Robert Kubica made his pre-season testing debut in the new Renault R31 on Wednesday in Valencia.
The Pole managed an impressive 104 laps without any significant reliability issues, although one or two minor mechanical niggles meant he and the team couldn’t complete their entire programme.
“It’s always difficult to judge things after just one day in the car, especially with so many changes compared to last year,” he said.
“The main factor is definitely the new Pirelli tyres, which have a big influence on how the car behaves and we ran on some of the different compounds to start getting a feeling for them.
“We did have a couple of mechanical issues with the car and we couldn’t complete the entire programme, but we still did lots of laps. This is very important because we managed to complete a lot of the usual system and reliability checks needed with a new car and made sure there were no overheating issues.”
The teams deputy technical director, James Allison, gave a positive review of the days progress.
“A much more satisfying day than yesterday. Over a hundred laps today with no significant problems. The KERS system and the DRS wing worked flawlessly and the car spent enough time on the track for us to do some set-up work alongside the routine task list of pre-season checks.”
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