Alonso commences work on the R29
The ING Renault F1 Team continued its first test of the 2009 season today as Fernando Alonso drove the team’s new car, the R29, for the first time at the Algarve Motor Park in Portugal. After two days of poor weather, conditions improved today with a blue sky and sunshine greeting the team fortheir third day of testing this week.
Fernando took over the cockpit of the R29 from Nelson Piquet and completed 86 laps as he acclimatised to the new car and continued with the team’s development programme.
Although the track was damp to begin with, Fernando quickly switched to slick tyres and was able to complete some valuable work to give the team its first data from the R29 on a dry track. Fernando will remain in the car for a final day of work tomorrow.
Fernando Alonso: “It is very early days with the new car and so we keep discovering things and improving our understanding with every lap. There are so many things to learn in a short time and we need to maximise our time on track, so to do so many laps today was a good effort. The programme for tomorrow will be more of the same and hopefully the weather will remain dry.”
Christian Silk, Chief Test Engineer: “It was a better day today and the car ran very well. It was also a busy day as we tried to make up for the time lost to the poor weather earlier in the week and we managed to get a lot of items for the test ticked off. So we have a lot of good information which we will go through tonight and pick out the details from so we can make the most of the final day tomorrow.”
Fernando Alonso (R29-01): 86 laps, 404 km
Fastest lap: 1:31.743
