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28/02/13 Racing Engineering completes a successful three days of testing at Jerez. Tuesday, the first day of testing, saw the GP2 teams greeted by cold weather for the morning session... |
| Tuesday, the first day of testing, saw the GP2 teams greeted by cold weather for the morning session and after running an installation lap the drivers stayed in the pits waiting for the temperature to improve a little.
Racing Engineering elected to use the session to concentrate on Julián Leal who was having his first outing for the Spanish team and, despite the session being red-flagged three times, the young Colombian set the 13th fastest time with a 1:26.209s lap. Using his familiarity with the team Fabio Leimer, who had spent time being made comfortable in the car, completed just 8 laps to be 11th fastest with a time of 1:26.066s. After a two hour lunch break the afternoon session began with many teams opting to run race distances. Fabio was immediately on the pace and for most of the three hours he was the fastest man on track and by the chequered flag he took the second fastest lap of the day with a time of 1:25.248s. Julián continued to get used to driving the Racing Engineering Dallara and he finished the session just a second behind Fabio in 16th place with a best lap of 1:26.222s. |
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| Wednesday morning was similar to the day before with sunny skies but low temperatures. Four red flags during the session made it difficult for drivers to get into a rhythm and at the finish Fabio, after completing 28 laps, finished 4th with a best lap of 1:24.534s whilst Julián was once again less than a second behind his teammate with a time of 1:25.486s in 32 laps.
The skies turned grey in the afternoon with cooler temperatures and the Racing Engineering team concentrated on running race distances making lap times largely meaningless. At the end of the session Julián completed 43 laps with a fastest lap of 1:28.793s, Fabio was right behind him with a best time of 1:29.189s after running for 38 laps. Conditions were much better in the afternoon and both Fabio and Julián were setting some very competitive times and at the end of the session Fabio was 3rd fastest with a lap of 1:25.133s and Julián was less than 0.2 seconds slower in 9th with a best time of 1:25.318s With both drivers finishing in the top ten in the final session Racing Engineering can return to their base in Sanlúcar de Barrameda confident of a job well done. The final pre-season test commences at Barcelona on the 5th March and will, once again, last for three days. |
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| Team Comments: Thomas Couyotopoulo, Sporting Director of Racing Engineering: “We had three very positive days of testing in Jerez. As was expected, the temperatures during these three days were low, especially compared to what we normally encounter during the season. But it was interesting to test the new Pirelli tyres and to get to know Julian on track as it was the first time he has driven our car. Generally, everything went really well, we had no issues on the cars and were able to work through our intense test plan. There is a lot of work now to analyse the information obtained. But looking at the season, things look quite promising, even though the package of car and tyres will be challenging for everyone.” Fabio Leimer: “I am quite happy with these three days of testing. Today it was a little bit chilly in the morning as it rained during the night, so we only went out on the track in the afternoon. Nevertheless we tried many different things today, but also in general during the three days. We gained a lot of interesting information about the car and tyres. So I think we are in a very good place for next week's test in Barcelona, where we can test even more things as we also have a race on that track. So, overall, I am very happy with these test days. It went better than I expected and I think this is promising for the future.” Julián Leal: “I think these three days of testing were really positive. At the very beginning we worked on different set ups of the car and, together with my engineer, we adapted the car more and more to my driving style. In the end we found a very good solution. During the three days we improved the car and prepared it more and more to make me feel comfortable. I am happy, as the race simulation went very well as well and we were good at managing the tyres, I think this is quite positive as well. In Barcelona we will continue working from this base and the test there will be very important as it's a track we race on later this year. I like the track and I am happy as we had good results in Jerez and know there are still areas where we can improve.” |
