26/01/2007
NEWS STORY
The Honda F1 team completed the first week of running with its 2007 car, the RA107, at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona today.
Following a shakedown at Silverstone on Monday and an initial successful day of running in Barcelona on Wednesday, the new challenger ran for the first time in the public eye on late Thursday morning, following a press conference with the team's management and drivers.
The programme for the RA107 this week was to give the car its first run out on the track and ensure that all the basic systems were functioning well. In addition, various engine cooling evaluations were undertaken to prepare for the warmer events coming up at the Bahrain tests and the first flyaway races.
Rubens Barrichello drove the car for the first two days of the test, with Jenson Button taking over for the final day. Between them, the team's race drivers completed 178 laps, some 823 kms of running, putting valuable mileage on the new chassis.
The team also ran the RA106 car for three days before it reaches the end of its test programme in the next few weeks. With Jenson at the wheel on Wednesday and Christian Klien completing the programme on Thursday and Friday, the RA106 was used to evaluate new electronic controls settings and the Bridgestone Potenza tyres.
Jenson Button: "It's been a very productive day which was really about running through all the simple things with the car such as basic set-up changes and getting the balance to my liking. We achieved that pretty early on which is positive and it enabled us to cover a good number of laps. It's a long way to go until the first race and there is a lot to do and many improvements to be made. So for one day in the car, it was productive, but it is just the beginning."
Rubens Barrichello: "It's been an exciting test for us this week and I'm glad to have had the chance to drive the new RA107 car. The whole team has done a great job and the car is already on the same pace as last year's car, despite not having all of its development parts yet. There is a lot of work to do to get us ready for the start of the season, but from my laps this week, I really enjoyed the feeling of the car and I am look forward to next week's test in Valencia to continue its development."
Jacky Eeckelaert - Engineering Director: "The RA107 programme this week focused on the standard control runs that you have to undertake with any new car. We also checked the cooling and oil systems for both the engine and the gearbox to ensure that everything is working correctly.
We had a small issue with the car on Thursday which stopped Jenson out on track. We quickly established that it merely a minor problem related to the rebuild of the car overnight following Rubens' laps on Wednesday. Rubens went on to complete a further 51 laps on Thursday afternoon with Jenson adding another 86 laps to the new chassis on Friday.
The aero data collected from the RA107 this week shows a very good correlation with the model data from the wind tunnel so we are pleased with that. Now that the car has gone through all of its reliability checks, we will start work on set-up evaluation in Valencia next week."
Best Times (Wed - Fri) - All Times Unofficial
| Name | Team | T | Laps | Time | Gap |
| Button | Honda | B | 158 | 1:21.600 | - |
| Klien | Honda | B | 92 | 1:22.310 | 0.710 |
| Barrichello | Honda | B | 173 | 1:23.030 | 1.430 |