30/04/2007
NEWS STORY
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Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen set the pace on the first day of testing at Barcelona today.
The Finn, who is joint leader of the World Championship along with Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton completed 97 laps on his way to posting a best time of 1:21.194.
The programme for the Maranello outfit included development testing of new aerodynamic components and research into the best set-up for the car for the forthcoming Spanish Grand Prix, which takes place here on 13th May.
Second quickest, and sure to cause consternation at both ends of the pitlane was Takuma Sato in the Super Aguri.
The Japanese driver commenced the testing of a gearbox upgrade and a number of new aero elements. The ideal track and weather conditions meant that the team was able to complete the analysis of a number of aero iterations in the morning.
Although a blustery wind picked up in the afternoon, the team observed good reliability from the new parts and was able to gather significant data, ending the days running having completed a total of 98 laps.
Sato will continue to drive tomorrow, with Anthony Davidson scheduled to drive on the final day.
Even though the British media's darling, Lewis Hamilton, wasn't on duty, McLaren still managed to be the centre of attention, courtesy of an intriguing new front wing, part of which rises over the nose of the MP4-22. The wing made its debut during last week's two day test at Menorca, along with a number of other new aero components, some of which were in use today. In addition to the aero components, the team worked on set-ups, and cooling and systems reliability.
Pedro de la Rosa, completed 101 laps, finishing 0.712s off the pace. Tomorrow he hands over to Fernando Alonso.
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Although earlier reports had Toyota's Ralf Schumacher as posting the best time of the day, the German actually finished fourth on the timesheets, which is still a significant achievement. The timing error was subsequently found to be due to the driver 'missing' the chicane
The TF107 has undergone considerable aerodynamic modifications in preparation for next week's Grand Prix, including revised bodywork.
Schumacher concentrated on set-up options and differential settings, having struggled with the car's front end in the opening three races. Consequently, the German spent the day pushing for a solution to make the car work better for him.
"In general it was a successful day," said Schumacher, "and we made it through everything that we had planned. I've had some problems with the front end at the last couple of races in low grip conditions but it seems to be better here. We made quite a few changes in the set-up and after that I was able to brake and turn in the way that I'm used to. So that helps me and we got along quite well with the car today. My fastest lap time came when I went through the chicane but we were still not far from the top so it has been a good test. Obviously we will have to wait and see how it is at the race itself next week, but I'm looking forward to it."
"We are spending the week focusing on next week's race and today was a good first day," said Test Team Manager, Gerd Pfeiffer. "Ralf has been complaining of understeer during the last two races and so we have been working on finding a better set-up for him. It was another difficult morning but we made progress during the day and he was much happier during the afternoon. We worked on the differential too and that also went well. Of course we are also running the new aerodynamic package that we have lined up for the next race. Jarno will be testing tomorrow so we will now change the car for him overnight. But so far it has been a positive day's work."
Fresh from his experience at the 'Green Hell', it was back to work on a more 'basic' race track for BMW's Nick Heidfeld.
The German team concentrated on set-up work for next week's race, however, there were a number of new parts on the car which the team hope will increase its performance.
Rubens Barrichello was on duty for Honda, the Brazilian finishing sixth quickest, albeit 1.46s down on Raikkonen.
The former Ferrari driver spent his early runs acclimatising to the track conditions. He then worked on finding a good balance on the car before completing an aero evaluation over long runs.
After a late lunch, the Brazilian completed two set-up runs followed by a long run tyre evaluation with the options for the Spanish Grand Prix. He finished the day with two short aero runs.
Barrichello, who completed the most laps here today (132) continues here tomorrow, before handing over to Jenson Button on Wednesday.
Contrary to speculation, Renault is not introducing a whole new aero package in an attempt to make up ground to Ferrari, McLaren and BMW, instead, according to a team insider the "aero package is just a series of normal updates".
"Don't expect a major difference to recent races," the insider added. "We are in the process of analysing and identifying our problems, not solving them".
With that in mind, Nelson Piquet was at the wheel of the R27-05 for the first day's testing. The young Brazilian had a very busy time as he covered 125 laps, concentrating mainly on aerodynamic tests in the context of the team's development programme.
"I think that we've recorded interesting data for the engineers who will now get down to analysing them," said Piquet at the conclusion of the day's programme. "We did a lot of running today, from 09:00 to 18:00 non-stop. I covered a large number of laps and it's almost 2 months since I last drove the car, so it wasn't the most restful of days for me! But it's good to be back behind the wheel again."
"We've begun our week's testing with a good day's work," added Christian Silk. "We were doing aero testing that's part of our normal development programme, and took full advantage of today without running into the slightest reliability problem. It was good for Nelson to get back into the car and he did exactly what we expected of him. We'll continue our programme tomorrow on the basis of today's testing."
Spyker had two drivers on duty, Giedo van der Garde and Adrian Valles. Van der Garde covered 37 laps in the morning as he focussed on evaluating hydraulic systems and the hard and medium Bridgestone Potenza tyres in advance of next week's Grand Prix. Valles took over after lunchtime, and put in a series of longer stints to record a best of 1:23.72secs. His day was brought to a premature end on his final run when he ran wide at turn three and crashed heavily into the barriers. Although uninjured himself, Adrian's car (above) however sustained heavy damage in the impact and technicians will work to repair the car for Adrian Sutil tomorrow.
"Our two test drivers did a good job today," said Mike Gascoyne, "however the day was unfortunately spoilt by the accident when Adrian had an off in turn three. It looks as though he had a problem with the car through turn one and then lost control through three. Thankfully he is fine, but the car is quite damaged. Hopefully we'll be able to get it going again for tomorrow and continue the programme with Adrian Sutil."
"This afternoon we continued the work on hydraulics and tyres and I think we made some progress," said Valles. "The lap times were good, considering the tyres were old, and we could do some pretty consistent times. Of course I am not happy about the accident - I don't know what happened in turn one; the car moved and then I thought I'd take it easy to get to the garage, but then the car came away in turn three. Overall though I think we can be reasonably positive; I was really comfortable until the lap before the crash, and enjoyed it without making any mistakes."
"This morning we concentrated on testing tyres and hydraulics, and got lots of useful data," added van der Garde. "We had some problems with the hard tyres, which didn't give a lot of grip on the cooler track, but with the medium tyres it was a lot better. From the last time I was in the car back in Valencia in February to now, you can definitely feel the improvement in the car and I can tell I have improved too. The track was very slippery after the rain yesterday, so it did take me a while to get up to speed again with the car but I got a good rhythm towards the end of the laps. It's great to be back in the car.'
Finishing eleventh, splitting the two Spykers, was Kazuki Nakajima in the Williams. Like Valles, the Japanese driver had a sizeable accident that will put added pressure on his crew, bearing in mind the new rules which only allow one car, and the fact that this is such an important test.
Earlier in the day, Nakajima suffered a technical failure which left him stranded on track, while his accident, at around 14.00, brought an early end to the Grove outfit's programme.
"We started a programme of engine tests in preparation for the race here," said Test Team Manager, Dickie Stanford. "We also did some set-up work. However, Kazuki's session ended prematurely following an off at turn 9. He's ok and the car will be fine to run tomorrow."
Toro Rosso and Red Bull were also on duty, the Italian team represented by Tonio Liuzzi, while David Coulthard drove the Austrian version of the car.
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