Jerez test day 1 round-up!
- Jerez
- Day 1 Formula one testing
- 28th Janurary 2014
As predicted today’s opening test was a very slow starter! With car launches in the morning and very few laps afterwards! Although the day did give us lots of talking points!
The cars today managed very few laps which isnt necessarily unusual for a first day of testing however it wasn’t expected to be this quiet! It shows how difficult this new formula is to understand and get on top of.
Times. Whilst you cannot read anything into the times set by cars, they certainly weren’t running at competitive speeds and the electrical recovery systems would not have been fully functional, last years best day one time was a 1m18:861s Ferrari set today’s at 1m27:104s which is quite a difference! Whilst we do expect these cars to be slower, they certainly will gain speed towards the end of the week as all the systems get turned on and the ERS units have the opportunity to get fully charged – (remember you have to drive fast to charge the units to give you the power which is no problem at racing speed)
1 Raikkonen (Ferrari) – 1m27.104s (31 laps)
Kimi marked his return to Ferrari with the fastest time in the first test and the most laps. The car stopped on track on its first lap and caused an early red flag but this was soon forgotten in the afternoon.
2 Hamilton (Mercedes) – 1m27.820s (18 laps)
Hamilton led the running for most of the day and was the first driver to take to the track following the car’s unveiling this morning. The running was curtailed due to a front wing failure in which the front wing got trapped under the front wheels leaving Hamilton with no control and crashed into the barriers. The team did no more running for the day as they await spares and investigate the cause of the failure.
3 Bottas (Williams) – 1m30.082s (7 laps)
Whilst today gave us the first look at the new williams car in the flesh it completed very few laps due to electrical and engine sensor issues.
4 Perez (Force India) – 1m33.161s (11 laps)
Again the first time for us to see the Force India in the flesh and from other than the side view! The car had limited running and caused the first red flag of the day.
5 Vergne (Toro Rosso) – 1m36.530s (15 laps)
The Toro Rosso had a great morning being Hamilton’s main challenger for the top spot (albeit with a sizeable gap) but running stopped a few hours before the close of play owing to technical gremlins!
6 Gutierrez (Sauber) – 1m42.257s (7 laps)
Slowest of the day was the Sauber which only completed 7 laps.
7 Vettel (Red Bull) – no time (3 laps)
No time set for the new Red Bull. The car was only unveiled this morning however the car did not take to the track until late in the afternoon. All three laps were installations laps and no time was set.
8 Ericsson (Caterham) – no time (1 lap)
The Caterham got an installation lap in at the end of the day but did not have any other running!
9 (Mclaren) – no time (0 Laps)
A big shock came with the Mclaren not showing its face at all! The team released this statement:
“Today was a challenging start to the MP4-29’s test and development programme, Along with other teams, we faced difficulties readying our new car for the first winter test of 2014. Despite firing up successfully at the MTC last week, the car was predominantly affected by electrical issues during the day. The subsequent dismantling, inspection and re-installation of several major components ultimately meant we were unable to conduct any running today.”
Marussia –
Car will arrive at the track tonight, hopefully for a debut tomorrow / Thursday!
Lotus–
Not present
Tomorrow will possibly more of the same however we would expect slightly more reliability now cars have completed some installation laps and systems checks.
