Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance: Nicholas was back in the car today and we had a full programme planned for him. Unfortunately, during the morning we saw something in the data which gave us concern over the power unit. A subsequent investigation meant we couldn’t get back on track until late in the afternoon. However, the mechanics did a great job of rebuilding the car to get us back out in time to complete some useful new tyre running. We were able to complete the day with a series of pitstops, which was a valuable experience for Nicholas and gave him an appreciation of how quick the stops will be once we get to the serious business of racing in Melbourne.
We now have a few days to review the findings from this week before we start the final three days of testing ahead of the opening race of the season. We have a lot of work to do, but we have had a productive opening week with the new FW43 and are looking forward to evolving the performance next week.
Nicholas Latifi: It wasn’t the day I had hoped for in terms of running. I mirrored George’s programme from yesterday in terms of the sequence, with a lot of aero runs in the morning, and then I was able to get a few pushing laps before we saw some potential problems in the PU data. However, the guys did a great job to rebuild the car and get me back out there. We had a busy last hour of the day, testing lots of items and maximising the running time. The lack of track time was unfortunate, but that’s how testing goes sometimes. Hopefully we can make up for the mileage we missed next week.
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