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Force India take major steps forward at Jerez |
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Friday, 25 July 2008 |
Adrian Sutil brought the Force India Formula One Team's three-day test at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit to a close today.
The German completed 72 laps over the day as work continued on the new seamless shift gearbox and development of the 2009 slick tyres. Aside from a minor mechanical issue that caused a little downtime over the lunchtime period, the programme went to plan, with Adrian recording a best lap time of 1min 19.965. The team will now return to Silverstone before heading over to Hungary next week for the 11th event of the FIA Formula One World Championship.
Dominic Harlow, chief race and test engineer
'We got off to a good start this morning, with Adrian very quickly getting used to the seamless shift gearbox. After some running however a minor mechanical issue caused some downtime, but with two good days and over 800km running beforehand, it was not a major problem for us as that is what testing is about. In the afternoon we again tested the 2009 development tyres, allowing Adrian to get some more experience of driving on slicks. Overall it's been a good test with more than 1,000km over the three days and we feel well prepared for Hungary.'
Adrian Sutil
'Today was quite a good day. This morning I was very happy with the balance of the car and enjoyed testing the seamless shift box for the first time. We had a few small problems towards the middle of the day, but overall it felt good and it seemed like a step forward. When we got going again in the afternoon, we tried the slick tyres and, although I enjoyed trying them out again, we couldn't seem to get a good balance with them. There's quite a lot of work still to do before 2009, but then we still have time to get it right.'
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