Russian rookie Nikita Mazepin concluded his second day of testing with Force India on Wednesday with an additional 69 laps under his belt and the fourth fastest time.
The 17-year-old ran through a programme which included aero measurement and component testing without ever putting a foot wrong, and with every run the European F3 driver continued to improve.
"These two days have been extremely useful and have no doubt been two of the biggest days of my life," said the Russian.
"My main objective was to help the team out as much as possible and I'm pleased with how things went. We managed to test a lot of items and we also managed to do a few performance runs, which went very well.
"I kept working and chipping away at the laptime, finding places where I could improve every time I went out.
"It has been an incredibly enjoyable experience and I can't wait to have another opportunity to jump in the car."
Mazepin's main objective, in addition to gathering valuable experience for his own benefit, was to instill trust in himself on the part of Force India, which he hopes will lead to more outings in te future.
"It is important that the team does feel that they don’t have any losses of putting you in the car other than the race drivers.
"Obviously there is, I’m realistic and I’m honest, there are things I feel myself I need more time to improve because Hülkenberg and Checo [Perez] have been in the car for many years.
"But hopefully I can show a potential to be like them or maybe, if the time goes right, maybe even better than them. So it is very important that I do a good job."
Obviously, Force India is following the current trend of picking young drivers at the earliest possible age for evaluation and grooming, but the team's latest young apprentice displays a good sense of maturity when it comes to his contribution and age.
"I don’t really think about the age so much, I try and keep myself out of it. All I think about is how I do the job and how others do the job, I don’t find any excuses for myself.
"If someone who is 28 or 38 went out and did the job better it doesn’t mean it’s fine for me to do worse, I always want to be better than everyone and hopefully I can be one day.
"I’m just trying to do my best and I hope the team sees a good driver in myself, reliable, a driver they can trust to test their car."
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Scene at the British Grand Prix
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