Bianchi hopes to have scored points with Ferrari
In the middle of the week, private tests took place at Silverstone. Jules Bianchi, Marussia F1 driver, replaced injured Finn Kimi Räikkönen at Ferrari during the weekend. The Nice native reflects on his Wednesday workday with the Italian team.
Jules Bianchi, who drove the Ferrari F14-T in place of Kimi Räikkönen, rested after his accident, set the fastest time on Wednesday during the Silverstone private tests. Although he hopes that his overall performances might open the door to the reds, the young Scuderia Academy driver does not believe a main seat will become available within the next year and a half.
Considering the fact that I am part of the Ferrari Driver Academy, the goal is that one day a seat opens up, so I have to show them that I am ready, and we’ll see afterwards. For now, they have two drivers who are doing a good job. At the moment, I know it’s not the plan for next year because they have a plan for the current drivers, so I’m going to try to focus on what I have to do, which is to try to achieve good results with Marussia, indicated the Niçois to Autosport.
The former Force India test driver conducts his own analysis of his day at the wheel of the F14-T: « I showed the team that I can work well, that I can be quick, but it was a test day, the aim wasn’t to compare myself with other drivers, the objective was to improve the car and try to help the team, so I think I did my job ».
During his test day, the “interim” driver managed to cover 89 laps of the Silverstone circuit, setting the fastest time of the session at 1:35.262. The Frenchman drove faster than the Ferrari team’s official drivers over the weekend, which is not very telling given that the best times of Alonso and Räikkönen were achieved only on Friday, as teams use these tests to try out setups, configurations, and parts, and track conditions evolved, with more rubber being laid on the British track.
Furthermore, during these two days of testing, some experiments were conducted to adapt to a possible ban, starting from the German Grand Prix, on the interconnected suspension system (FRIC).
« We had a very extensive testing program, we did pretty much everything, so I’m happy with that. We did more aero work, there was some fine-tuning work. We tried to find solutions to improve the car and they might come up with some interesting things from it, » he concluded.
