2013 Jerez Test

2013 Jerez Test
The 1994 layout of the Jerez circuit
Date	5–8 February 2013
Circuit	Circuito de Jerez
Type	Pre-season test
Fastest driver	Felipe Massa Ferrari F138
Time	1:17.879 on day 3

The 2013 Jerez Test was the first official testing event of the 2013 Formula One Season. It was a scheduled four-day test session that took place at the Circuito de Jerez, in Jerez de la Frontera, Andalusia, Spain between February 5–8th 2013.

The test session is was attended by all 11 teams of the 2013 Formula One Season. All teams except for Williams débuted their new cars at the event. Williams fielded a modified version of their 2012 season car, with the FW35 being unveiled at the next test in Barcelona on 19th February.

Force India did not confirm that their second driver until after this event. This has meant that Paul di Resta was the only confirmed driver for Force India at the event, with reserve drivers James Rossiter and Jules Bianchi also taking part.

Most notably, however, Ferrari's Fernando Alonso did not take part in the test, with Felipe Massa driving in the first three days and Pedro de la Rosa taking part on the final day.

Both Caterham and Marussia unveiled their cars on the morning of the first day of testing.

Massa set the quickest time of the test, while Esteban Gutiérrez drove the most laps.

Driver Running Order

Team	Car	Day 1 (Tue)	Day 2 (Wed)	Day 3 (Thu)	Day 4 (Fri)
Red Bull-Renault	RB9	Mark Webber		Sebastian Vettel
Ferrari	F138	Felipe Massa			Pedro de la Rosa
McLaren-Mercedes	MP4-28	Jenson Button	Sergio Pérez	Jenson Button	Sergio Pérez
Lotus-Renault	E21	Romain Grosjean		Kimi Räikkönen
Mercedes	F1 W04	Nico Rosberg	Lewis Hamilton	Nico Rosberg	Lewis Hamilton
Sauber-Ferrari	C32	Nico Hülkenberg		Esteban Gutiérrez
Force India-Mercedes	VJM06	Paul di Resta	Paul di Resta James Rossiter	James Rossiter Paul di Resta	Jules Bianchi Paul di Resta
Williams-Renault	FW34*	Pastor Maldonado		Valtteri Bottas
Toro Rosso-Ferrari	STR8	Daniel Ricciardo		Jean-Éric Vergne
Caterham-Renault	CT03	Giedo van der Garde		Charles Pic
Marussia-Cosworth	MR02	Max Chilton	Luiz Razia	Max Chilton	Luiz Razia

Source:

* 2012 car.

Overview

Report

Day 1

Felipe Massa set the fastest time of the test.

The first day of testing began with both Caterham and Marussia launching their cars in the early morning. New Sauber recruit, Nico Hülkenberg, was the first driver out, followed by Mark Webber and Pastor Maldonado. The first flying lap of the session, however, was performed by Felipe Massa, who dragged his Ferrari around on intermediates in a time of one minute 35.607 seconds, over 15 seconds off the normal pace. There was little initial action, as the teams performed systems checks and calibrations.

McLaren's Jenson Button was the victim of the first red flag of the day, possibly caused by fuel starvation. One hour in, the best time had been set by Romain Grosjean, with a time of 1:20.846.

The second red flag was caused by Nico Rosberg's Mercedes, whose car was emitting smoke. Mercedes retired from the day's testing to resolve the issue. McLaren were able to repair Button's car, and he returned back to the track in the early afternoon.

Without an official lunch break, there were rarely no cars on track. Midway through the afternoon, Max Chilton went off the track at the back straight and got stuck in the gravel, necessitating another red flag, which took about 20 minutes to sort out. When the car was returned to the garage, Marussia identified an issue with the rear suspension, and took no further part in the days running.

With about ten minutes to go, Button set the fastest time of the day – 1:18.681 – on the hard tyre, beating the next-quickest driver, Webber, by over eight tenths of a second.

