Force India: clutch problem for Fisichella on Day 3 at Le Castellet 

Written by David on May 16th, 2008 at 7:00 pmLast Update: May 16th, 2008 at 7:15 pm

Force IndiaFollowing two productive testing days on the shorter, twistier 2D-SC configuration of the Paul Ricard circuit in preparation for next week’s Monaco Grand Prix, the Force India F1 Team had plans to test its Canadian Grand Prix aerodynamic package on the longer 1EV2-SC circuit on the third and final day of the test. Unfortunately, heavy rain and cold temperatures made gathering any meaningful testing results difficult.

Giancarlo Fisichella was first out for the team in the morning on the lower downforce aero package designed for the long straights of the Gilles Villeneuve circuit in Canada. Fisichella put in one run before the rain, however a clutch problem led to a long stop in the garage and just as the issue was rectified, rain started to fall heavily. He took the opportunity to conduct some testing in the wet conditions before handing the car to Adrian Sutil just after the lunchtime break.

Since heavy rain fell throughout the afternoon, Sutil completed just 13 laps to continue Fisichella’s wet weather programme.

Giancarlo Fisichella: “I did some running in the dry but then we had a mechanical problem and had to come in, which was a shame as then it started raining. We could still do 31 laps in the morning to try out the wet set up and made some improvements to the balance in the wet, which could be useful.”

Dominic Harlow, Chief race and Test engineer: “As we expected much of today was a wash out. It was possible to run dry tyres briefly at the start of the day with Giancarlo but unfortunately we had a mechanical problem that meant we lost some time in these conditions. The afternoon was also very wet, and Adrian could complete just 13 laps.”

Adrian Sutil: “This afternoon was very wet until the sun came out towards the end of the day. As such we started on extreme wets and got in a couple of runs to try out the wet set up. We did some starts and everything was OK, but with these conditions it is very difficult to draw any real conclusions.”

source: Force India

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