Williams Friday Report

Malaysian GP Practice

Objectives P1
• Evaluation of new aero components including a new front wing
• KERS testing
• Testing of Pirelli’s prototype tyres

Objectives P2
• Qualifying and race tyre evaluations
• Wet set-up test

Pastor Maldonado, Williams F1 Team

Photo by: xpb.cc

Sam Michael, Technical Director

After some minor electrical issues with the KERS in the morning session, we had good reliability this afternoon. Our main target was to evaluate various new parts and to do some long run comparisons using the two tyre compounds. The characteristics and performance of the Pirellis look similar to that which we saw in Melbourne. Our focus is now on getting the cars ready for qualifying tomorrow.

Pastor Maldonado

Session One: 1:40.443 (5th), 31 laps
Session Two: 1:38.968 (11th), 25 laps

I think today went well. The car is looking competitive and I have a good feeling. There is some margin for improvement, from myself and the car, but it is looking positive for us tomorrow. The spin happened because I had little rubber left on my tyres, so I was slipping around a lot as I was making my way into the pitlane. I spun and ended up in the gravel. Fortunately, even with the damage, the mechanics managed to turn the repairs around quickly and send me back out for the last part of the session, so I thank them for that.

Rubens Barrichello

Session One: 1:40.581 (8th), 21 laps
Session Two: 1:39.187 (12th), 30 laps

Obviously we covered our programme. That went ok, but we still have some issues on my set-up which we need to improve before tomorrow. Right now, I’m not fully happy with the balance, but we completed the long runs fine.

Source: Williams