Alonso has to stay inside with his new toy
The ING Renault F1 Team braved another day of torrential rain storms at the Algarve Motor Park today, forcing the team to take shelter in the garage for the entire session. After a day of dry running yesterday, the team was greeted with an overcast sky this morning with heavy rain falling for much of the day. Due to the poor visibility and track conditions the track was closed by the circuit officials, which prevented Fernando Alonso from completing any laps in the R29.
With just one day of dry running this week, the team looks forward to better conditions in Jerez in the second week of February when the team resumes its testing programme.
Fernando Alonso: “A very wet day! It’s a shame we couldn’t get anything done today because at this stage of the season you need to maximise the track time available. Still, I was pleased to have a full day in the dry yesterday and we learnt a lot and have some valuable data. I will be in the car for the next test in Jerez where hopefully we can make some good progress with the performance of the car.”
Christian Silk, Chief Test Engineer: “Although it has been a wet week, overall it has been an encouraging first test with the new car. At the moment the main things we are concentrating on are reliability and safety and in those respects the car has been excellent. It’s disappointing how the weather has worked out this week as we couldn’t look at the performance and could only really put mileage on the car. We’re now looking forward to the Jerez test next month where we can hopefully get down to some proper performance work.”
Fernando Alonso, R29-01, 0 laps, 0 km, fastest lap N/A
