BARCELONA TEST SPECIAL
Smiling Raikkonen
must be unwell,
jested Arrivabene
different story to last year,” said
Raikkonen. “We’ve improved in all
areas. Hopefully we are doing the
right things and we will be happy
when we get to the first race.”
Rivals have being queuing up
to heap praise on the team, with
Rosberg admitting that Ferrari
has made the biggest step of all
the teams over the winter. “We
are keeping an eye on the
opposition, especially Ferrari
has been an eye-opener,” he said,
a sentiment echoed by Red
Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo.
And the fact that Williams chief
test and support engineer Rod Nelson
said he expects his team, which was
Mercedes’ nearest challenger in
2014, to be “scrapping” with Ferrari
in the early races shows just how
far the Italian team has come.
Williams, though, cannot be
discounted. The Grove-based
team has shrewdly focused on
refinement and ironing out the
little creases in operational areas
14 AUTOSPORT.COM MARCH 5 2015
“Mercedes has
the best car, but
we’re there. The
car shows good
performance”
FELIPE MASSA, WILLIAMS
such as pitstops and strategy that
occasionally tripped it up last
year. Aside from a few hiccups, such
as an issue installing the Mercedes
engine on day one and Susie Wolff’s
crash with Felipe Nasr, which
was unfortunate, Williams’s
pre-season has gone well.
There were even times when it
finished the day early, because it
simply didn’t have any more work
on the run plan. But as Nelson
admits, challenging Mercedes will
be a challenge. “Mercedes are looking
incredibly strong on the basis of
their running on Saturday and
I’m sure it made a lot of people sit
back,” he said. “It certainly made
us think twice but we should be
in the hunt for podiums.”
And Williams faces a challenge
from Ferrari on that count. When
Massa set his best super-soft-tyred
time of 1m23.262s on day three of
the final Barcelona test, Raikkonen
responded soon after with a time
that was just 0.014s adrift.
That advantage was greater on
the final day, with Bottas’s lap four
tenths quicker than Vettel on the
same compound. But Nelson
believes Vettel didn’t get the most
out of his lap, suggesting the
German pushed too hard at the start
of the lap and “lunched” his tyres by
the time he got halfway round.
Both Massa and Bottas have
admitted they have work do, but
they remain upbeat. “I still believe
Mercedes has the best car, but we
are there,” said Massa. “The car
is showing good performance
but also good handling and
good understanding.”
short runs at Jerez. But the
two Barcelona tests were more
straightforward and, once the team’s
programme of getting the drivers
up to speed was completed, it
introduced what technical director
James Key described as an “almost
completely brand-new” car.
Both Sainz and Verstappen have
been complimentary about the car
and completed good mileage – the
team’s tally of 1206 at the final test
was only bettered by Mercedes and
Sauber. Like its sister team Red Bull,
a lot depends on the power of the
Renault engine, but generally the
early signs are positive.
RENAULT POWER STILL
LIMITING RED BULL
Red Bull is a world away from 12
months ago, when the car could
barely complete a lap without
overheating or conking out. For a
start, its Renault engine is more
reliable and its chassis looks like
another step forward.
Ricciardo said the set of upgrades
that were bolted onto the car at the
final test in Barcelona had cured
some of the car’s weaknesses, but
question marks remain over the
engine’s performance.
Supplier Renault remains
convinced of its potential, despite
driveability concerns that have
emerged following recent upgrades,
but it admits it did not achieve all
the work it wanted to do before
heading off to Melbourne.
Toro Rosso had a frustrating start
to winter testing, as a “stupid part”
linked to Renault’s MGU-K water
pump limited rookies Max
Verstappen and Carlos Sainz Jr to
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