Test in Barcelona – Day one
Barcelona, 21st February 2012 – Sergio Pérez was at the wheel of the Sauber C31- Ferrari on the first day of pre-season testing at the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona.
The day was hampered by some technical issues, which resulted in a total of 66 laps for the young Mexican.
Circuit: Circuit de Catalunya / 4.655 km
Driver: Sergio Pérez (MX)
Weather: Sunny all day, air 5-17°C, track 7-24°C
Chassis / engine: C31.02 / Ferrari 056
Mileage today: 66 laps
Fastest lap: 1:24,219 min
Giampaolo Dall’Ara (Head of Track Engineering): “We obviously didn’t cover the mileage we wanted to today, but such things happen in testing. In the morning we had some doubts related to the structure, which didn’t occur in Jerez and therefore appear to be track related. It is important to discover something like this during testing instead of at a Grand Prix weekend. We touched base with our experts in Hinwil for analyses and at the same time found a mechanical solution here at the track. In the afternoon we then had another unforeseen break due to a mechanical issue with a rear anti roll bar. Not actually a big issue, but quite time consuming as the gear box had to be removed again, etc. So now we will concentrate on our test programme for tomorrow and hope for a rather smoother session then.”
Sergio Pérez: “It wasn’t an easy day for us. Nevertheless during the 66 laps we collected some very useful data, which we will analyse tonight, so in this regard it was still a satisfying day. I am very much looking forward to tomorrow and I hope we can get a lot more work done then.”
What comes next: Sergio will continue to drive tomorrow before Kamui Kobayashi takes over for Thursday and Friday.
