Barcelona Pre-Season Testing – Day 4: Räikkönen on Top, Alonso Stops, Haryanto in the Wall

While the first two days of testing had gone reasonably well for McLaren, the team from Woking seems to be falling back into the problems of last winter. After a breakdown that kept it in the garage at 2:30 PM yesterday, the MP4-31 suffered a coolant leak that prevented it from completing more than three laps throughout the day.

Matt Morris, the team’s director of engineering, explained it this way: « Unfortunately, the coolant leak on the car today was in an inconspicuous place, which meant it took us longer than usual to spot and fix it. It’s always frustrating when a minor issue keeps you from running for the entire day. But, fortunately, it was just a small problem and we can now prepare the car for the second tests on Tuesday. »

Nevertheless, one might wonder if this problem was so minor, given that the team still dispatched a new chassis on site…

.@McLarenF1 have just brought in a new MP4-31 chassis at @Circuitcat_eng pic.twitter.com/Ounlw1Aalp

— F1 Technical (@f1technical) 25 février 2016

Conversely, Renault had an excellent day as Kevin Magnussen was able to complete 155 laps of the circuit, the highest performance of the day. Additionally, the displayed pace is satisfactory since the Dane achieved the 4th best time of the session. He could only be pleased to have been able to string together two significant days of driving, after the issues faced by Jolyon Palmer: « I clearly got some exercise these past two days with over 260 laps! It feels good to be back in an F1 car and work on the program while making progress. Our race simulation went well, and I feel very good within the team. »

But while the former McLaren driver completed the most laps for a single driver, it was still Mercedes that achieved the highest total for the day. Indeed, the world champion team completed so many laps and encountered so few technical issues that it resorted to running both its drivers throughout the day simply to preserve them physically! With Lewis Hamilton’s 99 laps and Nico Rosberg’s 86, Mercedes covered over 3000 kilometers over the week. Clearly, the two men were not seeking performance during the day.

That’s a wrap folks! The #F1 W07 storms to 185 laps on day 4 of #F1Testing – @LewisHamilton 99, @nico_rosberg 86! She’s an absolute BEAST!!!

— MERCEDES AMG F1 (@MercedesAMGF1) 25 février 2016

Not everyone can say the same. Williams also experienced problems in the afternoon, which only allowed Felipe Massa to complete “just” 54 laps. The Brazilian could only regret not being able to complete the scheduled program: “I’m not satisfied with today. It wasn’t really a useful day. The most important thing is that we conducted the aerodynamic tests this morning to understand the numbers and the car. Unfortunately, we couldn’t run much this afternoon. I was hoping to do more laps.”

But while some teams are stuck in the pits due to their car, others have to deal with repairs caused by their drivers. This was the case today for Rio Haryanto, who caused two red flags in as many days. If yesterday he only beached his MRT05 in the gravel at turn 5, he was less fortunate today as he hit the wall in the same turn after a spin: « I made a mistake this afternoon and the damage couldn’t be repaired quickly. It’s really unfortunate that we didn’t finish our program today. »

The other red flag of the day was caused by a breakdown on Esteban Gutierrez’s VF-16. Nevertheless, the Mexican still managed to get back behind the wheel and complete 89 laps, the best performance for Haas this week. Reliability, therefore, seems to be on point. What remains to be seen now is the performance.

Next week’s trials should undoubtedly provide a better idea of the strengths at play.

CLASSIFICATION – END OF DAY 4

Who impressed you at #F1Testing this week? ⏱🏁 pic.twitter.com/dKrhVkaEDZ

— Formula 1 (@F1) 25 février 2016

With the participation of www.racingbusiness.fr