sauber's encouraging start to the new season by finishing second fastest, after new team mate Felipe Nasr had put the team top of the timesheets on day three.

The Swede also broke into triple figures in the lap charts, although Mercedes once again led the way in terms of total mileage as Lewis Hamilton clocked up 114 laps en route to setting the third fastest time of the day.

Max Verstappen worked his way up to fourth for Toro Rosso, as the team continued to clock up far more mileage than parent team Red Bull, with Daniil Kvyat restricted to 62 laps of running in the new RB11. 

That was still more than Jenson Button managed at McLaren, who was disrupted by engine problems in the morning and then a fuel pump fault in the afternoon. However, in between issues the Englishman managed to help the Woking team to their most productive day of the test, completing 35 laps and setting a best time of 1m 27.660s.

That left Button eighth overall, behind Verstappen, Williams' Felipe Massa, Lotus's Romain Grosjean and Kvyat in the Red Bull.

Three red flags punctuated the day - Kvyat brought the first out after suffering a suspected ERS failure after just eight laps, while Hamilton spun at the chicane at midday and then Ericsson stopped out on track ten minutes from the chequered flag.

The teams now have two weeks before testing resumes at Barcelona on February 19-22. Force India are expected to join the fray, although their new car is not likely to appear until the third and final test, also at Barcelona, on February 26-March 1.

Unofficial Wednesday testing times from Jerez
1. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1m 20.841s, 106 laps
2. Felipe Nasr, Sauber, 1m 22.019s, 112 laps
3. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1m 22.172s, 116 laps
4. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 1m 22.553s, 97 laps
5. Felipe Massa, Williams, 1m 23.116s, 73 laps
6. Romain Grosjean, Lotus, 1m 23.802s, 53 laps
7. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull, 1m 23.975s, 63 laps
8. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1m 27.660s, 35 laps

(source: f1.com)

Nasr goes fastest for Sauber on day three in Spain

Felipe Nasr sent Sauber to the top of the timesheet on Tuesday in pre-season testing at Jerez, narrowly edging the Ferrari of morning pacesetter Kimi Raikkonen and the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg.

Less than half a second separated the trio at the close of play, although it was Nasr who set the headline time as he bolted on Pirelli's super-soft tyres and lapped the Spanish track in 1m 21.545s. The Brazilian also clocked up more than 100 laps on what was only his second official session as a Formula One race driver.

Raikkonen maintained Ferrari's position at the sharp end of the times with a 1m 21.720s on the white-marked medium compound, which was enough to edge Rosberg by two-tenths of a second in the fight for second overall.

Elsewhere there was encouragement for McLaren as Fernando Alonso managed 32 laps total, and several multi-lap runs, on his final day of running at Jerez.

The Spaniard's day was cut short by a loss of cooling water pressure, which left him with an unrepresentative time of 1m 35.553s set in mixed early conditions. Nevertheless the team were buoyed by their increased running relative to the first two days, and also by the fact they will be able to replace the problematic components ahead of the fourth and final day.

Alonso's tally was still in stark contrast to Rosberg, who once again set the standard with 151 laps in the Mercedes F1 W06 Hybrid. The German's day included triggering the red flags when an on-track engine shutdown brought him to a halt just after midday.

Nasr had earlier triggered the red flags to fly when he spun into gravel at Turn 9 in damp conditions, while Lotus's Pastor Maldonado brought them out for a third time with just over one minute of the day remaining when he stopped out on track.

The Venezuelan had been delayed as Lotus encountered telemetry problems in the morning, but eventually finished the day fifth overall - just behind Felipe Massa, who took over from Valtteri Bottas for his first day of running in the Williams FW37.

Carlos Sainz Junior was sixth for Toro Rosso, while Daniel Ricciardo was limited by engine problems that restricted Red Bull to a handful of short runs in the RB11 as the day drew to a close.

Testing concludes at Jerez on Wednesday.

Unofficial Tuesday testing times from Jerez:
1. Felipe Nasr, Sauber, 1m 21.545s, 109 laps
2. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1m 21.750s, 94 laps
3. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1m 21.982s, 151 laps
4. Felipe Massa, Williams, 1m 22.276s, 71 laps
5. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus, 1m 22.713s, 96 laps
6. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1m 23.187s, 137 laps
7. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1m 23.901s, 49 laps
8. Fernando Alonso, McLaren, 1m 35.553s, 32 laps

(source: f1.com)

Vettel keeps Ferrari on top on rain-hit second day

Sebastian Vettel maintained his and Ferrari’s encouraging start to pre-season testing by going fastest on the second day of running at Jerez on Monday.

The four-time world champion, also quickest on the opening day, set a new overall benchmark of 1m 20.984s to finish almost one second clear of the chasing pack. 

Proceedings were brought to a slightly early close as a rain storm hit the track, although Sauber’s Felipe Nasr and Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen - both entering their first season in Formula One racing - were among those who ventured out in the wet conditions.

It was Nasr who ultimately got closest to Vettel, putting Sauber second with a 1m 21.867s. That left him half a second clear of Williams’ Valtteri Bottas and the Mercedes of 2014 world champion Lewis Hamilton.

Hamilton was able to clock up 91 laps, the most of any driver, as Mercedes once again demonstrated impressive reliability - although a water leak from a failed component brought his day to a slightly premature finish.

Verstappen was fifth fastest, 1.5s down on Hamilton, while Lotus’s Pastor Maldonado and McLaren’s Jenson Button rounded out the top seven.

Lotus had initially played down their chances of running before the third day of the test as they finalised the build programme of their E23 Hybrid. They were able to join the fray early in the morning however, with Maldonado eventually racking up 41 laps.

McLaren’s progress was more limited, as a recurring problem confined Button to the garage for much of the day. The team did emerge in the final minutes, but only for a sedate out-lap. Button therefore ended the day with six laps - matching what 2015 team mate Fernando Alonso managed on day one - and an unrepresentative best time of 1m 54.655s, more than 30s down on Vettel.

Daniil Kvyat was the eighth and final runner for Red Bull, although the Russian did not set a time on his first day in the RB11 after damaging the front wing early on. With no replacement, Kvyat had the unusual task of completing several installation runs with no front wing.

The only team absent from the timesheet were Force India, who have opted to skip the first test completely whilst they develop their new car.

Testing continues at Jerez on Tuesday.

Unofficial Monday testing times from Jerez
1. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1m 20.984s, 88 laps
2. Felipe Nasr, Sauber, 1m 21.867s, 89 laps
3. Valtteri Bottas, Williams, 1m 22.319s, 61 laps
4. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1m 22.490s, 91 laps
5. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 1m 24.167s, 73 laps
6. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus, 1m 25.802s, 41 laps
7. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1m 54.655s, 6 laps
8. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull, No time, 18 laps

(source: f1.com)