Eschewing the chance to get acclimatised and set up for the Malaysian conditions, the Silverstone-based team remained at home to finalise its first major aero upgrade of the season, and now hopes that it could be racing for position rather than making up the numbers. Both F8-VIIs will feature revised bodywork, sidepod inlets, bargeboards and a modified diffuser to increase aerodynamic efficiency, all of which is a direct result of the team's new partnership with Aerolab, giving it access to a second wind tunnel and 30 additional staff.
"We were where we expected to be in Australia in terms of qualifying time difference but, on race pace, we were pretty close to the group in front," chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne commented, "For Malaysia, the goal is now to transfer the aero upgrade onto the car and move forward. The simulations we have conducted in the wind tunnel suggest the modifications will give a significant increase in performance and, hopefully, we will be able to move further up the field."
Although Spyker's on-track performance was overshadowed by its decision to press ahead with protesting two of its rivals, both Christijan Albers and
Adrian Sutil took positives from the Melbourne weekend. Neither had a straightforward race, however, with Albers crashing out as he struggled to adjust his communications cable and Albers having to fight back after a clash with
Anthony Davidson and two drive-thru' penalties that left him 17th and last finisher.
"I'm looking forward to the second race, as we all know the first did not go so well," Albers admitted, "I really want to get a good result, especially with the team working so hard to push the update through."
Despite plans to put Malaysian Fairuz Fauzy into one of the cars for Friday practice, the two race drivers will get maximum track time as they attempt to hone the new aero kit to both their driving styles and the Sepang conditions.
