Car number 9, prepared by top French sqaud ART Grand Prix and driven by Jan Charouz, took to the Spanish circuit on Wednesday morning. Twenty-two-year old Czech racing driver got the opportunity to test the GP2 single-seater for the first time in his career, while in total 42 drivers took part in the official test. Jan Charouz returned to the single-seater´s cockpit after three years, during which he has been concentrating on sports car endurance racing in the most prestigious LMP1 class.
Jan Charouz completed four test sessions from Wednesday 7th to Thursday 8th at Jerez. The temperature ranged between 21 and 27°C and on Thursday morning there were wet conditions on the track, which made it quite tricky.
With no experience of driving GP2 single-seater Jan Charouz foremost learned. He got familiarized with the new car and gained experience of Jerez circuit, where he had started six years ago. When comparing lap times, Charouz was gradually improving them and eventually made them better by 1.3 sec.
Jan Charouz: „To be honest, I should say, it was quite difficult. The testing was quite demanding for me. On Wednesday I was learning the car, the racing track, breaking by left foot. On Thursday I tried speed-up and I was finding ideal breaking points, because the breaks of GP2 car are much more better than the breaks of LMP1 prototype. I made my lap times by 1.3 sec better, but I know, I need to keep working hard. The competition was really strong. I was competing with the drivers, that are regularly racingin GP2 Series or with single-seaters in Formula 3, Formula International Master and World Series by Renault championships. They know single-seaters very well. In similar situation as me was only Sébastien Loeb, but comparing with the top drivers, he lost more than me.“
„Thursday morning there was rainy weather and in wet conditions I scored some good lap times and I was holding 12th position for some time. In November I will take part in next official testing at Paul Ricard. Now I will concentrate on my physical training, because especially in fast corners it was really donkey-work for me. Anyway it was great experience and I thank for this oportunity.“
Antonin Charouz, manager: „I think, it was really useful experience, but the decision about Jan’s racing future we will take after the testing at Paul Ricard. How I said, it depends only on Jan,on his approach and his performance.“
Jan Charouz will take part in next GP2 Series official test session at Paul Ricard in France on 10/11 November 2009.
PHOTOGALERY
Photo: GP2 Series Media
Hi-res photo open by clicking on preview photo
USEFUL LINKS
| Official website of ART Grand Prix | www.art-grandprix.com |
| Official website of GP2 Series | www.gp2series.com |
| Official website of Jerez Circuit | www.circuitodejerez.com |
| Official website of Jan Charouz | www.jan-charouz.cz |
| Official website of BPA sport marketing agency | www.bpa.cz |
