The Australian maintained his perfect record of making the top ten in qualifying, while DC overcame a reliability-afflicted Saturday session by rising rapidly through the field on Sunday after adopting an aggressive raceplan.
Since then, the team has been working hard on developments for Spain and beyond. No surprise there, of course, as all eleven teams will have been following similar programmes, but RBR will bring more than just aero developments to Barcelona.
“Our plans always included an extensive bodywork update to arrive in time for this race, but we also planned to introduce a step forward in transmission performance for Spain,” technical director Mark Smith confirmed.
“The relatively late confirmation of the switch to
Renault power meant we were not up to speed earlier in some areas so, right from the beginning, we decided, for logistical reasons, to target the Barcelona test for the introduction of our transmission development and happily the testing was successful in this respect.
“The aero package involves the front wing, bargeboards and rear bodywork, including the appropriate cooling exits. Why do we need these updates? Why did the car not start the year with them if they were always planned? Because of ongoing aero work in the wind tunnel, every week produces something that will improve performance on the car. A
Formula One car is essentially in a state of continuous development and the difficult decision is choosing the moment to freeze this work and turn it into a package that is put on the car. You have to assess how much you have moved forward with your development, and what are the logistical implications.
“On top of that, the first three races have thrown up some reliability issues and the Barcelona test last week means that, hopefully, we have addressed those too, notably the problem we had with the fuel flap.
Williams – Nico Rosberg (#16), Alex Wurz (#17):
Having featured in and around the top ten throughout the Bahrain weekend, despite not having tested at the desert circuit, Williams will naturally be hoping for more in Barcelona – despite its pre-race test being interrupted by two sizeable accidents for
Kazuki Nakajima and
Nico Rosberg, which prompted it to pack up early.
