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Nico Hulkenberg is happy with life at Sauber. Photo: AC

Nico Hulkenberg was in positive mood after his first two days of testing with Sauber at Jerez this week.

The German said there were no obvious issues with the C32, adding that the car was a good starting point. The proved  to be reliable, despite the constraints provided by extremely tight packaging at the rear and around the sidepods.

“I’ve basically gotten a bit more comfortable with the car,” he said when asked for his thoughts by this blog. “First two days in the office, obviously quite a few things and items to get used to, so that was my main priority, to come here and make sure I’m comfortable in the car, seating-wise, and then obviously with the steering wheel, etc etc.

“We’re making sure the car is reliable, we had no issues on that side in those two days. We had quite a large test programme already which we completed successfully, and two very productive days.

“It’s something we can build on, it’s I think a good baseline. It needs good development, further work. We know in F1 you cannot stop.”

Asked if he thought it would be a competitive car, he said: “I think so, yeah. At this point I can’t see a big issue. At some point I looked at the timing monitor, it looked like qualifying already, it was separated by only a few hundredths! We should be happy with the two days, the car performed reasonable well, and like I said something we can build on.”

Sauber does not have a simulator, and despite being brought up on one at both Williams and Force India Nico says he did not miss that extra preparation.

“No, not really. To be honest I felt quite good without it. You’re right, normally at this point we would have been in the simulator a couple of times already, but not having it didn’t really make a difference in terms of me coming here and driving on the circuit, and having the Formula One feeling.”

After the first two days of testing in Spain an optimistic Mark Webber says that Red Bull is better off than at this stage in 2012.

Although he paid no attention to overall lap times Webber was second fastest on Tuesday and fourth fastest today as the team worked through its programme of test items. Sebastian Vettel arrived at the track this afternoon, and the triple World Champion will take over the car on Thursday.

“I think in terms of consistency it’s great,” Webber said of the car. “I’m very happy with the car and myself. I might have bombed a few laps here and there, but I’ve done 170 or more, which is a good total for the first two days with a new car. Overall, it’s been very good. The car gives me the confidence to push pretty hard and that’s always an indication that you have something you can build on.

“The run plan this morning was pretty ambitious, but we have a lot of departments in the team looking for feedback, so it was important to get through the list. We accomplished most of it and that’s all you can ask for. People always ask about the times being done up and down the pit lane but, to be honest, I haven’t looked. We can only look at what we’re doing, and so far we’re satisfied with where we are.

“We’ve learned a lot more since yesterday and I’m sure that will continue tomorrow with Sebastian. I think we’ve put the car in a good position for him and hopefully he’ll be able to push on from there.

“If you ask me where I think we are compared to this time last year, I’d say we’re in a better position, but of course a lot of that is down to a lack of regulation changes.”

Sergio Perez was in buoyant mood after his first ever outing in a McLaren at Jerez today.

The Mexican finished the day a modest seventh overall after running 81 laps, but it was all about learning about the car and team, and getting himself comfortable.

In fact Perez wasn’t entirely happy with his seating position, although overall he was delighted with progress.

“It was a very good day in terms of getting into the new office,” he said. “It’s much more different than I expected, just by feeling, by sitting in a different seat it’s so much different that you have to adapt yourself to a different position, different way to hold the steering wheel. Pretty much everything is different from the pedals to the steering wheel, everything is different, so it’s pretty much starting from zero.

“But I think we’re going in the right direction. I’m more happy than I was expecting today, so I think we are definitely going in the right direction. I still need to sort out some things with my seat, with my cockpit, to be a little bit more comfortable.

“It’s not a particular place, it’s pretty much a bit everywhere. I think we’ve got to change some stuff to make it feel more comfortable.”

He was happy with his initial impressions of the car: “I think the feedback is good straight away, since I drove it out of the garage and doing the first laps I knew that this car has good potential.

“We don’t know how competitive we are at all. All I can say is the car feels quite good. We got a lot of work to do in the next five days that we have [in Jerez and Barcelona], and keep our heads on because I think we’re going in the right direction.

“Today was a great day because we managed to do some good programmes, hopefully we can keep doing the same in the next five days and we will be in good shape for the start of the season.”

Lewis Hamilton was in relaxed mood at the end of another difficult day for Mercedes in Jerez, the Briton having run only 15 laps before a brake failure and crash ended his day.

The team now has a lot of catching up to do over the next couple of days.

