Palmer debuts as Lotus focuses on aero runs
Jolyon Palmer had his first taste of the Lotus F1 Team E23 Hybrid in his role as Third and Reserve Driver today. Over the course of 77 laps at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, the GP2 Champion ran through a programme of tyre and aero assessments, setting a best lap of 1min 26.280secs.
Despite reporting good progress, the team completed 77 laps, hardly an impressive number, mostly due to interruptions caused by fitting aero equipment and "fluid replenishment".
Jolyon Palmer proved happy with his debut in the new Lotus, even though conditions weren't ideal in the morning.
“Today went well. We racked up a lot of laps and I got a good feel for the car", Palmer said.
"It was very slippery first thing with the cold track, it was certainly very difficult with the hard tyres combined with the low temperatures! Through the day there was a good mix of conditions and set-ups to work with. There was a lot to take on board with the different settings for the car and the different programmes we were running, so it’s been a pretty steep learning curve. It’s been a very positive start for me and I hope my work has benefited the team. I loved being in the car and I can’t wait to get back out on track!”
Alan Permane, the team's tracikside operations director confirmed that today's testing at Barcelona was all about data accumulation.
"We’ve completed a number of aero runs with a variety of different data collection tools on the car", he said, referring to various aero rakes and internal sensors fitted on the car.
"We also conducted a number of different tyre assessments to build a picture of what to expect from Pirelli’s latest tyres working on the E23. The car has run well again and overall we’re making good progress this week.”
Pastor Maldonado will return to the E23-02 Hybrid for the third day of the test tomorrow.
