Force India Silverstone test notes 2008-06-25

Force India's Silverstone test continued today at the 5.141km Grand Prix Circuit near Northampton, UK. A productive morning of testing new aerodynamic upgrades was however cut short following a heavy crash for Giancarlo Fisichella just before the lunchtime break.

With high, gusty winds producing inconsistent car handling, the Italian was caught out at Becketts, one of the fastest corners of the circuit, and went into the barriers. His VJM01 suffered extensive damage and could not be repaired in time to run again.

Giancarlo was uninjured in the accident, however was taken to hospital for precautionary checks.

Adrian Sutil will continue the programme tomorrow.

Team quotes

Mike Gascoyne, chief technical officer

'We had a very productive morning, but unfortunately with the very gusty conditions Giancarlo ran wide at Becketts just before the end of the morning. Unfortunately some of the new components were damaged and we weren't able to go out again. It was a shame as we had actually had a very useful morning with the new parts and certainly made some progress. We'll continue with Adrian tomorrow where we will also be testing some suspension modifications that hopefully will be another step forward.'

Giancarlo Fisichella

'It's a real shame we couldn't do more running in the afternoon as this morning it was all looking quite good. The car felt quicker even though the balance was not so good because of the high winds. Unfortunately I just got caught out by a change in grip and balance going through Becketts and went off the track and hit the barriers. I wasn't hurt at all, but I did not take my hands off the wheel and they had to do some checks to make sure my wrist was OK.'

Testing data
Driver: Giancarlo Fisichella
Track: Silverstone Grand Prix, UK
Best lap time: 1min 21.583 Laps completed: 52
Kilometres completed: 283km

Air temperature:  High of 24C

Track temperature:  High of 30C

Weather:   Overcast with light showers late morning. Very windy.

-credit: force india