SMP Racing driver Robert Shwartzman took part in the two-day FIA Formula 3 pre-season testing on April 9-10 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Spain.
On Tuesday, Robert, driving the car of the Italian PREMA Racing team, showed the third result among thirty drivers. His best time was 1:33.189 with only a 0.182-second gap from the result of the testing session leader. The team spent the second day of testing trying different car settings and the best result of Schwartzman was 1: 32.712.“The testing went well,” Robert Shwartzman shared. “If you look at the results, the time was much better on the first day, but on the second day we tested different settings and it wasn’t our goal to show the best result. The traffic played a big role as well. During the morning session on Wednesday, the car settings were very good and I was supposed to be the second, but I got into traffic.
During the day we tried different things and didn’t improve our final result, but everything went well for us. We did the simulation of races, trained starts, and I'm happy with everything - everything is moving in the right direction. I still like the car. It has some differences from the previous year, for example, in a motor, a control system, a way of braking. It is a little heavier and I feel it, but in general there is not much difference. So I have a positive attitude, everything is going well: we are training, preparing for the season together with PREMA Racing and SMP Racing teams.”
The final two-day pre-season testing will take place at the Hungaroring on April 17-18.