Force India was forced to change its testing schedule today after the Jerez circuit was subjected to changing weather conditions for the second day running.
Test driver Paul di Resta was drafted in to test during the morning, before race driver Tonio Liuzzi took over in the afternoon. This move was to give the race drivers more running on the final two days of the test, when the weather is forecast to improve.
The two drivers completed 57 laps between them and the team concentrated on set-up evaluation, race preparation, and fuel and hydraulic system checks.
Di Resta managed to find a silver lining within all the cloud around Jerez. “I ran with the intermediate and wet tyres over the morning, which at least means I have got some solid experience of wet running and it won’t be such a novelty when I am faced with similar conditions in places such as Malaysia.”
Liuzzi was frustrated by the weather conditions, but thinks that the car development is heading in the correct direction. “The weather was so difficult today with the constantly changing conditions. It seemed to rain every hour and then [it was] dry, but it never reached a stable level: it was either too dry for wets or too wet for dry tyres so you couldn’t get a consistent indicator of the performance. We did a few pit stop simulations and runs to get a bit more information and the car still seems to be responding well to changes. In these conditions though it’s very difficult to get a good understanding of what’s going on but everyone has the same weather, we just have to do what we can.”