“It’s been a bit of a slow day, I’ve not really done much,” said Hamilton. “I’ve been watching other people go round. It started out quite well, we did quite a lot of installation laps to get through a few different processes, which all seemed to go really well.

“Then I got a new set of tyres on and did a couple of laps on that, which fortunately was just enough time for me to get a good feeling for the car, and know where we are, and be able to give the guys good feedback.”

Regarding the accident, he said: “Literally I just hit the brake, a split second it was working, and then the pedal just went straight down and wouldn’t work anymore. Then I just had to brace for impact. It didn’t feel great initially, but it was nothing much.”

In fact he hit the tyre wall at around 60km/h, having slowed the car with the front brakes along.

Asked if he could draw anything from today, he joked: “Definitely. I’m alive! This is what’s testing is all about. Of course we would have loved to have done several days, and it is disappointing for all of us that are in the team.

“Everyone’s worked so hard during the winter, we didn’t anticipate this. I’m glad we got it out of the way now, so we don’t have to experience it in the future.”

Luiz Razia prepares for his first lap in the new Marussia. Photo: AC

Marussia finally confirmed Luiz Razia as its second driver this morning, just an hour before the Brazilian took to the track to complete an installation lap in the MR02.

The news means that the team is in the unusual position of starting the season with two rookies.

“Luiz isn’t new to our Team of course, having been Reserve Driver in our debut season in 2010 and part of our Young Driver Programme.,” said team boss John Booth. “It is therefore very pleasing to have not one but two graduates of that Programme driving for us in 2013, and also very exciting, since both Luiz and Max demonstrated a great deal of potential competing alongside each other in GP2 last season.

“When Luiz moved to GP2 in 2011, we had every expectation that he would progress to the extent that he has. He is a very quick and tenacious driver who battled hard to the runner-up spot last year. Together with Max, we are fielding a young but incredibly ambitious pairing and we look forward to seeing what they can achieve.”

“It is fantastic to be back with the Marussia F1 Team and with pretty much the same group of people I worked with back in 2010 when I was Reserve Driver,” said Razia. “Having been in that position, I know this Team rewards determination and success in its young drivers, the intention of its Programme being to school the next generation of racing driver. I am very proud to take the step up to a Formula 1 race seat, particularly with the Team I began this journey with, since they helped show me what it takes to progress to the highest level.

“The past two seasons in GP2 have been all about proving that I have what it takes and that I’m ready. This coming season will be all about rewarding the faith the Team have shown in me. I am looking forward to beginning that process in Jerez where we are testing the MR02 for the first time.

“ I am also looking forward to the first race in Melbourne and I’m excited to be racing alongside Max, who I competed ‘against’ last season. This is an important year for the Marussia F1 Team in terms of maintaining the momentum from a very positive 2012 season. I look forward to making a valuable contribution to that.”

Massa said it was better than last year – it could hardly be worse! Photo: AC

Felipe Massa insisted that he was happy with the first day of running in the new Ferrari F138, despite being 1.7s off the quickest time at the end of the day.

Massa stressed that it was a much better start than last year, when the F2012 proved to be something of a disaster.

“I think compared to last year it’s a completely different planet,” said the Brazilian. “Last year we were struggling also to drive the car, it was difficult to keep the car on the track. This year the pace is completely different than last year, the car is much more balanced. I felt a good direction at the rear of the car as well in terms of traction. This is a track which is very difficult on the rear, so degradation is very high.

“I would say the difference compared to last year is huge. It’s always a start, it’s always a beginning of another year. We know how important is it to understand the car from now to the first race, so there’s a lot to do. The direction is different from last year, there’s a lot to do in the car, there’s a lot to do to understand the right direction to make the car ready for the first race.”

Asked if he was disappointed in any way by the car’s initial performance – given his low-key demeanour – Massa was quick to refute the suggestion.

“For sure I’m not disappointed, definitely. We didn’t drive a lot, we had a few issues in the car in terms of temperature inside the car, to understand it. The car at the beginning was maybe a little bit hotter than I expected, so we need to understand the direction to fix that. I don’t think it’s a really difficult thing to fix. But we didn’t drive a lot. I’m not disappointed.

“The 18.8s [by Button] is an incredible time, definitely. Looking at the first day, how we ran, how we drove, and the direction we had for the first day, I’m not really disappointed. There’s a lot to do, a lot of work, there’s a lot to develop on the car for the first race, this is clear. But I’m not disappointed.”

