Report: Triple figures hit once more on second day of Barcelona running

The team once again hit triple figures in terms of laps run on day two of the pre-season track session at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

In a reversal of yesterday’s duties, it was Alex Albon who was first out of the garage in the morning session, notching 47 tours around the Spanish track.

After hopping out of the car, our No23 spoke positively about how soon he has gotten up to speed in his new machinery.

“Today went pretty smoothly,” said the 25-year-old, adding: “We had a small hiccup that we were able to resolve fairly quickly, fortunately it didn’t have a big impact on our running and so we still got good mileage in.

“The FW44 has been behaving well; I’m enjoying driving it and being able to push more as we get to grips with its characteristics.

“As a team, I’m happy with where we are and the foundations we’re building over these really important days.

“It’s a good start to the year and I’m looking forward to one final day of running in Barcelona.”

After watching on through the catch fencing earlier in the day, Nicholas Latifi eagerly jumped into the FW44 after lunch, logging 61 laps.

The Canadian, who was hindered slightly by some minor technical difficulties, remained happy with the progress made going into the last day, saying: “The key thing for us is to gain a better understanding of what limited us today.

“We were still able to get in a decent amount of mileage and we are continuing to learn more.

“We have one more day here in Barcelona, which is another opportunity to learn, build more confidence from myself and the car and prepare ourselves for Bahrain.”

Our Head of Vehicle Performance, Dave Robson, watched closely from the pit wall throughout all 108 laps and was happy with the steps forward made by the team, adding: “Today has been about pushing the car a little harder and working on the areas we identified yesterday as offering opportunity for improvement.

“We have made some decent progress and found some new avenues to explore. Although we had a couple of minor issues, which delayed our progress at times during the day, it is good that we have been able to push the car hard enough to find these snags.

“As yesterday, both race drivers shared the workload today and both were able to learn from the other.”

Friday will be the last track session in Barcelona and, as Dave goes on to say, it could present a different challenge for the teams.

“Tomorrow is the final opportunity to exercise the car before we go to Bahrain for the back to back test and race.

“It should also present us with the first chance to look at the new 2022 wet tyres as Pirelli are planning to wet the track tomorrow afternoon.”