As he starts his second Formula 1 season Sauber's Felipe Nasr believes the Swiss team's new C35 conten der is an all-round improvement over its predecessor.
The yellow and blue Ferrari-powered car was officially unveiled on Monday, a week after its rivals, as manufacturing and development constraints delayed its launch.
Nasr got down to business on Tuesday, raking in 103 laps over the course of the day and, a modest ninth place on the timesheets notwithstanding, reporting a positive first impressions.
"It was impressive to have clocked that amount of laps on our first day," Nasr said.
"Normally I would expect more things to need fixing, but it was quite a smooth day overall. Still a lot of work to be done though, I'm sure we're going to see a progression of the car over the next days.
"But the first impression was quite good, it felt like a step forward from last year from the chassis, from the engine, gearbox side ... it just felt like we have a step forward in everything."
"On a back to back comparaison with last year's car, we seem to have a more stable rear in medium and high-speed corners. But it's still early days to be judging anything. The whole package will be developped over the next days."
The 23-year-old Brazilian admitted he would have preferred to have put the new C35 through its paces a week ago, along with his rivals, as the late start may hinder the team's performance in Melbourne.
"If I had the car a week ago we would have done much of the work that we did today. But I'd rather have the car now than to not have it.
"We have more work ahead of us, we still need time, and maybe it will not be 100 per cent in Australia, but I am as optimistic as possible.
"I believe we will have a good preparation for the first race," Nasr concluded.
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