The day started fine and dry and only improved. These conditions stimulated most teams into running or at least trying to run full race-length stints.
The morning session was stopped twice with two red flags.
The first for McLaren after it stopped on lap two in front of the pit lane with an electrical issue, later reported as a battery fault, and was wheeled home.
The second was a short clean-up after a spin by Sergio Perez left gravel on the circuit.
Overall, the morning went well for everyone but McLaren. Last year they blaimed the Honda engine for all their troubles but this year they can’t do that. Torro Rosso using the Honda engine are running quite well so we will have to wait and see.
Bottas/Hamilton and Vettel managed more than 170 laps and Verstappen 130. With track temps 16 deg higher than last week, they are getting better test results and tyre information. This is looking to provide a more representative display of actual car performance.
The afternoon produced a few more issues, with Red Bull and McLaren stopping with problems. The Toro Rosso also failed to complete the afternoon with brake issues.
Sergio Perez said
“It’s been a good day of running. We tried several different tyre compounds and understood a lot more about our new car. I only have one more day in the car before Melbourne, but today gave me a lot more confidence about where we are now, with both the car and the set-up. We still have a lot of work before we are where we want to be, but hopefully we’ll be in a good shape by the time we arrive in Melbourne. It’s difficult to say how we compare to the other teams because we are all on different programmes and fuel loads, but I am excited about this year; it’s going to be very interesting. Pirelli have been quite aggressive with the compounds and that should give a lot more strategic options, which should hopefully make for some exciting racing.”
Tom McCullough, Chief Race Engineer said
“We had a very busy programme today and the key objective was largely catching up on what we couldn’t achieve last week because of the weather. It was good to have a dry day and to run reliably. Our main focus was on gathering critical aero data and we also started working on some set-up items ahead of the first race of the season. We are doing our own programme and just focussing on what we need. We are satisfied because it’s been a productive day, but there’s still a lot to do in the rest of the week.”
Max Vestappen said
“It was a good day today. We did a lot of laps and that’s really important, just to put mileage up on the car,” said Max. “We had a small problem with the battery late in the day, so we had to change that and it takes a bit of time, but afterwards it was all good. The car feels good. Everyone of course wants to know where we think we are in relation to our opposition but honestly it’s impossible to tell until we get to Australia, as you don’t know what everyone else is doing. In terms of where this car is improved over last year, again it’s very difficult to say as the new surface here changes how you drive and that, together with the new tyres, makes it difficult to pinpoint any particular area. Also, with the first week not being that successful in terms of temperatures and so on, it’s still all to be discovered. I know it feels faster though!”
Head of Race Engineering Guillaume Rocquelin said
“We had a good start to week two. We got through 85 laps in the morning and everything was running very smoothly. We got a long way through the test programme then, so we were able to try out some things in the afternoon and we took the decision to do some shakedown tests and the result was small electrical problem. We lost an hour as we had to change the battery but it was a calculated risk and we learned something as a result. In all, I’m pretty happy with the amount we got through today. Even though we’re not chasing it, the performance was decent too, so let’s hope for more of the same when Daniel is in the car tomorrow.”
Kevin Magnussen said
“It was a good day. We got a lot of laps done. We started working properly with the car, and not just doing systems checks, installation laps and aero runs. I’d say it was our first proper day, also with the weather being a bit warmer and representative of what we’re probably going to have in the season. It’s still not quite there, but it’s getting closer. I’m happy and positive after the day.”
Team Principal Guenther Steiner said
“A productive day today. We had a few small problems, but they are normal in testing, so I would call them minor ones and we got them sorted. We almost did 100 laps, which if we keep on going like this, we’ll be fine.”
Marcus Ericsson said
“Overall, it was a positive day for us. I completed a good number of laps, and the weather conditions were more representative in comparison to last week. We are continuing to understand the car and can see its potential. We have a lot of work ahead of us and are moving in the right direction. I look forward to getting back in the car on Day 3.”
Jörg Zander, Technical Director said
“We had a productive start to Test 2 today. Marcus completed 120 laps, and we collected plenty of useful data. We completed set-up work and tested different tyre compounds, learning about their behaviour on the evolving track conditions throughout the day. The car update worked well, within expectations. The team is on a positive path and I look forward to what we will learn in the upcoming days.”
STOFFEL VANDOORNE said
“Today was challenging because of the issues we had which interrupted our running for today. We had a few stoppages on track, and we’ve been working through each one to make sure we’re fully prepared for tomorrow.
“The kinds of issue we’ve had weren’t particularly serious, but have taken a relatively long time to fix, so we weren’t able to run as much as we planned. The conditions this afternoon were quite tricky due to the wind, so the running we did wasn’t so representative.
“We’re hopeful the issues have been fixed and we can have a more productive day tomorrow.”
ERIC BOULLIER, Racing Director said
“Today wasn’t the day we had hoped for on track, but, despite this, we aren’t overly concerned about the issues that we’ve faced today.
“It’s obviously not the productive day we had planned, but the problems – a battery issue and a hydraulic leak – are the types of niggles that we almost hope and expect to face during testing, in order to prepare us properly for the season ahead.
“We are here to test, and today is what sometimes happens in testing. It’s not ideal, and we would have liked more track time, but we’re working on it, we’re learning from it, and we’ll return to the track tomorrow armed with more information.”
All photos and quotes from official team sources
