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Williams Martini Bahrain Test 18:04:2017 Day One


By Williams Martini Racing
April 19 2017

The Williams martini team would complete the opening day of their test session at the Bahrain circuit. Present were both Felipe Massa and Lance Strool. Lance would complete the morining session on a day that the weather play a part with very hot temperature and high winds.These conditions would make any changes difficult to understand but it did give Lance more time behind the wheel.

 
  Bahrain Test 18:04:2017 Day One
 
Stroll
 

Driver: Lance Stroll / Felipe Massa
Chassis / Engine: FW40-01 / Mercedes-AMG F1 M08 EQ Power+
Location: Bahrain International Circuit, 5.412km
Weather: Warm and Dry
Maximum air & track temps: 35ºC / 41ºC


Rod Nelson, Chief Test & Support Engineer: We had an interesting day. It is very different running continuously in the heat of the day rather than under the floodlights, as we do for qualifying and the race. One issue today was the very strong wind, which was blustery so it was stronger at some times and weaker at others, and the track temperatures were in the mid to high forties which makes life a little bit tricky for us. In the morning we focused on performance based runs with Lance, before moving on to a series of longer runs with Felipe in the afternoon, looking at car setup and aero configuration. Despite the problems we had with the weather conditions, it is actually nice to do some testing on a hot track, and it is the first time this year we have had that so we have got plenty to work on now. Tomorrow Gary is in the car and we will continue our aerodynamic tests before moving on to both tyre and mechanical set-up work later in the day.

Lance Stroll: Today I have used multiple sets of tyres trying different little things, nothing special, just tweaking bits and more driving for myself, which is always good. I need to try small changes to see how the car feels. It really is about the simple stuff. For me all the seat time I can get is good, as there is always something I can gain from being in the car. With tests like today, when we are not limited on what we can do, it is just good to experiment. That is something Williams knows I have to do and also I know that myself. For sure I am out there competing and trying my best, but it is also about understanding and learning before I can reach the maximum of my capability as a racing driver.

Felipe Massa: Well, it was only a half day today! To be honest the track was very windy. It’s never really easy to understand all the changes that you make with the car, because the track conditions seem to change on every run. So it wasn’t an easy test, but that’s the way it is. Overall we did some good laps and I hope we can use that to understand more and continue to improve the car.

 
Stroll
 
Position Driver   Team Best 		  Time 	   Best /
Total Laps
1. L. Hamilton Mercedes AMG Motorsport 1:31.358 89 / 97 2. A. Giovinazzi Ferrari 1:31.984 91 / 93 3. D. Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1:32.349 42 / 45 4. R. Grosjean Haas F1 Team 1:32.452 71 / 87 5. F. Massa WILLIAMS MARTINI RACING 1:32.509 31 / 56 6. N. Hulkenberg Renault Sport F1 Team 1:33.624 25 / 74 7. L. Stroll WILLIAMS MARTINI RACING 1:33.729 31 / 35 8. S. Gelael Toro Rosso 1:33.885 69 / 78 9. S. Vettel Pirelli 1:33.894 81 / 89 10. A. Celis Jr Force India F1 Team 1:33.939 64 / 71 11. M. Ericsson Sauber F1 Team 1:34.550 92 / 106 12. O. Turvey McLaren 1:35.011 13 / 17
 
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