Williams F1 Jerez Test 29:01:2014 Day Two

Driver: Valtteri Bottas
Chassis / Engine: FW36-01 / PU106A Hybrid
Location: Jerez de la Frontera 4.428km
Objectives: New component, systems and reliability checks
Weather: Wet in the morning, dry and cool in the afternoon Maximum air & track temps: 16ºC / 17ºC

With rain having fallen at the Jerez circuit it was announced that the second day of testing would be a day to test the wet weather Pirelli tyre. The track would be artificially wetted throughout the day. After having a delayed start on the opening day the Williams team was ready to take to the track. ON wet tyres Valtteri Bottas would take to the track but would pit after a single installation lap. After making changes
to the car Valtteri would return to the track and his first lap would see him go fastest with a 1m:38.944. Behind Valtteri was Raikkonen 0.2 behind the Williams. With the track drying several drivers were running on the intermediate tyre.

Valtteri's next lap was a 1m:38.374. As the morning progressed Valtteri would continue to circulate the track setting a 1m:38.102 having completed ten laps after two hours. In the next hour Valtteri would lower his best lap time with a 1m:37.762 having now complete seventeen laps. It was reported that Valtteri had
spun at the pit lane exit. After a productive morning Valtteri would pit for lunch as the team continued to work through changes with the car. At this time Valtteri was second behind Button.

With lunch completed the Williams team would commence their afternoon session with Valtteri preparing to come back out this time on dry tyres. More drivers were coming out on dry tyres seeing the times fall. Early in the afternoon the quickest time was that of Perez with a 1m:28.376. After a lengthy break in which the
Williams team was able to resolve an issue Valtteri would finally return to the track. He would improve with a 1m:27.734 with under two hours left in the day. He would further improve his time with a 1m:26.577 to see him second. He would set a 1m:26.322 to go quickest while the Williams team would say: "It's all system &
reliability checks before we focus more on performance in Bahrain. Before we can have a quick car we need a reliable one."

Valtteri would pit after that brief run with a red flag stopping the session. Joining Valtteri in the Williams pit was new team-mate Felipe Massa who will take over the driving duties on Thursday. With the track opening Valtteri would return while Button had gone fastest with a 1m:24.165 while Valtteri would also improve hsi time with a 1m:25.462 to be second. Valtteri would again improve with a 1m:25.344, with Rosberg now third. All these cars were Mercedes powered. Valtteri had completed thirty laps with under an hour remaining. Valtteri and Rosberg would now be running close together with both lapping in the 1m:26s. With just under half and hour remaining the Williams F1 team would end their day having completed thirty seven laps.

Rod Nelson, Chief Test & Support Engineer: We started the day doing some work on the new Pirelli intermediate tyres as it wasn’t wet enough for the full wet tyres. We were then doing some development work on our braking system and making some changes over lunch and we were going well on the hard tyres this afternoon as the track dried out. However, we had to stop early due a problem with the rear suspension. Valtteri radioed in to say he felt something strange with the rear and we could also see something in the data, so we brought him in as a precautionary measure to check the car over. Obviously we’d like to do more laps but we are happy with the progress we are making.

Valtteri Bottas: Testing this week is about checking all the new systems more than outright performance so problems are expected, but we’ve been solving each one as it has come up. We completed some running in the wet this morning to gather some data on the intermediate tyres and then clocked up some more laps in the dry this afternoon and my first impression of the car is positive. Unfortunately we had to finish the day slightly early though. I felt something different with the rear of the car so the team called me straight back in to check it over. We are much wiser than we were yesterday and have a better understanding of the car already and so I’m looking forward to the next time I can get behind the wheel.

Williams will be back on track tomorrow, Thursday 29 January, with Felipe Massa making his debut for the team in the FW36 for the third day of the test.

Driver 		Team 			Best Time Best / 
						  Total Laps
1 J Button	McLaren Mercedes	1:24.165  38 / 43
2 K Raikkonen	Scuderia Ferrari	1:24.812  38 / 47
3 V Bottas	Williams		1:25.344  29 / 35
4 N Rosberg	Mercedes AMG Petronas	1:25.588  63 / 97
5 S Perez	Sahara Force India	1:28.376  21 / 37
6 E Gutierrez	Sauber F1 Team		1:33.270  48 / 53
7 M Ericsson	Caterham F1 Team	1:37.975  10 / 11
8 S Vettel	Red Bull Racing		1:38.320  7 / 8