Racing Point F1 Team‘s Head of Trackside Performance, Brad Joyce, has said that the in-season testing which has been held at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya has been effective, and that the team have “gathered a lot of data” that he believes will help development for the rest of the season.
The team used three drivers across the two days, although usual race drivers Sergio Pérez and Lance Stroll were testing with Pirelli as opposed to Racing Point, meaning the data gathering for the Silverstone-based team was the responsibility of test and simulator driver Nick Yelloly.
Day one saw Yelloly adapting to life behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car for the first time since 2015, with the British racer completing one hundred and eleven laps on Tuesday, while Pérez ran one hundred and eighteen as part of his tyre test with Pirelli.
“It has been a positive first day of testing,” said Joyce after Tuesday’s running. “Nick focussed on aerodynamic work and car familiarisation to ensure the feedback he gives in the simulator is accurate. He did a solid job putting plenty of laps on the board and setting baselines for future development.
“This is the last in-season test so it is important that we learn as much as we can to guide development for the rest of the season. Sergio was in a second car completing work for Pirelli, which also went smoothly. Track conditions were good – similar to those we saw over the race weekend – and between the two cars we clocked up 229 laps.”
Stroll took over from Pérez on Wednesday and completed his own test programme for tyre supplier Pirelli, while Yelloly ran in the primary car once more. Yelloly completed another eighty-three laps as he continued to gather data aimed at corelating the data on the car to that on the simulator, while Stroll ran one hundred and nineteen laps with Pirelli.
“Conditions have been a bit more challenging today, with high winds creating a dusty circuit and making things a little less straightforward,” said Joyce after Wednesday’s running. “Turns three, nine and twelve in particular have been very tricky. Nonetheless, it’s been a useful session.
“Lance has driven the Pirelli car today and completed the full test programme for them. With Nick in the test car, we focused on long-term aero and correlation work. He’s doing a good job – driving well, giving accurate feedback and not putting a foot wrong.”
Joyce said that the team are aware that the next race of the season, the Monaco Grand Prix, is a very different circuit, but they will use the data collected here to try and gain some points, and continue to do so for the rest of the season.
“Monaco is a very different circuit to Barcelona, but we’ve gathered a lot of data during this test which will be useful next week and for the races beyond.”
