By Williams Martini Racing - Andrew Hooper
March 5 2016
The Williams Martini would complete their 2016 pre-season testing with Felipe completing the final day after what was another productive day for the Williams team. The team would focus on longer runs in the morning with qualifying work in the afternoon. Felipe would finish 3rd on the day setting his time on the supersoft tyre. The next time the FW38 will be seen is at the opening round of the 2016 Formula One season in Melbourne.
Barcelona Test
04:03:2016 Day Four
Driver: Felipe
Massa
Chassis / Engine: FW38-02 / PU106C Hybrid
Location: Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, 4.655km
Weather: Warm and Dry
Maximum air & track temps: 18ºC / 27ºC
The final day of testing for the Williams Martini would see Felipe Massa
again in the cockpit. With the start of the morning session Felipe would get
out early to complete his installation lap. Unlike yesterday Felipe was able
to get back out and would be running on the medium tyre. He would set a
1m:27.648 to be second behind Grosjean. He would continue to lap setting
times in the low 1m:27s. He would set a 1m:27.170 to go fastest but Hamilton
would quickly move ahead with a 1m:25.347, also on the medium tyre.
Hamilton would move ahead of the pack with a 1m:24.640 followed by Ricciardo
and Button, who had set his time on the soft tyre. Felipe would pit after
this first run but shortly after he would return and would set the fastest
first sector plus a personal best in the second but he would slow in the
final sector finishing well off his earler pace. But he would improve with a
1m:26.338 still on the medium tyre. Grosjean would move into third with a
1m:25.255 running on the soft tyre. Hamilton would improve his quickest time
with a 1m:24.133. Felipe had completed twenty seven laps with an hour and a
half of the session run.
Felipe would return to the track still on medium tyres and would improve
with a 1m:25.696. Vettel would go to the top of the times with a 1m:23.595
running on the soft tyre. Felipe would pit having completed thirty six laps.
Sainz was now third with a 1m:24.701 set on the medium tyre. Felipe would
return to the track and would complete forty four laps with nearly two and a
half hours completed. Button would be the first to set a time on the
ultrasoft tyre but it was only a 1m :24.714.
Vettel was out on supersoft tyres and would set a 1m:22.852 to be over a
second quicker than Hamilton. Sainz was now second with a 1m:23.901 as
Felipe continued to add to his laps having completed fifty six laps so far.
Sainz would set a 1m:23.471 using the supersoft tyre. Hamilton was third
with a 1m:24.133 running on the medium tyre. Perez would also use the
supersoft tyre to improve now third with a 1m:23.849. Three hours into the
morning and Felipe was still adding to his laps having completed sixty three
laps. He would eventually pit and would not return as the lunch break
commenced.
With the start of the final afternoon session Felipe was back out running on
unmarked tyres. Felipe would be lapping in the 1m:29s. It was clear that the
Williams team was on a different programme with the team completing a series
of long runs on the medium tyre. Late in the day there would-be a red flag
with Perez stopping out on the track. Late in the afternoon Felipe would
finally change from the harder tyre runs and switch to the supersoft tyre
and would set a 1m:23.644 on a single lap run prior to heading straight back
into his pit. Two hours remaining and Felipe had completed ninety four laps.
After a thirty minute break Felipe would return to the track this time on
the soft tyre.
Felipe would complete over one hundred laps as he continued his soft tyre
run but he would pit shortly after. The rest of the day would see Felipe
running a mix of tyres. Even at one stage he was seen out on a set of full
wet tyres and another run on intermediates. In the last twenty minutes
Felipe was seen on mediums as the session came to an end.
Rod Nelson, Chief Test & Support Engineer:
It’s been another very successful day. We followed the pattern of the
previous few days where we’ve done some longer runs and set-up work in the
morning. We conducted a qualifying simulation this afternoon which was a
little bit tricky due to the wind conditions. Then we completed more aero
and development work, as well as ticking all the boxes in our reliability
check list. We did 129 laps with no problems at all. It’s been a very
successful, but busy, second week of testing. The team and drivers have done
very well. I’m very happy with that, overall very pleased, and we look
forward to Melbourne.
Felipe Massa:
Today was another good day for us. We managed to do a lot of laps again. I’m
really happy with this week, the amount of laps we did, and the work we have
done to understand the car. Today was a similarly successful day to
yesterday. We will know more about where we are in Australia. I am happy and
totally ready to start the season. Not just me but everybody. The mechanics,
the engineers, the whole team. We’ve done a good job to prepare the car in
the best way, so I hope we start well in the first race.
Williams Martini
Racing and the FW38 return to track with Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa
for the first Grand Prix weekend of the season in Australia from 17th – 20th
March.
Driver Team Best Time Best / Total Laps
1. S. Vettel Ferrari 1:22.852 29 / 142
2. C. Sainz Toro Rosso 1:23.134 49 / 133
3. F. Massa Williams Martini 1:23.644 93 / 129
4. S. Perez Force India F1 Team 1:23.721 36 / 60
5. L. Hamilton Mercedes AMG F1 Team 1:24.133 21 / 69
6. D. Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1:24.427 54 / 123
7. J. Button McLaren 1:24.714 23 / 121
8. J. Palmer Renault Sport F1 Team 1:24.859 29 / 90
9. M. Ericsson Sauber F1 Team 1:25.031 49 / 132
10. R. Grosjean Haas F1 Team 1:25.255 17 / 66
11. E. Gutierrez Haas F1 Team 1.25.422 20 / 25
12. R. Haryanto Manor F1 Team 1:25.899 20 / 58
13. N. Rosberg Mercedes AMG F1 Team 1:26.140 69 / 70
Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.
We record all IP addresses on the Sportnetwork message boards which may be required by the authorities in case of defamatory or abusive comment.
We seek to monitor the Message Boards at regular intervals.
We do not associate Sportnetwork with any of the comments and do not take responsibility for any statements or opinions expressed on the Message Boards.
If you have any cause for concern over any material posted here please let us know as soon as possible by e-mailing
abuse@sportnetwork.net