Sutil continues progress for Force India
Adrian Sutil continued the Force India Formula One Team's strong testing form on the third day of the four day test at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit in Spain. Today was Adrian's first full day with the new car following its initial shakedown last week in Silverstone. The German completed 63 laps and was a promising fifth quickest of the eight man field.
With drier weather finally arriving over the Andalusian track, the team was able to complete some set-up work, tyre comparison and also evaluate some test items, including the 'shark's fin' engine cover used from the mid point of last year. A driveshaft issue at the end of the morning led to some downtime, however progress resumed in the afternoon with Adrian completing short and mid-length runs.
Adrian will bring the test to a conclusion tomorrow.
Adrian Sutil: "I think today was a good day. It was important to get into the car again and to get confident. The car was OK; there is definitely potential, and we were able to do more mileage and find some reliability in the afternoon. In the morning we had a little problem but we could fix it over lunch and start to do our programme. The tyres dominate a lot and the different compounds react differently: you have to find a good set up and get them to work and that is where we are concentrated now. We had some instability on the rear and oversteer, but we will see tomorrow. We are at least more reliable and can try and get some real mileage on the car now."
James Key, technical director: "Adrian took over from Giancarlo today, really the first time he had driven the car in anger following the shakedown last week. As a result it was a learning experience for both him and us in many respects. The day was OK, we had a bit of downtime with a driveshaft issue, which we have already corrected, but it was good to have dry conditions and see a little bit more of what the car and tyres are doing. We were finally able to do some set-up work and have more direction and data on the tyres, so it has been productive. We also had some test items that we will continue to evaluate tomorrow. Every run we are learning something new, and if it's as productive tomorrow as it was this afternoon we should be in for a very good day."
