F1: Mercedes finally shows pace during Friday test in Barcelona
Mercedes finally showed its hand in Barcelona on Friday when Nico Rosberg did a time on soft tires, giving the opposition plenty to think about.
There was more action than we saw Thursday, with no rain impacting proceedings and more cars running reliably and beating the magic 100-lap mark, which is usually regarded as the sign of a successful day's work.
With around 75 minutes left in the session, Rosberg set a time that was 1.2s faster than the next best lap of the day, achieved by Valtteri Bottas, and 0.7s faster than the next best lap of the six days of testing thus far, which was recorded on Thursday by Felipe Massa.
Up until now, Mercedes had focused in both Jerez and Barcelona on medium tires and longer runs, but it's clear that the team has a significant advantage even over Williams, its closest rival in the latter part of last season.
“I had a lot of oversteer in the car, so the rear was just all over the place with no traction,” said Rosberg. “But eventually, towards the end especially, it was feeling more and more decent. Then, putting the soft tires on, that gives you the grip anyway so it doesn't really matter what the balance is - more or less it will be possible to do a good lap. I'm pleased with my two laps at the end - I nailed them pretty well and they were both identical, so a good ending to the day. We're confident that we have a good car and I'm starting to feel good in it. At the same time, of course, we're well aware that the others have been posting some quick times and we can take nothing for granted.”
Ferrari has suffered from reliability issues thus far but, having taken over the SF15-T, Sebastian Vettel was able to do a lot of useful mileage on Friday, setting the third fastest time and logging over 120 laps.
“Today we didn’t have any problem,” said Vettel. “We know there is still a lot of work we can do as a team, but so far I feel very good. If I had to pinpoint one thing, I’d rather be a bit quicker, but it’s difficult to evaluate how quick we are, because some people tried more of a qualifying trim and others did less so. I never drove the 2014 Ferrari, but I think this one it’s a massive step forward. That doesn’t mean that we are satisfied as it’s clear that if you want to win, you have to beat Mercedes. It’s exciting to see what’s going on behind them, which I think it’s not clear judging from the lap times we’ve seen so far.”
Sauber again had a solid day, with Felipe Nasr setting the third best time on the soft tires, after teammate Marcus Ericsson was second quickest on Thursday.
“Today was very productive as we went through the whole program,” said Nasr. “In the morning I was able to get a feeling for the car during the short-runs on the soft and medium compounds, which was quite positive. After the lunch break, I went through a race simulation on different tires. It was a good experience, and I now have a better understanding for the car during the long-runs.”
Even Jenson Button was able to log some serious mileage for McLaren and Honda, giving a boost to the troubled McLaren team as he reached 100 laps before causing a late red flag when he stopped on track. He set the fifth fastest time of the day.
Pastor Maldonado was sixth fastest for Lotus, while Max Verstappen ran a healthy 139 laps for Toro Rosso, despite losing the last hour to an electrical problem.
“Another good day as we did a lot of laps,” said the Dutchman. “From my perspective, the most important part was this afternoon’s race distance, when the pace looked very promising. It was my first time driving the car with the latest updates and they seemed to be working very well and I felt very comfortable with it.”
He was also 0.2s fastest than Daniil Kvyat as the Red Bull driver had a troubled day, the RB11 running far fewer laps than most of its rivals.
The big novelty of the day was the first appearance of the Force India VJM08 in the hands of Nico Hulkenberg. The German took to the track just before lunchtime after the car had been completed in the garage and, while he completed a healthy number of laps for a first day, he was well off a competitive pace, and was slowest overall.
