Day 2 of Pre-Season testing completed at Circuit Paul Ricard

Over 850 laps were completed across three sessions at Circuit Paul Ricard today as teams and drivers both worked tirelessly ahead of next week’s season opener at the Red Bull Ring.

Rodin Carlin’s Abbi Pulling set the fastest time of the event with a 1:26.163 in the second morning session, ahead of PREMA Racing’s Marta García by 0.08s.

We spoke to three drivers after the day’s events, as well as Campos Racing Team Principal Adrian Campos Jr.

“It’s been kind of a flawless two days of testing and I think we’ve made great steps again today, after working on a few things with the set-up” said Pulling.

“I think there is a little bit of me needing to put it all together as I did good things, but not all on the same lap! That will be the focus for the Red Bull Ring, making sure we put everything together.

“I never really left the top of the time sheets all test long, so I can’t ask for much more.”

Garcia added: “Today was a good day and with new tyres this morning I was fastest by like three tenths. We improved on the things we had to improve on and I was happy with that.

“There’s still some little details to have a look at, but in the second run I also went with new tyres and was second fastest with only Abbi 0.08s ahead of me.

“We also did some race simulations to check ahead of the Red Bull Ring next week and I have good pace. I’ve been happy with the work over the last two days. We still have to work on some little details that make the difference, but I am really looking forward to next week.”

ART Grand Prix’s, Léna Bühler, was happy she had the chance to test out various set-ups before next week’s round: “I feel quite confident after these test days as we had the chance to try out a variety of things.

“It’s my first year with ART Grand Prix so we have to work hard to see what is best with the tyre and the setup. Sometimes it is good, sometimes not so good, but I am confident heading into next week and will do the best I can.” Meanwhile Adrian Campos Jr summed up two days of testing for his team: “It has been two positive days where we tried a lot of things, we are still getting used to the Pirelli tyres but after this test I feel we know a little bit more. The first event is next week, so we will need to work very hard to get the maximum out of the car to be ready for the first race.

“I believe with Nerea and Lola we will need to be fighting for the top five. Maite has been showing a lot of improvement through all the testing days and it will be more of a challenge for her as she does not know the track, but I am sure she will manage to be quite competitive towards the end of the weekend.”

2023 F1 ACADEMY - LE CASTELLET TEST, DAY 2, SESSION 1

2023 F1 ACADEMY - LE CASTELLET TEST, DAY 2, SESSION 2

2023 F1 ACADEMY - LE CASTELLET TEST, DAY 2, SESSION 3