Ocon completes 142 laps for Force India

Barcelona, 7 March 2017: Sahara Force India completed a very busy day as testing resumed at the Circuit de Catalunya. Esteban Ocon covered more than two race distances, clocking 142 laps before the chequered flag.

Chassis: VJM10-02

Laps: 142 laps

Mileage: 661km

Best lap: 1:21.347 (P6)

Esteban Ocon: “I am very happy with our work today. To complete more than 140 laps without issues is a good effort and allowed us to cover a lot of ground. We did some long stints and also some performance runs, which were very interesting: we kept working on both the chassis and the tyres, but we managed to include aero and engine work too. I can see we are making progress compared to last week: every time we go out we get to try new solutions and I feel we are moving in the right direction.”

Tom McCullough, Chief Race Engineer: “It’s been a productive day and we managed to complete our entire run plan. We covered 142 laps and Esteban didn’t put a foot wrong all day. We definitely learnt a lot and this is something that will help us for the rest of the week. Our programme was varied: we continued our correlation work for the mapping of the car and did further work on the 2017 tyres. Today was also a good occasion to work with Esteban on some of our race weekend procedures: Melbourne is only one day in the car away for him, effectively, so it was crucial to make the most of his time in the car. Every lap we do helps us progress on what is a very steep learning curve with the new cars. We feel the analysis of the data from last week has set us in the right direction and we are aiming to continue on this path for the remainder of the week.”

eom/Sahara Force India press release