F1 - Lotus/Renault GP - Jerez Test Report - Day 1

Vitaly Petrov was back in the R31 as the team got its second winter test underway in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain.

What we learned today:

The team ran two of the four Pirelli tyre compounds, gathering further important data for evaluation

Some aero runs this morning allowed the team to continue evaluating the car’s aero performance on a track that has several high-speed corners.

Petrov was able to begin his first set-up programme in the R31.

Petrov: “Things were much better for me today compared to Valencia and at least we managed to do quite a lot of laps. We still lost some time because the car had an oil leak in the middle of the day, but we made the most of the time on track and I managed to do some set-up work in the afternoon. At the moment it’s important to understand how the tyres are working and we found there was quite a lot of degradation with the rears, and that’s one of the reasons why it’s difficult to find the right set-up. I also continued using the KERS and moveable wing today and that went well with no issues.”

Eric Boullier: “After a difficult few days, it’s good for the team to be back at the track and to have our minds focussed on developing the car. Things went pretty well, but it’s early days and there is still so much for us to learn about the new car, especially at a track like Jerez with some high-speed corners. We had a small oil leak on the car in the morning, which kept us in the garage for a while, but the aero programme went well today and has taught us some useful things.”

Alan Permane’s technical programme notes

We started the morning doing some aero work with a fully instrumented floor, front and rear wing.

Petrov lost some track time in the middle of the day with an oil leak, but we managed to get back out after lunch and completed some reasonable mileage.

We ran with two of the four dry compounds that are available and will continue evaluating the remaining compounds over the coming days.