Lewis Hamilton was supposed to take track during the afternoon session of Day 2 of the Barcelona Testing, however, the ‘icy’ weather in Barcelona meant that almost all teams had to think on their feet and play into the hands of the weather.
Adjustments with respect to time on track, type of tyres and which driver will drive for how much time had to be done.
Hamilton decided to sacrifice driving on Day 2 in order to help Mercedes save the driver change time and let Bottas remain on track as he had had a feel for the circuit and the car in the cold weather.
“With the weather conditions being up and down and the loss of track time we had yesterday, it made sense to keep Valtteri in the car this afternoon,” said Hamilton.
“Having run in the morning, he was comfortable in the car already and we would have lost about an hour of running time with the driver switch.
“With no real understanding of whether good weather was coming or not, I took the decision to sacrifice that time in order for the team to gain better understanding of the car by going through the run plan.” he added.
Bottas too made a sacrifice of his own, driving his cold conditions, having to brave the unforgiving weather in order to help the team collect data points.
It was very cold on track today; I don’t think I’ve ever driven in such cold conditions before in Formula 1,” said Bottas.
“Testing is always difficult in these temperatures, the tyres are just not made for these conditions. But we made the most out of the day.
“In the morning, we focused on aero work with different aero rakes on the car, running various tests. In the afternoon, I was doing long runs and we also worked on the set-up.
“It was quite tricky in these temperatures, but we managed to get some work done and found some answers to our testing items.
“The weather is obviously unfortunate, but there’s nothing we can do about it and it’s the same conditions for everyone. In these conditions, I would say today was a good day.” he added.
