VJM-04, Force India’s car for the 2011 Formula One season, completed its first ever laps with Adrian Sutil on driving duties on the first day of the second pre-season test at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit here.
It turned out to be a successful debut, with major systems checks completed and new components shaken down, on a day that saw Ferrari’s Felipe Massa set the quickest time.
After installation laps in the morning, Sutil gradually increased the lengths of his runs and clocked up 28 laps in total over the day.
Sutil, who completed 28 laps, will continue in the car on the second day with the objective of running through further checks before moving onto performance work in the afternoon.
Paul di Resta will get his first outing in the new car on Saturday.
“A successful first day of testing for the new car — a big well done to all the team. Out of the box it runs well and feels generally better than the 2010 car in every area. We had a good baseline set-up and balance, already the car is very smooth, which is always positive as you can then focus on improving performance,” Sutil said.
“Despite a bit of downtime this morning with a problem with the floor we could still do 28 laps, which isn’t too bad for a new car, and got in all our baseline runs. I’ve got a good feeling and tomorrow we’re going to aim to put in some more laps, longer runs and look at different tyre compounds.
“It’s too early to say where we are, but at this stage in testing I think we can be quite pleased and proud that the hard work everyone back in the factory and wind tunnel has, so far, paid off,” the German said.
Dominic Harlow, circuit engineering director, said, “Today was the roll out for VJM04, and as such we were looking to install and shakedown the car whilst increasing our run lengths and looking to reach stabilised temperatures.”
“The plan from there was to begin taking measurements and adjusting the car into our normal operating envelope and perhaps starting to sweep some set-up and control parameters,” he added.
