Bianchi: « Really important for me to drive » with Force India
For the second consecutive day, Jules Bianchi led the session and set the fastest time of the day at 1:16.467. The Frenchman appreciates having been able to benefit from a real day of driving with the team of which he is the third driver, a different job from the one he is used to on Friday mornings.
After the Ferrari F2012, it was behind the wheel of the Sahara Force India VJM05 that Jules Bianchi participated in the second day of the young driver tests at Magny-Cours. The Frenchman, who knows the car well from having driven it many times on Friday mornings, is pleased to have completed his program: « It’s very good, very positive with a lot of laps because it was really important for me to drive with my team and to be able to find the limit with the car a bit more, which is not necessarily the case when doing Friday mornings because we only have one set of tires and the goal is not really to go for time but to bring the car back to the pits and collect as much data as possible. [Today,] we were able to explore other things, so it was really positive. »
The Frenchman acknowledges, however, that he had to reacquaint himself with the car traditionally driven by Paul di Resta and Nico Hülkenberg: « The foundation of my program was mainly to get familiar with the car, the steering wheel, the systems, and the different steering wheel positions. I also tried to find my limit a little bit and then conducted some minor tests for the team. »
Tomorrow, the driver from Nice will get back behind the wheel of the Ferrari, but the rain could disrupt his schedule and prevent him from driving: « It will depend on the rain. If it rains very heavily, we won’t drive; however, if the track is manageable, we will drive. »
From our correspondent in Magny-Cours.
