Friday Report: Force India – A Day of Learning

The Force India team spared no effort for this first test day on the Melbourne circuit. Adrian Sutil reviewed the different tires as well as a new rear wing. The German driver is satisfied with his day and aims for a mid-grid qualification tomorrow.

Paul di Resta remained sidelined this morning, giving up his seat to the team’s test driver, Nico Hülkenberg. The former Williams driver did not hide his satisfaction at accumulating the miles. Di Resta, on the other hand, hopes to achieve a good result for his first Grand Prix in Formula 1.

Adrian Sutil – 13th and 17th:

« It wasn’t a bad day. We had some updates on the car, and the rear wing makes a good difference. In the second session, we put everything together with more sets of tires, but we had some small issues with the floor and lost a bit of time on track. »

« It takes three to four laps for the tires to function properly, with the hards it takes a little longer. At the beginning, we suffered from understeer and front locking. »

It’s important to look at the other drivers’ lap times to see what they are doing with the different compounds. I gained experience with the KERS and the rear wing, and I am confident.

«I’m aiming for a mid-grid qualification tomorrow, I think it’s possible, let’s wait and see what we can do.»

Paul di Resta – DNS and 16th:

It was good to have the opportunity to start the season today. We were able to complete the planned program and the tires performed better than I expected. Overall, I felt comfortable with the new systems on the car, but until I’m in a competitive situation, it’s still too early to say how we’ll perform.

We have another practice session tomorrow morning and we will look at today’s data and work on the little issues we had and our program for the qualifications. I’m excited for tomorrow but at the same time there’s work to do and I have to focus to achieve the best possible result for the team.

Nico Hülkenberg – 18th and DNS:

It was an interesting first session, and I learned a lot about the tires and the car. Driving on a single set of tires was challenging because I had a flat very early. The tire wore out quickly, which caused vibrations and made driving difficult.

But I had good runs and was able to collect valuable data for the engineers. I am happy to have driven here in Melbourne and to have gathered more experience and information for the team.

Dominic Harlow – Race Engineer:

« We had two objectives for the first session. Nico was to gather data on the tires, and Adrian was to test a new rear wing. Paul drove on this track last year, so it wasn’t entirely new for him.

« In FP2 we did long runs with a race fuel load and tested the rear wing and safety car systems. It was a productive day and we look forward to the rest of what promises to be an exciting weekend. »