01/02/2005
NEWS STORY
With the first race of the season just four weeks away, and six of the ten teams having launched their contenders, the build up to the 2005 Formula One World Championship season is truly underway.
Like last week, the weather for today's first day of testing at Valencia was decidedly chilly, despite the sunshine, with temperatures only just reaching 11 degrees C.
Alexander Wurz topped the timesheets, the Austrian, the only driver on duty not at the wheel of a 2005 car, at the wheel of an MP4-19B. Pedro de la Rosa, driving the MP4-20 for the first time, spent much of the day sidelined by various technical problems, consequently the Spaniard only completed 21 laps.
Following the launch of the FW27 on Monday, today Mark Webber and Nick Heidfeld began putting the car through its paces.
"We started testing the new FW27s today following the inaugural runs for the launch yesterday," said test team manager, Tim Newton. "Mark and Nick spent the session getting acquainted with the new car and completing standard systems checks. "
Having spent much of the recent Barcelona test at the bottom of the timesheets, Ralf Schumacher will be delighted to have posted the fourth quickest time today, albeit 1.5s off Wurz' pace. Teammate Olivier Panis completed the most laps (103), finishing up 0.124s slower than the German.
Tomorrow (Wednesday), Ferrari, BAR and Renault will join in, giving us all a small taste of what we might expect this year, though Ferrari's 2005 contender, which has yet to be launched, will not be used in the first four races.
Last week BAR suffered a number of engine failures but Honda believes the problem has now been resolved.