30/01/2005
NEWS STORY
Luca Badoer and Michael Schumacher were, once again, on duty or Ferrari today, as testing concluded at Barcelona.
The German continued with set up work and development of the F2004 M, while his Italian teammate, at the wheel of an F2004, ran through a technical programme centred on Bridgestone tyres.
The Italian outfit resumes testing on Wednesday (February 2nd) at Valencia, with Rubens Barrichello and Marc Gené scheduled to drive.
Jacques Villeneuve was on duty for Sauber, taking over from Felipe Massa. The Canadian completed 69 laps, posting a best time of, 1:18.108, 2.662s off the pace.
"Unfortunately our test here in Barcelona ended not the way we have wished for," admitted technical director, Willy Rampf. "At the final timed lap Jacques experienced oversteer while accelerating out of turn 9 and went off track. Fortunately he was unharmed, but we now, of course, have to analyse the data to get a correct and thorough picture of the reason for this incident.
"The positive aspect of this test is that we achieved our set goal to complete an engine long-run. We simulated a two-race weekend situation and covered almost 1,400 kilometres with one PETRONAS engine without any problem.
"Overall, the last three test days demonstrated the reliability of the C24. Our target for the forthcoming tests - whereby we will run with two cars from now - will be to further work on the car's set-up and hence the improvement of the balance."
"Today we mainly concentrated on aerodynamic tests and assessed several different front wings," added Jacques Villeneuve, "and were able to gather quite a lot of useful data and information. Of course, I'm disappointed that I went off track at our penultimately scheduled lap, but at least it was just before the finish of today, so we didn't lose much valuable time."