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Haryanto ready despite limited testing mileage

Rio Haryanto says he feels ready for his F1 debut despite limited mileage during pre-season testing.

The Indonesian driver was only confirmed in one of the Manor seats less than a week before the start of the first pre-season test last month, leaving him with a little over four weeks to prepare for his first race with the team. Across his four days of testing, Haryanto only completed 228 laps - averaging less than 60 laps per day - but he says he still feels ready for his F1 debut.

“It was only four days but we packed a lot into that space of time," Haryanto said. "We covered pretty much everything; single lap, race sim, qualifying sim, practice starts, practice stops, plus a whole list of other race weekend procedures. Of course, you would always like more time to prepare, but I’m ready.”

Looking ahead to his first grand prix weekend, Haryanto highlights qualifying as one of the things he is most excited about.

“I want to take it all in, as it’s a weekend I’ll remember for the rest of my life. On track, I’m looking forward to my first qualifying – and the race of course – but I think the qualifying format is going to be interesting; it’s something new for everyone. Then, of course, the race. Lining up on the starting grid is going to be pretty special but there’s a lot to do before then!”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.