Three days of hard work for Scuderia Coloni at Paul Ricard 26.03.2010: Scuderia Coloni has officially started working for the 2010 GP2 Main Series in Paul Ricard. The Italian team, indeed, took part in the official testing sessions held on March 23-24-25, the first ones after the end of the GP2 Asia

Scuderia Coloni has officially started working for the 2010 GP2 Main Series in Paul Ricard. The Italian team, indeed, took part in the official testing sessions held on March 23-24-25, the first ones after the end of the GP2 Asia Series, in order to prepare for the coming season.

So, three days of really hard work which, at the end, proved to be really useful and not just from a technical standpoint. That’s because the team used the sessions also to sharpen the feeling between the drivers and the technical staff. That was something needed because Vladimir Arabadzhiev was at the first outing with the team, and also Alberto Valerio had just a four days experience on track with Scuderia Coloni.

Looking at the technical side, the testing was held on three different track configurations: 3D and 2D-b allowed the team to try high-downforce setups, while the 2A version, including the long backstraight, was used for low-drag setups.

Confirming how hard the team worked in France, is the fact that Vladimir Arabadzhiev was the driver with the highest mileage of the whole group, completing 138 laps in the six sessions. The Bulgarian was often very close to the more experienced Valerio, who managed to complete 116 laps.

Paolo Coloni: “I’m really happy of the team’s job. It was the first time together for the Main Series team, and they did really good. We lapped on three different track configurations and in all the possible weather conditions, from dry to wet and even on a damp track with slick tyres. We tried lots of different solutions, and laptimes were never our objective. If you look af the laptimes of this sessions, they are a bit different from what we’ve seen in GP2 Asia, so I think that all the teams were trying in very different conditions.

Apart from that, I want to say that I was really impressed by Arabadzhiev; He worked hard, did a huge amount of laps and he was really good throughout the whole test”.

Alberto Valerio: “I’m really happy of the job I’ve done with the team. It was the first test of 2010, everything was new, and my first objective was getting acquainted with the team and with the new technical director. The really good thing is that we improved session after session: in the last one I didn’t use new tyres, and I was just 8 tenths adrift of Maldonado, who was on fresh rubber. This gives me a good feeling for the first race, in Barcelona”.

Vladimir Arabadzhiev: “I’m happy because my objective was putting as many kms as possible under my belt, and I achieved that. On the second day I was really close to Alberto, who is much more experienced than me, an on the third day the good laptime didn’t come because we chose to use our new tyres a bit early, to avoid a possible rain shower. Anyway, the only important thing was getting familiar with the car and the team, and I did that”.


- Filippo Zanier - photo Scuderia Coloni