F1: Petrov Enjoys First Day In Caterham

Formula 1

F1: Petrov Enjoys First Day In Caterham

Vitaly Petrov turned his first laps in a Caterham car on Wednesday in Barcelona...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted February 22, 2012 Barcelona (ESP)

Vitaly Petrov joined Caterham prior to the 2012 season. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Vitaly Petrov had his first experience with the Caterham CT01 at Barcelona Wednesday, having not driven a F1 car since the Brazilian GP.

The Russian, announced last week as the replacement for Jarno Trulli, was the slowest of the drivers in 2012 cars – but insists that it was a positive day, despite having trouble fitting in the car initially.

“We completed 69 laps and got through most of what we had planned,” he said. “This morning we had a couple of issues with the seating position and the brakes, but you expect that from a new car, and they were little things that we were able to fix quickly. In the afternoon we put in a few more long runs and that’ll give us a lot of data to work on tonight, and I think tomorrow it will be more of the same.

“Physically I feel really good. It’s obviously been a while since I’ve been in a car, but I’ve kept up my fitness levels and I enjoyed myself on track, so it’s a good first day back. One thing I have noticed is that this car behaves a little differently from my previous experience, and I think I may have to adjust my driving style to get the best out of it. I’ve been quite aggressive before, but I think this car responds better to smoother inputs, so that’s something I can work on, and work with the engineers on. Let’s see what we can come up with for tomorrow.”

Caterham technical boss Mike Gascoyne said: “We spent some time this morning getting him acclimatized, focusing particularly on the brakes, but he has settled in well and did exactly what we asked of him today. We have a few points to work on tonight, one of those being to understand how to give him a setup he feels most comfortable with, so tomorrow we expect to be able to continue to progress when he’s back on track for the second day.”

Adam Cooper notched up his 27th season as a racing journalist in 2011. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Follow him on Twitter.

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