• Young Driver Test Day 1

'You don't know what to expect' - Frijns

ESPN Staff
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Robin Frijns set a best lap time 1.1s off the quickest of the opening day © Sutton Images
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Robin Frijns admitted he had ten minutes where "my head exploded" during his first outing at the Young Driver Test in Abu Dhabi.

Driving for Sauber on the opening day, Frijns completed 78 laps and set the fourth fastest time behind Kevin Magnussen and Gary Paffett in the McLaren and Antonio Felix da Costa in the Red Bull. Frijns told ESPN exclusively that his desire to know everything seemed to work against him at one stage as he tried to take in all the procedures required.

"It's different to what I'm used to doing," Frijns said. "There's so many things in Formula One; in World Series we do one installation lap, you check the car and then you drive off, whereas here you have to do seven or eight installation laps. They're all checking bits and you never know what they're checking. I'm just a person who wants to know everything, what's going around the car and if I switch a button I have to know what it does with the engine, the gearbox or whatever, but that's just me. That's why my head exploded during the day and I had to have a break for ten minutes and then it was all fine again."

Despite the tough introduction, Frijns admitted he had enjoyed the experience in hindsight.

"You don't know what to expect from Formula One, you just go there and everybody says to me 'you have to have some fun and enjoy it' but you're actually working through the team and you want to have the best for the team and the best for yourself, so at that moment you're not enjoying it but now I'm sitting here and I had a lot of fun with the team, so I'm looking back and enjoying the time when I was sitting in the car."

Frijns also said that he was pleased with the way he and the team built up a working relationship during the day.

"It was a tough day, I did a lot of running - did 78 laps - so I'm pretty pleased that I did so many laps in the end, so I think it was a good day.

"I think it was going quite well, I was giving some good feedback; the team was happy with me and I was happy with the team. I enjoyed today, had a lot of fun and the team did a good job. I'm very pleased with them."

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