Sergio Perez spent the first day of the final pre-season test evaluating new components for the Sauber C30, with his team describing the results as ‘reasonably positive’.
The Mexican driver completed 90 laps today in Barcelona and finished as the fourth fastest driver. He did set what would have been the fastest lap of the day in the closing stages, although the time did not count after he jumped a chicane.
“The morning session was quite positive with all the updates we have here,” said Perez. “The afternoon started over an hour late for us because of an hydraulic leak, but in the end we managed to recover a bit.”
Sauber technical director James Key was also pleased with how this final test session has begun. “Generally it was a good day of work despite a few problems after the lunch break,” he explained. “We had our start of season package on the car with a lot of new parts for both tidying up areas on the car and improving its performance. It is a significant aero package and it generally worked.
“We spent the morning evaluating new parts and carrying out back to back comparisons and aero measurements. In the afternoon we then worked on set up changes to adapt to the new package and tyres. So far we have seen reasonably positive results.
“Unfortunately for Sergio he had traffic on his fastest lap towards the end of the day, but this is nothing to complain about. Tomorrow with Kamui we will be running a similar programme, doing basic set up work and further evaluations.”
Sauber are alternating between their race drivers this week and so Kamui Kobayashi is in the car tomorrow and on Friday, whilst Perez returns to testing duties on Thursday.