Williams Barcelona Test - 24 Feb 2016 Day Three

Driver: Felipe Massa
Chassis / Engine: FW38-02 / PU106C Hybrid
Location: Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, 4.655km
Weather: Warm and Dry
Maximum air & track temps: 19ºC / 25ºC

Day three of the Williams Martini test would see Felipe Massa takeover from Valtteri Bottas. It would not be until well into the first hour that Felipe would take to the track for the first time. Quickest at this time was Rosberg with a 1m:26.287, running on the medium tyre. Felipe would pit after an installation lap. After a short break Felipe would return for his first run on medium tyres. Felipe's quickest time was a 1m:27.186 as he lapped in the 1m:27s on his first run. Felipe would pit after a brief eight lap run. Hulkenberg would go quickest with a 1m:25.598.

Felipe would return to the track with tyre evaluation the focus for the day. Felipe would return to the track with nearly two hours of the morning session completed. Felipe would improve with a 1m:26.958 to be fourth. Hulkenberg would continue to set the pace improving with a 1m:25.286 while Felipe had completed twenty one laps as he continued his medium tyre run. He would continue to set times in the 1m:27s prior to pitting. Felipe would again return to the track and would continue running on the medium tyre. He was able to improve with a 1m:26.712 prior to pitting, having completed thirty six laps.

The final hour would see Felipe return to the track still on the medium tyre, lapping in the 1m:29s. Felipe would continue to add to his number of laps having completed forty six laps. The session would be red flagged as the Manor of Haryanto went off at Turn five. With the restart Felipe would head out immediately to complete his run. Felipe would pit as the finals minutes of the morning session counted down, having completed fifty seven laps.

For the afternoon session Hamilton would take over from Rosberg. With the start of the session Felipe would join several drivers out on the track. This time he would be on the soft tyre but with what appeared to be a heavy fuel load as the team worked through their tyre evaluations. Felipe was lapping in the 1m:29s to begin with but would drop into the 1m:30s. Felipe would pit after a long run. Felipe would continue his runs eventually hitting the 100 lap mark. The first to use the supersoft tyre would be Hulkenberg setting a 1m:23.110, while Raikkonen was second with a 1m:25.977 running on the medium tyre.

There was just two hours remaining in the third day of testing. But for Felipe his day would end early after it was found that there was an issue with an issue with the Power Unit. But the team was still able to complete a race simulation as they work towards understanding the new FW38.

Williams Martini Racing will be back on track tomorrow with Felipe Massa returning to the wheel of the Williams Mercedes FW38 for the fourth, and final, day of the first test.

Rod Nelson, Chief Test & Support Engineer:
It has been another productive day. It was good to have Felipe in the car. We are all still learning, as is he. Valtteri has been at track to give us a hand and the drivers have been chatting about their feelings and it has been pretty positive. We have essentially been doing a lot of reliability work today. We did a race simulation with Felipe which we are quite pleased with and now we are pushing on with more performance work to end a fairly solid day. We had to finish slightly early due to an inlet system issue which we are investigating to make sure we are ready to continue our programme on the final day of the test tomorrow.

Felipe Massa:
Today was a good day doing 109 laps, and spending time trying to understand the FW38 for the first time. It is always nice to drive the car and understand areas that are better than the old one, but also keep working on understanding what there is to improve in terms of set-up. There is definitely a lot to do to get the car where we want it but I had a good feeling, and I am sure we are just at the beginning of many improvements. At the very end of the day, unfortunately I had to stop due to an issue in the power unit. We couldn’t finish the programme but we were very close, missing only the final few laps.

Driver 		  Team 	    	   	Best Time  Best / 
		   				   Total Laps
1.  N. Hulkenberg Force India F1 Team	1:23.110   53 / 99
2.  R. Grosjean	  Haas F1 Team		1:25.874   71 / 82
3.  K. Raikkonen  Ferrari		1:25.997   16 / 78
4.  K. Magnussen  Renault Sport F1 Team	1:26.014   42 / 111
5.  N. Rosberg	  Mercedes AMG F1 Team	1:26.084   27 / 74
6.  C. Sainz	  Toro Rosso		1:26.239   39 / 161
7.  F. Nasr	  Sauber F1 Team	1:26.392   73 / 115
8.  L. Hamilton	  Mercedes AMG F1 Team	1:26.421   66 / 88
9.  D. Kvyat	  Red Bull Racing	1:26.497   26 / 74
10. F. Massa	  Williams Martini	1:26.712   31 / 109
11. J. Button	  McLaren		1:26.919   26 / 51
12. R. Haryanto	  Manor F1 Team		1:28.249   76 / 78