Kovalainen completes first official test

Following last Friday's announcement of his 2006 position as Renault test driver, Heikki Kovalainen spoke about this week's Jerez test...

Q: Heikki, you tested for two days in Jerez. How did it go?

Heikki Kovalainen.

Photo by xpb.cc.

Heikki Kovalainen: The first day was really just about acclimatising to the car with the simulated V8 power, and making some set-up changes to get the handling right for me. On Thursday, I did a long tyre programme, the car worked well and the tyres seemed good.

Michelin brought quite different products to Barcelona, and we found some interesting things. I think I had a good first session as an official driver with the F1 team.

Q: How did you find it to be driving with the V8 power levels?

HK: We worked with the set-up to adjust the car, and found some good things that were better with this power level, in terms of how we prepare the car. The programme gave us a lot of good data for the new car, so that the team knows what to expect when the R26 runs for the first time.

Q: Finally, you have stepped from a GP2 car into a Formula 1 car. How big a jump is it?

HK: It is still a big step up from GP2. Maybe we have less power than before in the F1 car, but don't be mistaken: driving a Formula 1 car is never easy! To find the last tenths of a second it just as tough as it has always been.

What's more, with less power I think it makes it more difficult: you can't make so many mistakes because it costs you even more time, and that makes the driver's job even more challenging.

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