02/12/2005
NEWS STORY
The final day of testing at Barcelona was virtually washed out, with only two teams opting to run.
For much of the morning there was virtually no activity, with Davidson, Button and Fisichella completing a handful of exploratory laps. Meanwhile, Toyota and McLaren opted to head home.
In the afternoon the rain eased, allowing Renault and Honda to get to work, though the track remained damp for the remainder of the day.
Davidson, running a 2005 car with a V10 posted the best time of the day, while teammate, Button, in a V8 powered 'concept' car, was over 5s slower.
Fisichella covered 40 laps. After start simulations, he tried to work on the car set-up to improve and adapt its handling in the new V8 power levels (restricted V10).
Franck Montagny did not drive owing to the bad weather conditions that would have prevented him from making productive progress, after having already run for two days.
"It was impossible to learn anything today because of the very bad and cold conditions," said Chief Test Engineer, Christian Silk. "Anyway we ran as we could because we wanted Giancarlo to acclimatize himself to the car and especially to the new power output. It helped him to have feelings of the engine changes and he got some understanding of the different chassis set-ups."
To check out our Barcelona Test picture galleries, click here and click here