SPORTPESA RACING POINT F1 TEAM TESTING DAY 1

Sergio Perez: “It was a typical first day of testing, with a lot of checks and not a lot of running. It was effectively our shakedown and, even though the day was a bit shorter than expected, I felt quite happy with the car straight away. The mileage wasn’t great but I think it was still a promising start.

I am happy with the performance we managed to get out of the car and with its balance. The conditions weren’t great: the track was quite cold and green to begin with, but I end the first day feeling positive. It was important to start understanding the car as much as we could and for me to make myself comfortable with it as a driver.”

Sergio Perez

Tom McCullough, Performance Engineering Director: “It’s always exciting when the car finally takes to the track for the first day of testing. Today was basically our shakedown and the first opportunity to check installation of all the new parts and various systems. We had some teething problems, which caused us some downtime across the day, and a small oil leak, but nothing overly concerning. Sergio was very upbeat about the initial feeling from the car and the baseline set-up so that’s really encouraging feedback. Tomorrow Lance will get his first experience of the new car with the focus on aero data collection and adding more miles to the car.”