Formula One news

Liuzzi drives Force India on Gloucestershire runway

Formula One returnee Vitantonio Liuzzi straight-line tested the Force India VJM02 in England last week. The venue was Kemble Airport, a former Royal Air Force (RAF) base, as the Italian prepares to fill the vacant seat of Giancarlo Fisichella for the rest of the season.

Liuzzi will step into the cockpit at Monza on Friday

With Fisichella having been drafted into Ferrari, Liuzzi takes the step up to the Force India race team to drive alongside Adrian Sutil. With in-season circuit testing banned this year, however, only a limited amount of straight-line, aerodynamic running is available to drivers at FIA-accepted locations.

"It's always nice to be able to test on a long runway and they've got one here," commented Force India's Mark Gray, car build supervisor at the Silverstone squad, about the previously scheduled test which fitted in perfectly with Liuzzi's plans. "It's also fairly close by, which helps."

The Cotswold Airport, just over 5 miles south-west of Cirencester, was build as RAF Kemble and housed the famous Red Arrows aerobatics group until 1983. "The tests we carried out at the airport before Spa were a big factor in the result," Gray revealed. "We came here earlier than we normally would and had a new aero package which we were able to evaluate."

Liuzzi's homecoming at Monza will mark his first F1 race since the Brazilian Grand Prix of 2007 with Toro Rosso.

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