An accident for rookie driver Sergio Perez brought Day 2 of the pre-season test in Jerez to an end two hours early for Sauber but, despite this, the team still reflect on a productive day.
Technical director James Key said that the 56 laps Perez completed had yielded some useful information, adding that the car will be ready to continue tomorrow when Kamui Kobayashi takes over testing duties.
“Generally it was going fine today, but unfortunately Sergio had an off in the afternoon,” explained Key. “He lost the rear end when he was on hard tyres, but these things happen and are part of the learning process. Overall Sergio made a good step forward. He settled in pretty quickly and gave us a lot of useful information.
“It was a busy day up to the accident. We have tested chassis set-up directions and were cycling through a number of set-up scans on the car and with the tyres to get further mechanical directions. After we only used three sets of tyres yesterday, we were able to use new sets more often this morning. We did a run through from the hard to the super soft Pirelli compounds. We had no warm up issues with the medium and hard compounds, but we believe we should get more out of the softer ones. Compounds, however, will change.
“We have checked the car after the incident and have found nothing wrong with it. We will be ready to continue tomorrow.”
Perez was apologetic for the accident and wishes his team well for the remaining two days of the test session. “I'm fine but I feel sorry for the team, and especially the mechanics, because of the crash,” said the Mexican. “I lost the rear in turn seven and we obviously lost working time.
“I hope the rest of the test will be good for the team and Kamui, and they cover a lot of mileage. For me it was another day during which I have learnt a lot. ”
