Bahrain Test – Day 2
Location: Bahrain International Circuit
Drivers: Jarno Trulli, Timo Glock
Track length: 5.412km
VIRTUAL REALITY
Panasonic Toyota Racing stepped up its preparations for the
2008 season with a Grand Prix simulation today in testing
at Bahrain. Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock were given the task
of driving during a simulation which included practice, qualifying
and a race distance, including fuel and tyre pit stops. The
morning’s work consisted of practice before a simulated
qualifying session while at 1.30pm sharp, the race procedure
began and Jarno and Timo proceeded to the grid to begin the
test. The TF108s once again showed strong reliability while
the pit crew performed flawlessly despite almost four months
since the last race of the 2007 season and the information
gathered during this simulation will help the team optimise
the TF108 package before the start of the season. Jarno and
Timo will return their focus to set-up comparisons for the
final day of testing in Bahrain tomorrow.
Jarno Trulli - Chassis TF108-03
Best Lap Time: 1min 30.944s
Position: 3rd
Total laps: 91
“It was a good day. We did a lot of laps and successfully
simulated a race distance without any trouble. We did some
set-up work this morning and the lap times show we are moving
forward. We still have work to do but we are definitely going
in the right direction and that is very positive. I was pretty
happy with the car today, even during the long runs. Obviously
there is still room for improvement so we will study the data
and push hard to improve our car.”
Timo Glock - Chassis TF108-02
Best Lap Time: 1min 31.213s
Position: 4th
Total laps: 93
“In the morning I did a qualifying run in a Formula
1 car for the first time in a few years, in our Q1 simulation,
and that went really well. The Q3 simulation, with a bit more
fuel on board, also went well and I had good speed, but when
we got to the race simulation I didn’t have the ideal
set-up. It wasn’t quite what I wanted because the first
few laps were good but then the handling dropped off a bit.
However, it was a good experience for me and it will help
us understand which direction to go in when it comes to setting
up the car for a race distance. It was also useful to get
experience of driving a full Grand Prix distance because I
have not done that since 2004, although I am fit so it was
no problem for me.”
Dieter Gass, Chief Engineer Race and Test
“It was encouraging to see the TF108 is a big improvement
over the TF107 if you compare the times today with last year’s
race. We ran different settings during the simulation and
it was positive to see how consistent the cars were during
the race, especially Jarno’s car. We learn about different
aspects of the car’s behaviour during a race simulation
and we are able to compare things between the two cars so
we have gained a lot of useful information. Again it was very
good to see the TF108 running reliably, which it has done
all year so far, and the pit crew did a good job with the
four stops we made during the race.”
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