Barcelona Test - Day one
FORCE INDIA COMPLETES FIRST TEST DAY
The newly-formed Force India F1 Team completed its first-ever
kilometres today on the first day of its three-day test programme
at the Circuit de Catalunya, Spain.
Bearing its striking interim colour scheme of burgundy and
white, Force India completed just under 800km, the most of
any team participating at the test. Roldan Rodriguez and Giedo
van der Garde both used former Spyker F8-VII cars fitted with
the 2008 standard electronics package, in which traction control
and other driver aids are no longer permitted, and focussed
on accumulating data on this new system.
With its lap time an average of just 1.5secs slower than
the 2007 car, Force India was pleased with its productive
day's running and with the establishment of a strong baseline
for the remaining two days of the test.
Adrian Sutil will take over one chassis for tomorrow's programme,
while Vitantonio Liuzzi and Christian Klien will share the
second car.
Team quotes
Dominic Harlow, chief race and test engineer
'The team resumed testing just four weeks after the end of
the 2007 season in Barcelona with two cars and a very busy
three-day programme. For 2008 F1 cars must use a standard
electronic control system for the engine and chassis, making
traction control and other driver aids of recent years a thing
of the past. There is obviously a tremendous amount of work
to understand and re-optimise the cars around the new system,
and we feel today was a very positive start. Giedo and Roldan
did exactly what was asked of them today, completing more
laps between them than any other team here, and laying the
foundations for the rest of the week's programme.'
Roldan Rodriguez
'I think the test was pretty good. It was my first real day
of testing after the 50km shakedowns I have done and at first
I felt it was not easy to go to the limit. Overall though
I think it went pretty smoothly and we got in lots of running.
We now know where we are with the new electronics, which is
positive for the rest of the test.'
Giedo van der Garde
'It was a good day today, especially considering we were running
without traction control and anti lock. At the beginning of
the day the car had a little understeer, but we worked hard
over the day and we can be pretty happy with the way it went
as it's not easy to get used to the car's handling. Although
we didn't use new tyres or do any low fuel runs, we did get
lots of information on the electronics package, which was
the goal for today. It's been a while since I've been in the
car as the last time was in Spa, but I soon got used to it
again and I'm pleased with what we achieved.'
Testing data
Driver: Giedo van der Garde & Roldan Rodriguez
Track: Circuit de Catalunya, Spain
Best lap time: 1min 25.317 (Giedo) / 1min 26.297 (Roldan)
Laps completed: 84 (Giedo), 87 (Roldan)
Kilometres completed: 796km (391km Giedo / 405km Roldan)
Air temperature: High of 18ºC
Track temperature: High of 20ºC
Weather: Dry, cloudy and mild after cold start
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