Formula One news

Fisichella happy with new Renault

Giancarlo Fisichella reported being happy with the debut of the new Renault R27 at Jerez in Spain despite managing to get only 33 laps under his belt before an engine problem stopped play for the day. However, Fisichella gave positive initial feedback about the car's performance. 

The team's work will continue tomorrow when it will run with two R27 chassis, one for Fisichella and one for team-mate Heikki Kovalainen. The objectives for the week's work will be to run as many miles as possible with the new car, to begin building reliability levels and to assess its basic handling characteristics. 

"It is always a special moment to drive a new car for the first time, and it felt good to take to the track in the R27 this morning," said Fisichella. "The car is very impressive visually, and straight away it felt comfortable to drive. The circuit was quite dirty with low grip levels, so it was difficult to make a proper judgement on the performance and the handling, especially as our running was cut short with the engine problem at the end of the day. But so far the car is reacting as we expected, and has the same comfortable feeling as the R25 and R26. That is a good sign at this stage, and we are looking forward to continuing our work tomorrow."

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