McLaren Test report, Abu Dhabi - day one
Tuesday November 6 2012Drivers Kevin Magnussen (am)/Gary Paffett (pm)Location Yas Marina CircuitTrack length 5.554kmLaps 40 (Kevin)/44 (Gary)Km covered 222/244Best laptime 1m42.651s Programme The mornings session was spent acclimatising Kevin Magnussen to his first run in a Formula 1 car. That meant a focus on a suite of gradual set-up changes, firstly to introduce Kevin to the behaviour of a grand prix car under different mechanical influences, but also to fine-tune the cars set-up to his personal preference. The team were impressed with the Danes progress and aptitude. He completed 40 laps/222km. Gary Paffett undertook the afternoons running, undertaking a challenging programme primarily focusing on evaluating a wide number of aerodynamic and suspension developmentseither for imminent use in the final two races, or for future development for next years car. He completed 44 laps/244km.Garys large workload also required a consistent baseline, meaning he drove without the benefit of DRS and some way below the limit in order to eliminate unwanted variables.Whats next Gary concludes his running tomorrow morning after the team completes a number of larger mechanical changes overnight. Oliver Turvey starts a similar programme in the afternoon.Test dates Three days (November 6-9)