Di Resta: 'It's going well'posted in F113 | 02 | 2011
BATHGATE'S PAUL DI RESTA completed his second full day of testing his new Force India VJM04 at the Circuito de Jerez, in Spain today. And the 24-year-old from Bathgate, who emphasised he and the team weren't concentrating on out-and-out speed, spoke with Jim McGill before heading off for a couple of days' break:
"That was another very productive day for the team," Di Resta, who completed 99 laps of the 2.75-mile circuit and clocked a best time of 1min 23.111secs, explained.
"We managed to put a lot more miles on the car, and at the moment that's what it's all about — giving ourselves a clear direction and getting as much data as we can on the performance of the new car on different fuel loads.
"We're not going for times; at the moment there are far more important areas for us to concentrate on. Our focus here has been to fine-tune the new VJM04's balance and set-up, plus getting to grips with a few development items we will use at the next test in Barcelona, including the DRS (drag reduction system).
"The day progressed very well and we worked through the programmes we'd set ourselves, including a number of race simulations. Because of the blustery weather, performance-running was difficult but we put the car through another 400kms of testing, bringing the total over the four days to more than 1100kms.
"We found a good path towards the end of the day which will give us a solid baseline for the next test and have something positive to build on next week.
"Unfortunately we couldn't do our final run of the day when something broke on the front of the car and I skidded into the gravel. It was a shame and the team will look at it now, but until that point we were improving with each run.
"Now we've a few days to analyse the data and prepare for the next test in Barcelona at the end of the week. I'm back in the car on Friday and Saturday, and I'm excited by the prospect of our further developments."
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Jim McGill