FEBRUARY 10, 2012

Soft tyre Alonso quickest at Jerez

The first pre-season F1 test concluded at Jerez with Fernando Alonso's Ferrari (1:18.877) fastest on the day.

The first pre-season F1 test concluded at Jerez with Fernando Alonso's Ferrari (1:18.877) fastest on the day.

The Spaniard set his time in the morning, when conditions are usually at their best, using a set of Pirelli's soft compound tyres. The time, however, was almost half a second shy of Romain Grosjean's Thursday best in the Lotus, set on medium compound rubber.

Alonso managed just 39 laps today on top of the 67 he did yesterday as Ferrari was hit by electrical gremlins. The team admits that it has much work to do, on both reliability and set-up, before the second test at Barcelona begins on February 21.

On the positive side, the new F2012 is looking good as far as tyre warm-up is concerned, a Maranello bugbear during the couple of seasons past.

Second quickest time of the day (1:19.579) came from Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne, who was more comfortable in the Toro Rosso after a few adjustments.

Chief engineer Laurent Mekies said: "Overall, a positive first test for us. We did not have any major issues with the car. In parallel, we were running Daniel and Jean-Eric for the first time since they were signed as our race drivers: they both did well, establishing their relationship with the team. These four days went by very quickly!"

Sebastian Vettel (1:19.606) was a hundredth slower after losing the morning session to an engine related electrical issue with the new Red Bull RB8, after he'd completed just two installation laps. The team made a precautionary engine change.

"Something like this is simply part of testing, but I'm happy with the progress made," the world champion said.

Red Bull's Ian Morgan added: "It's been quite encouraging. We are where we expected to be, based on the data we had from the factory."

Lewis Hamilton (1:19.640) ended up just four hundredths slower after 86 more laps in the new McLaren MP4-27. Test team manager Dave Redding, said: "The first hour or so was spent aero data gathering, then Lewis embarked on two or three hours intensive set up work, exploring suspension geometries and general car set-up. The afternoon was then spent comparing tyre compounds.

"We had the opportunity to try some changes that were time consuming, so things you wouldn't normally do at a race weekend. It was good to get those fundamental changes and tests out of the way early on. The car ran reliably and without any issues."

Romain Grosjean (1:19.729) had another highly positive day, putting another 95 laps on the Lotus E20.

"I'm really enjoying being in the car even though it's hard work," Grosjean admitted. "So far my fitness has been good, my neck's not too bad, but we'll see how it feels tomorrow! I think everyone will benefit from next week away from the circuit so we can reflect on the data then go to Barcelona with some new parts for the car. I can't wait."

The team's only problems have been a couple of minor radiator leaks and technical director James Allison said: "The most encouraging aspect from this week is the feedback from the drivers. Their comments have been full of encouraging statements, including praise for a very secure rear end, good traction and good balance.

"We haven't heard positive comments like those during the past couple of seasons. Even ignoring the lap times, the driver comments give us a warm feeling and the best sense of whether we've done an okay job."

Kamui Kobayashi (1:19.834) and Nico Hulkenberg (1:19.977) were both in close touch with the Sauber C31 and Force India VJM05 respectively.

Giampaolo Dall'Ara, Sauber's head of track engineering reported: "Overall the results of the first test with the new C31 are promising. After we had all the initial systems checks behind us on day one, when Kamui covered 106 laps, we did a good deal of aero work and learnt a lot about the 2012 tyres. On the setup side we would have preferred to run a bit more in Jerez but this was only the first test and we will catch up in Barcelona."

At Force India, Hulkenberg was having his first experience of the car after the team lost Thursday to Jules Bianchi's accident. The German felt that the chassis was a good base to work with.

"Overall I think we can come away from Jerez feeling positive," thinks technical director Andrew Green. "The car has run reliably, the initial feedback from the drivers is encouraging and we've learned a lot about the set-up directions we want to explore over the coming weeks."

After 125 laps yesterday, Bruno Senna (1:20.132) put another 125 on the Williams FW34 as he completed a full race simulation in the morning.

Jarno Trulli (1:22.198) finally got his hands on the new Caterham and also completed well over 100 laps.

"My first impression of the car is good - a definite progression from 2011 and a good basis for us to work on for the season ahead," Trulli said.

"We have generated a lot of data, particularly on KERS and the 2012 tyres. We know there's a lot more to come in pure pace - perhaps we were the only team to run without dropping the fuel, but we wanted to focus on running through the development program and making sure we completed the plan each day."

The Italian was also much happier with the car's power steering, a problem last year when he repeatedly complained about lack of feel.

The team is shooting at the midfield in 2012 and technical chief Mike Gascoyne added: "This has probably been the best first test I have ever been involved in. We have been running the car rather conservatively but for the next test we will be bringing aero updates and looking to run the final race one specification at the third test. We are in a much better position going into the season than we have ever been before."