Driver: Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa
Chassis / Engine: FW36-02 / PU106A Hybrid
Location: Bahrain International Circuit 5.412km
Objectives: Pitstop practice and race starts
Weather: Hot and Sunny
Maximum air & track temps: 27ºC / 33ºC
Rod Nelson, Chief Test & Support Engineer: The main target for today was to practice pitstops with the race team. We ended up doing 43 live pitstops and went through our race start procedures. We then did some chassis work at the end of the day with Felipe to try and make up for some of the time he lost on day one. We are happy with how it has gone today. The car is proving to be solid and we are getting a good handle on things including starts performance and all the practical homework we need to do before we go racing in Melbourne. Overall, we are making good progress.
Felipe Massa: It was a very busy afternoon. It was a shame we couldn’t drive on the first day as that would have helped us get even further along today but the most important thing was that we found and solved the problem. The car then did 116 laps yesterday, and we did 115 laps today combined so that is very positive. We did a lot of pitstop practice, which was the main goal today, and I saw a big improvement from the start of the day to the end which is important for the team to be ready and prepared for the first race. I think we are going in a good direction. The car is running well and I am happy. There is still a lot to do and to understand about the car, and improvements to the set-up that we haven’t had time to do yet, but it’s very positive so far.
Valtteri Bottas: We had a very good morning today focusing only on pitstops and race starts. We again ran the programme without any problems and we were improving the pitstops and starts throughout. It was good to get more mileage on the car even though I didn’t do a timed lap myself. It is very important work for the races as this is one area we need to improve.
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