Test Barcelona – Testing ends at Catalunya

Posted: 01.03.2018 / Source: Ferrari

120 laps for Seb today, almost 300 over three days

Montmelò, 1st march – The 120 laps Sebastian Vettel drove today, brings the total completed by the SF71H over what was effectively just a three day session to 298, equivalent to 1387.19 km/h. After yesterday’s snowfall, temperatures were very definitely on the up today at the Catalunya Circuit: at the end of the session, there had been a high of 12.7° air and almost 15 on track, but damp conditions in the morning still affected the work. It explains why, during the first few hours, Seb used wet weather Intermediate tyres, before switching to new and used Softs for the rest of the day. The final part of the session was given over to long runs, which yielded a best lap during these tests of 1’20”241. “The afternoon wasn’t exactly ideal,” commented the driver, “because of the track conditions and also a bit of time lost in the garage to sort out a few details. I’d have liked to have driven more, but we can do that next week, when we will start to get a clearer picture.”
The team also did some pit stop practice. Testing resumes on Tuesday 6th March, running through to the 9th.

 

Test Barcelona – Snow stops play

Posted: 28.02.2018 / Source: Ferrari

Testing wiped out by bad weather. Ferrari and Kimi take a break

Montmelò –Meteorologically speaking, spring starts tomorrow, but it seems that doesn’t apply to the Catalunya Circuit. The third day of testing was wiped out…following snowfall this morning. And even when it turned to rain in the afternoon, temperatures never reached the sort of numbers required to run a Formula 1 car. Air temperature just crept over two degrees with the track a fraction more.
Come the afternoon, Kimi Raikkonenn and Scuderia Ferrari took the only reasonable decision, namely to write off the day, which under the current regulations cannot be recovered later. Tomorrow, Sebastian Vettel will drive as planned, to round off the first test session. So the SF71H spent the whole day in the garage. There was no point in venturing out, because with such low temperatures, even the Wet tyres would not work properly and furthermore, running would not generate any worthwhile date on how the car was performing.
“Today, it felt more like being in Finland than Spain,” quipped Kimi. “And everyone knows there’s no Formula 1 in my country.” He will be back at the wheel next week, with the T2 session getting underway on Tuesday 6th March, running for four day. This time, the Scuderia Ferrari programme has Sebastian driving on the 6th and 8th, with Kimi getting his turn on Wednesday 7th and Friday 9th, that being the final day of winter testing.

 

Barcelona Test – Marathon on ice

Posted: 27.02.2018 / Source: Ferrari

Cold and even snow, but Vettel and the SF71 rattle off 98 laps: “And that’s the important thing”

Montmelò, 27 February –Snow just a few kilometres from the Costa Brava on the Spanish Mediterranean is not what you expect. The last time this happened at an F1 test at the Catalunya Circuit was 19 years ago, but the icy blast of the past few days brought in a few snowflakes this afternoon. Nevertheless, the SF17H, with Sebastian Vettel having his first day at the wheel, reeled off 98 laps, the fastest of which was a 1’19”673, set on Soft tyres. Scuderia Ferrari wasn’t in action for all nine hours – one more than usual as even the lunch break was cancelled – but come the end of the day the programme ran to plan.

And that’s the point made by the driver: “The important thing today wasn’t the lap time, but the fact that, in these conditions, we managed to cover almost a hundred laps without encountering any reliability problems. That’s what we are concentrating on at the moment, with the search for performance coming later. From an operational point of view, everything went smoothly and I’d say the car is working. But today’s conditions are not the ones in which you’d normally run an F1 car: today it even snowed and with air temperature around 3 to 4 degrees and the track at 8 to 9, everyone struggled to get the tyres up to temperature. The weather was the limiting factor today: the fact it’s been much colder than last year and also that the track has been completely resurfaced, means it’s impossible to make any comparisons. For now, we are concentrating on ourselves, without looking at what the others are doing.”

During the day, the SF71 used the Medium and Soft tyres and also did a couple of laps on the Intermediates. Tomorrow, it’s again Kimi Raikkonen’s turn, for his last day of this session.

 

Barcelona Test – “The only problem was the weather”

Posted: 26.02.2018 / Source: Ferrari

A cold debut for the SF71H with Kimi at the wheel

Montmelò, 26 February –While Italy is freezing, the Barcelona area is not doing much better, even if the trees are already in blossom here. After a sunny Sunday, which meant that Scuderia Ferrari was able to comfortably complete its Filming Day, the “real” debut for the SF17H took place in plunging temperatures, with rain arriving towards the end of the session. However, by the end of the day, Kimi Raikkonen had completed 80 laps of the Catalunya Circuit, the fastest of them in 1’20”506 on Soft tyres. He worked through the first part of a programme that, over the course of this week, is given over mainly to acquiring data.

“The real problem, the only one today, was the weather,” summarised Kimi. “My first impressions with the new car were OK, but it’s still too early to make any judgement, especially given today’s conditions. These tyres aren’t designed to work at 8 degrees and it was difficult for everyone. As for the rest, our work had nothing to do with lap times and we just ran and changed a few things, trying to understand the car, which doesn’t seem to have any faults. Now we must try and do more kilometres.”

The first long run with the Halo protection fitted over the cockpit went off without any problems. “Compared to the tests we did in previous years, this time the Halo had been conceived as an integral part of the car design, which had not been possible before. I didn’t notice anything different to driving the car without the protection.”

Testing continues tomorrow, with Sebastian Vettel, while it will once again be Kimi’s turn on Wednesday, with Seb then rounding off the first winter test.

 

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