Vietoris plays down test pace
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Christian Vietoris has played down the significance of his pace in this week’s official pre-season Silverstone test – despite smashing the A1GP record at the circuit.
Vietoris, who will be A1 Team Germany’s main driver this season, drove around the 2.3-mile International Circuit in 1m 10.005s – nearly half a second quicker than the best time from last year’s test at the same venue.
It again proved that no matter who is in the Germany car – the team always seem to be near the top.
However, the 18-year-old reckons it is too soon to know whether his team will be a pace-setter all season long.
‘Basically, we started on the first day with a good set-up and tried a few things,’ Vietoris said. ‘Then we tried some good solutions to improve the set-up on the next day and I did the lap when I had new tyres on and it was good.
‘There was no traffic and no mistakes and it was just a good lap.’
‘It’s definitely a good start but it’s too early to say whether this is significant. It’s just testing and ultimately it doesn’t matter because it’s just testing.
‘But at the moment we are on the top which is good for us and motivating for me.’