Red Bull, Toro Rosso, Force India and Sauber’s reaction to their results from the second day of the second pre-season Formula 1 test.
Red Bull
The team began with short runs, coupled with pit stop practice. Towards lunch break an issue was detected and the team elected to undertake an engine change in order to ensure a productive afternoon. Max Verstappen managed a day-best total of 102 for the day and best time of 1:20.432, which netted the Dutchman P4 on the timesheet.
Max Verstappen:
“It was not bad today. We had some stoppages obviously but then in the afternoon we almost completed a full race distance, so that was good. It felt good, and we got a lot of information today again, which is the most important thing. It was unfortunate that we had to stop at the end but I think we’re pretty confident we can solve those issues without any trouble. The long run this afternoon felt good…. quite long! It’s pretty boring when you’re out there on your own, but everything felt well.”
That’s a wrap ? @Max33Verstappen hits a century of laps before a rather sudden end to day two, test two ??
Best Time: 1:20.432 #F1testing pic.twitter.com/Los34I1D8C— Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) 8 March 2017
Head of Race Engineering Guillaume Rocquelin added:
“In the morning we again looked at shorter runs and a number of test items, plus some pit stop practice so that the boys can get their eye in before the season starts. But then before lunch we noticed something in the data, and given that we wanted to concentrate on long runs in the afternoon and didn’t want to take any risks, we decided to change the engine. We lost some time but it was the right thing to do as we had a good afternoon and Max was able to work through the rest of the programme. We then encountered another problem right at the end of the day, which we’re looking into. Not an ideal outing, as we would have liked to tick a few more items off the list, but Max got through more than 100 laps today, so we can’t be too dissatisfied. We’ll run a similar programme with Daniel tomorrow but hopefully without any issues.”
Two days left of #F1Testing before the #AusGP! ? Christian gives us his wrap-up of the day in Barcelona ? pic.twitter.com/ndTXx9nPR0
— Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) 8 March 2017
Toro Rosso
Carlos Sainz:
“I think today was a much better day compared to last week and we’ve definitely made a step forward in terms of reliability. Our test programme this week is a very tight one as we still have a lot of catch-up to do, so it’s therefore still too early to make any conclusions. Even though we lost a bit of valuable track time, I’m happy with the fact that I was able to do so many laps, because that’s what testing is all about!”
Jody Egginton (Head of Vehicle Performance):
“A day of mixed fortunes really, with some very good steps forward made with the set-up but, at the same time, we have been dealing with some small but frustrating background issues which have broken up our running and cost some track time. Evaluating what we have learnt today, we can say that feedback from the development items tested has been interesting. It’s provided some valid directions for the short-term but also a useful basis for further mediumterm. This is good to see, as it allows a constant stream of development items from early on in the season onwards. The afternoon session was spent conducting various tests and run configurations on a couple of different compounds, focusing on understanding the tyres. Looking forward to tonight’s activity, the mechanics, who have been putting in a massive effort in the last days, have a very busy night ahead of them preparing the STR12 for tomorrow’s running. At the same time, the engineers will be working through the data from today in order to optimise the starting set-up and test plan for tomorrow when Daniil gets back into the car for his final day of pre-season testing.”
Busy and productive day ??
9️⃣2️⃣ Laps completed ??
Well done @carlosainz ???#F1Testing pic.twitter.com/oRnqhWUmYC
— Toro Rosso (@ToroRossoSpy) 8 March 2017
Force India
Sergio Perez:
“It’s good to reach 100 laps and learn more about the car, but it was quite a disrupted day with the red flags and it meant we didn’t manage to complete the full programme. It was important to do the long runs this afternoon and get a feel for the performance of the tyres. The low degradation makes them more fun to drive – you still have to manage them but you can push more than in previous years. With a new car, it’s important to get to know all the strengths and weaknesses, and work on the latter, so that’s the focus of the team. With every lap we learn something new and it helps us take a step forward. We now need to make the most of the final couple of days before Melbourne, but I still feel optimistic.”
Tom McCullough, Chief Race Engineer:
“Another busy programme with Sergio clocking up 100 laps. The day started with an aero programme before we focussed on performance work and experimented with set-up options to improve the car’s balance. We ran on several different tyre compounds to make performance comparisons and then ended the day with some long runs. Esteban is back in the car tomorrow for his final day of work before Melbourne.”
Talk about a crowd-pleaser! @SChecoPerez zipping past his fans at full speed – Vamos Checo! #F1Testing pic.twitter.com/eCfW7fSUCI
— Sahara Force India (@ForceIndiaF1) 8 March 2017
Sauber
Pascal Wehrlein:
“It was a positive day for me. I was able to get more and more familiar with the procedures for the car. I was able to get up to speed running a good amount of laps. We had an intensive programme in the morning with set-up work and aero tests, during which we learned a lot. All in all it’s getting better for me day by day.”
A productive morning session for @PWehrlein behind the wheel of the C36 – running 59 laps in total. More to come from Pascal tomorrow #F1 pic.twitter.com/m0FmPKgE2a
— Sauber F1 Team (@SauberF1Team) 8 March 2017
Marcus Ericsson:
“It’s been another busy day for us, trying to understand our new car. We both, Pascal and I, have done a lot of laps continuing to evaluate different set-up options. Some things we tried were positive, some negative – as it is in testing. We have loads of data to analyse in order to get a better understanding of the car to make progress tomorrow.”
