Sunday 22 February 2015

Williams conduct race simulations following pit-stop practice on Saturday

(© Ben Johnston 2015)

The Williams Martini Racing Team focused on race simulations with Valtteri Bottas in the FW37 on the final day of testing in Barcelona.

The Finn completed 129 laps of the Barcelona Circuit de Catalunya however the afternoon session was interrupted by not one but three red flags one of which happened just after Bottas had completed a live pit stop which forced his mechanics to run down the pit-lane retrieve the car.

Bottas was also forced to stop out on track which resulted in missed out track time as the FW37 was returned to the Williams garage on the back of a flat-bed truck.

Despite the disruptions Bottas was satisfied by the day of running, the Finn stated:

We completed quite a few laps today which was positive even though our programme was disrupted a few times. The FW37 remains reliable but we have quite a way to go before we are at the level we want to be, although we are on schedule. Both tests have been relatively issue free and so we have begun preparations for Australia and look forward to the final test next week.

Williams Martini Racing’s Chief Test and Support Engineer Rod Nelson stated:

We had a very busy plan today. The morning was tough due to the wind conditions which affected our chassis testing. In the afternoon we had a race-sim planned, but this was interrupted by three red flags, then once again in the final run of the day there was another red flag. All of these stoppages stilted our progression slightly and meant we couldn’t quite complete our plan. Throughout the whole test though we have gathered a lot of data and are prepared for the final test next week.

© Ben Johnston  2015

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