Hamilton leads rain-hit final day in Barcelona | 2013 F1 testing

Mercedes ended the second test the way they started it as Lewis Hamilton put the W04 on top of the times sheets.

But showers in the morning, more rain in the afternoon and a string of red flags meant a disrupted day for all the teams at the Circuit de Catalunya.

Hamilton set his quickest time when the track was at it driest during the morning running. He stopped on track with a technical problem during the afternoon.

This was one of eight red flags which hampered teams' efforts to conduct meaningful running during the test. The first came just nine minutes into the session when Felipe Massa went off at turn four.

Giedo van der Garde caused the next when he went off at the final corner. The Caterham came to a stop of a second time later in the session.

Another driver who triggered a pair of red flags for Esteban Gutierrez, who went off at least twice in the tricky conditions, including another occasion when he was able to keep going.

Another red flag was caused by Jean -Eric Vergne, who was also a victim of the conditions, spinning at turn five.

The final red flag came a few minutes before the end of the session and brought the day to an early close. Jules Bianchi, who took over from 2013 seat rival Adrian Sutil in the Force India, stopped at the pit lane exit.

Mark Webber also came to a stop in the Red Bull at Campsa.

The poor conditions and persistent stoppages led Williams to ignore timed runs and perform a series of pit stop practices instead with Valtteri Bottas and Pastor Maldonado.

The final four days of pre-season testing will begin on Thursday at the Circuit de Catalunya.

2013 F1 season

• Hamilton leads rain-hit final day in Barcelona
• Button expects to avoid 2012 dip with 'fairer' tyres
• 2013 F1 testing day 8 in pictures
• Chilton happy to test more as Razia sits out Barcelona
• Live: 2013 F1 testing day eight ' Barcelona

Browse all 2013 F1 season articles

Image © F1 Fanatic | f1fanatic.co.uk

Button expects to avoid 2012 dip with 'fairer' tyres | 2013 F1 season

Jenson Button says Pirelli's new tyres for 2013 are easier to understand and are less likely to make car set-up a lottery.

'This year is more difficult in terms of graining than last year but in terms of understanding the tyre it's a lot easier,' he told media in Barcelona on Thursday.

'You can get it in its working range and you know by lap three or four it's going to start graining. So compared to last season it's more of a fair playing field.

'Because last year there were teams who could get the tyres working, not because they knew why, just their cars worked with those tyres. Whereas other teams really had to fight to get the tyres to work. They were really on a knife's edge the tyres.

'And it took us sort of six or seven months to get a handle on the tyres. Whereas these tyres are different. They're much easier to understand, easier to get into their working range. This afternoon, it's been cold, [but] you could even to get the tyres working on lap one which was something we couldn't do last winter.'

Button said that gives him confidence he can avoid the lapse in form he suffered early in the 2012 season when he was unable to make the tyres work.

'I hope so,' he said when asked. 'Today doesn't really show that but I think the issues with the tyre at the moment is a pretty normal issue with the tyre: for example it's too soft or the working range is wrong for this circuit and the winter testing.'

'They can't go and design tyres for winter testing and design tyres for the races. All the teams would be up in arms, they're not the correct tyres for racing with. It's very difficult for Pirelli to get tyres that work for both conditions.

'We will have tyres that degrade more than last year, that was always the plan. But it seems like a normal tyre that works in a normal way. It's not on a knife's edge in terms of the temperature range and that was a big issue last year.

'If you got the tyre working it was a massive jump in performance and something that a lot of teams struggled with and I definitely struggled with that, Canada and Monaco time.

'We don't feel that we have that and I don't think any of the teams feel they have that issue it's more just graining. That's a normal tyre issue.'

2013 F1 season

• Hamilton leads rain-hit final day in Barcelona
• Button expects to avoid 2012 dip with 'fairer' tyres
• 2013 F1 testing day 8 in pictures
• Chilton happy to test more as Razia sits out Barcelona
• Live: 2013 F1 testing day eight ' Barcelona

Browse all 2013 F1 season articles

Image © F1 Fanatic | f1fanatic.co.uk

2013 F1 testing day 8 in pictures | F1 pictures

The second F1 test of 2013 concludes at the Circuit de Catalunya today. Here are pictures from today's test.

