The recently-renamed
Force India F1 team completed its first kilometres as the opening
Formula One group test of the off-season kicked off at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona on Tuesday.
Resplendent in a striking interim colour scheme of burgundy and white, the former Jordan/Midland/Spyker team completed just under 800km, the most of any team participating at the three-day test, while giving F1 hopefuls Roldan Rodriguez and Giedo van der Garde the chance to get more experience under their belts.
Both drivers used versions of the Spyker F8-VII fitted with the standard electronics package that will be mandatory for 2008. As such, traction control and other driver aids were no longer on offer, and the Spaniard and Dutchman focused on accumulating data for the new system, which saw the cars running an average of 1.5secs slower than it did during the 2007 season.
With few problems to report, the team was pleased with a productive day's running, having set a strong baseline for the remaining two days, when
Adrian Sutil - who has experience of the F8-VII from the recent race campaign - running alongside hopefuls Tonio Liuzzi and Christian Klien.
"For 2008, the cars must use a standard electronic control system for the engine and chassis, making traction control and other driver aids of recent years a thing of the past," confirmed chief race and test engineer Dominic Harlow, "There is obviously a tremendous amount of work to understand and re-optimise the cars around the new system, but we feel today was a very positive start.
"Giedo and Roldan did exactly what was asked of them today, completing more laps between them than any other team here, and laying the foundations for the rest of the week's programme."
GP2 frontrunner Rodriguez remains strongly linked to a race seat at the team, particularly among the Spanish media, and was happy to have created a positive impression during the day.
