Jerez Testing Round-up

By Renault F1
September 20 2007

Testing’s over… well, nearly! Try telling that to the boys packing the garage right now... And that’s all folks. This afternoon, the ING Renault F1 Team completed the final three-day test of its in-season testing programme, at Jerez in southern Spain.

The team will only resume testing in seven weeks’ time, when the remaining mileage in the annual 30,000 km limit will allow for two pre-Christmas tests: one in Barcelona and one in Jerez.

For the final day of the week, Nelson was once again at the wheel of R27-06 and he continued the work begun on Tuesday and Wednesday. Namely, control system work for 2008 and aerodynamic testing, particularly with the Chinese Grand Prix in mind.

The Brazilian was a busy boy out on track, completing 120 laps – the most of any driver, and equivalent to 531 km. At the end of the day, he was P5 on the timesheets with a best lap of 1:20.655, and he was pleased to have finally got a full test session under his belt. The team will head  back to base tomorrow morning with computers full of data ready for analysis… but the work will continue long into the night today as they pack up the garage!

Nelson Piquet Jr: "I really enjoyed my testing this week, and it was good to get three full days. I always aim to get the maximum from the experience every time I step into the car, and I think we did a good job this week. We did a lot of laps, and reached some interesting conclusions."

Christian Silk, Chief Test Engineer: "This was an encouraging test. We completed our programme without any major problems, and we did some good tests that are relevant for the final three races as well as next year. Nelson did a good job, made progress throughout the three days, and I think it was a good step for him to complete a full three-day test on his own."

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