Force India
Nico Hulkenberg (1st, 1:23.110, 99 laps)
“A positive day for me and I’ve come away with some good first impressions as we continue to learn about this car. We tried quite a lot of things today and, although we need to do some more fine-tuning, it does feel like we are moving in the right direction. The important thing is that we are getting lots of laps under our belt at this early stage and we are able to start exploring different set-ups. Melbourne is not far away, but it feels like we are on schedule and days like this are very encouraging. You never know what the other teams are doing so we’re just focusing on ourselves and working hard.”
Tom McCullough, chief race engineer
“Nico’s first day of winter testing saw a continuation of data gathering to help with our understanding of the VJM09, as well as further car sign-off tests. The afternoon allowed a chance for Nico and his engineers to carry on with set-up adjustments and we made some good progress as the day unfolded. Nico evaluated the medium, soft and supersoft tyre compounds, and we managed some long runs towards the end of the day. We had a few small ‘new car’ problems that required attention in the garage and ultimately cost us some track, but we still ended the day just shy of 100 laps.”
