Powertrain problem for Kobayashi
Today was the first day of pre-season testing in Barcelona with Kamui Kobayashi at the wheel of the Sauber C30-Ferrari. The Team lost some track time due to a powertrain problem, but was still able to gather valuable data.
James Key, Technical Director: “It was a wet start this morning, so we decided to do a wet tyre programme. Pirelli brought the wet race spec tyre here and, as we had already tried the intermediate race spec, we decided to use the opportunity to get to know the wet tyres. This was useful because the track started to dry up by mid-morning, and we were able to learn how both, the wet and the intermediate tyres behave on a drying track, which is always useful. We then suffered a problem with the powertrain, which delayed us a little bit this morning, but after this we recovered in the afternoon. We did another fuel system check test by running out on the track, and then worked on the tyre compounds we have here - the hard, the medium and the soft. We finished the day with a long run. Kamui did a good job on this and was fairly consistent, which is good for the medium tyre on a track which is hard on tyres. It wasn’t really until this afternoon that we were able to start to set up the car for Barcelona. We found some useful directions and we will carry on with that work tomorrow.”
Kamui Kobayashi: “We couldn’t complete the whole programme due to a technical problem. We had wet conditions in the morning so this was fine to collect some information on wet tyres. In the afternoon we couldn’t do everything we planned, so we have some work left for tomorrow.”
What comes next:
Kamui Kobayashi will continue to drive tomorrow, before Sergio Pérez takes over for the final two days.
