Driver:
Sergey Sirotkin (AM), Lance Stroll (PM)
Chassis / Engine: FW41-01 / Mercedes-AMG F1 M09 EQ Power+
Location: Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, 4.655 km
Weather: Warm and dry Temperatures (min-max): Air 16-20ºC / Track 20-28ºC
Start of the
final week of testing would see Sergey Sirotkin out first for Williams in
the morning session. His first run would be on soft tyres pitting after his
installation lap. The fastest times et so far in testing has been a 1m:19.33
set on the medium tyre.
Sergey would return to the track still on the soft tyre and would work down
to a 1m:23.869 prior to pitting having completed nine laps. This would be
3.113 behind the quickest time so far that of a 1m:20.756. With nearly two
hours of the morning session completed Sergey was still in his pit. But
Sergey would return again on the soft tyre and would set a 1m:23.002. He
would improve with a 1m:22.234 which would see him 1.6 behind the quickest
time of 1m:20.596 also set on the soft tyre. Sergey was quickest in the
speed trap with a 291.1kph
It was noticeable that the SNMP Racing logo was somewhat bigger on the FW41
than that run in the first week of testing. Sergey would pit having now
completed twenty laps. Sergey would come out for another run still on the
soft tyre and would improve with a 1m:21.588 to now be 0.99 behind the
quickest time. On his lap Sergey had gone quickest in the first sector. He
had now completed twenty nine laps. Quickest time was lowered with a
1m:20.396 seeing Sergey now 1.1 seconds behind.
Sergey would return for a short run still on the soft tyre. He would pit now
having completed thirty two laps. Sergey would complete another run just
prior to lunch seeing him finish his run having completed forty two laps
without improving his lap time.
The afternoon session would see Lance Stroll take over from Sergey. His
first run would see him set a 1m:25.214 running on the soft tyre. He would
complete a longer run of seventeen laps prior to pitting. With two hours
remaining in the day Lance still had only complete his first run. But he
would return still using the soft tyre for his second run but it would be a
short one of just six laps seeing him complete twenty three laps. The
afternoon would continue with Lance continuing his runs. One of those would
include a run on the hypersofts that would see him set a 1m:22.937. But the
majority of his time was on the soft tyre with Lance completing a full race
simulation. Lance would finish the day slowest.
Paddy Lowe, Chief Technical Officer: It’s great to come here to some
more normal weather in the second week of testing. We were running Sergey in
the morning and Lance in the afternoon. Sergey had a bit of a slow start
because we had a small problem with a bit of bodywork which lost us an hour
to change some parts. Sergey managed some reasonable runs but with the
warmer temperature, it’s a bit windier this week so we had some tricky
balance issues which we were not able to address during the morning session.
Lance took the car in the afternoon with the objective to complete a race
distance, which he did, taking it right to the flag. Lance’s long run also
included our first look at the hypersoft tyre. At the end, we also completed
the FIA restart tests. In summary, we’re very happy to cover a lot of laps
today, including our first race distance with the FW41 without incident.
Sergey Sirotkin: We had warmer temperatures today but they were
tricky conditions. It looked like a nice day but it was not so easy
testing-wise. We had a couple of little issues throughout the morning so it
was not ideal, but for sure it was still better than last week and I still
learnt something from it. We also got some data which will help us tomorrow
with the stuff we’re doing. Today was not ideal, but it is how it is.
Lance Stroll: It was just good to do some kilometres in the car. I
have the first race distance of the year under my belt now and it was
positive. I believe we have made a step forward compared to where we were
last year with just the general feeling and grip level. I don't know where
we will be compared to everyone else, but compared to last year's car, it
definitely feels quite a bit better. So far, so good and we just need more
seat time, quali sims, race sims and I believe we will be in a good place
when we get our programme done and are heading into Melbourne. I believe we
can still improve a little bit everywhere. There is still so much we haven't
tried on the car yet. In a Formula One car you have so many set ups and it
takes two weeks to get everything out of the way. I believe there are still
little things we can do and again, it was a race sim so I can't compare that
to what we were doing last week on lower fuel. There is still a lot to learn
but race simulation-wise, I believe we are in a good place. But also,
definitely these conditions are not ideal, as this smooth surface in
Barcelona doesn't give much graining to the tyres, so I am sure it will be
very different when we show up in Australia.
The FW41 returns to the track tomorrow with Lance driving in the morning
session, before handing over to Sergey in the afternoon. |