Graham Rahal believes RLL is poised to recover after IndyCar test

Rahal completed 83 laps during the test, which was his first opportunity to work with his new race engineer Eddie Jones.

The outing was the first step towards recovering from a poor 2014 campaign that ended with Rahal 19th in the points, but the 25-year-old said that the early signs are good.

"It was a really good, and an extremely productive day," he said. "All things considered, I think the team is having fun again.

"With the new personnel we have in place, I think everyone is enjoying themselves and I think our teamwork showed it today and I'm excited about that.

"We were very efficient, we accomplished a lot and we shaved a considerable amount of time, just over a second, off of what was done at the race. I feel like we're in a good spot.

"Eddie (Jones) is really very open to many ideas and he's ready for anything that can improve the car and improve our team. I think there are some really good days ahead of us."

The cars will run in a different aero configuration when they race at Barber next year due to the arrival of the manufacturer bodykits, however, Jones said that the day still served as a valuable opportunity to collect data.

"We know that the new aero package will have more downforce, but we can still work on the mechanical package of the car and that's what we concentrated on," he said.

"It was also important to get out there and run with Graham for the first time and establish a rapport and I am pleased with the result."

RLL recently completed an overhaul of its IndyCar technical staff, with Mike Talbott joining from Wirth Research to lead the vehicle dynamics programme, and Rahal's former race engineer Martin Pare arriving to run the vehicle ride control programme.