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has been a good day for most of the team apart from Merc but I am sure a wiring problem is an easy fix.
In a world first, Sky Sports will be offering live coverage of the second Barcelona test at the end of February in 3D.
Sky 3D and Sky Sports F1 viewers will be able to watch live coverage from the Circuit de Catalunya on all four days of test from 28 February to 3 March.
Hope they can mend cars quickly.Lewis Hamilton's full testing debut for Mercedes has suffered a significant setback on Wednesday morning at Jerez after the Briton crashed into a tyre barrier.
Having just come off the second-fastest lap of the day to that point in Spain, Hamilton's W04 went straight on at the Dry Sack hairpin and ploughed straight through the gravel and into a nose-first impact with the tyre barrier. Hamilton clambered out of the stricken car without assistance but the impact has done undoubted damage to the front of the new W04, which was promptly put on a rescue truck and taken back to the pitlane.
Although it is not yet know whether the crash came about because of driver error or a mechanical problem, the way in which the car left the circuit would point to the latter issue. Mercedes say they are currently investigating the cause of the crash.
But whatever the outcome to Mercedes' investigations into the incident it undoubtedly proves the second high-profile setback for them in as many days, after they were forced to abandon Day One's running after 14 laps in wake of an electrical fire that stopped the car out on circuit. Nico Rosberg was unable to return to the circuit for the remainder of the day as Mercedes worked to modify a wiring loom on the W04.
“I’m just back from the garage, where they were attracting attention of the wrong sorts. There’s not too much damage: the front wing snapped off at the nose pillars and the car had picked up a fair bit of gravel. But both front wheels were still attached to the car. That’s damage that can be repaired fairly quickly, but obviously Mercedes will want to know the cause. The one thing we do know is that the car didn’t make the corner, so was it brake failure? It seems unlikely as there were skid marks on the track, but we don’t know if they only came from the front or the rear, so there could have been a mechanical problem. If not, could it have been that Lewis was caught out by the braking characteristics of his new car? Maybe the rear locked up; maybe it was a KERS charging quirk and he got less engine braking than the previous lap. We’ll let you know as soon as the team confirm. It’s all part of learning about a new car in testing.”
Lewis suffered a loss of rear brake pressure, the front brakes enabled him to slow the car but he couldn't avoid the barrier...
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