Driver: Valtteri Bottas
Chassis / Engine: FW36-02 / PU106A Hybrid
Location: Bahrain International Circuit 5.412km
Objectives: Reliability tests, aero evaluations & race simulation
Weather: Dry and sunny
Maximum air & track temps: 27ºC / 30ºC
Rod Nelson, Chief Test & Support Engineer: Having spent yesterday dealing with an apparent fuel system problem we tracked it down to a wiring-loom manufacturing issue late last night. With this repaired the result was the mileage that we achieved today. We are still getting to know the car performance wise, but it’s good to see that we are getting some good reliability out of it. Every time we run the FW36 we are understanding it more and more. We tested some aero components and systems this morning before completing a race simulation this afternoon which, aside from having to stop briefly for a red flag, went to plan. Overall, we have had a good day completing 116 laps in total.
Valtteri Bottas: Today was a good day. After the problems we had yesterday it was great to complete 116 laps. We still have things we are working through but we were able to do the aero work we needed as well as complete a race simulation so we now have lots of data to look at. There is a lot of work still to do so we need to aim to have more days like today.
Williams will be back on track tomorrow, Friday 21 February, with both Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa in the FW36 as we move onto pitstop practice for the third day of the test.
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