Nico Hulkenberg, driving for Force India, was fastest in the second day of Formula One testing from Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya—a surprising performance from this normally mid-pack team. Hulkenberg foreshadowed today’s times by finishing second behind two-time world champ Sebastian Vettel yesterday.
Of course, this is just testing—no one but the teams knows which cars are running to their full potential, or are testing new components or strategies.
Hulkenberg told formula1.com that he turned in a time of 1:22.608 while testing the car’s response to different tires.
“We started the day with some aero work—trying some constant speed runs and collecting more data,” explained Hulkenberg. “Then, the rest of the day was spent working on the balance of the car and trying out all four tire compounds. I did some short runs, long runs, and just got a feel for the tire characteristics and how the car reacts to them.
“Once again the car has been very drivable all day and our baseline setup has proved to be a good starting point for running all the different compounds.”
Only four hundredths of a second behind Hulkenberg with a lap of 1:22.648 came Sauber’s Sergio Perez. The Sauber only ran 85 laps because of a late-session exhaust problem.
The Swiss team was also using the session to test aero and tires, said team track engineer Giampaolo Dall'Ara: “In the morning we started with aero comparisons, and then did some proper mechanical setup work. We also carried out a full comparison of all tire compounds and ran different fuel loads.”
Vettel on the New Car
Sebastian Vettel finished third in the session. The Red Bull driver ran qualifying tests in the morning and full-race-distance runs in the afternoon, completing 104 laps and turning in a best time of 1:22.891.
Vettel described how...
Vettel described how the new RB8 compared to last year’s amazing RB7: “The biggest difference is that the cars have less grip, which will make us slower than last year. Last season the way we incorporated the exhaust was very cleverly devised. It made the car faster by generating more grip, but it’s a thing of the past in 2012 and for now we have to live with it.
“I would say that goes for all the other teams as well. We are looking into ways of getting that grip level back and I am sure we will succeed, although it will take time.
“The car is on its sixth day on the track. What we are doing right now is eliminating any teething problems and focusing on reliability. If you ask me what teething problems, then I can tell you that at Jerez we had some electronic issues. We have identified that problem and now we are working to solve it.
“The words ‘problem’ and ‘issue’ sound so serious but what we are looking at has nothing to do with the weight of those words. The genuine feeling is good but you should never bank on feelings in F1! I guess I don’t have to say that we want to be faster than the rest. So let’s wait and see, but as the same design whiz who created the RB6 and RB7 also created the RB8, we have the best possible pedigree.”
Rest of the Best
Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari finished fourth, swapping Tuesday results with Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo, who finished fifth today.
McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, who ran third Tuesday, was sixth Wednesday, but was in good spirits. “To have completed more than 1000km in the past two days is incredibly encouraging—the whole team should feel proud,” he said in a team press release.
“The car behaves really well in the high-speed corners—I think the baseline of our car is higher than it was last year—and it’s better overall at high-speed. It’s performing well in Turns Three and Nine, too.
“It’s been an extremely productive few days—and I think Jenson [Button] will continue to improve the car tomorrow.”
Nico Rosberg drove 82 laps in the new Mercedes, ending up seventh—almost two seconds off Hulkenberg’s pace. For the second day running, the Mercedes developed mechanical issues which cut short the test.
“Early in the morning, it was a bit too cold on the track to collect some decent information,” Rosberg told formula1.com. “However later we were able to get into our planned work.
“In the afternoon session, unfortunately we had a transmission oil leak which meant that I wasn’t able to complete any further running. That doesn’t affect my positive feelings about our test program, and things like that can happen in the early stages of running a new car.”
The Barcelona test lasts until Friday, Feb. 24, with the next round of testing, also in Barcelona, scheduled to start March 1.
The 2012 Formula One season starts on March 18 with the Melbourne Grand Prix. Tickets are available through the formula1.com website.
