The first day of the Silverstone Young Driver Test saw Nico Prost take the wheel of the E21, running through a busy programme including bolting rather strange things to the car…

How was your day at Silverstone?
It was a very good day today. It’s a great track to drive and we had perfect weather too. We had quite a big programme with a lot of different things to work through, including new parts and different aerodynamic assessments, so it’s been pretty busy!

We saw some strange appendages added to the car; how is it driving with large aero-logging rakes and such like?
Funnily enough, you don’t really notice the rake on the side of the car, but you do notice some of the associated wiring near the cockpit. You soon get used to it, but it’s not the kind of thing you’d want to use in a race!

Does P8 on the board at the end of the day mean anything?
Our aim was not for performance today, but performance when the team gets to Budapest. This meant that we were conducting comparison and aero tests where you keep the car setup consistent so the data has fewer variables. We also only ran with the hard tyres today. Hopefully, if we get through the programme well on Friday, there will be the opportunity to work on faster runs.

What’s next for you?
Tomorrow I’ll be working in the simulator, then back here on Friday for more time on track which I’m looking forward to tremendously. It was like Christmas Day when I was driving the car today, then got told that I would be back in it again on Friday. It’s a great feeling.