Wednesday 30 November at 16:00 : Robert Doornbos enjoyed a fine first day behind the wheel of a Red Bull Racing car at the Circuit the Catalunya yesterdat. At the 4,727 kilometer long track near Barcelona, Robert drove 53 laps in total in which he mainly focussed himself on the development of the new restricted Cosworth V10 engine.

Though most teams and drivers started the day enthusiastic at 09:00h, the track temperature appeared to be too low to keep going.

Robert Doornbos: “ I woke up really early, as I was very eager to start testing in the RB1. Though the sky was clear and blue, the temperature was only 01 degree celsius. Therefore the track temperature was too low to do some serious runs. When I exited the pitbox my tyres were warmed up to 90 degrees celsius, but as soon as I entered the first corner they had fallen back to only 50 degrees.”

Therefore the real action at the Spanish circuit started somewhat later, around 11:00h. Robert drove a new restricted Cosworth V10 powered car, whereas Christian Klien had a ‘regular’ V10 at his disposal.

Robert Doornbos: “You feel the differences right away. Some of the corners where I had to lift last year, could now easily be done flat out. As the engine requires a different driving style, I concentrated myself on this subject in the morning session. After a while things started to get more automatically though.”

As the morning session progressed, Robert started to get quite busy working through his programme for today. In the first few hours the team mainly focussed on the development of the Cosworth engine in which the data and the output of both drivers were very important. Over the lunch Robert drove a first ‘baseline run’, so he could have a real first impression of his new machinery. After that Robert completed his programm in the final three hours of testing before the circuit closed at 17:00h.

Robert Doornbos: “The car feels really good. It handles smooth and easy, so that’s nice. Next to that I was impressed by the software. My first acquintance with Michelin also just worked out very well!”

Today Robert will take his time to study all the data together with his engineer in order to prepare himself well for his second day of testing tomorrow. Today, David Coulthard and Christian Klien will come in action for RBR. Tomorrow, Robert will take over Christian’s car to finish this three-day testsession.

Robert Doornbos: “I’m happy with the work done yeserdat. I’ve seen and learned a lot allready, and look forward to tomorrow. Testing for Red Bull Racing is definitely the best thing I could possible wish for, and therefore I’m happy to be part of the ‘Red Bull family’ now. I hope everyone in The Netherlands are just as excited as I am!”

Press release
Robert Doornbos Media