Asked by this blog what he thought of Pirelli’s 2013 tyres, he said: “The tyres are for sure much more soft direction. I don’t think really that this is a track that you can compare to other tracks, this track the degradation is very, very high, so for sure the medium tyres here feel like the soft on another track. I don’t think it will really be a problem to go to the soft side, if you’re asking which direction I prefer, I prefer this direction.”

Jenson Button enjoyed mixed fortunes in Jerez today, losing a lot of priceless time to a fuel pump failure before setting an impressive fastest lap at the end of the day – despite his restricted mileage.

Button set his time on Pirelli’s harder compound in the closing minutes of the session. Despite being 0.9s ahead of his nearest rival he played down the significance.

“It’s been pretty mixed today,” said Button. “The first day of testing there’s so much excitement within the teams and the paddock. For us it was very short-lived, doing three laps this morning and having a fuel pump issue. It’s never what you want at the start of a test, but it’s better to have it at the start I guess than the end of a test, so we can solve the issue.

“Got out this afternoon and did basic work for the aero testing, and then we were able to do some runs – not long runs and not short runs either – on different tyres to just get a feel for the car, and tweak things here and there in terms of feel. So in terms of the feel of the car it’s a nice starting point, but not the mileage we’d hoped for on the first day of testing.

In terms of the way the car feels there’s nothing that stands out – ‘wow, there’s something we’ve got to work on there’ – so it’s a good base. I’ve already had the question whether it’s a championship winning car. Who knows? The important thing is there’s a nice feeling of the car.

“Lap times mean nothing right now, they don’t even mean anything at the last test. It’s when you get to the first race, and we’ll have a very different car then as every team will, and that’s when we really need to show how quick we are. Today’s testing, and everyone’s doing different things. The important thing is the car really does relate to the simulator, and that’s something that’s good.”

Told that Felipe Massa had called his time “incredible”, Button continued to play it down.

“To be honest I was surprised when I saw it in the dash, but it doesn’t mean anything. Some people run less fuel than others, some people run a lot more fuel than others, so who knows.”

Mark Webber said he was encouraged with the early form of the new Red Bull RB9 on the opening day of testing in Jerez.

Webber set the second fastest time of the day, behind Jenson Button. The car ran reliably, with the team saying it got through “90%” of the planned workload.

The team did a lot of work on the new tyres, and Webber had some interesting comments to make about them.

“It was pretty good,” said Webber. “As Adrian [Newey] said at the launch, there haven’t been big changes to the regulations this year and the car is an evolution of the one we finished with last season, so there were no big surprises. I think most of the drivers will sit back tonight and think today’s times were pretty competitive.

“It was actually like a Friday practice session in some regards. We started understanding the tyres and there were a lot of positives. There’s a bit of housekeeping we have to get on top of but, other than that, it’s been encouraging.

“The car feels similar to last year’s, so the main difference is the tyres. With these tyres you’re always on your toes. It was good that we had consistent temperatures today, so we got a lot of information and feedback to analyse, which is all good. Generally though, the car feels pretty good, so I’m happy.”

Red Bull boss Christian Horner says he’s happy with the way the new RB9 performed on its first day of testing at Jerez.

Mark Webber finished the day in second place behind Jenson Button, who put in a quick run at the end of the day.

Horner added that he expects to see the same big names fighting for the title this year.

“Today is a really a data gathering exercise, but everything is running reasonably to plan,” said Horner. “We’re getting a lot of good data. It’s good to be blowing off the winter cobwebs.

“The goal this week is to learn a bit more about the car, to complete as many laps as we can ideally. It’s a get to know you process. We’re working to a programme and just ticking a lot of boxes at the moment.

“We have a limited amount of testing, 12 days. It’s important for us to use each one as constructively as we can. It’s very few days when you consider that is only six days for each driver – six days of preparation is not much before they go into their first Grand Prix. If imagine a tennis player only playing six matches before going into a Grand Slam. It’s unique to F1.

“But these guys train very hard, we split the testing between the two drivers, and they’ll be ready by the time we get to Melbourne.”

Regarding Red Bull’s main rivals, he said: “We’ve got all the same culprits, some of them in different teams. But it’s got all the hallmarks of a really competitive year. I think that 2012 was a great year for F1, and I think 2013 has got all those same ingredients, so it could be extremely tight.

“It’s so difficult to tell. Their cars will be updated again through the testing before Melbourne, but you can see all the teams have carried over their experiences from their previous cars, so it will only be when we get to Melbourne that we’ll know where we really are.”