Barcelona Day 1: Vettel fastest at end of day

Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel put Red Bull on top of the first day of pre-season testing at Barcelona.

The MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS F1 W03 made its official debut today at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona. After an early morning unveiling in the pit lane by Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg, Michael then took the wheel for the day's running.

– A smooth morning session enabled the team to begin set-up comparisons with the new chassis

– A hydraulic problem identified during the afternoon session brought an early end to the planned program

– Michael completed 51 laps today, taking the F1 W03's total mileage to 782 km to date

Nico will take over the program tomorrow, with Michael back in the car on Thursday, and Nico concluding the test on Friday.

Michael Schumacher
"My initial feelings with our new car are certainly good. I'm happy with the different evaluations that we have done over the last week, but obviously with the rule changes, we won't know more until later. It's certainly an improvement and we have worked hard on the areas we had defined last year. The aerodynamics figures look good so I'm not worried about the shape of the nose! Even though we had the hydraulic problem today, I'm pleased with all the mileage we have achieved so far with the new car."

Romain Grosjean was in action at the Circuit de Catalunya for the first day of the latest pre-season test, putting the team's second chassis through its first shakedown.

However, his running was cut short after just seven laps when it became apparent that there was an issue with the car.

"We completed a few aero runs and then started timed runs, but I was very quickly aware that the car wasn't responding as it should," the Frenchman said.

"It's not ideal to lose track time, but fortunately we will have the chassis which ran perfectly in Jerez so I should get some good track time tomorrow. It's far better that we have an issue like this now rather than in Melbourne."

But while it isn't ideal, it also isn't a crisis according to team boss Boullier.

"This is a minor setback to our overall test program. Fortunately we accumulated good mileage in Jerez," he said.

"If this is the only issue we have during testing then we will still be well prepared for the start of the season. We'll be back on track tomorrow with chassis E20-01 and assessing chassis E20-02 back at Enstone."

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