Barrichello’s pace-setting lap – a 1m19.832s – proved to be the quickest of the four-day test
The second pre-season test session concluded at the Circuito de Jerez on Sunday with Rubens Barrichello setting the pace in his Cosworth-powered AT&T Williams FW33. Barrichello’s pace-setting lap – a 1m19.832s – proved to be the quickest of the four-day test as teams continued to accumulate mileage on their 2011 cars.
Cosworth was represented by two of its three teams as AT&T Williams was joined at the test by the recently unveiled Marussia Virgin Racing MVR-02, which made its track debut in Jerez at the hands of Timo Glock and Jérôme d’Ambrosio. The Hispania Racing, HRT F1 Team was not present at the test but released the first pictures of its F111 race car earlier in the week and will resume testing action in Barcelona later this week.
The main focus for the AT&T Williams team was to continue to add mileage on the new FW33, powered by the KERS adapted CA2011k V8 engine. The team completed 253 laps over the four days with new recruit Pastor Maldonado totalling 51 laps and Barrichello amassing an impressive 202 laps over his two days at the track.
Marussia Virgin Racing also enjoyed a productive first test with 216 laps over the weekend, indicating encouraging reliability with the CA2011-powered MVR-02. An issue with the oil pump was experienced on the final day, which will be inspected by Cosworth engineers in order to ascertain the root cause of the problem.
Testing resumes at the Circuit de Catalunya on Friday for another valuable four-day session in preparation for the 2011 season which gets underway in Bahrain in less than a month.
Mark Gallagher – Cosworth General Manager F1 Business Unit
“Jerez was another useful opportunity for teams to add miles to their new cars and for drivers to prepare for the season ahead. Although outright lap times are not indicative at this early stage of the new season, it is nonetheless nice to see Cosworth power at the top of the timesheets. Williams was able to complete significant mileage on the final two days and we look forward to gathering more data from the KERS system and the CA2011k engine in Barcelona later this week. For Marussia Virgin Racing, it was good to see the 2011 package on track for the first time. Unfortunately we had an engine-related issue on the final day which was a problem with the oil pump, and the cause of this is being investigated.”
source: Cosworth F1