Sahara Force India wrapped up its week of testing at Jerez with Daniel Juncadella

Daniel Juncadella: “It was my first day working with the team and it was a big challenge because of the tricky conditions.

Daniel Juncadella, Sahara Force India F1 VJM07 Test and Reserve Driver

Photo by: XPB Images

I took things very cautiously because I had never driven a Formula One car in the wet and for the whole day the track still had damp patches.

It was a case of building up my confidence and learning how the team operates. It was a great experience and I made sure to make the most of it. We covered a lot of laps, which was a big improvement after quite a frustrating day yesterday.

It’s what the team needed before the Bahrain test to really start understanding the car. I want to thank the team for today and I look forward to the rest of the season.”

Otmar Szafnauer, Chief Operating Officer: “The final day in Jerez has proved to be the most productive so far. Despite the mixed weather conditions, Daniel was able to cover 81 laps, which has given him valuable experience for his role as a reserve driver this season. The car has run reliably all day, which is a result of all the hard work carried out earlier in the week to resolve some of the initial reliability concerns. During these early days it’s paramount to get laps under our belt and over the last four days we have clocked up almost 650 km. It’s not been an easy test operationally, with lots of different challenges, but the whole team has done an extremely professional job to ensure we maximised the test days we had available.”

Day four statistics:
Chassis: VJM07-01
Laps: 81 laps
Mileage: 359 km
Fastest lap: 1:29.457
Classification: P3

Sahara Force India