Red Bull Jerez Day 4 - Engine Failure Hampers Running
By Ian Lockwood
February 20 2010
With more sunshine in Jerez today and a dry race circuit, Mark Webber began testing the RB6 this morning with a series of long runs to evaluate three different Bridgestone tyre compounds.
After three successful runs, Mark’s fourth was stopped late morning when the car had an engine failure. The team lost around two and a half hours of running time while a replacement was fitted, but Mark was back out on track in the afternoon. After an installation lap, he completed one very long run, as the team continued its tyre testing.
Mark Webber said: “The weather was a lot kinder to us on the last two days and we learned a hell of a lot, no question about it. We did a lot of stuff with Renault and also leaned about the aerodynamics and the chassis – there were lots of things we kept throwing into the fire and we kept learning, so that was good. We need a nice clear run in Barcelona and a little more reliability there and we’re ready to go racing.”
Ian Morgan, Head of Race Engineering said: “It was frustrating test with the wet weather over the first two days, but having two dry days at the end was good and enabled us to get some good mileage on the car. Next week’s test in Barcelona will concentrate on our final preparations before Bahrain, including some race simulations.”
As Ian mentioned, the team will be in Barcelona next week for the final pre-season test, ahead of the first race in Bahrain on 14 March.
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I'de say that the team knows it has a lot of speed, and are just a bit behind the 8 ball in unlocking it due to the late testing entry, and the shoddy weather they had.
Reliability concerns me.
I have highlighted this many times. But the team does not do enough laps. Compare our track time with ferrari, mclaren or williams and we just dont do enough laps.
I also wonder if the loss of Geoff Willis will hurt the team. The team cant afford to suffer from reliability problems, let alone pace. Cant see a driver like vettel hanging around for more than a season in midfield. By vettel's standards I would imagine that anything outside fighting for podium positions would be a dissapointment.
www.racingbulls.net
Quote:I have highlighted this many times. But the team does not do enough laps. Compare our track time with ferrari, mclaren or williams and we just dont do enough laps.
We actually completed more laps at Jerez than McLaren - Williams & Ferrari way out in front though. There is an arguement that testing is about quality, not quantity. If a driver can drive consistantly, and give reliable feedback (that hopefully doesn't contradict his team mate), and as long as enough laps are done to complete component life-cylce / reliability work, then what do you learn in 433 laps that you miss in 375?
Laps completed in Jerez last week:
1. FW32 Williams-Cosworth: 482
2. F10 Ferrari: 433
3. STR5 Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari: 395
4. W01 Mercedes: 391
5. RB6 Red Bull-Renault: 375
6. MP4-25 McLaren-Mercedes: 338
7. R30 Renault: 332
8. T127 Lotus-Cosworth: 315
9. VJM03 Force India-Mercedes: 310
10. C29 Sauber-Ferrari: 230
11. VR-01 Virgin-Cosworth: 144
www.racingbulls.net
If you look at total laps since the onset of the testing season, redbull would be significantly behind. This was the period to play catch up. My background is not in engineering, but i would have thought that a lot of mileage is necessary to push parts to the limit and test reliability. Teams like ferrari and mclaren can afford to do less mileage at jerez as they seem to have better reliability and had a previous week of testing.
I might be wrong, but i am pretty sure we other teams might have done more race distance simulations and think webber pointed out that they would have liked to do that as well.
They have to hop that the car is reliable so they can play catch up at barcelona and conduct race simulations.
I don't think the team is hurting too much however, they seem pretty confidant going into the season.
I'm guessing that we will be blasting out the laps in Barcelona, and all my predictions of this red bull BEAST will come true.
I'm just worried about that bloody Renault engine, and I don't think that's in our hands.