Christijan Albers took over from test driver Giorgio Mondini as the Midland Formula 1 Racing team again covered more than 400 km of test mileage at Monza on Wednesday. The Dutchman worked on general race set-up and a tyre program, as well as some aero testing and control systems work as the team worked to improve the balance of the car and performance on used tyres, with a view to the race in just over a week’s time.

Overall the team are confident that they were fairly successful in their quest, given that they were able to shave 0.6s off their best time from Tuesday, and they are now confident that they will be quicker again here on Thursday. Although the track conditions remained fairly constant, the program was made more difficult by a number of red flags brought about by other cars stopping on the circuit.

“We had a bit of a difficult day, really. I had problems with my seat a couple of times, which slowed down our program and limited the number of laps I was able to drive,” Christijan said. “Today we focused on the set-up of the car and worked closely with Bridgestone to choose the right compound for next week's Italian Grand Prix. I think we can have a good race here, but we have to keep working hard to catch the teams ahead of us if we are to achieve our goal of scoring points this season."

Tiago Monteiro will replace Albers behind the wheel of the M16 for the final day of testing today.