Renault: Kubica, Mondini did solid job.

Renault F1 team chief test engineer, Christian Silk has praised 'academy' runners, Robert Kubica and Giorgio Mondini following their first outing in an F1 car this week at Barcelona.

Silk was impressed with both drivers, who not only made good progress, but also steadily improved their lap-times as they came to terms with the demands of a F1 car.

"Robert and Giorgio did a very solid job, taking a mature approach to their first runs in a Formula 1 car," he told the official Renault F1 team website.

"It should never be underestimated how difficult it is to drive one of these machines for the first time: the controls are very complicated, and although they are capable young racing drivers, both were surprised at how much faster the car was than anything else they had driven.

"They were faced with a very big jump to adapt to the car, and to get their brains processing the information fast enough to cope. But they adapted well, working with their engineers to understand and improve the car, and taking a mature approach to the job in hand. They ran in difficult conditions with cold temperatures, but neither made any mistakes.

"It was not about lap-times, and it is worth saying that any direct comparison is meaningless - Robert reached the end of his test as track conditions were at their best, while Giorgio was coming to understand the car better as the track temperature fell and conditions became more difficult. We tried to be as fair as possible in giving them an equal share of the available track time, and they have acquitted themselves well."