Maximilian Günther was left delighted by Maserati MSG Racing’s performance in the official pre-season test last week, with the German believing that “our package is coming together nicely”.
Ahead of the test, Günther had topped testing in three of the four previous years. Unfortunately, he failed to continue his run ahead of season 10. It’s clear that so much has been learnt about the Gen3 machinery since it was introduced almost 12 months ago, as the majority of the drivers lapped significantly faster than Günther’s leading time from season nine testing.
Mitch Evans was the quickest driver at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia, with the Kiwi’s best lap having been seven-tenths quicker than what Günther managed in the first test of the Gen3 era in 2022.
Günther himself was half a second quicker than his time from 2022, whilst he was around two-tenths down on Evans’ leading time. This slotted the Maserati driver into fifth on the overall timesheets, with him having been towards the front in every session.
He also completed a solid 245 laps, giving the Monte-Carlo-based team plenty of data to analyse ahead of the Mexico City season-opener in January.
The 26-year-old looked strong as always in Valencia, whilst Maserati as a whole looked to have made some progress since season nine. Günther explained after testing that the team had “worked really hard” ahead of the test, to get them into as good a position as possible.
He’s confident that things are “coming together nicely” for the Italian manufacturer, who are working in a “clear direction” ahead of Formula E’s 10th campaign.
“We’ve had a really good week,” Günther said after testing. “We had a great program in place, and we went through everything we wanted. We’ve learned a great deal, the whole team has worked well, and I think we’re progressing in a good direction.
“Pace is one thing, but having a good feeling in the car and having ideas around the improvements we have and can make are also important. We had a clear direction with what we wanted to achieve after Season 9, we worked really hard in the offseason, and I think our package is coming together nicely.
“We will keep working hard in the next couple of weeks to be in a great shape for Mexico, but I’m really satisfied with how the test went.”
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