Williams F1 Bahrain Test 27:02:2014 Day One

Driver: Valtteri Bottas
Chassis / Engine: FW36-03 / PU106A Hybrid
Location: Bahrain International Circuit 5.412km
Objectives: Aero evaluations, race simulation and set-up work
Weather: Hot and Sunny Maximum air & track temps: 30ºC / 39ºC

The Williams F1 team would return to the Bahrain circuit for their final pre-season test prior to the first race in Australia. For the four days of the test team drivers Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas would share the driving with Felipe doing Days two and three and Valtteri one and four. With the start of the day Valtteri would be first out completing his installation lap, returning to his pit for the usual checks. With
the team aiming to complete aero work Valtteri would return to the track and would be the second driver to set a time but would be forced to pit due to a red flag. With the restart Valtteri would come straight back out and would set a time of 1m:38.907 to be fourth.

Valtteri would comment on the testing so far by saying: "I think this car straight out from the box has been not bad. Balance wise we’ve not been struggling with big issues. Of course there’s lots of things to improve, but when the car is working it’s not bad to drive. For sure we can improve it a lot but it’s nice to see the long runs we did and the full race distance we did was not that bad. Valtteri added: "So far it’s
quite a good feeling."

After just over two hours Valtteri had complete twenty laps now currently fifth. Fastest was Rosberg with a 1m:37.722. Valtteri would pit as the team continue to work on their aero programme. Perez was now fastest with a 1m:36.051 with Valtteri returning to the track. Perez would be the first driver to set a time in the
1m:35s with a 1m:35.740. A further improvement from Perez would see him set a 1m:35.290. Valtteri continue to complete laps, lapping in the 1m:39s with three hours of the day completed. Just prior to the lunch break Valtteri would have to pit again due to a red flag having completed forty three laps.

The afternoon session would get underway with Valtteri returning to the track. He would aim to complete longer runs in the afternoon. With an hour and a hlf of the afternoon session completed Valtteri had completed sixty four laps. With an hour remaining in the day Valtteri had completed over one hundred and ten laps. Valtteri had completed a race simulation in his afternoon run prior to pitting. He would return running on the medium tyre and would set a 1m:36.184 to move up to second having completed one hundred and twenty two laps. As the session drew to a close Valtteri would return to the track and having completed one hundred and twenty eight laps the team would call it a day in what was a very productive day for the Williams team.

Rod Nelson, Chief Test & Support Engineer: We started the morning by testing some aero components, all of which correlated well with what we expected from the wind tunnel. We then did a race simulation this afternoon including laps to the grid and everything that goes into a race, which also went well. We completed our programme for today with some new tyre work for Pirelli. Overall, it's been a really good day completing 128 laps.

Valtteri Bottas: It's been another good day for us and it was nice to get the whole run plan done. We didn't have any issues all day so well done to all the team for getting the car running so well. We have a lot of data to analyse tonight after doing some aero work this morning and a race distance and set-up work this afternoon. We did some very interesting tests and there are still plenty of things to improve so we'll keep pushing.

Williams will be back on track tomorrow, Friday 28 February, with Felipe Massa in the FW36 for the second day of the test.

Driver 		Team 			Best Time Best / 
						  Total Laps
1  S Perez	Sahara Force India	1:35.290  34 / 105
2  V Bottas	Williams		1:36.184  113 / 128
3  K Raikkonen	Scuderia Ferrari	1:36.432  43 / 54
4  N Rosberg	Mercedes AMG Petronas	1:36.624  55 / 89
5  A Sutil	Sauber F1 Team		1:37.700  41 / 89
6  K Magnussen	McLaren Mercedes	1:37.825  13 / 109
7  D Ricciardo	Infiniti Red Bull	1:37.908  19 / 39
8  M Chilton	Marussia		1:38.610  23 / 44
9  D Kvyat	Toro Rosso		1:39.242  10 / 55
10 P Maldonado	Lotus			1:40.599  34 / 31
11 K Kobayashi	Caterham F1 Team	1:42.285  11 / 19