Force India Barcelona test notes 2009-03-11

Fisichella puts in productive day for Force India in Barcelona Barcelona test report - day three of four

11 March 2009 - Giancarlo Fisichella took over the Force India Formula One Team's VJM02 for the third day of the team's four day test at the Circuit de Catalunya, Spain. The Italian continued the team's programme of evaluating different set-up options, aerodynamic improvements and tyre testing. Again the VJM02 demonstrated good reliability and Giancarlo was able to complete 97 laps in total with a best time of 1min 21.545, the eighth fastest time of the ten man field.

Giancarlo will conclude the test tomorrow, where a race weekend simulation will be the overall target.

Giancarlo Fisichella

We had some good reliability again today and could go through the programme as planned. We did a lot of set up work, which we needed to do after the limited running in Jerez. I feel that the mechanical grip is good so we need to concentrate on the aero package now. I'm looking forward to the race simulation tomorrow where we can look at the performance over a longer run.

James Key, technical director

Giancarlo was back in the car this afternoon and carried on the trends we saw yesterday with Adrian. We made some decent progress, some down to driver preference but others were genuine improvements, so it's been a very useful day. We completed some more work on tyres, comparing new and older sets, and began to unlock the difference between the compounds. We also tried some new aero parts, such as a tweak on the bodywork, a new rear wing and some parts around the front wing and the wheel spinners, which seemed to work as intended. Again the reliability was extremely good and we look forward to another productive day tomorrow.

Testing data
Driver: Giancarlo Fisichella
Track: Circuit de Catalunya, Spain
Best lap time: 1min 21.545
Laps completed: 97
Kilometres completed: 452km
Air temperature: High of 16C
Track temperature: High of 24C
Weather: Overcast

-credit: force india