Monday, February 21, 2011

Who said what after the final day at Barcelona

Lotus

Jarno Trulli "It's obviously disappointing to have the test cut short like this but these things happen in motor racing. We started the day well and until the accident happened I had picked up where I left off yesterday - the car has good balance, pace we can build on and has the potential to help us take the fight to the midfield, so I'm leaving here feeling confident about the season ahead and am looking forward to the next test, wherever that will be."

Mike Gascoyne, chief technical officer "Unfortunately the day was cut short due to the accident Jarno suffered this morning at turn 9. It was not his fault - it was caused by a car failure and we were missing a part we needed to put the car back together which meant we had to cut day four short. Despite this I still think there are a great deal of positives to take from the test in terms of the pace of the car and the fact that we are on top of the reliability issues. With that in mind we leave here with work to do but still on target for where we want to be. We will wait to see where the next test will be held and with the time we now have back at the factory we will be working hard to make sure we run through our complete programme at that test."

McLaren

Indy Lall, test team manager "It was very encouraging to log over 100 laps with MP4-26 today - an impressive conclusion to our four days in Barcelona. We're still working through a very lengthy development programme - today wasn't about pure performance, it was about conducting a disciplined series of long-runs - but it's been a positive end to our test here."

Red Bull

Mark Webber "Not too bad today. We had a few niggles here and there but we did well and that's been the case over the whole weekend. We had a very productive test, no question about it. We have a whole raft of data to go through, so we'll see where the next test is and get ready for that."

Ian Morgan, head of race engineering "Today we got through quite a lot of work in evaluating some development components on the suspension, brakes and aero package. We got through the whole programme without any difficulties so, all in all, a useful day's work. We set out a pretty ambitious schedule for this test and I'm pleased to say that we managed to get through almost all of it. Obviously, the weather yesterday hampered us a little but even then we got some wet weather running in, which helps us understand the tyres a bit better. Overall, I think we are quite pleased with the progress we've made here."

Renault

Nick Heidfeld "In the morning we were not able to do most of our programme because we had an issue with the KERS. It's a shame because track time is so limited, but it's obviously better to have problems during testing before the season starts. In the afternoon we started the race simulation, which went reasonably well. We were using different tyre compounds and tried both scrubbed and new sets. We learned a lot by running the car on high fuel and have lots of useful data about the degradation rates. Then, at the end of the day, we returned to the set-up work."

Sauber

Sergio PĂ©rez "It was another positive day. I learnt a lot, in particular about the tyres. They kept changing, but now we have the final spec for the beginning of the season, so it was good I was able to run them today to learn how to maximise their potential. We did a lot of work over the two days, so I'm quite happy."

James Key, technical director "It was the final day of quite a long test in Barcelona. It's always good to use this track as a reference. You get a far better idea about what your car is doing and where its strong and weak points are. Today we spent most of the time working on the set-up of the car, and we tried some new test items. We have to look at the data, but certainly we found some new directions. We also found some useful directions with the different compounds of tyres between the start in the morning, which was cold, and the afternoon when it was quite warm. The temperatures, the set up and the tyre compound are all very closely linked. There's a lot of factors to consider, and we were able to learn more about all of them. Now we head off to the next test where we will introduce onto the car the first part of the update for the start of the season."

Toro Rosso

Sebastien Buemi "Today went well and I am happy with what we achieved. We got through the entire programme we had planned and did enough laps to improve our understanding of the various types of Pirelli tyre. Along with the two other drivers, we gathered a lot of data over the past four days here in Barcelona and it will be important to analyse everything very carefully to find the right way to move forward in terms of reliability and performance, when we tackle the final pre-season test session. The team, at the track and back at the factory worked well to deliver a car reliable enough to do plenty of laps, which is always the most important thing at this point in the year."

Giorgio Ascanelli "This has definitely been a productive four days for us with a good number of laps completed. We addressed all the technical issues that came to our attention at the previous test in Jerez, although as you move forward and make progress, you always discover new problems. But 90 trouble-free laps today means that this is a positive end to our time in Barcelona."

Williams

Pastor Maldonado "We did 121 laps so it's been a great day. We tried lots of things on the car this morning and this afternoon we did a race simulation. The car felt great. We need to work to understand a little bit more about the balance on the longer runs but I am happy as the car is getting better each time we go out."

Sam Michael, technical director "It has been another productive day but it certainly didn't start out like that! We had a problem with the KERS cooling system just before the session opened, so we had to disable KERS for the day. Pastor then spent the morning doing some mapping runs for Cosworth and running some new exhaust components for aero to check temperatures for the last test aero upgrade that is coming - all of that worked okay. In the afternoon we completed a race simulation with no problems. Overall it has been a productive test although we still have some reliability issues to work on. The final winter test will now be held back at the Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona from 8 - 11 March and we will be bringing our first race upgrade package."

© ESPN EMEA Ltd.

Feeds Feeds: ESPNF1 Staff

  • Email
  • Feedback
  • Print
Email

No comments:

Post a Comment