Formula One news

Spyker starts new car testing proper

The Spyker Formula One Team today started its real test programme with the new F8-VII at the Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain. With Adrian Sutil driving, the team covered 84 laps, focussing on accumulating data on the car and the new Bridgestone Potenza tyres.

In sunny and warm conditions, interrupted only by a brief rain storm over lunchtime, Sutil completed just under 400km with no major mechanical issues to record a best time of 1:25.581secs. 

"Today was a very pleasing day, especially since it was effectively our first day of testing since the end of last season as we weren't able to run much in the icy conditions at Silverstone last week," said chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne. "We concentrated on getting in some long runs and getting some mileage on the car and I'm pleased with how the car ran. We had no real problems, but it's a big learning process with the tyres. The consistency was good but we need to look at obtaining more pace over the first lap with new tyres. Obviously the other teams have had longer to get to grips with them, but overall it was a very promising first day. The long runs were nice and consistent, but we have to work on our ultimate pace over the next two days."

The test programme will continue tomorrow at Barcelona. Christijan Albers will take over driving duties from Sutil for the remaining two days.

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