Kamui Kobayashi is confident that Sauber can start fast when testing starts tomorrow after driving the Swiss team's new C31 for the first time at Jerez today.
Kobayashi completed a day of promotional running, as permitted by regulations that allow up to 100km of track time for filming purposes, and is happy that the car has proved itself to be reliable and ready for a full day of testing tomorrow.
"It's difficult to talk about the car in detail because it's on promotional tires and it will be completely different tomorrow but the car is working fine," he said. "We had no problems and went through the program, so I am happy. It was a good start to us. We can start tomorrow with more detailed testing and are not worried about trouble from the first moment."
Kobayashi said that he had no visibility problems because of the lower nose height dictated by the regulations. He added that the car did not feel noticeably different from last year despite the change in regulations design to prevent exhaust gases being used to drive the diffuser.
"Nothing changed," he said. "It's difficult to say what is different but it seems [similar]. But I didn't really push today so I don't know."