F1: Mercedes Team Tests At Barcelona

Formula 1

F1: Mercedes Team Tests At Barcelona

Mercedes makes up for lost time with private W03 test...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted February 19, 2012 Balen (BEL)

Michael Schumacher is shown testing the Mercedes GP W03 at an earlier session at Circuito de Jerez, Jerez de la Frontera, Spain February 8th 2012. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Mercedes has gone some way to catch up with its rivals by conducting a private test at Barcelona with the new W03 today.

This was not a straightline or ‘filming’ day with unrepresentative demo tires, but a full day of proper testing with race rubber. Between them Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher logged 300kms of running.

It follows a filming or shakedown day at Silverstone last Thursday.

Mercedes is now at less of a disadvantage to rivals who finished their cars on a normal schedule, and ran them for four days at Jerez earlier this month.

Mercedes planned many months time ago to use the old car in Jerez, giving itself almost two weeks of extra R&D time before key elements of the W03 were finalized. It also allowed the team to make extra use of ex-Ferrari designer Aldo Costa, who only joined on December 1.

It’s also been suggested that the team wanted to keep a few secrets under wraps for as long as possible.

Although the reduced running with the new car is obviously a handicap – with only the two four day tests at Barcelona still to come – Mercedes won back an extra day with the W03 by using only three of the four available days at Jerez with the old car.

Under the testing agreement, missing that day earned the team a private test, which it chose to utilize today.

The team now has all of Monday to work on the car and crunch the data collected today before running again on Tuesday with the rest of the teams. In theory it should be in pretty good shape when it joins its rivals, with much of the basic new car work already having been completed.

Adam Cooper notched up his 27th season as a racing journalist in 2011. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Follow him on Twitter.