15/07/2005
NEWS STORY
Conditions for the final day of testing at Jerez de la Frontera were ideal, with temperatures reaching 38 degrees C (air) and 53 degrees (track).
For the second successive day it was a McLaren that topped the timesheets, as Pedro de la Rosa, who was joined by Alexander Wurz, took over where Juan Pablo Montoya left off on Thursday.
Wurz continued with assessing the prime and option Michelin tyre for the German Grand Prix. In addition a new front wing package was tested on his chassis throughout the day. The Austrian switched cars today to the one that Juan Pablo Montoya had been driving all week, as in Hockenheim the spare car will be set up for Juan Pablo and with Alex taking on third driver duties at this event he had the opportunity to acclimatise to Juan Pablo's set up.
Pedro carried out general set up work in the morning and carried out evaluation for the prime tyre option to be used in Hockenheim in the afternoon. Unfortunately the gearbox had to be changed over lunch which lost him some time out but he was still able to complete a series of longer runs later on in the afternoon to complete the planned programme.
Although WilliamsF1 have seemed off the pace this week, the Grove outfit will be heartened to see Nick Heidfeld finish second quickest, 0.321s off the pace.
The German, who was WilliamsF1's sole runner since a number of failures had left the team without V8 power-plants to test, concentrated on set-ups in the morning before spending the afternoon focussing on a tyre specification for Hockenheim.
Third quickest was Ricardo Zonta, as the Japanese team, once again, ran three drivers. Zonta and Ralf Schumacher working on set-ups and tyre evaluation for Hockenheim, while Olivier Panis continued with the new V8.
Although the V8 car remains well off the pace (4.3s), Panis is pleased with progress: "Today I did a 1:21.3s lap, compared to typical laps of around 1:18s for the V10s," said the Frenchman. "That's very good for the engine's first run because we weren't operating it near its maximum potential. Also, you have to take into account that the engine is being run in an adapted TF105 and not a bespoke chassis.
"I would say that a time in the 1:20s region will be possible and that the time difference solely down to the engine will be something like 2.3s to 2.5s on this circuit.
"I am very impressed with the engine guys at Toyota," he added.
Renault test driver Franck Montagny was the busiest man today, the Frenchman completing 144 laps. Franck and Heikki Kovalainen both concentrated on tyre testing for the forthcoming German and Hungarian races.
Like Toyota, BAR had three drivers on duty, Takuma Sato, Anthony Davidson and Enrique Bernoldi.
Takuma continued the tyre programme he had begun on Thursday, completing a total of 116 laps. This was in spite of an engine failure mid-morning, stopping him out on the circuit after 32 laps. Anthony continued the evaluation of the new aerodynamic developments in the various configurations which Jenson Button ran through on Thursday. He also did some chassis set-up work, completing 119 laps. While Enrique completed 57 laps in chassis 069-08, a development car for 2006 systems, running on the track alternately with the other two cars.
Jacques Villeneuve took over from Felipe Massa for Sauber, the Canadian posting the eighth best time of the day.
"We had a good morning session and could achieve a reasonably quick lap time," said test engineer, Paul Russell. "The car was fast immediately, which enabled us to start with the scheduled programme straightaway. In the afternoon we worked with Michelin and finished the tyre selection process for the forthcoming races in Hockenheim and Budapest. In addition, we did some long-runs and conducted further aerodynamic tests.
"Overall, considering the happenings the last days we nevertheless got quite a lot done. For us this was the final high-downforce test this season and after all it was a productive week."
Red Bull had David Coulthard and Tonio Liuzzi on duty, the Scot losing track-time as a result of an unspecified technical problem.
This was the last day of testing before the Summer 'break', when testing is banned. The next scheduled test gets underway at Monza on August 24.