Day 1
DAVIDE VALSECCHI: "First I want to thank Team
Lotus for the opportunity to drive the car today.
It was a great experience and one I want to
build on with the team. To begin with it was
obviously all new to me - new seat, more power,
better brakes, the whole package, but by the end
of the morning I was much more confident in the
car and had the chance to push. By the time the
morning session ended I think the team were
pretty happy with how I performed so I can't
really ask for more than that. It's definitely
been a good day."
LUIZ RAZIA: "It was really good to get back
into an F1 car and pretty much from the first
laps I could feel that this car is a step
forward from what I have driven before. Despite
the delay this afternoon while the car was being
fixed I'm pleased with how I performed. I know
that with more running my times would have come
down but today wasn't about setting fastest laps
- it was about learning how to work with the
team to the agreed plan and give feedback that
helps the car and the team continue to develop."
MIKE GASCOYNE, CHIEF TECHNICAL OFFICER: "A
pretty good first day of this fourth test. We
managed to run through our whole programme with
the two drivers and they both did an excellent
job. Apart from one small spin for Davide at the
end of his session neither of them made any
mistakes and Luiz performed very well, despite
his time in the car being slightly cut short due
to a minor mechanical issue. I'm sure that he
would have improved even further with more
running and after having completed our plans for
the day I want to thank both drivers for the
work they have done in the car today."
Statistics:
Drivers: Davide Valsecchi (am) / Luiz Razia (pm)
Chassis: T128-01
Total laps: 81
Fastest laps: Valsecchi - 1.25.406 (lap 45) /
Razia - 1.26.723 (lap 73)
Day 2
JARNO TRULLI: "We're pretty happy with how the
day went - completing 98 laps gave us a chance
to work through a number of setup options and we
collected a lot of useful data on the tyre
degradation. They're behaving pretty much how we
expected them to and the changes we made to the
car gave us the results we wanted so we'll look
through all the information we've gathered and
see if we can take another step forward tomorrow."
MIKE GASCOYNE, CHIEF TECHNICAL OFFICER: "Today
was a very good day for us, much more productive
than a couple of the days we have had in testing
so far. It is good to complete 98 laps with no
real problems on the car. We concentrated on
long runs, looking at tyre degradation and setup
options, and the pitcrew worked through a number
of pitstop practices in advance of the first
race so we ran through the entire plan and
everyone is happy with the work that has been
done today."
Statistics:
Driver: Jarno Trulli
Chassis: T128-01
Total laps: 98
Fastest lap: 1.26.090 (lap 79)
Day 3
JARNO TRULLI: "Obviously it's a bit frustrating
that the gearbox issue cut short my time on
track this morning, but we've now got some time
back in the factory to fix the problems so I'm
looking forward to heading to Australia and
begin the fight with the midfield teams."
HEIKKI KOVALAINEN: "That was a pretty good
afternoon for me. Jarno had some problems this
morning with one of those things that's hard to
predict but the team managed to get it sorted
for the afternoon and we were able to work
through the whole plan. I can feel it coming
together well - we'll sort out the reliability
and I think we are just where we want to be.
MIKE GASCOYNE, CHIEF TECHNICAL OFFICER: "A
difficult morning for Jarno with the gearbox
change. We had put a new 'box on overnight but
saw a problem with it this morning so had to
change it during the session. Unfortunately a
water leak then meant that Jarno was not able to
complete any real running, but this afternoon we
made some real progress with Heikki. He was able
to work through a program on the tyre options
and the blown diffuser so after a tricky morning
it was a very positive end to the day."
Statistics
Drivers: Jarno Trulli (am) / Heikki Kovalainen
(pm)
Chassis: T128-03
Total laps: 46 (Trulli 6 / Kovalainen 40)
Fastest laps: Jarno Trulli - 1.34.490 (lap 5) /
Heikki Kovalainen - 1.23.990 (lap 23)
Day 4:
HEIKKI KOVALAINEN: "That is obviously a
fantastic end to the tests.
Everyone in the team has put in a lot of hard
work and days like today are the reward.
Completing a double-race distance has given us
the chance to make a lot of progress on track
and we have accumulated a huge amount of data
that will be very helpful in Australia, Malaysia
and China. I'm not only pleased with the mileage
we've done today, i'm also pleased with the pace
we've shown. It's too early to make predictions
but I think we'll go to Melbourne and have a
good chance to taking the step forward we want
to. A good day!"
MIKE GASCOYNE, CHIEF TECHNICAL OFFICER: "An
excellent last day of the test, and a very good
way to finish the four pre-season tests. We
completed our full programme today, worked
through a lot of set-up options and also
completed two race distance runs which is very
satisfying. To have finished with a double-race
distance is a great effort from the team who
have worked extremely hard. It is clear that
compared to this time last year we have made a
huge step forward so this a great way to finish
and now we can look forward to the action in
Melbourne."
Statistics:
Driver: Heikki Kovalainen
Total laps: 138
Fastest lap: 1.23.437 (lap 36)
Chassis: T128-03 |
