Rubens Barrichello was the first driver to put the new Williams FW33 through its paces on the first day of pre-season testing although a problem with KERS limited the team’s running.
The Brazilian completed 78 laps of the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia, but finished the day only 11th fastest.
“It's been a good day in terms of getting through things,” explained Sam Michael, the Williams technical director. “We had a problem with KERS this morning so we didn't use it in the afternoon. Besides that, everything else on the car is working and we didn't have any problems with temperatures, pressures and all the systems are working fine. We now plan to do more mileage and setup work tomorrow. The moveable rear wing also worked fine today so all in all a pretty good first day.
Barrichello was unable to make any definitive statements about the performance of new car, which was launched this morning, but the most experienced driver in the history of the sport was pleased to be back out on track.
“I couldn't wait to get back in the car,” he said. “Unfortunately we lost a lot of time in the morning so we were trying to play catch up in the afternoon. We did some good laps and some long runs in the car. It is too early to say how we are performing but we will now spend time to try and understand the car a little better.”
Barrichello will be back in the car tomorrow morning before handing the FW33 over to new team-mate Pastor Maldonado for the afternoon.
