Rubens Barrichello set the fastest laptime of the second pre-season test in Jerez today as he completed 103 laps in the Williams FW33.
Technical director Sam Michael explained that the technical problems that had plagued the team over the last three days of the test were largely avoided today but admitted that KERS – the main source of unreliability – had been disabled. “Nothing was going to stop us from doing over 100 laps today!” he exclaimed. “After limited running up to now, we concentrated on setup and long runs. Rubens was trying various things to learn about the Pirelli tyres – some worked, some didn’t. Now we've also gathered some data on the Pirelli wet tyre after a small shower at the end of the session. At the next test we will also have KERS back on the car as we ran without it today.
“We did suffer from a hydraulic leak during the middle of the day but overall, it’s encouraging that we’ve had no major fundamental failures on the car – especially considering how tight the package is. All of the faults that have been causing our downtime in the recent days are small things that systems will quickly put right.”
Barrichello echoed the positive fews of his technical director. “We completed some long runs today and looked at trying some different things on the car,” said the Brazilian. “This morning was also the first time we could run a few new sets of tyres and get some momentum. The car performed as it should do so I am happy with that. The day went with minor problems, but we have some good direction and it is great to get some more mileage on the car.”
Williams will be back on track in Barcelona on Friday 18th February. Both Barrichello and team-mate Pastor Maldonado will behind the wheel of the FW33 on the first day of the four-day test.
