ETIHAD ALDAR SPYKER FORMULA ONE TEAM TEST REPORT
PAUL RICARD T20 - Day two
16 May 2007 - Adrian Sutil and Christijan Albers took over
driving duties for the second day of the Etihad Aldar Spyker
Formula One Team's four-day test at the Circuit de Castellet
Paul Ricard. Continuing on the shorter 2D-SC track, the team
pushed on with its Monaco Grand Prix preparations, with Adrian
putting in valuable work on tyre evaluation and Monaco set-up
in the morning. The German completed 67 laps with a best time
of 1min 08.14
Christijan Albers took over from Adrian in the afternoon
and put in some quick laps to as he ran through different
set-ups and checked systems in advance of next week's Grand
Prix. Christijan recorded a best time of 1min 07.946.
Markus Winkelhock and Christijan Albers will fulfil driving
duties tomorrow when a different circuit configuration will
be used and the team's focus switches to preparation for the
Canadian Grand Prix.
Team quotes
Dominic Harlow, chief race and test engineer
'Both race drivers tested today, running again on the Monaco
simulation short track layout. They ran a similar programme,
working on set-up and control systems developments and comparing
the tyres available for the race. The engineers made good
progress in improving the car behaviour in the low speed corners.
Tomorrow Markus Winkelhock will test after we have changed
the specification of the car overnight to suit the Montreal
simulation circuit layout that will be used for the remainder
of the test.'
Adrian Sutil
'I think today was OK. I think in just half a day we found
a lot of good information and have a very good idea of the
direction to take for Monaco. We checked out control systems
and both tyre options available for the race, the soft and
super-soft. The soft was fine, but on the super-soft I found
that after one lap they had gone off and it was difficult
to find a balance. I think Christijan improved on this in
the afternoon, but I think there is still some more work to
do on getting it exactly right. I'm back in the car on Friday
and hope we'll be better on the different circuit layout.'
Christijan Albers
'I took over from Adrian just after lunch and went as quick
as him almost straight away. Unfortunately we had some minor
mechanical issues, but the programme went well and I think
we got some really good information for Monaco. We ran consistently
and are getting closer and closer to the pace in front. Although
we're still not quite as quick, we are moving step by step
closer to them. For me too, I am much more comfortable in
the car and I hope the line of development will get even steeper
now we've overcome this. I'm back in the car tomorrow and
I hope for more, getting even more comfortable and going quicker.
Even though we're using a different circuit configuration
tomorrow and testing for Canada, there are still some corners
that we used today so I think we can really build on our work.
Thanks to the test team for all their efforts, I think today's
gone really well.'
Testing data
Driver: Adrian Sutil (am), Christijan Albers (pm)
Track: Circuit de Castellet, `Paul Ricard 2D-SC-Short`, France
Best lap time: Sutil: 1min 08.14, Albers: 1min 07.946
Laps completed: Sutil: 67, Albers: 66
Kilometres completed: 478km
Air temperature: High of 19ºC
Track temperature: High of 33ºC
Weather: Sunny, strong 'Mistral' wind
F8-VII testing data (since 1 January 2007)
Total km run (testing): 6,254 kilometres
Total days: 14
Christijan Albers: 2,567km in total
Adrian Sutil: 1,801km in total
Fairuz Fauzy: 978km in total
Giedo van der Garde: 534km in total
Adrian Valles: 373km in total
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