Paul di Resta says Force India much stronger than at this point last year

The Scot ended the day second fastest, a tenth slower than pace-setter Kimi Raikkonen, and said afterwards that while his time was irrelevant from a competitive point of view, the starting baseline for the VJM05 was much better than its predecessor.

"If we look at where we were this time last year and where we are now it's a massive step up the road, it's almost three seconds already, but then the end of last year was very good for us," he said, when asked about his performance by AUTOSPORT.

"All I can say is that has been a very productive day and we can be happy with what we have done.

"We got through all the test programme and we did a bit more actually," he added. "We had a good approach about what we had to do.

"We had some aero stuff this morning that led on to some runs and then we did some long runs in the afternoon and it was all fairly good. I think we can be relatively quite happy about the work we've done over the winter and what the guys have achieved."

Di Resta said that he had been pleased with the initial balance of the car so early in its development, adding that his confidence had been boosted by the consistency of the data between the windtunnel and the track.

"Obviously all the fancy engine modes have gone and the exhausts and essentially you've lost a ton of downforce there," he said.

"But the car is well balanced and where we put it on track is where we ended up, which gives you encouragement about what's going on in the background with simulations and stuff, and that it is working right because that's where we have migrated to."

The Scot added that he felt even better prepared coming into his second season of F1 and that the team seemed to be starting the year from a higher level as well.

"The whole thing seems a lot better, but you know we've achieved 101 laps on the first day out, so the mileage and the reliability was good which is always a positive," he said. "Now all this test is about is gathering information. It's not about performance.

"You know somebody said to me earlier: 'Who was fastest at this test last year?' and I didn't know, and they replied: 'Barrichello'. I couldn't tell you who was fastest at Barcelona last year but I can tell you who was fastest at the first race, and that's all this test is fundamentally about - us correlating what is happening back at the factory to make sure the next upgrade that we bring, hopefully before Melbourne, works.

"So you just need to make sure that the car is saying the same thing that the tunnel is saying. And, on the track it feels relatively balanced and I'm very happy with it. It's a good starting point to work away with."