(Mercedes AMG PETRONAS F1 Team)
The on track Formula One action concluded for 2014 today with Mercedes AMG PETRONAS F1 Team's Pascal Wehrlein ending the post Formula One season two test at the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi top of the time-sheets. The Brackley based teams test driver completed 95 laps recording a fastest time of 1m 42.624s.
Raffaele Marciello who made his debut with Scuderia Ferrari today having taken over from race driver Kimi Raikkonen finished the session in second place with a fastest time of 1m 43.208s. The Italian, who is part of Ferrari's Young Driver Programme completed 90 laps in the F14-T.
Max Verstappen who will make his Formula One race debut with Scuderia Toro Rosso in Australia next season was third fastest for the Italian team completing his second day in the car having suffered a front suspension failure on Tuesday after just a handful of laps. The Dutch driver completed 78 laps of the Yas Marina circuit and set a fastest time of 1m 43.763s.
In his second day driving for the Sauber F1 Team Marcus Ericsson completed the most number of laps by any driver as the Swedish driving managed 117 laps and finished the day in fifth place with a fastest time of 1m 44.551s.
It was great end for the Caterham F1 Team's Will Stevens as the English driver who only completed his first Grand Prix distance at the season finale Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last weekend finished the test in fifth place just 2.264s behind Wehrlein completing 76 laps and finishing the day just ahead of Formula One debutante Spike Goddard who was driving for the Sahara Force India Formula One team. The Australian completed 88 laps with a fastest time of 1m 44.944s.
Speaking following his outing in the VJM07, Spikes stated:
'I felt today went really well. The VJM07 is a massive step up from my Formula 3 car so the first part of the day was devoted to adjusting to the new machinery. The power and downforce of these cars is something on a completely different level; it was a massive shock to the system, but I got used to it fairly soon.
(Sahara Force India Formula One Team)
We chipped away at the lap time in every run and in the end we got to a pretty good time and 89 laps, which is a fair bit of running. I am pretty happy about the work I did with the team and the way everyone worked with me. I'd love to keep a link with Sahara Force India: it's a fantastic group of people and I'd like to contribute and help as much as I can.'
Sahara Force India F1 Team Chief Engineer, Tom McCullough stated:
'Completing 89 trouble-free laps is a successful way to wrap up our 2014 trackside programme. Spike did a good job and really made the most of his first opportunity in a Formula One car. It’s always a big jump from Formula Three to Formula One, but he adapted quickly and gradually built up his confidence and speed throughout the test. We used the early part of the day to complete the aero work we started yesterday with several devices fitted to the car to collect further data.
The rest of the programme involved some other aero and mechanical test items. With relatively few rule changes between this season and the next, the mileage completed over the last couple of days has proved valuable for exploring some design avenues for next year.'
Infiniti Red Bull Racing's Daniel Ricciardo finished the test in eighth place after the Australian's RB10 came to a stop on track following a fire from the back of his car. Despite the issue Ricciardo managed to complete 87 laps with a fastest time of 1m 46.078s. Speaking following the test he stated:
'Today was pretty good,” “Obviously we got cut short by a couple of hours and it would have been nice to finish the session, but we did a lot of laps and all of those were productive. There was a little bit of work with this year’s tyres and a bit with next year’s, trying to understand how those behave. We also did quite a few things on starts, trying to understand what’s happening there, which was positive. I felt pretty good in the car. It’s a good way to end the season, we achieved a lot. Now that’s it, a bit of time off and look forward to next season.'
Infiniti Red Bull Racing Race Engineering co-ordinator Andy Damerum commented by saying:
'We put in 59 laps in the morning, which was good, and just as yesterday that provided an enormous amount of very useful data on tyres, some development things we’re running and on software updates we were trying. The afternoon was going the same way until we had the failure and Daniel was forced to stop on track. When we got the car back to the garage our initial investigations showed that it would take some time to be ready to go back out, so better to call a halt and have a proper look at the problem.”
In his last outing for the Williams Martini Racing Team before moving to the Sauber F1 Team, Felipe Nasr finished the session in eighth place after completing 82 laps with a fastest time of 1m 45.937s. The Brazilian completed 82 laps for the Grove based outfit.
On his Formula One debut with the Lotus F1 Team, GP3 champion Alex Lynn finished the session in 9th place with a time of 1m 46.168s completing 51 laps. The Englishman was driving in the afternoon session as Esteban Ocon drove the E22 this morning and at the end of the day he was in 10th place having completed 34 laps with a fastest time of 1m 47.013s.
McLaren-Honda had another tough day as Stoffel Vandoorne failed to set a time completing just two laps and bringing out the red flag after stopping out on track. The Woking based outfit were continuing to evaluate their new Honda power unit ahead of its race debut in 2015.
© Ben Johnston 2014
