The drivers have their say after day two of the Formula 1 test in Mugello, where the teams finally got some dry running.
The views from the cockpit in Mugello
The drivers have their say after day two of the Formula 1 test in Mugello, where the teams finally got some dry running.
Red Bull
Mark Webber: "The track finally dried out today and the Tuscan weather kicked in at last, so we managed a few laps in the end. We had absolutely truckloads of stuff to go through, but so far so good. Mileage is so limited these days it was good to be in the car again; this test has been very useful.
"I think for Barcelona we will largely keep pushing with what we have done already, although I'm sure there will be small details that will change."
Sebastian Vettel: "I'm happy to be here. Unfortunately we don't have this track on the calendar. It's an incredible circuit with a lot of high-speed corners. It's what you hope for in a Formula One car, because you can really feel the downforce. Once you get into the rhythm it's really enjoyable.
"We've got a lot of laps to get through here. We'll be trying to sort out a lot of the items we've been testing at previous events and things we possibly want to use in the future. The really important thing from here will be the analysis after this test to see what happens to the car."
Ferrari
Felipe Massa: "It's obvious we need to make a good step forward as soon as possible if we want to be competitive. I am confident about the work we have done in these past few weeks, but we won't really know if we have reached our targets until we get to Barcelona. We can be sure the other teams have also worked a lot, so if we want to make progress, we will have had to make a significant leap forward in performance terms. It is a very long championship, but we need to make up ground in the next three to five races if want to achieve our goals and this is a key moment to improve our situation."
Mercedes
Michael Schumacher: "I am very pleased with our testing day here. In the past, I have done so many kilometres on this beautiful track, and today I think I can say I was adding quite some more. Unlike yesterday, we were able to gather really a lot of data, and like this we are learning more and more about our car which is absolutely positive. Of course we also tested some new things, which I would not want to go into detail about, so it is definitely worth coming here at this stage of the season. I am really happy with how things are proceeding with our car and our team, and I am convinced we have a good basis for the final day of the test tomorrow."
Lotus
Romain Grosjean: "It's always good to end the day on top, but we have to remember that in testing lap times mean very little. Having said that, the car felt great and I was very comfortable from the start. This test gives us an opportunity to try things that we wouldn't have time to do during a race weekend, so hopefully it'll help us to keep pushing forward. We've done a lot of setup work today, and for sure we'll need to take some time to look through all the data and analyse what we need to focus on tomorrow, but it's a good baseline for the final day."
Force India
Paul Di Resta: "We had a few issues today which kept us in the garage and meant that we couldn't get through much of our programme. The guys spent a lot of time changing things on the car just before lunch and I only managed to get back out for a final run at the end of the day. You always want more laps, but these things can happen and hopefully we can have a full day of running tomorrow to get through our programme and learn what we need to learn."
Toro Rosso
Jean-Eric Vergne: "In the short time I have been in Formula 1, I would say this was the best day's testing I have done: We had no problems, we got through a lot of items on the job sheet and, as a first impression, the new elements we tested seem to work well. Daniel still has more things to try tomorrow and if we can put all the best elements of this test together, then I am hopeful it could represent a step forward in Barcelona. The team also worked well, with the mechanics having to change a lot of parts in a short space of time to get the job done, so overall, a positive day."
Williams
Bruno Senna: "It was a good day for us which we completed without incident. We gained a lot of information from our runs and have some good knowledge to carry forward into tomorrow. We aim to continue improving and to be competitive on the final day. Mugello is an awesome track. It's really fast and physically challenging."
Caterham
Vitaly Petrov: "I have very good memories of Mugello as this is where I won in F3000, so coming back is good. I'm not sure the track is right for today's F1 cars - you get very close to the walls and it's maybe a bit small for the cars now, but it's still a good challenge putting together a quick lap. I think we can be pleased with what we have achieved here today. The car has run faultlessly all day and we have completed everything we targeted in today's runplan.
"This afternoon we started running some new parts and even though it's too early to make any judgements on what sort of step forward they give us, I can say the new rear wing we tried immediately felt like it was giving us more downforce. The car's balance felt better and there was more grip, so that's definitely a step in the right direction. Hopefully we can have a similar day tomorrow and give ourselves a good chance of making more progress when we're back racing in Spain next week."
Marussia
Charles Pic: "The dry conditions this morning meant we were able to really make some good progress with the set-up programme. The track was a little bit damp at first, but it got better and better all the time as the temperature started to increase. I was very happy with the direction we were taking and we got some good data from the car. The developments we have here are a definite step forward and I think because of our programme there was quite a lot more to come from the package. Although my running is complete I will stay here for the final day tomorrow as there is a lot we can continue to understand from the car to prepare us fully for Barcelona next weekend."
Timo Glock: "Not a great second part of the day as our problems cost us half of the afternoon session. I had to get used to the track quickly, which was not easy as there are a lot of blind corners. We did some basic set-up work for the last hour and a half which I was happy with, but we have a big programme for tomorrow now and I hope it will be a trouble-free day for me."
