Esteban Gutierrez enjoyed a successful first test for Ferrari in Barcelona on Wednesday by completing over 100 laps behind the wheel of the SF15-T, finishing seventh overall in the final timesheets.
Gutierrez joined Ferrari in a reserve role for the 2015 season after spending two years in Formula 1 with Sauber, but took no part in pre-season testing for the Italian team.
The Mexican has been present at every grand prix so far this season, and finally got his first taste of a Ferrari F1 car on Wednesday in Barcelona following the Spanish Grand Prix.
“Our work was aimed at the upcoming races, looking at various aspects, such as driveability, aerodynamics and set-up,” Gutierrez said.
“We managed to complete a lot of laps and it was definitely a very productive day, even though it was interrupted by a red flag. However, we managed to make up for lost time and complete our planned programme.
“We were looking to validate the new aerodynamic package and we managed that. It was a case of understanding how to improve the car’s set-up to better suit the new solutions we ran in the last race and that’s what we did.
“It was very exciting to drive the SF15-T for the first time and I got a very good feeling from it. It will be very interesting to transfer this data to our work in the simulator, once we are back in Maranello.”
Gutierrez is already being tipped as a possible candidate for a seat at Gene Haas’ new operation, Haas F1 Team, for the 2016 season as part of its technical partnership with Ferrari.