Giedo van der Garde, Caterham, Circuit de Catalunya, 2013

Giedo van der Garde, Caterham, Circuit de Catalunya, 2013

Max Chilton, Marussia, Circuit de Catalunya, 2013

Max Chilton, Marussia, Circuit de Catalunya, 2013

Mark Webber, Red Bull, Circuit de Catalunya, 2013

Felipe Massa, Ferrari, Circuit de Catalunya, 2013

Jules Bianchi, Force India, Circuit de Catalunya, 2013

Jules Bianchi, Force India, Circuit de Catalunya, 2013

Jules Bianchi, Force India, Circuit de Catalunya, 2013

Felipe Massa, Ferrari, Circuit de Catalunya, 2013

More images will be added here.

F1 pictures

• 2013 F1 testing day 8 in pictures
• 2013 F1 testing day 7 in pictures
• 2013 F1 testing day 6 in pictures
• 2013 F1 testing day 5 in pictures
• Williams FW35 launch: First pictures

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Images © F1 Fanatic | f1fanatic.co.uk

Susie Wolff aiming for F1 superlicence after FW35 test | 2013 F1 season

Susie Wolff says her next objective is to get an F1 superlicence after being entrusted with the first run in the Williams FW35.

Wolff was the first person to drive the team's new car in a straight-line aerodynamic test at Idiada last week.

She will do further aerodynamic tests in the car as she aims to increase her F1 mileage. 'A superlicence is the next thing on the to-do list,' she told media in Barcelona.

Wolff said she will not be participating in Friday practice sessions this year. She is looking to race elsewhere after calling time on her DTM career.

'I stopped DTM because for me I had done seven years in DTM and felt there was nothing left more to achieve there,' she said. 'I had tried my best, come to the best point I could, and there was no real way of moving forward there.'

'And when I made that decision it wasn't consciously because I wanted to do more at Williams, I'd made that decision already in May of last year. It just so happened that I then got the opportunity for a Formula One test in October.

'This went well and I then got asked by Mike [Coughlan] to increase my role in the team and because I didn't have a race programme like DTM which is quite full-on, I was able to dedicate a lot more of my time to working in the team and that's what happened.

'It's been a very natural progression. But my new year's resolution was to stand on a podium again so I'm not done with racing yet. I think I'll look into doing some GT races or so, just because I enjoy racing so much.'

But she ruled out an appearance at the Le Mans 24 Hours: 'Unfortunately my husband has forbidden me from ever doing Le Mans, so Le Mans is off the programme!

'But, yes, Spa 24 Hours or some of the big highlight races would be really good and challenging to do.'

Toto 'not an enemy of the team'

Wolff's husband Toto left Williams to become the executive director at Mercedes' Formula One team last month. 'It's not that he's an enemy of the team any more, he's still a friend of the team,' said his wife.

'But obviously he has a big job to do at Mercedes. I'm definitely seeing much less of him these days, he must have a lot of work on his plate.

'Of course we're all competitive people and one hundred percent there's going to be some instances this year where one is happy on a Sunday night and one is maybe not so happy.

'But there was never any question of my role at Williams coming into doubt, I'm very much a proud member of the team, there was anyway a contract in place and there was never any discussions.'

'We still support each other and maybe just talk a little bit less about Formula One at home,' she added. 'I remember when I came back from a day in the factory and he said 'how was your day?' And I said' 'my day was fine'. No need to say any more!'

2013 F1 season

• Alonso quickest on busy day in Barcelona
• Ferrari keen to retain engine customers
• Susie Wolff aiming for F1 superlicence after FW35 test
• 2013 F1 testing day 7 in pictures
• Live: 2013 F1 testing day seven ' Barcelona

Browse all 2013 F1 season articles

Ferrari keen to retain engine customers | 2013 F1 season

Ferrari's head of engines Luca Marmorini says he is keen to ensure the team continue supplying customer engines in 2014.

Toro Rosso, who use Ferrari's engines, are considering a switch to Renault power. That would leave Ferrari supplying only Sauber as well as their own team, while Renault would have five teams.

