The drivers have their say after the first day of running at the final winter test at the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona.
The drivers have their say on the first day of the final test
The drivers have their say on the first day of running at the third and final winter test at the Circuit de Catalunya.
Red Bull
Mark Webber: "It was pretty heavy, I must say. There was a big tailwind down to Turn One. And in other sections it was pretty dusty. The level of wind wasn't trivial but to be honest it was tricky enough anyway because of the greasy conditions on the track.
"We only got one hour at the end of the day in more stable conditions. We opted to put on a couple of sets of tyres at the end and see how it went and it was OK. We've still got more to come, but that was the most we could get done in a short limited programme in dry conditions at the end of the day."
McLaren
Sergio Perez: "It was a very productive day and a very important day, to get to know the car in those conditions - in the wet conditions and the inter condition. In that area it was a good day, but obviously I would like to have a dry day and do the work we've prepared to do."
Ferrari
Felipe Massa: "For sure it is not the same as in the dry when we can try all different kinds of tyres, we have to do that with the rain tyres. Tomorrow is not to be great but the last two days are to be better and we can do it all again in the dry then and test the new parts that we need.
"Today we have very little new things on the car, tomorrow another few things are coming and on the last two days we should have most of the pieces we have to try here.
"But in these conditions I don't think you can learn by putting new parts on the car but hopefully we can learn more over the last few days."
Lotus
Romain Grosjean: "Another day with bad weather in Barcelona is not what I wanted, but there's nothing you can do about it. It was a bit of a frustrating day as we concentrated on aero runs and never went for a time on the drying track surface.
"The car feels good on both the intermediate and wet tyres and we've run through more of our pre-season test programme so those are positives. You never want to see yourself at the bottom of the timing screens, so hopefully that's the only time it happens this season. We certainly know there's more pace in the car than we saw today!"
Mercedes
Lewis Hamilton: "The track started out really wet this morning but thankfully the conditions dried out later on and we were able to complete some proper running. It felt good to work through the race simulation this afternoon; both to get myself back in practice and to put valuable miles on the car.
"All the guys have done a fantastic job both here and at the factory. I'm really happy that we're making progress together and very much enjoying working with everyone. The last couple of days of pre-season testing are always really exciting when everyone starts to add their upgrades so I'm looking forward to the weekend."
Sauber
Esteban Gutierrez: "It was another positive day with a lot of laps. Unfortunately the weather changed constantly. It was important for us to work with the intermediate tyres, which seem to be the most difficult ones for us.
"We had to change quite a lot of things to make them work better. Personally for me it was again a good day, because I was able to gain more experience and get myself up to speed in very tricky conditions."
Force India
Paul Di Resta: "Quite a disrupted day with the constant rain showers, but it gave me the chance to run in the wet conditions and gain some knowledge of the wet weather tyres. That should mean we're prepared in case we get a wet race early in the season.
"The temperatures were low today and not that representative, so we saw a big variation in lap times. Late in the day the rain eased off, which gave us a run in the dry, and we were able to check some things ahead of the weekend when the weather is expected to improve."
Williams
Valtteri Bottas: "It was a good day overall and we had no problems with the car. It's a shame we were disrupted a bit by the wet weather, although this did allow us to run on the wet, intermediate and dry tyres. I clocked up a lot of mileage for myself and was able to get more experience driving in difficult conditions. It was cold, wet and windy all day, and particularly slippery on track this morning."
Toro Rosso
Jean-Eric Vergne: "Not the best of days, because we had many things to test and the rain meant we were not able to get that much done, but we have to remember that the other teams have similar programmes and the rain affects everyone.
"Nevertheless, I did plenty of laps, which is good for me and good for the new car to do a high mileage. The car seems to behave really well in the wet and it also felt good in the dry, during the few laps I managed at the end of the day."
Caterham
Charles Pic: "Day one of the final test has been ok - 83 laps and another day where we've run without any issues and kept the same consistent approach throughout all the tests. We had planned to do qualifying and race simulations but with the rain today we've switched the race simulation to Sunday when I'm back in the car, but we did run through all the qualifying procedures and that went pretty well.
"Giedo's back in the car for tomorrow and Saturday and if the weather improves by Saturday morning I think we'll be able to get through everything we've planned for the final test."
