Max covers a double race distance in Barcelona

Published on 27 February 2015 by Mike Motilall

Friday morning Max Verstappen gets in, for the first time, in the new STR10. With all the updates that the Scuderia Toro Rosso car will have, at the start at Melbourne in two weeks’ time. The morning saw Max complete 78 laps on Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. In the afternoon he added another 61 laps, making the final count an astounding 139 laps.

The Scuderia Toro Rosso-driver was not able to beat his fastest time, set in the morning (1:26.766), and finished seventh fastest. His day ended prematurely due to technical issues. Max reports to Verstappen.nl: “It went very well this afternoon. We did a race simulation and the speed of the new STR10 was very good. This car feels great and is clearly an improvement. Despite the fact we were not able to do the planned amount of laps, I am very pleased with the completed 139 laps.”

The rear of the new STR10 is ornate with a rack of sensors, with which the airflow can be mapped. Max gets the order to drive the straight with a constant speed, enabling the engineers to get fixed parameters in the data. After some adjustments to the car, Max does laps with and without the DRS. Also the green paint, applied to the left rear, should make it possible to see how the new components on the car react to the airflow. Later, the front wing is also temporarily given a green colour; and a new “monkey seat”, the little wing under the rear wing, is tested.

In the first two hours, Max is completely busy testing. During which, he also practices at least a dozen pit stops. It all looks very polished. Bear in mind that Max, before ever getting in a Formula 1-car, never needed to make pit stops.

Toro Rosso has only just recently shown up, during this last Formula 1-test and prior to the start of the season, with the final version of the STR10. This was done, in order to spend the maximum amount of time, on the development of the car. Max does not see this as a disadvantage: “It was important for us drivers to do as many laps as possible, to get used to the chassis of the car. The new version of the STR10 has only brought us more grip, so it was worth the waiting.”

After a busy morning, the Italian team still has a lot more in store for the 17-year old Dutchman. On the afternoon program, there is a complete race simulation, so Max leaves the pit box with a fully tanked STR10. The first two stints he uses the medium compound tyres, after which he changes to the harder Pirelli’s.

All procedures and pit stops went without a hitch, but the complete race distance of 66 laps, was just out of reach. A technical problem, relating to electrical issues, forces Max to park the Toro Rosso in the pit, after some 61 laps. At that moment, there was still over an hour to go, but Max would not make it out to the track anymore.

Friday afternoon, Nico Rosberg showed what the new Mercedes is capable of. On the soft compound, he notes a time of 1:22.792, the fastest time driven in Barcelona this winter. Valtteri Bottas (Williams) finishes second. Felipe Nasr brought the Sauber to a decent third spot, ahead of Sebastian Vettel in his Ferrari, just a two-and-a-half count away from Rosberg.

Saturday, Carlos Sainz will take over the steering wheel again. Finally, on Sunday, Max will take care of the last test day in Barcelona. “Even then we will try to improve the car, it is an ongoing process. I hope to get to know the car through and through and be able to drive a lot. That is most important”, concludes a still fresh looking Max.

Third pre-season test - Barcelona day 2 - Friday 27 February

Pos	Driver			Team		Time			Laps
1	Nico Rosberg 		Mercedes  	1m22.792s 		(106)
2	Valtteri Bottas 	Williams  	1m23.995s  +1.203 	(90)
3	Felipe Nasr 		Sauber  	1m24.071s  +1.279 	(141)
4	Sebastian Vettel 	Ferrari  	1m25.339s  +2.547 	(143)
5	Jenson Button 		McLaren  	1m25.590s  +2.798 	(101)
6	Pastor Maldonado 	Lotus  		1m26.705s  +3.913 	(140)
7	Max Verstappen 		Toro Rosso  	1m26.766s  +3.974 	(139)
8	Daniil Kvyat 		Red Bull  	1m26.965s  +4.173 	(84)
9	Nico Hulkenberg 	Force India  	1m28.412s  +5.620 	(77)