Barcelona Test Day 4: Schumacher and Rosberg Make the Silver Arrows Sparkle

This fourth day of private testing saw the return of a driver to the forefront, behind the wheel of a sparkling Silver Arrow: Schumacher and his Mercedes quickly took the lead this morning thanks to new improvements.

The morning saw no incidents disrupting the work of the drivers, which shows a clear improvement in reliability within the teams, particularly Barrichello’s Williams, which completed no less than 89 laps before the lunch break. Alonso, with his Ferrari, initially placed himself at the top of the timesheet, until Schumacher displaced him with a car equipped with significant new upgrades provided by Mercedes. He, moreover, beats the record of these tests, set by Sergio Perez on Thursday, by five-tenths, enough to impress given that some drivers had already found the Sauber driver’s time very fast. Heidfeld’s Lotus Renault is placed in third, four-tenths off Alonso’s time and eight-tenths off the seven-time world champion, while Barrichello places his Williams in fourth position.

In the afternoon, most of the drivers focus on long stints, with lap times in the 1’28 range for the two leading drivers, far from their times this morning. And in the middle of the afternoon, Kobayashi causes the first red flag when his Sauber stops on the track. For the final hour of testing, Rosberg and Maldonado take over from their teammates to continue testing, and it’s the first run of the evolved Mercedes for Nico Rosberg. He takes advantage to clock one of the best times, climbing to third position with a lap under 1’22 as well. Meanwhile, many drivers accumulate a large number of laps, showing results in reliability work. The reigning world champion, Sebastian Vettel, remains behind in the hierarchy with a modest eighth place after causing a red flag a few minutes before the end of the session, closing it out.

It is therefore the seven-time world champion, the Red Baron, who returns to the forefront by setting the best time in these private testing sessions in Barcelona with a 1:21.268, ahead of Alonso and his Ferrari, and his teammate Nico Rosberg. Reliability is also present, with a large number of laps completed by the various drivers.

This Friday also marks the departure of several teams that have completed their four days of testing, and only a few teams will remain to take to the track tomorrow morning, with the first laps of the HRT F111.

Remains to be seen if these teams will be able to take advantage of this last day with a small group to finalize their program.

The results of the fourth day of private testing in Barcelona: