The Etihad Aldar Spyker Formula One Team’s new B-spec car made its competitive track debut today at the Autodromo di Monza, Italy, one of the most atmospheric and historic tracks on the Formula One calendar.
After a successful test last week at the same circuit, the team again had a productive day as Adrian Sutil and Sakon Yamamoto put the car through its paces. Crucially, the pair demonstrated its improved pace, with Adrian’s best time of the day just over one second off the top ten.
In the hotter, slower afternoon session, neither driver bettered their times, instead focussing on gathering further data on the new car, tyre comparisons and set-up for both Qualifying and the race.
Adrian Sutil (car 20)
‘We had a big programme we wanted to try today, but unfortunately we had a gearbox problem early on in the second session, which meant we had to cut short the schedule. We were at least able to do a long run on the softer tyre though, which was quite good. I think this morning was in general a bit better as the air was so hot in the afternoon we lost some straightline speed and couldn’t improve on our time from the morning. I think there is still a lot more to come from the car though as I am not so happy over the kerbs, it’s very snappy there. If we work overnight we should find some more time. ‘’
Sakon Yamamoto (car 21)
‘Today was our first day using the B-spec over a race weekend after the test last week and we really followed on from our programme there. I completed our normal progress steps today, trying both the soft and hard tyre, set-ups for Qualifying and the race and importantly put lots of mileage in and did some good preparation for tomorrow. ‘
Mike Gascoyne, chief technical officer
‘Generally a very productive day with the new spec car. We had a problem with the gearbox on Adrian’s car in the second session that delayed him slightly, but overall we had no real mechanical issues. From a performance point of view we are certainly very competitive with the group in front of us and are learning all the time about the ne w car. I think there is more to come. ’
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