Red Bull relieved with reliability on day 3

F1 Test, Barcelona, Circuit de Catalunya

Mark Webber took over from Sebastian Vettel at the wheel of the Red Bull RB9 in Barcelona today and was able to get through 108 laps and almost 497km of running. The team was particularly relieved to be able to run this many laps, given its reliability issues earlier in the test.

“We had a pretty good run today, we’re learning plenty, so a positive outing for us,” said Mark Webber. “Overall the car ran smoothly and once again we amassed a huge amount of data for the guys back at the factory to go through. We’d like to get a bit more mileage tomorrow in the dry, but that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen, it looks like it will be wet.

“As usual at tests, the question of the pecking order comes up all the time but, honestly, I have no idea. There are a few quick cars out there, but in winter testing it’s so hard to say if anyone’s better than anyone else, especially with the tyres going off the way they are – you’re losing four or five seconds over the course of a stint, so figuring out who’s doing what is pretty difficult. All we can do is keep pushing, keep developing and keep our eyes fixed on the first race.”

Race Engineering Co-ordinator Andy Damerum commented: “After the small problems we had yesterday, we had a very satisfying day. The car was reliable throughout and we got through the full programme. We concentrated on test items in the morning and then obviously, looking at the times, got through some long runs in the afternoon during which we tried to get as much information as possible on the tyres. It’s a tricky business because it was pretty cold today but that’s the nature of the beast here. We don’t often get temperatures like this during the season but it can happen at places like the Nürburgring. Silverstone and Spa, so all the information is valuable. As for tomorrow, well, the weather forecast looks pretty bad, so we’ll see just have to see what greets us in the morning and go from there”.