Sahara Force India completes the last day of the first pre-season test in Barcelona

Alfonso Celis was back behind the wheel of the VJM09 in Barcelona today as the team concluded its opening pre-season test session. The Mexican completed 75 laps with a best time of 1.24.840.

Chassis: VJM09-02
Laps: 75 laps
Mileage: 349 km
Best lap: 1:24.840 (P3)

Alfonso Celis: “It’s been another busy day with lots of aero and procedural work. Once again the car has shown great reliability and we managed to keep to the run plan without any significant issues. In the morning I was running mainly on the medium tyres and then moved to the softs in the afternoon. Each day in the car is a massive learning experience for me and I feel more comfortable with each run. I’ve also been able to get to know the engineers better this week, which is very important for the work I will do for the rest of the season.”

Tom McCullough, Chief Race Engineer: “Another useful day of testing as we continue to prepare Alfonso for the work he will do for us during some free practice sessions. For example, we made sure we worked through many of the car procedures that he will be expected to do later in the year. We combined this with aero correlation to make sure we captured all the necessary data to feed back to the factory.

Alfonso continued to take a mature approach to the tests, improving with each run as he built up his experience in the VJM09. Overall we can feel happy with how things have gone this week. It has been a productive four days and we’ve made good progress with understanding the new car, which leaves us well placed to maximise the final four days of testing next week.”

Sahara Force India