Driver: Valtteri Bottas Chassis / Engine: FW36-01 / PU106A Hybrid
Location: Jerez de la Frontera 4.428km
Objectives: New component, systems and reliability checks
Weather: Dry and sunny Maximum air & track temps: 17ºC / 21ºC

The first day of the 2014 Jerez Test would see the Williams F1 team working hard to get their car ready to show to the waiting public. There was very little running on the day from either the Williams team or the other teams present. With five hours of the test completed only three cars had set times with Hamilton fastest with a 1m:27.820, prior to him crashing having suffered a failure on his car.

Williams F1 Deputy team Principal Claire Williams would comment on the test by saying:

"Because of the regulation overhaul, the first test in Jerez is one of the most important pre-season tests that the sport has had in a number of years.

"This car is a complete revolution; it’s not an evolution from a previous year so the engineers and drivers are going to be under a considerable amount of pressure.

"We will be concentrating on systems checks to make sure everything is functioning as it should and then working towards reliability, which is going to be a potential game changer, certainly in the early races of the season.

"It’s going to be fascinating to see where everybody is over the coming weeks."

Both Williams drivers, Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa, were at the track for the 2014 FW36's first run. After a long wait the team would finally roll the FW36 out of the garage and it would head out with Valtteri behind the wheel. It would complete one installation lap prior to pitting with just an hour remaining in the day. The FW36 is the first Williams produced under the chief technical leadership of Pat Symonds.

Valtteri would take the FW36 out for a second run as the day drew to a close. With rain starting to fall as the session came to an end the Williams team would briefly pit their FW36 prior to returning for a two timed laps, ending their first day getting to grips with the FW36.

Rod Nelson, Chief Test & Support Engineer: We had a few electrical issues today which, combined with needing to replace a sensor critical to the functioning of the Internal Combustion Engine, delayed our running. Despite this, we were able to complete a number of installation laps and one timed lap, and I now feel we are in good shape for tomorrow. The team have worked well to address the problems we had today and we are now focused on working through our programme for the remaining days.

Valtteri Bottas: It wasn’t an ideal start to the day but the positive thing is that the team did a great job to fix the problems we found overnight and we got the car working well to complete a few laps this afternoon. The car matched my expectations on track with more torque. It feels like a very different car compared to last year in the way it handles as well as the power. After only a few laps we found a few things we can improve which is also good, so we need to start working on those things tomorrow.

Williams will be back on track tomorrow, Wednesday 28 January, with Valtteri Bottas continuing in the FW36 for the second day of the test.

Driver 		Team 			Best Time Best / 
						  Total Laps
1 K Raikkonen	Scuderia Ferrari	1:27.104  19 / 31
2 L Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas	1:27.820  17 / 18
3 V Bottas	Williams		1:30.082  4 / 7
4 S Perez	Sahara Force India	1:33.161  10 / 11
5 J E Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso	1:36.530  10 / 15
6 E Gutierrez	Sauber F1 Team		1:42.257  6 / 7
7 S Vettel	Infiniti Red Bull Racing	  3
8 M Ericsson	Caterham F1 Team		  1