Petronas Mofaz Racing resumes Sepang tests
In preparation for the team’s debut in the 2010 Formula BMW Pacific series, the four young racers of the Petronas Mofaz Racing Team have resumed their on-track training at the Sepang Circuit today.
With the exception of Calvin Wong who had graduated from the PETRONAS Formula Xperience (PFX) programme in 2008 and is returning for his second year in the Formula BMW Pacific series; 2009 PFX graduates Natasha Seatter, Ryan Ritchie and Abang Amirrul Hadi Abang Khiruddin will be making their debut as rookies in the 2010 series.
Action started as early as 8:30 for the young quartet, as they each went out on the track doing four-lap cycles to determine the best setup for each individual driver.
Commenting on each of the drivers’ respective progress, team chief engineer Brian Ireland said, “Calvin made good progress throughout the whole day although running on old tyres, securing a fastest lap time of 2’ 13.00” on top of all other Formula BMW teams testing today. Natasha, Amirrul and Ryan were able to bring their lap times considerably down to the 2’16” mark after several key adjustments were done to their cars after receiving the drivers’ feedback. This also gave the engineers a concise idea of how the cars needed to be setup to suit the individual driving styles, and where improvement was required to help the drivers to gain better understanding of the cars. For the next two days, we will look into improving times with new tyres and technical adjustments suited to the drivers.”
The test session, which was also used to assess the individual capabilities in various aspects, was thoroughly observed by driver-coach Paul Spooner and physical trainer Nick Kitchen, a man of vast Formula 1 experience employed to develop suitable physical training programmes for the drivers.
Testing will continue for the next two days, followed by a further two sessions next week to prepare for the season’s first race on 1 – 4 April 2010 at the Sepang International Circuit.
