Spanish Grand Prix preview – Williams

Despite a positive start top the season for Williams, with Pastor Maldonado running in sixth place in Melbourne before an accident, and a 6th and 7th place for Bruno Senna in the following two races, the team is in need of a good result very soon. 18 points from four races is still miles better than last year´s results in the first four races, but Force India is one point behind and Williams have 13 points less than Sauber in 6th.

Pastor Maldonado says:

“We have done a lot of running here pre-season so hopefully that experience will help this weekend. It is a very enjoyable circuit to drive, technical but still quick with turns three and nine a real test. It is also difficult to set the car up here because there are high, medium and slow speed corners. We have been working hard since the last race and hopefully the updates we bring will lead to some good points.”

Bruno Senna:

“Barcelona is one of my favourite tracks and I get a lot of support there so I am really looking forward to the race. It is a very tough circuit physically and mentality, with plenty of high speed corners and a technical last sector which separates the drivers. Lots of cars will come to Barcelona with new parts so it will be interesting to see who has progressed.”

Rémi Taffin, Head of Renault Sport F1 Track Operations:

“We covered over 3,600km in winter testing at Barcelona, so we got plenty of data for how the engine-chassis package works round this track. This will help as there are a few challenges in Barcelona. The torque delivery has to be very accurate to deal with the slower corners in the third sector, including turn ten and the new chicane, but the engine also has to give response and drive through the upper end of the rev range to deal with the high and medium speed bends in the first half of the track. There are also several undulation changes so the gear shifts have to be correctly calibrated to give effective acceleration up the hills. The long pit straight gives an opportunity to release the KERS energy twice as the counter energy resets which should increase overtaking possibilities.”

Spanish Grand Prix preview – Marussia

Everyone agrees that coming to the Circuit de Catalunya is like visiting an old friend, and for Marussia that feeling is equally matched with their expectations for the upgrades the team will bring.

For Timo Glock who´s best result in the Spanish Grand Prix is from 2009, where he finished tenth in the Toyota TF109, the hope is that the updates the team will bring, will make a benchmark for the further development of the car.

“I am looking forward to the Spanish Grand Prix and the start of the European season. After racing overseas for the opening rounds it is great to be back in Europe. The logistics are much easier for the team and the journey is shorter for everyone, so we can get straight down to business. After the tests in Mugello I think we have a good baseline for Barcelona and now we need to see what the new parts we have will bring. I hope they make a difference and we can be a bit closer to the guys in front of us. I am looking forward to the race weekend again.”

Charles Pic:

“Our objective for Spain is to make a step forward and get a little bit closer to the competition. Based on what we have seen at Mugello, I think this is possible. We have a good update and the car feels positive, so if we can make it work at Barcelona, I think we can continue to be strong at the other circuits. As a team we have goals and also on a personal level I want to keep progressing. I feel settled and comfortable with the team and the car, so I now want to keep improving. The Circuit de Catalunya is a track I know well; I have raced here a few times now. I am feeling good about the direction we are heading in and I’m looking forward to the weekend.”

Team principal John Booth agrees with his drivers, that though the upgrades installed at Mugello did show a step forward, the real test will be in Spain.

“The Circuit de Catalunya is a bit like an old glove in that it is a track that we know so well and feel very comfortable with. If a package works well here, then it is a good barometer of how much of a step forward we have made, more so than Mugello, where we saw a clear step forward but at what is a less representative circuit. Barcelona has a bit of everything in terms of circuit characteristics, so it should showcase just how much of an improvement our improvements are, although we are only too aware that the rest of the field has not been standing still over the past few weeks. It feels good to be heading back to Europe.

“We enjoy all the race destinations but those that are pretty much on our doorstep certainly make life easier for the team in logistical terms. With the trucks and motorhome to hand, it feels like we could almost be back at the factory in Banbury when we’re racing. Our start to the season was certainly expeditious but we’ve caught up with ourselves a little now, have a far better understanding of the MR01, and we consolidated our learnings at the test last week. We seem to have developed a good rhythm now and we are on a good trajectory. For that reason I am confident that there is a lot more to come from the car and the drivers this season, so we head to Europe feeling excited and confident. It will also be the first race where we have our F1 team and our junior formulae teams racing on the same asphalt, so we will be keeping a close eye on their progression.

“Our test driver Maria De Villota is also joining us on what is home turf for her, so there is a lot going on this weekend.”

