Day 2 of 2023 Pre-Season Testing concludes in Barcelona

Absorbing all their knowledge and understanding from the opening day of pre-season testing for the 2023 F1 Academy campaign, the field set out to put what they’d learnt into practice during the second and final day of running at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Maximising their track time, the 15 drivers got plenty of mileage in, achieving an impressive 981 laps across the six hours of action and a few of the drivers gave us their takes on their first testing experience.

“I actually shocked myself, I didn’t expect do as well as I did, said MP Motorsport’s Amna Al Qubaisi. “The team’s pretty happy and we finished off these two days on a really good point. The biggest thing I learnt was adapting to the car. It’s a new car and there’s a lot of downforce and a lot of grip, so I really like it and it was easier for me to adapt to.”

Nerea Martí for Campos Racing added: “I’m happy with the test because I think we tried a lot of things that will be positive for the Barcelona race. Yesterday was really positive, we were fast and today we focused more on trying things with the car and seeing what happens when we change the setup.

“Next week we have testing at Paul Ricard, so another opportunity to try more things and to understand the car. Also, to keep working in myself before the first race this month, so I hope to be ready with the team to be at the top.”

“Both days of testing have been quite good,” PREMA Racing’s Marta García commented. “I familiarised myself with the car and the track a bit more. It was good, I think I did quite well. We made some improvements with my driving and I’m happy with that. We still have some details to work on, but it’s really good to work with PREMA as well.

“I’m just really excited to start the season in Austria, as these two days have been quite good. We always have to keep pushing and improving because that’s how we work in PREMA and let’s see how it goes in the next test.”

Improving with every lap out on track, ART Grand Prix’s Léna Bühler and Rodin Carlin’s Abbi Pulling are both now turning their attention to continuing the positives into the second pre-season test at Le Castellet, France next week, from April 18-19.

“It was a quite interesting test day with ART,” the Sauber Academy junior said. “It’s the first test for us in F1 Academy and also for me with the team as well, so we needed to test a lot of things and see how it’s going. I learned a lot about the tyres because it was my first time with Pirellis. Testing was quite good, so let’s see for next time.”

Alpine Academy junior Pulling added: “The past two days at Barcelona have been really productive. I think we as a team had quite a lot of work to do, but I think we finally found the window and learned a lot about the setup over the two days. We were trying quite a lot and to finish how we did, I’m quite happy.

“I’m always looking for more in myself and in the car and I think we did that in the last two days. Also, thanks to the team for working so hard in making sure that we’re competitive.”