[More Pictures]

Thursday, 12th October 2006

Ernesto Viso completed his first run in an F1 car in soaking conditions at Silverstone, getting a feel for the Spyker-Toyota he will pilot at the Brazilian GP, if not the additional power that the car brings over his regular 2006 mount.

Although he will only have a couple of hours to impress, Viso is determined to state his case for a possible test role in the top flight next season.

"I can’t wait to mix it with the established guys at Interlagos," he enthused in typical Viso style, "I have never raced in Interlagos, but I will arrive early in the week to familiarise myself with the track and study as much data as possible with my engineer.

"I recognise that the role of the Friday driver is vital, and my objective is to make a valued contribution to the efforts of the Spyker MF1 team in setting up the car and preparing it for qualifying and the race. However, my own aim is to secure a challenging role with an F1 team in some capacity in 2007, so I’m setting out to impress."

Advertisement [Go Advertisement Free]

The youngster's enthusiasm and application, despite the trying conditions, already appears to have impressed member of the Spyker team, with the engineer in charge of the test, Oliver Knight, seeing his comments echoed by team principal Colin Kolles.

"Ernesto did very well today," Kolles said, despite not having been present at the test, "The conditions were not great, but I understand that he handled the car well and his feedback to our engineers was excellent. I have watched Ernesto closely in GP2 this season, and have been very impressed with his performances, so I look forward to seeing him drive at Interlagos. He helped the team with some important development work today, and I have little doubt that he is ready for the challenge next weekend."

The team's head of race and test engineering, Dominic Harlow, reported that Viso worked on development gearbox parts and other control systems that the team is working on a head of the Brazilian GP and next season. With Viso jetting off to fulfil commitments in Venezuela before moving on to Brazil, he was unable to collect extra mileage on day two of the test, when Christijan Albers and Markus Winkelhock will share driving duties.

Related Images

[Top of Article]