Force India hoping for warmer weather to better understand tyres
Adrian Sutil took over the VJM03 for the penultimate day of testing at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit today. In hugely improved weather conditions, Adrian completed 69 laps of the Spanish track as he worked through a programme of long and short runs, weight distribution and race preparation. Tonio Liuzzi will resume driving duties tomorrow for the final day of the four day test.
Testing data
Driver: Adrian Sutil
Track: Circuito de Jerez, Spain
Best lap time: 1:21.939
Laps completed: 69
Kilometres completed: 306km
Adrian Sutil: "Today was our first proper shot at dry running this test and it went pretty well. In the morning we did a few short runs and some set-up work and then in the afternoon moved on to longer runs and getting more information on the new tyres. At the end of the day we wanted to do a further run but unfortunately a red flag came out so we didn’t do as many laps as we would have liked over the whole day. The tyres at the moment are quite difficult to handle as the soft compound grains up very quickly in the low temperatures. The mediums last a bit longer but still grain after 10 or 12 laps. There’s no way to avoid it at the moment but I’m not too concerned as I am sure they will handle better in the higher temperatures we’ll see in the races."
Dominic Harlow, chief race engineer: "After last night’s rather dramatic flooding a much better day in Jerez. Adrian looked at weight distribution and car set-up during the session. Dry running today has allowed us to learn some interesting things about the car and the 2010 tyres. We were only really limited by a number of red flag periods."
Source: Force India F1
