MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS concluded the second in-season test of 2014 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya this week, with Nico Rosberg taking the wheel of the F1 W05 Hybrid for the second of two days’ running in Barcelona. Nico’s best time of 1:25.805 from 102 laps put him second on the time sheets.
– Test programme began with a trial run of the ‘megaphone’ exhaust tailpipe as requested by the FIA
– The remainder of running time focused on aero, braking and control systems evaluation, in addition to practice starts
– Pirelli’s hard and medium compound dry tyres were used in the morning, the medium again in the afternoon
– Nico emerged for his first run at 09:05 local time, completing 55 laps in the morning and 47 laps in the afternoon
– Mercedes-Benz Power Units completed a total of 1,788 km between all teams
– The team now returns to Brackley to prepare for the Monaco Grand Prix, which begins with P1 on Thursday 22 May.
Nico Rosberg
Test days are so valuable as you can’t really test anything effectively during a race weekend. No one run is the same as another, whereas here you can keep certain variables stable and properly compare things back-to-back. Everyone was talking about the exhaust but to be honest I didn’t notice much difference in the sound. Of course, we’re happy to try these things if that’s what the FIA and the fans want us to do. But perhaps this was not the right solution. One of the main things we looked at was braking. This is an area where I haven’t felt 100% happy yet this year, so we’re continuously assessing ways to improve on that. We also worked on starts as this has been a bit of a weakness for the team this season. It’s not easy as it’s such a sophisticated procedure and there are some highly complex parts involved like the clutch, for example. But we definitely learned some interesting things. Other than that it was the usual setup and engine management work that you’d expect at a test. Our aim is to keep increasing any advantage we can find over our rivals and the team is doing a great job of that. Of course, Monaco is up next and that’s a very different, special race. But our car is strong in all areas and I see no reason why we won’t be just as competitive there.
Summary
No of Laps: 102 laps
Best Lap Time: 1:25.805
Kms Covered: 475 km
Track Length: 4.655 km
Weather
Clear, dry, warm
Max air temp 24°C, Max track temp 34°C
