FISICHELLA AND MONTAGNY OPEN TEST FOR FORCE INDIA
Giancarlo Fisichella and Franck Montagny kicked off the first
day of the Force India Formula One Team's test programme today
at the Circuit de Jerez, southern Spain. Both drivers made
their debut runs in the team's burgundy and white challengers
to aid the team with its extensive development programme this
week.
The duo worked through a schedule of chassis development,
general set-up work and continuing evaluation of the new-for-2008
standard ECU package, under which traction control is banned.
In the afternoon, Fisichella also tried the 'slick' Bridgestone
Potenza development tyre. Although the day went without major
drama, the day was marred by several red flag periods and
some minor mechanical issues and spins from both drivers,
however with three further days of testing, the team is optimistic
of completing its overall programme.
In total the team covered 118 laps, more than 500km, with
both drivers evenly matched throughout the day. Fisichella
finished a shade quicker with a lap of 1:21.424, set on the
slick tyres, while Montagny's best lap was a 1:21.559.
Fisichella will remain in the car for a second day's testing,
while Montagny hands over the wheel to Austrian Christian
Klien tomorrow.
Team quotes
Mike Gascoyne, chief technical officer
'Today was a slightly frustrating day of testing, with many
red flags and a couple of minor mechanical issues on the cars,
which meant we didn't get through our whole programme. We
did still manage to get some useful information from the two
drivers however. Giancarlo worked on basic set up and continued
electronic systems development and, at the end of the day,
was able to do a preliminary run on the 2009 tyres which gave
us some good information. Franck was working on electronic
development and some set up parameters plus damper work and
similarly gave us excellent feedback. Once again it was very
useful to have this feedback from two professional drivers
with experience of other cars.'
Giancarlo Fisichella
'It's my first day back in the car nearly two months after
the last race in Brazil, plus my first with another car and
new engine, and of course without the electronics. Considering
this I am quite happy about how the day went though. We did
have a couple of issues so I didn't run as much as I would
have liked; with new tyres I had a problem with the hydraulic
pressure, and when I tried out the slick tyres there was a
problem on the diff so we didn't get a proper idea of how
the tyres will work. All the same I do think it's been a positive
day though and a good basis for tomorrow.'
Franck Montagny
'It's been a good day. We did have a bit of bad luck with
our new tyre runs though - we had two new sets of tyres, and
with the first set I stopped and the other there was a red
flag. It was good fun and nice to work with the team. It was
interesting to see how everyone works and I think we did quite
a reasonable job together. Unfortunately the track is quite
hard on tyres and we had a lot of degradation, which doesn't
help you do all the set up work we wanted to do today, but
I enjoyed it all the same and I think the team got some useful
information. Thank you to them for letting me have this opportunity.'
Testing data
Driver: Giancarlo Fisichella & Franck Montagny
Track: Circuit de Jerez, Spain
Best lap time: 1min 21.424 (Giancarlo) / 1min 21.559 (Franck)
Laps completed: 53 (Giancarlo), 65 (Franck)
Kilometres completed: 512km (230km Giancarlo / 282km Franck)
Air temperature: High of 20ºC
Track temperature: High of 25ºC
Weather: Cold in the morning, brightening to clear blue skies
mid morning
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