- Driver: Jenson Button
- Location: Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona
- Track Length: 4.655km
- Weather: Warm and sunny. Maximum ambient temperature 19.4°C
- Laps completed: 64
- Kilometres Covered: 298km
- Best Lap Time: 1m23.510s at 11:16
Programme
First day of the final pre-season test and the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team continues preparations ahead of the Australian Grand Prix, running Jenson (Thur/Sat) and Lewis (Fri/Sun) at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya.
The team is planning on gradually introducing a suite of new components to the MP4-27 during this test. Focus for the opening two days will primarily be on pitstop practice with a full race crew and further race prove-outs – including some more time-consuming set-up work. The back-end of the test will be spent focusing on analysing and learning about our race-one aerodynamic package.
Team manager David Redding said:
“Having completed more than 2000km at Barcelona last week, today was always going to be more about quality than quantity. We wanted to drill a little deeper into our understanding of the car, and that meant undertaking some bigger set-up changes that wouldn’t ordinarily be available to us during a grand prix weekend.
“We made good progress and we’re satisfied with today’s results.”
Official photo and report courtesy of Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
Copyright © 2012, Mercedes-Benz-Blog. All rights reserved.
Nico Rosberg began the final pre-season test for MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS today at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona.
- Nico completed 128 laps, equivalent to 596 km, over the course of a very productive first day of running
- The team focused on set-up evaluations with the F1 W03 this morning, with Nico covering 56 laps over 10 runs
- Nico’s afternoon programme saw longer runs with further set-up work aimed at optimising race performance
Michael Schumacher will take over the car tomorrow, with Nico driving on Saturday, and Michael concluding the test on Sunday.
Nico Rosberg
“I´m very happy with the first day of our test programme today. We were able to complete a lot of laps and tried a few different things which worked out well. Some of the evaluations were really interesting which makes the day good fun for me, and it’s nice to find out what the car can do. We had no reliability problems which is good as it’s important to get mileage on the car. We are making progress, but we don´t know really where we are compared to the others. It will be interesting to find out at the first race.”
TIMES
Official photos and report courtesy of MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS
Copyright © 2012, Mercedes-Benz-Blog. All rights reserved.
The MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS F1 W03 made its official debut today at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona. After an early morning unveiling in the pit lane by Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg, Michael then took the wheel for the day’s running.
- A smooth morning session enabled the team to begin set-up comparisons with the new chassis
- A hydraulic problem identified during the afternoon session brought an early end to the planned programme
- Michael completed 51 laps today, taking the F1 W03’s total mileage to 782 km to date
Nico will take over the programme tomorrow, with Michael back in the car on Thursday, and Nico concluding the test on Friday.
Michael Schumacher
“My initial feelings with our new car are certainly good. I’m happy with the different evaluations that we have done over the last week, but obviously with the rule changes, we won’t know more until later. It’s certainly an improvement and we have worked hard on the areas we had defined last year. The aerodynamics figures look good so I’m not worried about the shape of the nose! Even though we had the hydraulic problem today, I’m pleased with all the mileage we have achieved so far with the new car.”
TIMES
Official photos and report courtesy of MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS
* Note: As former MERCEDES GP PETRONAS F1 TEAM changed the official title to MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS F1 TEAM after the 2011 season, the new acronym for our F1 articles related to the German-British team shifts from MGP to MBAMGF1.
Copyright © 2012, Mercedes-Benz-Blog. All rights reserved.
