A cold for Nick Heidfeld meant that he was in the Renault for only the morning on the first day of the final pre-season test, with Vitaly Petrov taking over testing duties in the afternoon.
The team used the opening day of this Barcelona test to evaluate the performance of some aerodynamic components, and their initial analysis suggests that they are making good forward steps in their preparations for the new season.
“I have a cold at the moment so the team said I could try the car this morning and stop in the afternoon,” explained Heidfeld, who completed 20 laps and set the fifth fastest time of the day. “The priority of the day was to assess some new aero parts. That's why we did a lot of in and out laps for the aero mapping. We are still analysing the data, but the feeling was positive. Then, we used the rest of the morning to do a few starts, system checks and looked at some development items.”
Petrov completed seven more laps than his team-mate when he got in the car after lunch, and finished the day third fastest. The Russian sounded reasonably positive about the team’s progress today:
“We didn't do a massive number of laps this afternoon, but we managed to check the balance and did some set-up work ready for tomorrow. The new aero parts are another step forward and have given us some more downforce.”
