Williams Martini Barcelona Test 19:02:2015 Day One

Driver: Susie Wolff
Chassis / Engine: FW37-02 / PU106B Hybrid
Location: Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, 4.655km
Objectives: Race simulation, systems and reliability checks
Weather: Warm and Dry Air & track temps: 4 - 17ºC / 12 - 27ºC

The second round of Formula One testing would see the Williams Martini team move to the Circuit de Catalunya located outside Barcelona. For the first of the team four days of testing it would be Susie Wolff carrying out the driving duties. With the start of the day Susie would be straight out to complete her installation lap. As a reference the pole time set in 2014 was a 1m:25.232 with the quickest race lap time a 1m:28.918. It would not be until a further forty minutes that Susie would come back out to set her first lap time, 1m:53.095. She would continue to lap the circuit improving with a 1m:40.064. Quickest at this time was Hamilton with a 1m:30.429. Susie would pit with just under an hour of the session completed. Her first run
was on the medium Pirelli tyre.

A team making their first test appearance of 2015 was that of Force India, but they were running their 2014 car. Raikkonen would lower the quickest time with a 1m:30.210. Susie would return to the track as Raikkonen went quicker with a 1m:27.523. Susie would set a 1m:34.055 but would improve with a 1m:32.660 prior to pitting. Button was second with a 1m:28.472 but would also improve with a 1m:28.182, in what was a consistent run for the new McLaren Honda. Susie had completed eleven laps prior to pitting. To this point there had been two red flags both caused by Maldonado in his Lotus stopping out on the track.

With the green flag Susie was straight back out. Susie would keep working and would lower her time to a 1m:31.663 followed by a 1m:31.491 and a 1m:31.340. Two hour into the session and Susie had completed twenty one laps. She would further lower her time with a 1m:31.207. Quickest at this time was Raikkonen with a
1m:28.064, with Button second. Hamilton was forced to finish his day early feeling unwell. Button would go quickest with a 1m:27.989. Susie would continue her laps completing thirty three laps. She would pit and upon her return looked like she was on a longer run setting times in the 1m:32s running on the hard tyre. Nasr would go quickest with a 1m:27.307 in his Sauber running on the medium. Verstappen was now second followed by Raikkonen. With seventeen laps into her long run Susie would complete fifty laps with three hours completed.

AS Susie complete further laps she would drop into the 1m:31s in what was an impressive run. Just prior to lunch Susie would complete sixty laps. Susie would improve with a 1m:30.217. With seventy seven laps completed Susie would stop for the midday break. She had set a 1m:29.400 just prior to stopping. For McLaren
there day would come to an end with a faulty seal that would require a replacement of the power unit.

With the start of the afternoon session Susie would be straight back out while Raikkonen would improve his quickest time with a 1m:27.141. Susie would continue to improve setting a 1m:29.327 followed by a 1m:28.906, an improvement of four tenths. Raikkonen would set a 1m:25.598 to be ahead by a considerable margin. But the session would come to a stop when we were confronted with the scene of Nasr's Sauber and the Williams in the gravel at Turn five. The Sauber was missing its rear wing while the Williams was just on the gravel. Up to this point Susie had completed eighty three laps. The Williams mechanics would cover the FW37 prior to it being returned to the pits. Raikkonen would lower his best time with a 1m:25.167,
quicker than the 2014 pole time. The Williams team would say that Nasr and Susie had made contact as the Sauber driver tried to pass the Williams at Turn five. The Williams had suffered left front damage as a result of the accident.

The FW37 would be repaired before the end of the day but Susie would suffer a subsequent oil pressure issue seeing her complete eighty six laps.

Rod Nelson, Chief Test & Support Engineer: We have had a reasonably successful day adding mileage to the FW37. The morning’s focus was on completing a race distance and further set-up work with the car. This afternoon we had some system checks planned, but unfortunately lost a lot of time which affected the programme. We will be able to add these back in later in the week, it’s just a shame for Susie to lose the time in the car when we were having a productive day.

Susie Wolff: We learnt a lot today. Carrying out some longer runs in the morning gave me experience of tyre management and it was good to get time in the FW37. The car has a lot of potential and the number of laps we completed today gave the team a lot of data. It’s just a shame I didn’t get the chance to drive the faster tyre. I got a good feeling of the car and as a driver, have learnt a lot.

Driver 		 Team 		  Best Time 	Best / 
		 				Total Laps
1. P. Maldonado  Lotus 	   	  1:25.011 	62 / 69
2. K. Raikkonen  Ferrari 	  1:25.167 	43 / 74
3. D. Ricciardo  Red Bull 	  1:25.547 	39 / 59
4. S. Perez 	 Force India 	  1:26.636 	21 / 34	
5. F. Nasr 	 Sauber 	  1:27.307 	30 / 79
6. M. Verstappen Toro Rosso 	  1:27.900 	38 / 94
7. J. Button 	 McLaren 	  1:28.182 	9 / 21
8. P. Wehrlein 	 Force India 	  1:28.329 	13 / 32
9. P. Wehrlein 	 Mercedes 	  1:28.489 	39 / 48
10. S. Wolff 	 WILLIAMS MARTINI 1:28.906 	81 / 86
11. L. Hamilton  Mercedes  	  1:30.429 	10 / 11