Williams had both drivers in the car on their third day of pre-season testing in Barcelona on Friday, and between them, Rubens Barrichello and Pastor Maldonado completed a century of laps.
Barrichello did the majority of the running, taking the FW33 around 89 laps of the Circuit de Catalunya as he completed a race simulation. The Brazilian driver finished as the fifth fastest driver today, but didn’t sound entirely satisfied with how the car is developing.
“I did a race simulation this morning on some new tyres,” he explained. “The car felt OK but we are still not quite where we want to be just yet.”
Maldonado was given some time in the car today owing to the heavy rain predicted tomorrow. However, as the Venezuelan driver explains, his track time was cut short by engine problems.
“We lost some time while we changed the engine and then during the installation lap we had another minor engine problem,” he said. “In the end I only did one long run but the most important thing was that I got to drive the car with the new aero package which does feel better. Hopefully we will get a full day of running in tomorrow.”
Technical director Sam Michael thanked Barrichello for his efforts throughout the pre-season test schedule, and also explained where the team are with the KERS difficulties that blighted the first day of this session.
“Rubens completed a race distance this morning, which marked the end of his winter test programme,” he said. “The mileage and input he has given towards setting up the FW33 has been invaluable to the team.
“We had an oil leak on the engine at lunchtime before Pastor took over for the afternoon. As it was high mileage, we chose to change it. We achieved most of our programme today and it looks like we’ll be into some wet running tomorrow.
“We will continue to run in Barcelona without KERS, but everyone's pushing to ensure we have it on the car for Melbourne.”
