Minì: Small tweaks make the biggest difference to maximising final testing opportunity

23 October 2023

Gabriele Minì put in yet another positive shift behind the wheel of the #3 PREMA Racing car on Day 1 of post-season testing in Imola. After securing the second-fastest times during both days of the Jerez test and on Day 2’s running in Barcelona, the Italian driver was never far from the top of the timing sheets.

Securing the fourth fastest time of the morning’s running, his personal best put him just over two tenths adrift of Dino Beganovic’s leading pace. Continuously improving throughout the afternoon’s on-track action, Minì set a 1:30.225 to round out the day 0.294s clear of second-place Oliver Goethe.

Summarising his 61 laps of action, he’s optimistic about the performance he and the whole team have shown as a collective. Whilst Minì and Beganovic finished first and third in the cumulative times from the day, rookie Arvid Lindblad kept apace with the more experienced pair, ensuring a top seven result for all three PREMAs.

“It was pretty good day overall. I think this morning we already started pretty strong, just didn’t do the best of the lap times, but I think the car also looked pretty strong with Dino. So overall, I think it was a positive. We had good things to improve upon for the afternoon looking at the data, so we tried to do that and I think it worked pretty well.

“We worked a bit on the car and I worked on my driving, so in the end we managed to set a pretty quick lap time. I’m pretty happy, of course it’s testing so being P1 or P10 doesn’t really matter, but it’s always better to be fast rather than being slow.”

With a season of experience under his belt alongside five days of running across the three test, Minì says now it’s all about the details. Rather than focusing on larger overarching changes, his focus has shifted to tweaking the package they’ve put together.

“To be honest, it’s no one things in general we worked on. It was just particular corners, the way of using the pedals, they were really somethings so small that can make a big difference in how the car works,” the Alpine junior noted.

Looking ahead to tomorrow, six hours of track time remain and are the final opportunity to collect some valuable data in before the conclusion of the 2023 season. Despite the prospect of raining looming large over the day, Minì is keen to make the most of any wet running considering it's one situation teams rarely can prepare for.

“Of course, we already know how the car is working and we keep trying stuff, which is normal. I think everyone is doing that in the paddock. I think getting a bit of rain will not be bad because we’ve not had it so far in testing.

“So, I think it would be ideal for me to try to see how the team and how I am with it since the last time we drove in the wet was back in Spa and I didn’t race in the Feature. Let’s see tomorrow what it will be like.”