Red Bul Barcelona testing - Day 3 report

BARCELONA TEST – DAY THREE

Mark Webber, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: xpb.cc

Driver: Mark Webber
Car: RB8
Laps: 97 laps
Best time: 1:24.771

Circuit length: 4.655km
Fastest lap: P. Maldonado (1:22.391)

Today it was Mark Webber’s turn to try his hand at a full race simulation in the RB8. After starting his programme, the car developed a fault which interrupted the morning, but after lunch Mark went into a full race simulation and managed the full distance without further problem.

Mark said: “All in all, it wasn’t a bad day at all. Not the smoothest of morning’s and we didn’t get too many laps done there, but in the afternoon the race simulation went OK. We’re still learning plenty.

“It would have been nice to have done a few more laps, but I think everyone always wants to get 20 or 30 more and, even with the problem this morning, there were loads of positives to look at. We’re a very ambitious team, so we’ll keep working on that.”

Head of Race Engineering Ian Morgan said: “Mark only got a handful of laps in before we had a problem with the gearbox. But whereas it didn’t set us back too much yesterday, today needed more time.

“Mark then went out for his race simulation this afternoon a bit cold, but he managed to put a whole race distance on and the gearbox ran flawlessly. We stopped a couple of laps earlier than planned because we saw something in the data, but in the end it was nothing. So, while we had a limited morning, the afternoon was a pretty good recovery.

“These two days of race simulations have been valuable too in that we’ve got some good information on the tyres.”