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Driver:
Sergey Sirotkin (AM), Robert Kubica (PM)
Chassis / Engine: FW41-01 / Mercedes-AMG F1 M09 EQ Power+
Location: Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, 4.655 km
Weather: Cold and damp Temperatures (min-max): Air 3-6ºC / Track 4-9ºC
The second day
of the Williams Martini teams test at the Barcelona Circuit would see Sergey
Sirotkin and Robert Kubica share the driving duties. Sergey would run in the
morning and Robert in the afternoon. Both drivers would have to contend with
cold conditions making it difficult to carry out proper dry weather running.
As such most of the day was spent collecting data not looking to achieve
anything significant in terms of performance. Again the new FW41 showed well
in terms of reliability completing a total of 100 laps on the day.
Paddy Lowe, Chief Technical Officer: A very difficult day
weather-wise, but it is the same for everybody and we tried to make the best
of it. The early part of the day was extremely cold with a wet track, and we
used this time with Sergey driving to carry out a range of aerodynamic
surveys on each of the full wet, intermediate and dry tyres. It was only at
about 12:30 that conditions allowed performance running on dry tyres, and
Sergey made the best of his limited time with three runs on the soft
compound; the final run being cut short by a red flag. Robert took over for
the afternoon with improving conditions and, managed two performance runs
before the temperatures dropped and again became critical for switching on
the tyres. We reverted again to data gathering during the light snowfall!
With such instability in tyre temperatures this was not a day in which we
can learn anything performance-wise, but we gathered good characteristic
data and achieved another 100 laps of reliable running of the new car.
Sergey Sirotkin: The weather this morning was very similar to
yesterday, but it got better around midday. When we started it was very
cold, too cold to try and make any use of the runs, so we just spent our
time doing the aero checks among other things, which are less dependent on
the weather conditions. Around midday, the temperature came back to us and
we switched to try to do some proper running, but it was still not ideal. We
did 52 laps overall, which is ok, we got a first impression of the car and
the first things to pay attention to. Again, it wasn’t ideal but it wasn’t
ideal for anyone. We got the maximum we could so we should be happy with how
we reacted to the situation.
Robert Kubica: I think we have achieved the maximum we could do due
to the weather and general track temperatures. I got my first feeling for
the car, and saw what we were able to do in difficult conditions. It is not
easy to jump into a new car with such difficult weather conditions and have
the confidence to push, but I think we did some important work, although it
was short. However, it gave us, and especially myself, an idea of how to
work better for the future to address some areas where we can improve the
car. The car has some very powerful areas, but, in the meantime, we need to
work on some issues which I am sure we will get on top of. If we do that
then the driveability, and also the confidence of the driver will be higher.
The FW41 returns to the track tomorrow with Lance driving in the morning
session, before handing over to Robert in the afternoon. |