MGP W01

Works have been carrying out in testing this week as the MGP W01 car take on the Valencia circuit for the 1st pre-season winter test. As expected Nico was busy with the programme on the dry track perfect for the progress of scheduled activities.

He had completed a total of 119 laps with the car, and it’s been very productive so far as everything with the W01 car works well.

Nico expressed his satisfaction with the test and quoted

“I’m very pleased with our first full day of testing and we were really able to get into the programme and achieve some good work. We successfully completed a race distance on the car’s second day of running and I’m quite happy with how the car felt on the longer runs. It felt like the same car, just a little bit slower, but the balance was good. We’ve still got some work to do on my position in the car but that’s something we can fix before the next test. Overall it’s been a positive start to our pre-season testing and I’m enjoying working with the team and feeling very comfortable here.”

The first day of the test on Monday, Nico had the first taste to drive the new Silver Arrow. The objective was to work out the initial set-up of the car to ensure driver comfortably fit into the cockpit and positioning of the seat to be perfectly suited Nico.

However, initially, Nico seating was too low and he couldn’t see the track well, that will be adjusted further, while he completed the test run until noon clocking fastest time 1:13.543s.

Afternoon, it was Michael Schumacher taking over the MGP W01 car for the remainder of the day programme. Michael was excited as it was a long time since he was working with this in early 2008. He quickly familiarize himself with the car and clock some good timing with fastest 1.12.947s which is third fastest on timesheets.

Michael Schumacher quoted: “It was a perfect rollout for the new car today. I felt totally comfortable and really had a feeling that everything was very natural. It felt just like at the very beginning of my career in 1991 when on the first lap, I thought ‘wow that was really fast’ and then on the second lap, I was just extremely excited. I feel like a young boy again and really enjoyed myself out there. We did a good job today, just making a few control checks, and the most important thing was that the car ran reliably. With Nico and I covering 79 laps between us, it was a superb job by the team.”

Meanwhile Ross Brawn quoted

“We have had a very useful first day of testing here in Valencia. Our priority was to ensure that the new car was functioning properly and allow both drivers to use their short window of track time to get acclimatised to the car and its operations. Today’s work has provided a good basis for the next couple of days and it was rewarding to see that the car ran reliably. I would like to say thank you to everyone at the factories in Brackley and Brixworth for all their hard work in preparing the car to test here this week. And finally, it’s been a very special day to work with Nico for the first time, to work with Michael once again and to complete our first active day as the Mercedes-Benz works team.”

My thinking is, the car look really good with the livery. Can’t wait for the first race.