ING Renault F1 Team gives Parente his first taste of F1
Alvaro Parente, R27-06, 64 laps, best lap: 1:21.721
2007 World Series by Renault champion Alvaro Parente, today
enjoyed the fruits of his success with a day's testing at
the wheel of the R27 with the ING Renault F1 Team in Jerez.
This saw the team complete a fourth and final day of testing
with the R27 at the Spanish circuit, with the young Portuguese
driver completing 64 laps on his first day in an F1 car.
Since 2005, the winner of the prestigious World Series by
Renault has been invited to test with the ING Renault F1 Team.
After triumphing last season, Alvaro Parente had the chance
to enjoy his prize early in the year.
He visited Enstone to mould his seat and conduct technical
briefings on 8 January. Last Sunday, he joined the ING Renault
F1 Team in Jerez to learn about how the test team operated,
and today saw the highpoint of the week as he got behind the
wheel of the R27 for the first time.
Under sunny skies, the Portuguese spent the morning acclimatising
to the car with short runs of three to five laps. The work
continued this afternoon, with the team making set-up changes
to the R27 in order to gather Parente's feedback. Alvaro set
his fastest time on new tyres at the end of the day, with
a lap of 1:21.721.
Alvaro Parente: "The past few days
with the ING Renault F1 Team have been the best possible way
to understand how a title winning team works. Everything was
new to me, especially seeing so many people around the car
and watching the telemetry! I want to thank everybody in the
team, they gave me a fantastic welcome. At the wheel, I was
most impressed by the speed I could carry through the high-speed
sections and the g-forces. I was expecting the braking to
be very powerful, and I adapted to this quite quickly. I learned
something new on every run, the times improved steadily and
I tried to give the engineers good feedback. It was a fantastic
day, with positive results in every sense. I hope I can use
the experience to my advantage for the next stage of my career."
Christian Silk, Chief Test Engineer: "We
built today's programme to suit Alvaro's first drive in an
F1 car. The most important thing was to get him comfortable
in the car, and feeling confident, which we tried to do with
the short runs this morning. That allowed him to adjust his
driving position, to get used to the controls on the steering
wheel and to understand our procedures. We then got down to
work by putting a more aggressive set-up on the car, based
on the testing conducted by Fernando and Nelsinho earlier
in the week. He completed some long runs during the afternoon
in this configuration. All the way through, Alvaro took a
very intelligent approach. He didn't try and set the world
alight this morning, but found his feet steadily, improved
and set some respectable times during the afternoon. Our main
goal was to see how well he adapted to the car, how much he
understood and to assess the quality of his feedback. He spent
a lot of time talking with the engineers, and I think that
we all felt it was an encouraging day. We hope today's experience
will allow him to find a good drive for the coming season."
|
