Spyker F1 finishes pre-season testing programme
The Spyker Formula One Team today concluded its final day of testing at the Circuit de Catalunya, Spain. In the team’s last official test before the Australian Grand Prix later this month, work focussed on set-up, tyre testing and evaluating new development items including aero parts and control systems.
James Key, technical director, commented, “We’ve come to the end of another productive week that concludes our relatively short winter test programme. Over the course of the three tests we’ve made good progress, the car has proved itself reliable and the drivers have been pleased with the overall results. Today we again did some long runs and tried to bring the tyres in more over the first few laps. It’s still fairly difficult to predict the tyres in cooler conditions but we worked hard and we found some improvements. We had a few mechanical issues after lunch that caused some down time, but considering this is really the only halt in our programme since we started I think we can be proud of our achievements.”
Mike Gascoyne, chief technical officer, added, “We’ve now finished our pre-season testing programme – an excellent effort from all back at the factory and at the track. Although we know we are lacking some pace, I think we can be very proud of the improvements we’ve made. We now go to Melbourne in good shape aiming for a strong and consistent performance, so well done to all, including both our race drivers, for all their hard work over the testing period.”
Christijan Albers, who completed 82 laps in total, said, “It was a reasonable day and we found some small steps that helped the balance, so now it’s full speed ahead to Australia. I want to thank the guys for all their hard work - they’ve put in so many hours to get the car ready and then go from Barcelona to Valencia and then back again – a big thumbs up for them.”
Adrian Sutil added, “We continued to work on improving performance over one lap and trying to make get the most out of the new tyres. We found some small improvements towards the end of the day but we still have to work on getting a good balance. We have had three good days though and I’ve done a lot of mileage. I’m really looking forward to my first race weekend now.”
The team now returns to its British HQ to finalise preparations before leaving for Melbourne next week. On Tuesday 6 March a third chassis will be shaken down at Silverstone Circuit by test driver Markus Winkelhock.
