Barcelona Test - Day one
VJM01 COMPLETES FIRST DAY OF TESTING
The Force India Formula One Team today debuted two VJM01
cars at the Circuit de Catalunya. Tonio Liuzzi and Adrian
Sutil were on driving duties for the opening day of the three-day
test and, despite the grey, rainy weather conditions, worked
through the majority of the scheduled shakedown of the cars.
With this being the debut running of the VJM01, the focus
today for both drivers was understanding the behaviour of
the new aero package. The team made good progress over the
day, working through different set-up options to maximise
the balance on the car. Once again, the team set competitive
times with the rest of the field, with Tonio recording the
12th fastest time of the day and Adrian the 9th quickest.
Tonio will continue for a further day of testing tomorrow,
while Giancarlo Fisichella will take over from Adrian.
Team quotes
Mike Gascoyne, chief technical officer
'Today was a very productive day today considering we were
running new parts and an aero package we hadn't tested before.
We were running 60% of the aero package we will use in Australia,
and it seemed to go well. Despite the usual red flag periods
and bad weather conditions, we managed to do a fair few laps
with Adrian, but unfortunately we had an unscheduled engine
change for Tonio's car over lunch, which cut short his time.
Although both drivers initially had some understeer issues,
we seemed to understand it by the end of the day and all things
considered it was a good opening day to the test. I think
we can expect more tomorrow.'
Adrian Sutil
'It was not a bad day today. I think the car ran without any
major problems and the balance we got in the end was quite
OK. We had some small issues, first with getting heat into
the tyres and then the pressure so it was not perfect, but
we should be happy. For the first day with a new car I am
confident as I can feel there is something more to come.'
Tonio Liuzzi
'It was a pretty difficult day as we did not run that much
as we had quite a few problems in the afternoon. It was also
a shame that the weather was not better and we could not do
too many laps. The balance, considering the conditions seemed
OK, and the few laps we did in the dry seemed a step forward
from last year's car. It felt a bit more balanced and we still
have to understand more on the settings, but from the few
laps we did in the dry it was quite a good feeling.'
Testing data
Driver: Adrian Sutil & Tonio Liuzzi
Track: Circuit de Catalunya, Spain
Best lap time: 1min 23.091 (Adrian) / 1min 23.239 (Tonio)
Laps completed: 100 (59 Adrian, 41 Tonio)
Kilometres completed 465km
Air temperature: High of 17ºC
Track temperature: High of 18ºC
Weather: Overcast and rainy in the morning, drier in the afternoon
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