Day 2

At the start of the day, Luiz Razia was confirmed as the partner to Max Chilton at Marussia. He was immediately put into the hotseat, performing the days testing for the team.

Nico Hülkenberg was the first driver out again, along with seven other drivers, and they were soon joined by Lewis Hamilton, who was driving the Mercedes for the first time. Soon enough, Razia got his first taste of his MR02, leaving only Sergio Pérez the only driver to not venture out onto track in the first ten minutes.

Around half an hour in, Daniel Ricciardo, just after setting a quick lap time, stopped between turns 10 and 11. Over ten minutes later, testing was resumed. Ricciardo later set the first time under one minute twenty seconds of the day. Hamilton managed a time a tenth off Ricciardo's a few minutes later, before suffering a brake failure and crashing heavily at the Dry Sack hairpin. Once again, Mercedes were unable to do any more running of the car for the remainder of the day. Fifteen minutes later, cars were allowed back on track.

The times continued to fall throughout the morning, Romain Grosjean laying down a strong marker of 1:18.828. Fifteen minutes before 1 o'clock, Razia's day was ruined as he came to a halt on the pit straight, which was quickly dealt with. Marussia later identified it as a problem with the engine, which was not resolved by the end of the day's testing and Razia was unable to drive any more laps.

As expected, during the lunch hours there was limited running, and with a mostly clear track, Grosjean was able to further reduce his time by a couple of hundredths. At about 3 o'clock, he reduced it further, by six and a half tenths to 1:18.218, which would not be beaten in the remaining two hours.

With an hour to go, James Rossiter got a go in the Force India, replacing Paul di Resta. Di Resta had set what would turn out to be the second best time of the day, at 1:19.003.

In the dying minutes, both Grosjean and Hülkenberg stopped out on track, bring out a fourth red flag of the day, with the most likely reason being that they were testing their cars on very low fuel levels.

Day 3

Sebastian Vettel completed nearly 200 laps and set the fifth best time.

The third day of the test began without being preceded by any formalities. Felipe Massa was the first out, along with Max Chilton, Kimi Räikkönen and Jean-Éric Vergne. Nine of the eleven teams released their drivers out in the first fifteen minutes. Sebastian Vettel joined in after about forty minutes.

90 minutes in, Massa set the quickest time of 1:19.005; his quickest of the test so far. After two hours, Nico Rosberg had already completed more laps than both he and Lewis Hamilton managed for Mercedes in the first two days. The was also an incident involving Force India's simulator driver James Rossiter, who hit one of his mechanics in the pit lane, who thankfully was uninjured.

Charles Pic, who was the other driver to get on track late, caused the first red flag two and half hours into the day. His Caterham had stopped on track just before turn 2. After just over ten minutes, testing was back up and running again. Soon after this, Massa set the first (and only) sub-1 minute 18 second lap of test, on the soft tyre.

By "lunchtime", Rosberg had completed 86 laps in four hours, with no-one other than Massa setting a time under 1 minute 19 seconds. At two o'clock, Paul di Resta replaced Rossiter in the Force India car.

Not long after two o'clock, Vergne stopped on at the end of the pit lane, bringing out the second red flag of the day, which, due the position of the stoppage, was cleared up in just five minutes.

Not much action took place in the afternoon otherwise. Rosberg kept plugging in laps, ending with 148 of them at the end of the day, equal to 655.344 kilometres (407.148 miles), a total greater than two races.

A final red flag, five minutes before the end, effectively ended proceedings early. It was caused by Jenson Button's McLaren stopping on track between turns 7 and 8.

Day 4

The sesssion started with Kimi Räikkönen, Jean-Éric Vergne, Esteban Gutiérrez, Charles Pic and Jules Bianchi all heading out at the start. They were soon joined by Lewis Hamilton.

Pedro de la Rosa, driving the Ferrari for the first time, exited onto the track about an hour into the session. His run was short-lived; on his second installation lap, an oil leak caused his car to catch fire, bringing out the red flag. Within twenty minutes, the track was all-clear.

