Facu Regalia has carried out his first official testing day in the World Series by Renault held in Jerez de la Frontera. Making his debut in the Zeta Corse-entered car Regalia ranked 15th in the afternoon session as his car was hit by differential issues.
After eight months of inactivity, Argentina´s racer returned to drive a racing car and, for the first time, a WSR vehicle, a new stage for his racing career and partnering Zeta Corse from Russia.
Track activity in Jerez de la Frontera was divided in two sessions, lasting three-and-half hours each, taking place in the morning and in the afternoon. In the first session, Regalia finished 19th posting a fastest lap of 1m30s620, three seconds slower than Roberto Merhi. Nevertheless, Regalia noticed something wrong with his car and, later, Zeta Corse checked it and found a problem with the differential, which was almost broken.
Zeta Corse´s pit crew did outstanding work to replace it and had Facu back on track with one hour to go. As almost ever happens, afternoon session was red-flagged several times, one of them when Regalia was trying his first flying lap on fresh tires. Shortly after, on his only flying lap, he set a time of 1m28s844, 15th fastest, and one-half second slower than Tio Ellias, who went quickest.
Testing continues Friday with two other test sessions. Teams will work on low downforce package. It will be another valuable day for Regalia, who will continue putting experience under his belt.
Facu Regalia: “Our day got a bit difficult due to some problems in the morning. I noticed something wrong with my car and later my team, while checking the gearbox, discovered an almost broken differential. They had to change it, and it costs loads of time. So I was back on track with one hour to go. We made some changes on fresh tires and car performance improved a lot, there was a world of difference in comparison with the car in the morning. Our work in the afternoon was rather positive, despite the session got interrupted by several red flags.
"One of them dashed my first flying lap attempt, so I was left with just once chance, which was finally my best lap today. Anyway I made two mistakes on my flying lap, losing five tenths. So my best time could have been a lap of 1m28s3, around eight tenths slower than Ellinas. Taking into account it was my debut in the car, working with Zeta Corse and in this championship, it isn´t a bad result at all. We have drawn conclusions and we know where both my car and I have to improve. Tomorrow we will test the low configuration set-up, unlike today when we tested with a higher downforce set-up. Tomorrow is another day for further development and I will feel more confident with the car, so I will try to improve my results”.
Humphrey Corbett (engineer): "Facu acquitted himself well on day one of his first ever WSR 3.5 test here in Jerez, Spain, completing 59 laps. His was immediately on the pace in the morning session but car issues prevented him from improving his time until the last hour of the afternoon. He drives with confidence for a rookie and has good feedback and I'm sure he will be on the pace tomorrow when all cars have to run on a low downforce set up".
