(Infiniti Red Bull Racing)
Infiniti Red Bull Racing had a productive opening test day in Abu Dhabi as the end of season two day session got underway at the Yas Marina circuit on Tuesday. Spaniard Carlos Sainz Jr who is widely expected to join the Red Bull junior F1 team Toro Rosso as a race driver alongside Max Verstappen next season was back behind the wheel of a Red Bull F1 car after conducting a successful test with the Milton Keynes based outfit at the Young Driver Test in Silverstone in the RB9 last season.
The 20 year old completed 100 laps over the course of his day in the car which was a reward by Red Bull for winning the Renault 3.5 Series in 2014.
Sainz Jr set the fifth fastest time of the day with a fastest lap time of 1m 45.339s and speaking following the session he stated:
'For me it was an incredible day, a day that I’ve been thinking about since I started the Formula Renault 3.5 season, knowing that this was the prize. So it was always in my mind and to finally make it happen was an incredible feeling,”
”It felt really good to be honest. Obviously I had a reference from the test at Silverstone last year in the RB9 and I could build up little by little, as it was a long day and I think I did 100 laps. From the first lap I felt comfortable and felt at home, so I was able to push. There were no problems at all even though it was an extensive programme. The morning was all about data gathering but in the afternoon I was able to push a bit more, so it was fun.'
Regular Infiniti Red Bull Racing driver Daniel Ricciardo who finished the 2014 season in third place in the championship having made the step up to the senior Red Bull team this year will conclude the test for the outfit on Wednesday.
Speaking following today's running, Infiniti Red Bull Racing's Race Engineering Co-ordinator Andy Damerum stated:
'A very busy day in which I think we got through a total of 26 outings. Some of those were obviously conditional on the red flags we saw today, but Carlos got through 100 laps, which is great for a rookie. He tested for us at Silverstone last year and since then he’s been in our simulator. His feedback is excellent and I think he has improved again over the past year.
He’s obviously familiar with our car in the virtual world but it’s always a very different prospect on track and today he handled that really well. We had a lot of tyres to play with today and testing the 2015 prototype tyres was very valuable. As with everyone else, there were a number of 2015 test items on the car and a lot going on too in terms of updated software and background tests. I’m happy to say we had no major issues and we got through a lot of kilometres. Daniel will be in the car tomorrow and the programme will be largely similar.'
© Ben Johnston 2014
The 20 year old completed 100 laps over the course of his day in the car which was a reward by Red Bull for winning the Renault 3.5 Series in 2014.
Sainz Jr set the fifth fastest time of the day with a fastest lap time of 1m 45.339s and speaking following the session he stated:
'For me it was an incredible day, a day that I’ve been thinking about since I started the Formula Renault 3.5 season, knowing that this was the prize. So it was always in my mind and to finally make it happen was an incredible feeling,”
”It felt really good to be honest. Obviously I had a reference from the test at Silverstone last year in the RB9 and I could build up little by little, as it was a long day and I think I did 100 laps. From the first lap I felt comfortable and felt at home, so I was able to push. There were no problems at all even though it was an extensive programme. The morning was all about data gathering but in the afternoon I was able to push a bit more, so it was fun.'
Regular Infiniti Red Bull Racing driver Daniel Ricciardo who finished the 2014 season in third place in the championship having made the step up to the senior Red Bull team this year will conclude the test for the outfit on Wednesday.
Speaking following today's running, Infiniti Red Bull Racing's Race Engineering Co-ordinator Andy Damerum stated:
'A very busy day in which I think we got through a total of 26 outings. Some of those were obviously conditional on the red flags we saw today, but Carlos got through 100 laps, which is great for a rookie. He tested for us at Silverstone last year and since then he’s been in our simulator. His feedback is excellent and I think he has improved again over the past year.
He’s obviously familiar with our car in the virtual world but it’s always a very different prospect on track and today he handled that really well. We had a lot of tyres to play with today and testing the 2015 prototype tyres was very valuable. As with everyone else, there were a number of 2015 test items on the car and a lot going on too in terms of updated software and background tests. I’m happy to say we had no major issues and we got through a lot of kilometres. Daniel will be in the car tomorrow and the programme will be largely similar.'
© Ben Johnston 2014
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