Force India Barcelona test notes 2008-02-01

01 February 2008 - In a mark of the Force India Formula One Team's continuing progress over winter testing, Giancarlo Fisichella has posted the fourth fastest time of the 15 drivers testing today at the Circuit de Catalunya. The Italian's best lap was less than one second from the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton.

On the opening day of the three-day test, the Italian recorded a best lap of 1min 23.015, 0.8 secs quicker than the team's fastest lap in qualifying for the 2007 Spanish Grand Prix.

Giancarlo completed 100 laps of the circuit, the most of any driver today, with a programme that focussed on improving set-up and reliability. With no major mechanical problems over the day, the team completed the planned work and looks forward to continuing the programme with Tonio Liuzzi tomorrow.

Mike Gascoyne, chief technical officer

'A very productive day of testing that was only spoilt by the numerous red flag periods we experienced. The car ran reliably with no real problems and we completed a full programme of set-up and reliability work. As you can see, we have made good progress with Giancarlo and can count this as a very pleasing day. We now have to maintain this with Tonio and Adrian over the next two days.'

Giancarlo Fisichella

'It was a good day today and I think we made a lot of progress. We did some runs to work on set-up and looked at some parts to improve reliability and had no big problems over the day. I felt more comfortable in the car too - we are definitely going in the right direction and the times were pretty good. I'm very happy as we're showing the potential we have now.'

Testing data
Driver:   Giancarlo Fisichella
Track:   Circuit de Catalunya, Spain
Best lap time:  1min 23.015
Laps completed:  100
Kilometres completed 465km
Air temperature:  High of 15ºC
Track temperature:  High of 15ºC
Weather:   Dry throughout, but overcast

-credit: fi