Vitantonio Liuzzi enjoyed his first day with
Force India at Barcelona, as the Italian bids to impress the team in an effort to guarantee his
Formula 1 future.
The former
Scuderia Toro Rosso ace was in action for the recently-renamed Spyker outfit on day two of
F1's first winter test since the end of the 2007 campaign, alongside regular pilot
Adrian Sutil and ex-
Honda test-driver Christian Klien, with whom he once shared the second drive at
Red Bull Racing back in 2005. Though he was marginally the slowest of the trio as all three were blanketed by barely a tenth of a second at the close of play Liuzzi insisted it had been a positive experience.
I think the day went well, the 26-year-old affirmed. For sure I enjoyed it. With traction control there is a bit more action; you need some more concentration and have to work harder, especially over longer runs.
I had some problems getting comfortable in the cockpit which is normal after years at another team and I lost maybe a couple of tenths, but I think we did some good work. The car has some small issues, but we can always overcome it the team is very professional. I am just doing my best and seeing if we can work well together.
One of his potential rivals for the seat is former RBR team-mate Klien, who proved the quickest of the Force India drivers around the Circuit de Catalunya after completing a near-identical number of laps to Liuzzi. The Austrian whose last F1 test was also with Spyker back in August similarly professed himself satisfied with his day's work in Spain.
I was pretty pleased with the testing, the 24-year-old asserted, especially considering I had not tested a car since August. It took some time to get used to it again, particularly without any of the driver aids, but once I had settled in I could put in some good times and help the team with its programme. Doing 56 laps in just over a morning was pretty good and I'm looking forward to getting back in the car for some more on Thursday.
