Piquet tests slicks

The ING Renault F1 Team completed a third day of testing in Jerez today as Nelson Piquet covered 95 laps of the Spanish circuit to complete his programme with the team for this week. As with the previous two days, conditions were incredibly hot with track temperatures once again creeping up to 46°C in the middle of the afternoon.

The team began the day by working on grooved tyres to get a good baseline and understanding of the car before attention shifted to running with 2009 slick Bridgestone tyres as part of the team’s preparations for next season.

The team made good use of the six sets of slicks available to give Nelson good mileage and acquire plenty of interesting data to consider with a view to the design of next year’s car. For the final day of testing tomorrow, young Frenchman Romain Grosjean returns for his second day of work with the team this week as he continues to get comfortable with the R28.

Nelson Piquet: “It was very hot once again today, but it has been like that all week so we are getting used to it. We spent most of the day looking ahead to next year by running with slick tyres, which was very interesting. They felt good, gave plenty of grip, and the car was working well. We also did some set-up work, evaluating the changes to try and improve the overall balance. So overall another good day’s work.”

Christian Silk, Chief Test Engineer: “The car was working well today and Nelson quickly got in the swing of things. We started the day by doing a little bit of work with 2008 grooved tyres, just to see where we were, but we then spent most of the day running on 2009 tyres in preparation for next year. The initial signs looked quite good and we have collected lots of data, which is quite encouraging and there were no problems. All that information will go back to the factory and be used when we are working on next year’s car.”

Nelson Piquet, R28-04, 95 laps, 421 km, fastest lap 1:19.334