But only for fifteen minutes, as Gutiérrez ran out of fuel. This was sorted out in a few minutes, and the track was clear once again. The car was not damaged in any way, and at about 12pm, Gutiérrez set the quickest time of the day so far.

Sebastian Vettel proved the Red Bull's raw speed by setting a faster time ten minutes later.

Ten minutes before 1pm, the kerbing between turns 10 and 11 was damaged. Initially, debris was found on the track, which brought out a red flag. With the debris picked up, the green flag was shown – but for about two minutes, as the damaged kerb needed to be repaired. Quick-drying cement was applied, and an hour after the damage was noticed, the cement was dry enough to be driven on and testing began once again. The end of the test was pushed back half an hour to 4:30 pm.

Bianchi was replaced by Paul di Resta in the Force India at half past three. Bianchi had set the best time of the day at that point in the day, a 1:18.175. Räikkönen later posted a faster time of 1:18.148.

Räikkönen's time was not beaten, and he ended the day as the fastest driver. Hamilton and Gutiérrez drove the most laps (145 and 142 respectively).

Best times

By day

Day	Driver	Team	Car	Tyres	Time
Feb 5	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	MP4-28	P	1:18.681
Feb 6	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	E21	P	1:18.218
Feb 7	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	F138	P	1:17.879
Feb 8	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	E21	P	1:18.149

By driver

Pos.	Driver	Team	Car	Tyres	Time	Days	Laps
1	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	F138	P	1:17.879	1, 2, 3	227
2	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	E21	P	1:18.148	3, 4	123
3	Jules Bianchi	Force India-Mercedes	VJM06	P	1:18.175	4	56
4	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	E21	P	1:18.218	1, 2	149
5	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	RB9	P	1:18.565	3, 4	198
6	Esteban Gutiérrez	Sauber-Ferrari	C32	P	1:18.669	3, 4	252
7	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	MP4-28	P	1:18.681	1, 3	120
8	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	STR8	P	1:18.760	3, 4	177
9	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	F1 W04	P	1:18.766	1, 3	159
10	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	F1 W04	P	1:18.905	2, 4	160
11	Sergio Pérez	McLaren-Mercedes	MP4-28	P	1:18.944	2, 4	179
12	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	VJM06	P	1:19.003	1, 2, 3, 4	240
13	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	STR8	P	1:19.134	1, 2	153
14	James Rossiter	Force India-Mercedes	VJM06	P	1:19.303	2, 3	61
15	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	RB9	P	1:19.338	1, 2	174
16	Nico Hülkenberg	Sauber-Ferrari	C32	P	1:19.502	1, 2	178
17	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Renault	FW34*	P	1:19.856	3, 4	178
18	Pedro de la Rosa	Ferrari	F138	P	1:20.316	4	51
19	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	FW34*	P	1:20.693	1, 2	155
20	Max Chilton	Marussia-Cosworth	MR02	P	1:21.269	1, 3	107
21	Charles Pic	Caterham-Renault	CT03	P	1:21.105	3, 4	164
22	Luiz Razia	Marussia-Cosworth	MR02	P	1:21.226	2, 4	113
23	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham-Renault	CT03	P	1:21.311	1, 2	152

* 2012 car.

Most laps by a driver: Esteban Gutiérrez (Sauber-Ferrari), 252.

Most laps by a team: Sauber-Ferrari, 430.

Most laps in a day: Nico Rosberg (Mercedes), 148 (day 3).

