Driver: Valtteri Bottas
Chassis / Engine: FW38-02 / PU106C Hybrid
Location: Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, 4.655km
Weather: Warm and Dry
Maximum air & track temps: 22ºC / 25ºC

For the Williams Martini team the opening day of their first Barcelona test would see Valtteri Bottas carrying out the driving duties. His run in the new FW38 would see him carrying out aero work with aerodynamic measuring devices attached to the car behind the front wheels, with Valtteri was running on medium tyres.

The team did not stop to have any photos of the car taken outside their pits, rather they went straight into testing. As a reference time the quickest time in testing in 2015 was a 1m:22.792. Valtteri would work down to a 1m:35.719 as the team started their test programme. Even though Valtteri was on mediums the track was quite damp. Prior to pitting Valtteri would complete seven laps. The track conditions would see more teams send their drivers out on the medium tyre with Sainz going quickest with a 1m:33.346, only to see Hamilton set a 1m:27.735 followed by a 1m:27.012.

As more drivers came out it would be Vettel who would go fastest with a 1m:26.187. But Hamilton would set a 1m:25.409 as Valtteri returned to the track. Valtteri would improve with a 1m:27.037 to be third. Valtteri would pit having now completed seventeen laps. Several drivers were running on unmarked Pirelli rubber, possibly a development tyre. Valtteri would improve with a 1m:26.091 remaining in third. As the day progressed times continued to fall with Vettel now fastest with a 1m:25.206. The session would be red flagged when Grosjean in the new Hass was to lose his front wing leaving debris on the track.

Vettel was now down to a 1m:24.939. Valtteri was out running laps in the 1m:29s as the session drew to its lunchtime break. Valtteri had completed forty two laps without what appeared to be any issues. But with the start of the afternoon session would not see Valtteri return to the track until after a lengthy break. But he would return to the pits after just a handful of laps. But Valtteri would return later in the afternoon and would put in some well paced laps times in the 1m:26s. Valtteri would continue his runs in the afternoon and would complete eighty laps laps at the end of the day. Vettel would finish the day fastest with a 1m:24.939,

Rod Nelson, Chief Test & Support Engineer:
We had a slightly mixed day. We had a few niggling little issues that kept us in the garage for longer than we wanted to be there, but we’re still learning about the car so that’s not unexpected and we were able to work through them to continue our programme. Valtteri has been complimentary about aspects of the FW38 which is good start. We are just building up our run lengths and doing our due diligence on reliability, and as the test goes on we’ll feed in more and more performance items. Overall it is a reasonable start to pre-season testing for us.

Valtteri Bottas:
It’s always very nice to be back in the car and it’s nice to feel that we have made improvements, but it is way too early to say anything more than that. We were focussing on different kinds of tests today with the chassis, and some aerodynamic tests so mainly longer runs. We had a few problems but that’s testing, and hopefully we will have a clean run tomorrow. First impressions of the new car are good and I think we have fixed many issues from last year. However, like I said before, it’s just too early to say where we are against the others.

Driver 		  Team 	    	   	  Best Time Best / 
		   				    Total Laps
1.  S. Vettel	  Ferrari		  1:24.939  30 / 69
2.  L. Hamilton	  Mercedes AMG F1 Team	  1:25.409  31 / 156
3.  D. Ricciardo  Red Bull Racing	  1:26.044  28 / 87
4.  V. Bottas	  Williams Martini	  1:26.091  19 / 80
5.  A. Celis	  Force India F1 Team	  1:26.298  53 / 58
6.  J. Button	  McLaren		  1:26.735  78 / 84
7.  C. Sainz	  Toro Rosso		  1:27.180  29 / 55
8.  M. Ericsson	  Sauber F1 Team	  1:27.555  68 / 88
9.  P. Wehrlein	  Manor F1 Team		  1:28.292  33 / 54
10. R. Grosjean	  Haas F1 Team		  1:28.399  6 / 31
11. J. Palmer	  Renault Sport F1 Team	  1:29.356  36 / 37