Williams F1 Jerez Test 30:01:2014 Day Three

Driver: Felipe Massa
Chassis / Engine: FW36-01 / PU106A Hybrid
Location: Jerez de la Frontera 4.428km
Objectives: New component, systems and reliability checks
Weather: Dry and sunny Maximum air & track temps: 17ºC / 23ºC

Day three of the Williams F1 teams test at the Jerez circuit would see 2014 signing Felipe Massa take over from Valtteri Bottas. Felipe would complete an installation lap in the process officially becoming a Williams driver. Shortly after Felipe would return to the track eventually setting the quickest time only to be passed by previous team-mate Alonso. Felipe's time was a 1m:33.087 and Alonso a 1m:29.267. Alonso would improve setting a new fastest time of 1m:26.321. He would eventually set a new benchmark of 1m:26.017. At this time Felipe had dropped to fifth having only completed five laps.

Massa and Williams have been conducting a lot of sensor work today with the team using a lot of aero sensors on the car. The car was running a small pilot sensor on the roll hoop, which gives an accurate air-speed measurement to use as a reference for downforce levels. Felipe would complete a series of runs over the morning setting a 1m:27.286 just before midday. He had completed twenty four laps. Quickest at this time was Button with a 1m:25.030. Most the running that the Williams team has been doing has been on the special Jerez hard tyre, possibly not as quick as the other compounds some of the other teams have been using. His next run would see him set a 1m:26.435 but Felipe remained fourth. There would be several red flags during the morning all hindering the teams ability to complete uninterrupted laps. But Felipe would complete a twelve lap run prior to pitting for a lunch break.

After the break Felipe would head back out but it would be a brief run before pitting. He would return to the track with twenty minutes left in the day and using the red striped Pirelli hard tyres would set a 1m:23.700 to be second in the times. Again he would pit briefly coming back out again for one final run completing forty seven laps on the day.

Rod Nelson, Chief Test & Support Engineer: Today Felipe was in the car and he’s done quite a bit of work in the simulator at the factory, so it was good to get his comments on the real thing as opposed to the digital version. We got some really good feedback and have a clear direction to go in from both our drivers this week despite the slightly limited mileage. We are working through our system tests here in Jerez and are coming across a few issues which we are resolving. Overall, we are relatively happy with the progress we are making.

Felipe Massa: It was a new experience for me today. The first day with a new car is always very exciting but adding to that changing teams, all the new faces and the new place, it made it even more exciting for me. Unfortunately we didn’t do the amount of laps we wanted to do today but it’s pretty acceptable for the first days of testing considering all the rule changes with the car. The car feels very different to what we used to have in many areas. You need to understand how to drive with the engine, the chassis, the tyres and the turbo, but it’s fun! There will be a lot of improvements we can make up before the first race and throughout the championship.

Performance is important but I think reliability will be a key issue to think about for the first race. I’m happy with how I have been welcomed into the team as everyone has been very kind and professional. I’m really happy and I know we have a lot of work to do to fix the little issues we have, but I think we can have a good championship together. It’s also my first experience with a different engine manufacturer and it’s been really great working with Mercedes. I’m really happy with the new power unit and the way the team work so it’s going to be interesting. Overall, I’m very happy with my first day.

Williams will be back on track tomorrow, Friday 31 January, with Felipe Massa finishing the weeks’ testing programme in the FW36 for the fourth day of the test.

Driver 		Team 			Best Time Best / 
						  Total Laps
1 K Magnussen	McLaren Mercedes	1:23.276  38 / 52
2 F Massa	Williams		1:23.700  42 / 47
3 L Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas	1:23.952  56 / 62
4 J Button	McLaren Mercedes	1:25.030  18 / 40
5 F Alonso	Scuderia Ferrari	1:25.495  29 / 58
6 N Hulkenberg	Sahara Force India	1:26.069  16 / 17
7 J E Vergne	Toro Rosso		1:29.915  26 / 30
8 A Sutil	Sauber			1:30.161  24 / 34