Schumacher not overly positive for Spain

Michael Schumacher said that although the Mercedes W03 has a better performance than last year´s racer, developing the car for future races is the focal point.

Nico Rosberg is so far sitting nicely in fifth place in the championship standings, after winning his first race of the career in Malaysia. Those 25 points were crucial for the team in terms of understanding the progress of the car since winter testing, but also to determine how close the Mercedes W03 is to it´s rivals. No doubt that Michael Schumacher could have put some more points on the board for the team, had he not retired twice in just four races, but with two tenth places to his name so far this season, Schumacher is maintaining a somewhat neutral stance when it comes to performance in Spain.

“After completing our testing programme in Mugello, we are now heading to the start of the European season in Barcelona next week,” Schumacher said. “The positive thing about the test was that we could really concentrate on the developments we were aiming to work on. This should give us a good basis for further developments, even if maybe not for the next race to come.

“Barcelona is a track we have driven extensively on and this is why we know that its characteristics do not exactly play fully into our hands. But then, we will definitely go there and try our best and at the same time keep on working for the things to come.”

It seems then, that the updates are not meant to be revolutionary for the next race, hoping to get podiums in Spain, but rather a beginning of the development race we´ll see from the teams over the next four-five races. The updates from Mugello, could play a decisive role in the near future.

Schumacher was very frustrated with the performance of the Pirelli tyres after Bahrain, saying that the drivers were not able to drive to their, or the car´s full capacity, saying the tyres should perhaps not play such a big role. And the tyre issue could be a deciding factor for the performance in the first four races.

“I question whether the tyres should play such a big role…or whether they should last longer. Then we would be able to drive at normal racing speeds and not cruise around as if we had a Safety Car,” Schumacher said after finishing tenth in Bahrain.

Grosjean tops the timesheets again

Lotus driver Romain Grosjean topped the timesheets once more, as he put the E20 on the P1 position, after 66 laps completed.

Ferrari was the team most talked about today, as the much anticipated upgrades were installed on the car. Turning vanes, which Felipe Massa tried out a little yesterday, and of course the expected exhaust exits, similar to those on the Red Bull. But As Alonso was about to get the day started, hoping to gain between half a second and eight tenths of a second, he went off. It is still uncertain what went wrong, but the front was damaged and so was the front wing. Alonso lost several hours waiting in the garage, as the team scrambled to get his car back out. Still, the Spaniard completed 98 laps to finish third.

Sergio Perez´ car caught on fire in the pitlane, but he was soon out, completing 118 laps, while Pastor Maldonado ran into electrical problems.

So, as Grosjean finished on top, after a fruitful day for some, a frustrating day for others, Vettel ended in second, ahead of Alonso in third and Ricciardo in fourth. Perez fifth, Hulkenberg sixth, Maldonado, Rosberg, Turvet and di Resta finishes off the top ten.

Heikki Kovalainen and Timo Glock finished 11th and 12th.

1.	Romain Grosjean	Lotus Renault	01:21.035	66
2.	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	01:21.267	106
3.	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	01:21.363	98
4.	Daniel Ricciardo	Scuderia Toro Rosso	01:21.604	117
5.	Sergio Perez	Sauber	01:22.229	118
6.	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India F1	01:22.325	55
7.	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	01:22.497	63
8.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes Grand Prix	01:22.579	129
9.	Oliver Turvey	McLaren	01:22.662	99
10.	Paul di Resta	Force India F1	01:23.002	34
11.	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham	01:23.169	139
12.	Timo Glock	Marussia	01:23.466	110

Sauber catches on fire, as other teams struggle too

Sergio Perez´ Sauber racer was apparently involved i a fire in the pitlane early in the morning on Thursday.

It has been a difficult morning for several teams already, as first Sergio Perez Sauber either caught on fire or was involved in a fire surrounding the car. Details are sparse at the moment, but Perez was back out on track 45 minutes later. He is fifth at the moment, 1.4 seconds after Sebastian Vettel in P1.

Over at Ferrari, things didn´t go as planned either. The team had brought several upgrades, most notably for their exhaust exits, but a problem occurred a few hours ago, when Alonso stopped the F2012 on track. The car was transported back to the pits and the team has said it could take several hours to fix the problems. According to GPUpdate.net, the wing broke on the F2012, either on track or by the impact to the barrier.

Williams also ran into some issues when Pastor Maldonado´s car encountered electrical problems. I´ll update later when the test is complete.

