Barcelona Test – “The only problem was the weather”

A cold debut for the SF71H with Kimi at the wheel

Montmelò – While Italy is freezing, the Barcelona area is not doing much better, even if the trees are already in blossom here. After a sunny Sunday, which meant that Scuderia Ferrari was able to comfortably complete its Filming Day, the “real” debut for the SF17H took place in plunging temperatures, with rain arriving towards the end of the session. However, by the end of the day, Kimi Raikkonen had completed 80 laps of the Catalunya Circuit, the fastest of them in 1’20”506 on Soft tyres. He worked through the first part of a programme that, over the course of this week, is given over mainly to acquiring data.

“The real problem, the only one today, was the weather,” summarised Kimi. “My first impressions with the new car were OK, but it’s still too early to make any judgement, especially given today’s conditions. These tyres aren’t designed to work at 8 degrees and it was difficult for everyone. As for the rest, our work had nothing to do with lap times and we just ran and changed a few things, trying to understand the car, which doesn’t seem to have any faults. Now we must try and do more kilometres.”

The first long run with the Halo protection fitted over the cockpit went off without any problems. “Compared to the tests we did in previous years, this time the Halo had been conceived as an integral part of the car design, which had not been possible before. I didn’t notice anything different to driving the car without the protection.”

Testing continues tomorrow, with Sebastian Vettel, while it will once again be Kimi’s turn on Wednesday, with Seb then rounding off the first winter test.