Edoardo Mortara GP2 Jerez test summary

MORTARA GETS TO GRIPS WITH GP2 Edoardo Mortara, who recently finished as Vice Champion in the prestigious Formula 3 Euroseries this year with the Signature Plus team, had his first taste of GP2 power at a test in Jerez on Wednesday and Thursday.

MORTARA GETS TO GRIPS WITH GP2

Edoardo Mortara, who recently finished as Vice Champion in the prestigious Formula 3 Euroseries this year with the Signature Plus team, had his first taste of GP2 power at a test in Jerez on Wednesday and Thursday. This series is widely acknowledged as the feeder to Formula 1, with the races taking place on the same weekends as the Grand Prix schedule.

The 21-year-old tested with Italian team Trident on Wednesday before switching over to the British-based Arden outfit on Thursday. The test took place at the Jerez circuit in the south of Spain, a challenging former Grand Prix venue with a wide variety of straights and corners.

The Signature team driver, who is contracted to Volkswagen, used the test as an opportunity to get used to some more horsepower and to assess different options for his future career. The test was designed as a toe in the water exercise, with the emphasis on learning rather than setting outright lap times.

Everything was brand new for Edoardo: the Dallara GP2 chassis, the 580 horsepower engine, the circuit itself, the two different teams and the control Bridgestone tyres. He made gradual progress throughout the opening day, characterised by warm and sunny weather with about 18 degrees centigrade, to end up 19th overall.

When he switched to Arden for day two of the test, he already had some experience from the previous day, so he was able to explore the limits of the car a bit more. Despite maintaining a comfortable safety margin, he was seventh by the end of the day. Conditions remained dry and warm once more, until the final 40 minutes of the last session when rain fell. Nonetheless, Edoardo completed a lot of useful testing distance and took away some valuable knowledge for the future.

"First of all, I'd like to thank Volkswagen for allowing me to take part in this test," said the French-Italian. "As always, they have been totally supportive of my career as well as that of other young drivers. The idea behind this test was just to try out a different car and different teams in order to increase my all-round experience. Although I was just being sensible and not pushing too hard I really enjoyed it, and I think these two days working with lots of different people have definitely contributed to my overall development as a driver."

Edoardo will now concentrate on physical training before his next race, which is one of the highlights of the year: the prestigious Macau Formula 3 Grand Prix from November 15-16.