MP4-23 already covered over 4000km's

With more rain falling at the circuit in southern Spain today, wet track conditions meant that, on top of the continuing development programme, the team took the opportunity to look into improving engine drivability and car handling with wet settings.

In addition the MP4-23 has been running with the new FIA ECU codes and development of this was also a focus. Lewis had a couple of minor off track excursions during the day due to changing track conditions. His car was not damaged and he was able to complete the test plan for the day.

Martin Whitmarsh: "We have now completed six full track days with two MP4-23’s and already clocked up approximately 4193km’s on our 2008 challenger, 1,000kms of which were covered yesterday alone, and we are only halfway through the third week in January. It has been an immensely productive start to our pre-season test programme and is a strong motivation for the team to keep pushing. Although it is far too early in the development stage of the car to be predicting how competitive it will be, initial feedback from the drivers and the team has been positive and we have a huge amount of data on which to base the continuing development programme around."