New upgrades for Ferrari, but Alonso is off

Felipe Massa managed to try out the new turning vanes under the nose on Wednesday, and for the last day of testing in Mugello, Fernando Alonso were planned to be rolling out the F2012, fitted with exhaust exits, similar to those of Red Bull, and changes to the rear bodywork.

Ferrari´s 2012 campaign has not started the way it was planned, with the team falling behind in the standings, although Alonso´s win in Malaysia came as a nice surprise for the team. So far 45 points have been scraped together, netting the Maranello-based team a fourth place in the standings.

The new upgrades includes putting the ‘exhaust pipes in a more conventional position’ as Autosport´s Gary Anderson explained.

“Because of the way the letterbox exit for the exhaust was being used for a radiator exit they’ve had to compromise a little. They still have a radiator exit there in the new iteration, but it is much narrower and the coke bottle is much better.”

The hope for the upgrades is to gain at least three tenths, just from that change, and the potential gai is even bigger.

However, all is not well for Ferrari. Fernando Alonso went off a few hours ago and it is uncertain is he caused damage to the car when going off, or he encountered a probem while running. Ferrari has said that they could be looking at several hours in the garage to solve the problems, a huge blow to the team´s efforts on the final day.

Busy day for Force India

Force India´s Paul di Resta suffered an early problem with the hydraulic on his car on Wednesday, limiting his run to only 14 laps.

The original plans for Force India today, Thursday, was to have Nico Hulkenberg to drive the car the entire day, but the team has altered the plans to allow Paul di Resta to do some more running, the to drivers sharing the testing duties. But according to di Resta there shouldn´t be too many issues ahead of the team on this the last day of testing before Spain.

“I don’t think it’s massive,” Di Resta said. “We’re quite limited with what we were going to learn anyway, given the way the track is. It’s not got that many similar characteristics compared to the tracks we’re racing at.

“It would have been nice to get some more running, but these things happen. If we can get cracking tomorrow [Thursday] and get a full programme in we’ll be okay.”

Deputy team principal Bob Fernley said that the team has made several big chances to the car, including the engine and hydraulics.

“We had some faults in the data and we needed to do quite a few changes to the hydraulic system to eliminate it. [It was] a bit of a painful day,” he said.

“[The] problem was tracers. We were just worried it was going to cause an issue, partly safety and not wanting to cause any damage. We changed everything; the engine, the hydraulic pack. The key thing was to make sure Paul was comfortable.

“We will change our schedule, run half a day with Paul [Thursday] morning and Nico in the afternoon, to give them equal time in the car.”

As of noon Thursday, di Resta is down in sixth place, after a trip to the gravel trap. He was running in fourth at one point. Nico Hulkenberg will take over the car after the lunch break.

Grosjean impresses at Mugello on day 2

Lotus driver Romain Grosjean once again showed speed and general great performance, when he finished the day´s test session on top, sharing the laptime with Kamui Kobayashi.

1:21.603 was the time to beat , both Grosjean, who had 97 laps behind him and Kobayashi with 87 laps, managed to make identical laptimes on the bone dry circuit under a perfect blue sky, where most of the drivers focused on tyres and aerodynamics.

Sebastian Vettel finished two tenths behind Grosjean and Kobayashi, with Mark Webber a further tenth and a half down in fourth. Felipe Massa racked up 106 laps for fifth, Jean-Eric Vergne in sixth sat nicely in sixth place, ahead of Daniel Ricciardo in seventh. Mercedes´ Michael Schumacher completed a massive 144 laps to finish eighth place, with Charles Pic and Vitaly Petrov finishing off the top ten.

Gary Paffett and Timo Glock ahead of Paul di Resta and Bruno Senna in last place for Williams.

1.	Romain Grosjean	Lotus Renault	01:21.603	97
2.	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber	01:21.603	87
3.	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	01:21.825	64
4.	Mark Webber	Red Bull	01:21.997	54
5.	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	01:22.257	106
6.	Jean-Eric Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso	01:22.424	65
7.	Daniel Ricciardo	Scuderia Toro Rosso	01:22.759	22
8.	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes Grand Prix	01:23.404	144
9.	Charles Pic	Marussia	01:23.982	46
10.	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham	01:24.312	112
11.	Gary Paffett	McLaren	01:24.480	59
12.	Timo Glock	Marussia	01:24.499	37
13.	Paul di Resta	Force India F1	01:24.749	14
14.	Bruno Senna	Williams	01:24.842	100