Formula 1

Gasly used ‘Busy’ Spain Test in attempt to ‘Extract a Bit More Performance’ from RB15

2 Mins read
Credit: Octane Photographic Ltd

Pierre Gasly used the opening day of the post-Spanish Grand Prix test to try and extract more performance from his RB15 as he continues to adapt to life in a front-running team.

The Frenchman has often struggled across the opening five races of the 2019 season since his move across from Scuderia Toro Rosso, although he seemed to have turned a corner in the past two races in Azerbaijan and Spain, although he still sits forty-five points behind Red Bull Racing team-mate Max Verstappen in the Drivers’ Championship.

Gasly completed one hundred and eighteen laps of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Tuesday as he bid to establish a way to help him extract as much out of his car in the upcoming races, the first of which comes next weekend in the form of the Monaco Grand Prix.

“It was a busy day in the car, and we managed to get through lots of test items,” said Gasly.  “Today was all about trying to establish a direction for the races to come and also to extract a bit more performance from our package.

“We had what looks like a transmission issue right near the end of the session, which is being looked at now, but we still managed to get a lot of laps done.”

Simon Rennie, Red Bull’s Group Leader of Simulator Engineering, revealed the team used the test day to experiment with different set-ups and procedures they just don’t get the opportunity to run across a race weekend, which meant Gasly was always going to be busy throughout.

“There are always things you’d like to try with the car that just aren’t possible on a race weekend, so based on what we learned during the race weekend here in Spain, the plan today was to look at a variety of set-up concepts that we believe will aid general performance across the rest of the season,” admitted Rennie.

“That meant a pretty intense schedule for Pierre and for everyone in the garage as we worked through those changes, but we managed to get a lot done and we acquired some good data.”

Rennie revealed the team ran three different compounds of Pirelli tyre during the day, with the main focus being on the same C2 compound they ran as the medium tyre during the Grand Prix, with the aim to learn more about those tyres, as well as the C1 and C3 compounds, for when they are used at future races.

“In the morning Pierre ran on the C2 compound that was nominated as the medium tyre last weekend,” said Rennie.  “Then, in the afternoon, he spent a short period on the C1 compound for some aero runs before focusing on the C3 tyre up until the stoppage.”

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