Signature Plus: Ready for the season

Pierre Ragues and Franck Mailleux have ended pre-season testing programme in high spirits after a valuable two day test with the Signature team at the Magny-Cours circuit this week.

The two-day test, which was held at the Magny-Cours circuit, gave the Signature team a further opportunity to evaluate settings and to make adjustments to the Lola Aston Martin LMP1 for their debut season as Official LMP1 Partner Team of Aston Martin Racing, which gets underway at Circuit Paul Ricard next weekend.

Following a two-day test at Paul Ricard itself last month, the two days in Magny-Cours allowed Pierre and Franck to get a better understanding of the car and to position themselves more comfortably in the cockpit ahead of the season-opener.

The unpredictable European weather continued to keep the team busy with a complete mixture of conditions over the two days forcing several adjustments to the car's set-up over the two days. Nonetheless, the drivers were able to amass an impressive 1300kms of the circuit and underline both the reliability and performance potential of their car for the 2010 season.

Pierre and Franck will line up for their second full season in the LMP1 class with the prestigious title of Official Aston Martin Racing Team Partner Drivers and will hope to benefit from the four days of pre-season testing that Signature has conducted in preparation for next week's Paul Ricard event.

Pierre Ragues
"It has been good to have some testing at Magny-Cours this week, the final opportunity for us to prepare for the first race of the season in Paul Ricard," said Pierre. "We were able to get good mileage on the car and our high level of reliability and performance was very promising. The weather has been far from ideal over the two days and the team has had to adapt quickly to changing climatic conditions. I am very satisfied with the feeling I get from the car and the work we have carried out. It was also a pleasure to welcome some guests from my personal sponsor Group Auto Union and to give them some passenger rides. I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did."

Franck Mailleux
"We have experienced a wide range of conditions at Magny-Cours this week with all kinds of weather, as to be expected at this time of the year," he said. "The team has worked well over the course of the two days in order to provide a range of set-ups, aerodynamic configurations and mechanical systems to adapt to the varying conditions. The car completed 1300kms with no significant issues with reliability. We were able to evaluate a range of Dunlop tyres and the intermediates are fast becoming a really good solution. I think we are now ready for the first race of the season."

Pierre will conduct a final shakedown of the car at Lurcy-Levis on Tuesday before the team heads down to Paul Ricard for the first race of the 2010 Le Mans Series championship.