Doornbos tests with Minardi Team USA

After having secretly executed a Champ Car test last month with Forsythe Racing, Doornbos today tested a Champ Car for the second time, this time with Minardi Team USA at the Sebring International Raceway. In a black carbon-fibre look car, not yet painted for this occasion, Doornbos and the team used the entire day to get a good first impression of the new car. And they succeeded well, despite some small technical problems. The Dutchman finished the morning session in 8th and the afternoon session in 11th position.

Doornbos’ test for Paul Stoddart’s newly founded team should be seen as a second acquaintance with this American raceseries. In the open test, which started today, all participating teams used the new Panoz DP01 car for the first time. Both the morning session as the afternoon session proved not to be entirely trouble-free for Minardi Team USA. During the course of the day Doornbos and the team faced some software and braking issues.

Tomorrow, Wednesday January 24, Robert will continue testing at the 2.565 kilometer long circuit before he flies back to Europe.

Robert Doornbos “First of all, I want to thank Paul and the team for this opportunity. The new car differs quite from the Lola, both from a technical point of view as in terms of driving style. In a positive way that is! The car looks very good and surely has hugh potential. We used this first day to get a good feeling with the car, therefore I didn’t use any new sets of tyres or pushed for a quick laptime. We did face some technical trouble which somewhat limited our track time, but that’s not strange at all, as we brought a completely new car to the track. Hopefully I can rack up some more serious mileage tomorrow morning!”