Mugello test 2012 day 1 quotes: Caterham

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Published on 01 May 2012 18:13
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By: Rob Veenstra

Rodolfo Gonzalez: "Despite the weather, which was obviously frustrating this afternoon, I've had a good day with the team here at the Mugello test. I love this track - I've won here in the past in International F3, so getting back out in an F1 car this morning was a great experience. Obviously I'd have preferred a lot more dry running, but today wasn't about setting the fastest times I could, it was more about making sure I ran to the plan we'd set with the engineers, not making any mistakes, and continuing to learn as much as I could. After the morning session I was happy with my performance, particularly considering how stop / start the session was, and while the running was pretty much meaningless this afternoon it's still been another very valuable day for me. Every minute I'm with the F1 team helps me develop as a driver, so even though everyone at the test was affected by today's rain, for me this has still been another step in the right direction for my career."

Steve Nielsen, Caterham F1 Team Sporting Director: "The weather played its part today in limiting the running we had planned for Rodolfo. Despite that he still did a good, solid job for us this morning, making no mistakes and putting in consistent lap times on every run he completed. His is developing as a driver and we can measure his progress over the last couple of years against the data we accumulated from his previous outings with us, at the Abu Dhabi young drivers' tests in 2010 and 2011, and in the way he conducts himself in and out of the car. He responds well to the instructions he is given and his technical feedback has improved markedly since he first drove for us in 2010, so overall we are pleased with the job he has done for us today, in what have been obviously frustrating conditions, and now we want him to take what he's learnt back to his GP2 season with Caterham Racing and continue to develop his skills every time he is on track.

"Tomorrow we have Vitaly back in the car and he will be spending the day evaluating several new parts on the car, including a new spec rear wing, new bodywork and a number of revisions to the exhaust system. Hopefully we will have a better day with the weather so we avoid losing too much more valuable track time at this test."

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