Formula One news

Heidfeld happy with first day in new car

Nick Heidfeld was happy with his first day at the wheel of BMW's new F1.09 car as he took over testing duties at the team's private trials at Valencia.

It was a windy day at the southern Spanish circuit with gusts reaching 50km/h meaning BMW had to switch the focus of its activity from set-up work to reliability. Heidfeld completed a number of long runs in the morning and in the afternoon turned to some mechanical set-up work as the winds eased.

"Finally I could drive the F1.09 for the very first time," Heidfeld said. "We still have a lot of work to do, but we're making progress with each kilometre and the reliability is already there. Overall the new car handles quite differently to last year's."

"Fortunately in the afternoon I managed to work on the set-up and the most important result for me today is that the car reacts as intended to set-up changes," he added.

Heidfeld completed 92 laps without trouble and returns tomorrow for the final day of the new car's first test.

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