Formula 1

ABU DHABI YOUNG DRIVER TEST – DAY ONE –

António Félix da Costa: With just a short respite after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Red Bull Racing was back at the Yas Marina Circuit today for the 2012 Young Driver Test. Red Bull Junior driver António Félix da Costa was at the wheel of the RB8 for the first day of this three-day test.

Running during daylight, rather than the day/night schedule of the Grand Prix, the team split the allotted time between mechanical work in the morning and aero-mapping during the afternoon. The full programme was completed, with Antonio driving 79 laps of the Yas Marina Circuit.

António said: “This was my first time driving an RB8 at a proper test, with proper tyres on a real circuit, and… wow! I was perhaps a little anxious beforehand, but ultimately the pedals and the steering wheel are in the usual places.

“There’s a lot to learn, particularly with the buttons on the steering wheel, and it took one or two runs to get completely comfortable with all of that – but I think we had a good day.”

Antonio will be back in the car tomorrow before handing over on Thursday to Formula Renault 3.5 series winner Robin Frijns.

Nicolas Prost: Today was my first real experience of a Formula 1 car. I had driven the R30 before, however it’s now two years old and uses different tyres so it’s quite different to my experience today. I’m obviously very happy and I’m impressed by the car; it’s a massive step up even from the R30.

For me it was like a real test driver’s day and we trialled a lot of parts. We only worked on the hard tyres, so were obviously not looking for pace, but we have been analysing the data and I have been comparing myself with Kimi and Romain’s telemetry. Obviously I’m missing a bit in some corners, but others are quite good. For my first day I think it’s very positive and I did the job the team asked of me, so it’s been a very good day.

Giedo van der Garde: “I’m pleased with how today went. We were mainly working on aero performance, running sensors and different mechanical configurations on the car in the morning and afternoon sessions and to get the most out of them I had to drive consistently, carefully and not go for outright speed.

“I think the team’s happy with what I’ve done today and physically I feel great after running a good number of laps. After my FP1 session here in Abu Dhabi was cut short it was good to get some really decent time on track and the key thing for me is to keep developing my relationship with the team. There’s still a few tweaks we could make to the setup to suit my driving style a bit more but we have tomorrow to work on a few more setup options, as well as continuing to test parts and aero programs.”

Pos Driver Team Time Laps
 1.  Kevin Magnussen         McLaren-Mercedes    1m42.651s            40
 2.  Antonio Felix da Costa  Red Bull-Renault    1m42.717s  + 0.066s  79
 3.  Gary Paffett            McLaren-Mercedes    1m43.407s  + 0.756s  44
 4.  Robin Frijns            Sauber-Ferrari      1m43.775s  + 1.124s  78
 5.  Nicolas Prost           Lotus-Renault       1m44.194s  + 1.543s  55
 6.  Luiz Razia              Toro Rosso-Ferrari  1m44.691s  + 2.040s  67
 7.  Giedo van der Garde     Caterham-Renault    1m45.936s  + 3.285s  57

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