Hulkenberg surprised by Force India mileage in Barcelona - MotorSportsTalk

Nico Hulkenberg has admitted that he did not expect Force India to complete so many laps with its new car following its debut on Friday afternoon in Barcelona.

The VJM08 was subject to a number of delays, meaning that the team could only roll it out on track for the first time on Friday with Hulkenberg behind the wheel.

However, in the past day-and-a-half, the German driver has managed to complete 234 laps, with 157 of them coming on Saturday.

Speaking to the media after his running had finished, Hulkenberg admitted that he was surprised by the mileage that had been completed and the lack of problems on the new car.

“I think that’s a surprise even to myself,” Hulkenberg said. “It’s very good that we brought it here and shook it out of our sleeve like this. That was a surprise I think to me, to the team and to everybody.

“But obviously that’s what we needed and helps us a little bit. I think we’ve achieved a lot today. I think everybody is as happy as they can be at the moment. Going back now, there’s a lot of data.

“Tomorrow is another day with Checo [Perez] in the car so hopefully there will be a lot more data and the engineers will have a lot of stuff to go through between now and Melbourne.”

Having debuted its car some 26 days later than the rest of the field, Force India heads into the new season playing catch-up. As a result of the limited running, Hulkenberg is unsure where the team will lie in the pecking order come the first race of the year on March 15.

“I think it’s impossible to judge that right now,” he said. “It’s going to be tough. We can be sure about that, it’s not going to be an easy one in Melbourne. A big challenge for us, but to be honest I’m very relaxed and open-minded.

“We go there as prepared as we can be with this limited running, and we’ll just make the most of it. We still have a lot of work in front of us. I can already see and identify some of the problems again this car has, but also some positives.

“I think overall we just need to stay focused and keep working hard in trying to develop this car.”

Sergio Perez will close out pre-season testing for Force India in Barcelona on Sunday in what will be his first run in the VJM08 car.

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In a continuing effort to help fans keep track of the on track action, SuperMotocross is in the process of developing and implementing leader lights for the unified series.

Currently Supercross (SMX) utilizes stanchions in the infield that are triggered manually by a race official. At least two stanchions are used in each race as a way to draw the eye to the leader, which is especially useful in the tight confines of the stadium series when lapping often begins before the halfway mark in the 22-bike field. This system has been in place for the past two decades.

Later this year, a fully automated system will move to the bike itself to replace the old system. At that point, fans will be able to identify the leader regardless of where he is on track.

The leader lights were tested in the second Anaheim round this year. An example can be seen at the 1:45 mark in the video above on the No. 69 bike.

“What we don’t want to do is move too fast, where it’s confusing to people,” said Mike Muye, senior director of operations for Supercross and SMX in a press release. “We’ve really just focused on the leader at this point with the thought that maybe down the road we’ll introduce others.”

Scheduled to debut with the first SuperMotocross World Championship race at zMax Dragway, located just outside the Charlotte Motor Speedway, a 3D carbon fiber-printed LED light will be affixed to each motorcycle. Ten timing loops positioned around the track will trigger the lights of the leader, which will turn green.

SMX’s partner LiveTime Scoring helped develop and implement the system that has been tested in some form or fashion since 2019.

When the leader lights are successfully deployed, SuperMotocross will explore expanding the system to identify the second- and third-place riders. Depending on need and fan acceptance, more positions could be added.

SuperMotocross is exploring future enhancements, including allowing for live fan interaction with the lights and ways to use the lighting system during the race’s opening ceremony.

Read more about SuperMotocross