Marmorini said the more customers Ferrari have, the more engine development they can do: 'A customer team is a very important opportunity for an engine supplier.

'First of all we can test more engines. With there being no test during the season we can collect a much wider database. In this sense it's very good having customer teams.

'It's also important to have a reference with a car with basically the same engine, to have a good relative comparison to your car. So Ferrari is strongly committed to supplying a competitive engine to customer teams.

'I don't know if Toro Rosso will be next year with us. Still now we're working very well with them, it's an important contribution for Ferrari engine development.'

Marmorini added he does not expect teams to find a 'similar amount of performance advantage' from exhausts as they had at the end of last year.

'The advantage of the exhaust is not making the car much faster than another one, he said. 'It is contributing to the last few tenths.'

'So at the moment we are working on a different solution, we are testing both on the dyno and the wind tunnel a completely different solution. Then we put on the car what we think is best on our car.'

He added he is not concerned by problems arising from the new version of F1's standard ECU supplied by McLaren Electronics:

'We are working with them. We had some problems but we were expecting them at the beginning, this is a brand new ECU.

'So we are working with them, everyday they are having some update on the software and I am confident we are able to race with a reliable system but even to be done. But still we have a lot of development to do be done. So no panic at all, lot of work yet to be done.'

2013 F1 season

• Alonso quickest on busy day in Barcelona
• Ferrari keen to retain engine customers
• Susie Wolff aiming for F1 superlicence after FW35 test
• 2013 F1 testing day 7 in pictures
• Live: 2013 F1 testing day seven ' Barcelona

Browse all 2013 F1 season articles

Image © Red Bull/Getty

Alonso quickest on busy day in Barcelona | 2013 F1 testing

Fernando Alonso concluded his three days of running at the Circuit de Catalunya by putting Ferrari on top of the times.

But his best effort of 1'21.875 was fractionally slower than the quickest lap of the test so far, set by Sergio Perez yesterday.

With wet weather expected tomorrow, several teams took the opportunity to conduct long runs in the afternoon session. Romain Grosjean completed a race distance in the Lotus, covering more laps in one day than Kimi Raikkonen managed in the previous two. He also set the third-fastest time behind Nico Hulkenberg.

Nico Rosberg was fourth-fastest for Mercedes ahead of the two Williams drivers, who shared the running in the FW35 today. Pastor Maldonado was 0.151s faster than team mate Valtteri Bottas.

Force India ran their fourth different driver in seven days as Adrian Sutil returned to the cockpit. He ended up eighth, almost exactly a second slower than Alonso in a closely-matched field.

The final moments of the session were disrupted by the only red flag of the day when Giedo van der Garde's Caterham came to a stop on the run to turn three, just after setting his best time of the session.

Marussia kept Max Chilton in the car for the third day in a row and he ended the test tenth-fastest.

Image © F1 Fanatic | f1fanatic.co.uk

Which team has the best-looking car of 2013? | Debates and polls

With any racing car, all that really matters is how fast it goes.

But that doesn't mean they can't also look good. And the introduction of 'vanity' panels to cover up the unsightly stepped noses which appeared on last year's cars has produced some better looking racers this year.

But which is the best? Have a look at all eleven of the 2013 contenders below and pick you favourite.

Red Bull-Renault RB9

• Red Bull RB9 launch: First pictures

Ferrari F138

• Ferrari F138 launch ' first pictures and video

McLaren-Mercedes MP4-28

• McLaren MP4-28 launch: First pictures and video

Lotus-Renault E21

• Lotus E21 launch: First pictures and video

Mercedes W04

• Mercedes W04 launch: First pictures

Sauber-Ferrari C32

• Sauber C32 launch: First pictures and video

Force India-Mercedes VJM06

• Force India VJM06 launch ' first pictures and video

Williams-Renault FW35

• Williams FW35 launch: First pictures

Toro Rosso-Ferrari STR8

• Toro Rosso STR8 launch: First pictures

Caterham-Renault CT03

• Caterham CT03 launch: First pictures

Marussia-Cosworth MR02

• Marussia MR02 launch: First pictures

Over to you

Which team has the best-looking car this year? Cast your vote below.

Which is the best-looking car of 2013?

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Images © Various ' see watermarks for details