Force India completes in-season Test at Hungary

David Bodapati August 2, 2017

967 2 minutes read

A Force India car during the second Test day at Hungary on Wednesday. A Sahara Force India image

Sahara Force India brought its testing programme to an end in Budapest as Lucas Auer and Nikita Mazepin completed 97 laps overall.

P7 – LUCAS AUER – VJM10-03

1:19.242

49 laps

215km

Lucas Auer: “It was a good session and I believe we managed to stick to our run plan and get all the data that the team wanted. I felt pretty good in the car this morning: I had a good night’s sleep and I felt a lot more confident compared to my first time in the car yesterday. The team helped me so much and I was very impressed by the work of everyone: they had a lot of data from the race weekend, of course, and it was interesting to see how they used it. There is so much attention to detail and everyone made sure the instructions were clear so we were able to maximise our time.

“Experiencing Formula One has been great. There is so much speed and the cars have so much downforce. You have to train your eye to be quick because everything happens faster – it’s a very interesting way of driving and you have to take care of a lot of settings on your steering wheels while pushing the car hard. It’s a real challenge. I feel every new car you drive teaches you something as a driver because you need to adapt to it. I’ll see in the next races what I have learnt from this. I’d like to thank the team once more for these two half days – it was a pleasure to drive the VJM10 and work with everyone.”

P9 – NIKITA MAZEPIN – VJM10-03

1:19.692

48 laps

210km

Nikita Mazepin: “It’s been a tougher day today as the track temperatures were much higher. Despite this, we kept working away, trying to find the best way to set up the car. We had a big run plan to go through and I think the team managed to get all the information they needed. We started with some aero runs and then moved on to longer stints as the day progressed. I felt more comfortable in the car as the day went on and I enjoyed the performance of the VJM10. It’s been great to be back in the car and help the team in this test.”

TOM McCULLOUGH, CHIEF RACE ENGINEER

“It’s been a positive test for the team as we sign off for the summer break. Lucas had another mature half day in the car, improving with every run. The temperatures were rising throughout the morning, so he had to work hard for his improvements in laptime.

“Driving in the afternoon, Nikita had his first experience of track temperatures over 50C in a current generation F1 car. He completed some aero runs early on, with various rakes mounted on the car and after that the afternoon was dedicated to evaluating mechanical developments on the car. His pace was solid and he made another step in his development programme, but unfortunately a red flag spoiled his performance run. Both drivers were a pleasure to work with, fitted well within the team and helped us achieve all our run plan objectives. It’s been a hot test and the team have definitely earned the upcoming two weeks of summer break.”