Rubens Barrichello returned to the cockpit today for the last day of pre-season testing at Barcelona. With an intense schedule of work already completed over the past four test sessions in Spain, the team concluded their season preparations with some final set-up work and race simulations.

The team return to the factory now and will spend the week before leaving for Bahrain completing chassis build and spare parts prep. Rubens ended the day seventh overall on the timesheets, having run through some qualifying simulations in the afternoon. His day was far from incident free, however, after he spun off in the gravel in the morning and then stopped out on track late in the afternoon.

Sam Michael:
"Rubens completed our last day of winter testing today during which we worked on set-up, race runs and final parts checks. Our session ended slightly earlier than scheduled due to a hydraulic leak. Thanks to all the team for all of the hard work that they’ve put into such a compressed winter test programme. I also want to thank Cosworth who have also done a great job. We've got a long list of items to sort out before heading to Bahrain, but we’re looking forward to getting to the first race to see where everyone stands."

Rubens Barrichello:
"We’ve had a very intense testing schedule over the past month but I feel very comfortable with the team now and they have prepared me really well. We’ve put lots of miles on the car, which is important, and we’ve done a lot of work on reliability and I’m confident in what we’ve achieved. We also had some new aero parts at this test which have improved the car.

Congratulations to Cosworth for the work they have done so far. The engine is looking strong and I am optimistic that they have bonded well within the team. This has been one of the toughest pre-season tests we’ve ever had and I still think that it’s very difficult to analyse where everyone is, but I think we have a competitive package so I’m looking forward to getting the racing underway."