Bianchi remains fastest at young driver test

F1 Test, Young driver test, Circuit Nevers Magny-Cours

The young driver test continued today at Magny-Cours with the same three teams as yesterday. Jules Bianchi, now driving for Sahara Force India was fastest again. The F1 test in France will continue tomorrow for the final day.

Sam Bird continued the testing duties for Mercedes AMG today, with Michael Schumacher also paying a visit to the team in Magny Cours to see for himself how the test is progressing and hear Sam's feedback. Mercedes continued to evaluate the new car components and the Pirelli soft tyres, before switching to the hards for the final day.

Brendon Hartley, one of Mercedes' simulator drivers, will take over the car tomorrow for the final day of the test.

Jules Bianchi meanwhile enjoyed a busy day behind the wheel of the VJM05 as Sahara Force India completed a second day of young driver testing in Magny-Cours, France, completing another 117 laps.

Sam Bird, Mercedes AMG:
"We've had a second very positive day at the test and successfully completed our planned schedule, including the evaluation of the performance items that we wanted to achieve. We're happy with the results that we've seen so far and there is a lot of information to go through to hopefully help improve the car. It was a great experience to be back behind the wheel of a Formula One car this week, and to help with the development programme, and I would like to thank the team for giving me this opportunity."

Jules Bianchi, Sahara Force India:
“A very enjoyable day and great to do so many laps. I’ve done a lot of Friday practice sessions with the team, but when you spend a full day in the car you can do so much more and really start to find the limit. It was a chance for me to get more used to the control systems and experience the car on both high and low fuel. The team asked me to work on the set-up and we saw the lap times improve during the day. The time in the car today was very valuable and will allow me to help the team even more in the remaining seven races of the season.”

Jakob Andreasen, Chief Engineer, Sahara Force India:
“We’ve had an excellent day with Jules - he really stepped up to the task in hand and continued to impress all of us. Of course, we already know Jules well from running him during Friday practice sessions, but today he we was able to spend a full day in the car and demonstrate his potential. It was clear he felt comfortable in the car and we saw his confidence continue to grow with each run. The set-up programme went very smoothly and we focussed on trying to learn more about the car and how to extract more performance. We ran on the hard, medium and soft compounds and completed both long and short runs.”

Davide Rigon, Scuderia Ferrari:
“I have driven the circuit before and I really, really enjoy it. In a Formula 1 car it is unbelievable – I think I was laughing to myself for the first 10 laps before getting on with my programme! It's a nice track with quick corners, chicanes and slow turns, so a good mix. In the morning we did a lot of aerodynamic work and this afternoon we focussed mainly on long-run set-ups. Fortunately the track proved very stable, which allowed us to get accurate measurements. Overall I am very happy.”