Times

Day 1, 5th February

Source:

Pos.	Driver	Team	Car	Tyres	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	MP4-28	P	1:18.861		37
2	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	RB9	P	1:19.709	+ 0.848 s	73
3	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	E21	P	1:19.796	+ 0.935 s	54
4	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	VJM06	P	1:20.343	+ 1.482 s	89
5	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	STR8	P	1:20.401	+ 1.540 s	70
6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	F138	P	1:20.536	+ 1.675 s	64
7	Nico Hülkenberg	Sauber-Ferrari	C32	P	1:20.699	+ 1.838 s	79
8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	F1 W04	P	1:20.846	+ 1.935 s	11
9	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	FW34*	P	1:20.864	+ 2.003 s	84
10	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham-Renault	CT03	P	1:21.915	+ 3.054 s	64
11	Max Chilton	Marussia-Cosworth	MR02	P	1:24.176	+ 5.315 s	29

* 2012 car.

Day 2, 6th February

Source:

Pos.	Driver	Team	Car	Tyres	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	E21	P	1:18.218		95
2	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	VJM06	P	1:19.003	+ 0.785 s	95
3	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	STR8	P	1:19.134	+ 0.916 s	83
4	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	RB9	P	1:19.338	+ 1.120 s	101
5	Nico Hülkenberg	Sauber-Ferrari	C32	P	1:19.502	+ 1.284 s	99
6	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	F1 W04	P	1:19.519	+ 1.301 s	15
7	Sergio Pérez	McLaren-Mercedes	MP4-28	P	1:19.572	+ 1.354 s	81
8	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	F138	P	1:19.974	+ 1.696 s	78
9	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	FW34*	P	1:20.693	+ 2.475 s	71
10	James Rossiter	Force India-Mercedes	VJM06	P	1:21.273	+ 3.055 s	19
11	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham-Renault	CT03	P	1:21.311	+ 3.093 s	88
12	Luiz Razia	Marussia-Cosworth	MR02	P	1:23.537	+ 5.319 s	31

* 2012 car.

Day 3, 7th February

Source:

Pos.	Driver	Team	Car	Tyres	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	F138	P	1:17.879		85
2	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	F1 W04	P	1:18.766	+ 0.887 s	148
3	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	RB9	P	1:19.052	+ 1.173 s	102
4	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	E21	P	1:19.200	+ 1.321 s	40
5	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	STR8	P	1:19.247	+ 1.368 s	85
6	James Rossiter	Force India-Mercedes	VJM06	P	1:19.303	+ 1.424 s	42
7	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	MP4-28	P	1:19.603	+ 1.724 s	83
8	Esteban Gutiérrez	Sauber-Ferrari	C32	P	1:19.934	+ 2.055 s	110
9	Max Chilton	Marussia-Cosworth	MR02	P	1:21.269	+ 3.390 s	78
10	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Renault	FW34*	P	1:21.575	+ 3.696 s	86
11	Charles Pic	Caterham-Renault	CT03	P	1:22.352	+ 4.473 s	57
12	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	VJM06	P	1:23.729	+ 5.850 s	7

* 2012 car.

Day 4, 8th February

Source:

Pos.	Driver	Team	Car	Tyres	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	E21	P	1:18.148		83
2	Jules Bianchi	Force India-Mercedes	VJM06	P	1:18.175	+ 0.027 s	56
3	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	RB9	P	1:18.565	+ 0.417 s	96
4	Esteban Gutiérrez	Sauber-Ferrari	C32	P	1:18.669	+ 0.521 s	142
5	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	STR8	P	1:18.760	+ 0.612 s	92
6	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	F1 W04	P	1:18.905	+ 0.757 s	145
7	Sergio Pérez	McLaren-Mercedes	MP4-28	P	1:18.944	+ 0.796 s	98
8	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Renault	FW34*	P	1:19.851	+ 1.703 s	92
9	Pedro de la Rosa	Ferrari	F138	P	1:20.316	+ 2.168 s	51
10	Charles Pic	Caterham-Renault	CT03	P	1:21.105	+ 2.957 s	109
11	Luiz Razia	Marussia-Cosworth	MR02	P	1:21.226	+ 3.078 s	82
12	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	VJM06	P	1:23.435	+ 5.287 s	49

* 2012 car.

Notes

This article is a featured article.
This was the Formula 1 Wiki's Featured Article on 1 October 2013.