Renault makes good progress on final day at Jerez

The ING Renault F1 Team concluded its second winter test of the season in Jerez this afternoon as Fernando Alonso completed 109 laps of the Spanish circuit. The team again made the most of warm and sunny conditions to make good progress with its testing programme.

The main priority was to continue adding miles to the car while working on the KERS system and evaluating various development parts. The team concentrated on shorter stints in the morning before completing some long runs in the afternoon, along with set-up work.

Fernando enjoyed a productive day, setting competitive times to confirm the progress the team has made this week. The team will return to Jerez at the beginning of March to resume its winter development programme.

Fernando Alonso: “After doing so many laps with the car yesterday, we concentrated more on set-up work today to get a better understanding of the car and make it easier to drive. Overall, we have to be very happy as we managed to do lots of laps and the car responded well to the set-up changes we made, so I think we’ve found some good solutions. Everyday the drivability of the car is improving and although we still have a lot of work to do before the start of the season, we are definitely moving in the right direction.”

Christian Silk, Chief Test Engineer: “A very good day’s testing. We’ve continued to make progress with the car and it ran well today which allowed us to get more mileage and check our reliability. We’re continuing to make changes and the car is responding very well to those and so we’ve already found a good balance. Overall it’s a positive end to the test for us.”

Fernando Alonso, R29-01, 109 laps, 483 km, fastest lap 1:19.846