Schumacher: Developing the car step-by-step

Michael Schumacher topped day four of testing in Barcelona

Mar.11 (PVM) On 11 February 2011, Michael Schumacher’s name topped the timing screens after a day of preseason Formula 1 testing at Jerez de la Frontera and yesterday, exactly a month later, the seven times world champion again was fastest of all but this time at Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona.

In Barcelona the MGP-W02 hast started to look like a contender

In February there was some doubt about the “authenticity” of Schumacher’s flying lap, this time there was no doubt and it was clear that the Silver Arrows had mad a mammoth leap in performance thanks to a raft of updates including: revised front wing, alternative brake ducts, new turning vanes, updated exhaust system and tweaked diffuser.
Speaking after topping the tuiming screens on the penultimate day the seven times world champion said, “We have been developing the car step-by-step this week with new parts arriving each day. So our focus today [Friday] has been on understanding how to get the best from the car now that it is pretty much in its final configuration for the first time. The car has behaved as we expected and it’s been a very productive day.”

Ross Brawn with Schumacher's engineer Andrew Shovlin

The Mercedes GP team was under intense scrutiney of late as the team’s new MGP-W02 appeared to be failing when compared to the pace setters Red Bull and Ferrari. However team principal Ross Brawn always maintained that the team’s development would be rolled out progressively as the first race approached and if Friday in Barcelona is anything to go by then it appears that there is no need to panic.
Speaking to BBC sport Brawn said, “We’ve definitely moved forward. Whether it’s enough we won’t know until Melbourne. I don’t believe one or two of the other teams have shown their full hand yet but it’s certainly a lot more respectable.”
He said the specification of the car when Schumacher set the time was “fairly representative of qualifying but we can go further”.

Michael in the Barcelona pit garage

On the day Schumacher’s programme focused on aerodynamic evaluations and qualifying exercises, but he set the fastest time of the day, 1:21.268, during a qualifying simulation.
Brawn added, “The team with the fastest car may not necessarily win the races. They should do but it is so easy to trip up over the strategy either with the safety car or events or just getting it slightly wrong. With KERS or the rear flap adjuster, we’ve got two powerful tools that should allow more overtaking.”
The man who guided Schumacher to an unprecedented run of F1 titles concluded, “If you get it wrong and you’re out on the track at the wrong time on the wrong tyres, people will overtake you. If you’ve got the fastest car and good strategy, you should win but there is more potential to get it wrong than there was last year.”

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