Busy day for Baguette at Jerez
The Renault F1 Team returned to action this week for the first of three days of young driver testing in Jerez in the south of Spain. Belgian driver, Bertrand Baguette, began the team's programme with a full day in the car as his prize for winning the World Series by Renault 3.5 category earlier this season.
The programme today focussed mainly on evaluating Bertrand, but the team also tried some new development items in preparation for 2010. The 23-year-old covered 105 laps behind the wheel of the R29 as he completed a trouble-free first day in an F1 car.
For tomorrow morning young Chinese driver, Ho-Pin Tung, will take over driving duties before handing the R29 over to the team's third driver, Lucas di Grassi, for the afternoon.
Bertrand Baguette: "This was my first time in an F1 car and I really enjoyed it. There's a huge difference between the F1 car and a World Series car, especially the efficiency of the brakes, which is incredible, and the speed you can carry through the quick corners. Also, it's a completely different world and I've been getting used to working with five or six engineers instead of just one. We started the day with a long run so that I could get used to the car and then we started the technical programme as I worked on improving the set-up of the car. It was an amazing experience for me and I hope to do this again in the future."
Alan Permane, Chief Race Engineer: "It was a good day for Bertrand and he quickly got used to the car and the systems. To begin with we spent a bit of time adjusting the set-up to make him more comfortable in the car, but he suffered a bit with understeer throughout the day. However, he was very focussed, sensible and didn't make any mistakes as he steadily improved his lap times. He reacted well to the changes we made to the car and worked well with the engineers by giving good feedback. Overall it has been a positive day for us and of course for Bertrand who had his first experience of driving an F1 car."
