Selected quotes from day 1 at Jerez
Ferrari press statement:
Felipe Massa was at the wheel of the F150th Italia. The Brazilian driver’s programme focussed on finding the best set-up for the car, on increasing understanding of the Pirelli tyres’ behaviour, aerodynamic testing and starts. Despite endless red flags which were especially prevalent this afternoon, Felipe was able to complete the planned programme, with any technical problems affecting the car. He completed a total of 101 laps, the quickest in a time of 1.20.709, the fastest overall on the day
Sergio Perez - Sauber
I’m very happy with how the day went. We covered a good mileage today and again I learnt a lot. I’m getting more and more confident with all the procedures with the team and the car. I’m looking forward to another busy day tomorrow
James Key - Sauber Technical Director
Today was a productive day for us. In the morning we started off with some base line runs. Before we concentrated on set-up and worked on the braking system we also planned to run out of fuel, which was why the car stopped out on the track. In the afternoon we carried out back to back comparisons to learn more about the mechanical set up of the car. Although there were several red flags in the afternoon, we have found some good directions for further work. We only used the medium and hard tyre compounds today. In the afternoon we used no more than three sets of the harder ones, and they certainly degrade, but not so badly that we could not learn anything from them. Sergio concluded the day with practice starts and will continue to drive tomorrow
Mark Webber - Red Bull
It was pretty good today. There were a few red flags, but we did almost 100 laps and the car ran well. On the performance side I think we’re going okay; it’s very early and you don’t know who’s doing what, but we’re focusing on ourselves and seem to be going in the right direction. I’d like to add that my wishes are with Robert. It was a big shock for all of us, I couldn’t believe it. I’m happy, as it looks like the people involved have done an incredible job for him after the accident to keep him in the best shape possible. It’s a big loss for our sport that he’s not here this year and a big loss for us as competitors, as we’re motivated to race against the best guys in the world and Robert is one of them. I wish him all the best for his recovery; every day he’ll make progress and I’m looking forward to having him back when he is ready
Daniel Ricciardo - Toro Rosso Test Driver
Jerez is where I first drove a Formula 1 car, when I tested for Red Bull Racing at the end of ’09 and the last time I drove an F1 car was last November, again with Red Bull in Abu Dhabi. It doesn’t sound like a long time, but three months out of a race car is long enough. It was good to be back in the cockpit. Fortunately, I seem to have remembered how to drive! Driving the Toro Rosso for the first time was another exciting experience for me. It went well and I did enough laps this morning to get settled in the cockpit, which is important, as I hope to get a bit more track time in testing, so that I can feel confident when I get to Bahrain and run in free practice on Friday morning at my first Grand Prix weekend. I also managed to use both of the important new elements, the KERS and the DRS (drag reduction system) which seemed to function as planned and I felt quite comfortable by the end of the morning
Lewis Hamilton - McLaren
Today was mainly about checking the car – not the most exciting day, but it was important to make sure everything was running okay. We didn’t do any particularly long runs, and I wasn’t too aggressive with the car, but we learned a couple of useful things. The car feels good compared to last year’s, which is positive. It feels like a good step over MP4-25
Adrian Sutil - Force India
A successful first day of testing for the new car - a big well done to all the team. Out of the box it runs well and feels generally better than the 2010 car in every area. We had a good baseline set-up and balance, already the car is very smooth, which is always positive as then you can focus on improving performance. Despite a bit of downtime this morning with a problem with the floor we could still do 28 laps, which isn't too bad for a new car, and got in all our baseline runs. I've got a good feeling and tomorrow we're going to aim to put in some more laps, longer runs and look at different tyre compounds. It's too early to say where we are, but at this stage in testing I think we can be quite pleased and proud that the hard work everyone back in the factory and wind tunnel has - so far - paid off.
Dominic Harlow, Circuit engineering director - Force India
Today was the roll out for VJM04, and as such we were looking to install and shakedown the car whilst increasing our run lengths and looking to reach stabilised temperatures. The plan from there was to begin taking measurements and adjusting the car into our normal operating envelope and perhaps starting to sweep some set-up and control parameters. We lost a few hours today with a problem with the exhaust blast shields, which required some ingenuity to solve, but once that was done we covered the first of our objectives and completed just over 120km with no further issues. It was great to see the new car on track, and we have made a positive start to the test
Vitaly Petrov - Lotus Renault
Things were much better for me today compared to Valencia and at least we managed to do quite a lot of laps. We still lost some time because the car had an oil leak in the middle of the day, but we made the most of the time on track and I managed to do some set-up work in the afternoon. At the moment it’s important to understand how the tyres are working and we found there was quite a lot of degradation with the rears, and that’s one of the reasons why it’s difficult to find the right set-up. I also continued using the KERS and moveable wing today and that went well with no issues.
Eric Boullier - Lotus Renault
After a difficult few days, it’s good for the team to be back at the track and to have our minds focussed on developing the car. Things went pretty well, but it’s early days and there is still so much for us to learn about the new car, especially at a track like Jerez with some high-speed corners. We had a small oil leak on the car in the morning, which kept us in the garage for a while, but the aero programme went well today and has taught us some useful things.
Nico Rosberg - Mercedes
We had a reasonable day and I was able to complete quite a few laps, which is positive. It's important for both me and the team to get good mileage and we're really learning about the car all the time. We had a few little issues, which you always expect from a new car, so we just have to keep putting the miles on it. The KERS was working well and having more time to get used to the system is a real help; it's not just a question of using the buttons but also understanding the effect of the KERS under braking. We are starting to understand the tyres better and that will be one of the key factors to success over the race weekends
Jarno Trulli - Team Lotus
The car does feel pretty good, but the problem this afternoon limited our total time on track. Despite that we are still where we want to be - close to the midfield and in a car that we still have a lot more to add to. I think there is still a lot more to come from the car so I'm very positive and looking forward to getting back to work tomorrow.
Dieter Gass - Sporting Director - Team Lotus
We started the day well and had a good morning session. For the first time we were able to do meaningful setup work and start being able to understand the aerodynamics of the car. Unfortunately we had a small problem this afternoon which limited our running, but the team worked well to rectify it and we managed to give Jarno another 45 minutes at the end of the session. We will take another look at the problem tonight and will make sure it does not affect us tomorrow.
Sam Michael - Technical Director - Williams
It has not been a productive day for us I'm afraid. After the installation lap we had a problem with a bleed screw for the rear wing hydraulic actuator. It is straightforward to correct, however during the day it caused a lot of downtime as we shuffled parts around to get the car out on the track. On the positive side, in the late afternoon we did complete all the aero testing that required the front tyre rake, so that will come off tonight