Driver: Sergey Sirotkin (AM), Robert Kubica (PM)
Chassis / Engine: FW41-01 / Mercedes-AMG F1 M09 EQ Power+
Location: Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, 4.655 km
Weather: Cold and damp
Temperatures (min-max): Air 3-6ºC / Track 4-9ºC
Paddy Lowe, Chief Technical Officer: A very difficult day weather-wise, but it is the same for everybody and we tried to make the best of it. The early part of the day was extremely cold with a wet track, and we used this time with Sergey driving to carry out a range of aerodynamic surveys on each of the full wet, intermediate and dry tyres. It was only at about 12:30 that conditions allowed performance running on dry tyres, and Sergey made the best of his limited time with three runs on the soft compound; the final run being cut short by a red flag. Robert took over for the afternoon with improving conditions and, managed two performance runs before the temperatures dropped and again became critical for switching on the tyres. We reverted again to data gathering during the light snowfall! With such instability in tyre temperatures this was not a day in which we can learn anything performance-wise, but we gathered good characteristic data and achieved another 100 laps of reliable running of the new car.
Sergey Sirotkin: The weather this morning was very similar to yesterday, but it got better around midday. When we started it was very cold, too cold to try and make any use of the runs, so we just spent our time doing the aero checks among other things, which are less dependent on the weather conditions. Around midday, the temperature came back to us and we switched to try to do some proper running, but it was still not ideal. We did 52 laps overall, which is ok, we got a first impression of the car and the first things to pay attention to. Again, it wasn’t ideal but it wasn’t ideal for anyone. We got the maximum we could so we should be happy with how we reacted to the situation.
Robert Kubica: I think we have achieved the maximum we could do due to the weather and general track temperatures. I got my first feeling for the car, and saw what we were able to do in difficult conditions. It is not easy to jump into a new car with such difficult weather conditions and have the confidence to push, but I think we did some important work, although it was short. However, it gave us, and especially myself, an idea of how to work better for the future to address some areas where we can improve the car. The car has some very powerful areas, but, in the meantime, we need to work on some issues which I am sure we will get on top of. If we do that then the driveability, and also the confidence of the driver will be higher.
The FW41 returns to the track tomorrow with Lance driving in the morning session, before handing over to Robert in the afternoon.
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