09/12/2005
NEWS STORY
Tiago Monteiro and Christijan Albers were in action today for the third day of testing in mild and dry conditions at Jerez. They shared the driving duties in both an EJ15B and an interim EJ15B powered by the new Toyota V8 engine. The MF1 Racing team continued the test programme as well as doing some Bridgestone tyre work. Both drivers compared different set-ups and added more mileage to the V8 car. The test will continue tomorrow with Christijan Albers at the wheel of the interim car and Markus Winkelhock, Roman Rusinov and Fabrizio del Monte driving the EJ15B.
Tiago Monteiro: "I am happy with the way the day went today, especially as we had a few issues yesterday. We did a lot of running in both cars and it was very interesting to compare them but above all to try to set up the V8 car better. Now I have tomorrow off before conducting a wet tyre test on Sunday."
Christijan Albers: "I think we had a good day today and I am quite happy as every time we are finding some little things to improve the car. I feel also more at home everyday and this is a good sign. This is very nice to work with the team and get more experience with the car. Tomorrow is a new day and we will continue with our programme."
James Key, Technical Director: "We had a productive day with both cars and both drivers. We have been able to add a lot more mileage to the Toyota V8 which has once again run very well today. We overcame the issues we had yesterday which allowed us to add kilometres to the interim car. We still have a few issues to resolve but in general we are happy. Both drivers went through a programme and gave us some valuable feedback. We also did some good work with the control systems on the V8 which has proven to be quite different from the V10 as we expected. We had a good day with understanding how the V8 differs from the V10 in terms of balance and set-up with less power."
Unofficial times
C. Albers: 1:19.89
T. Monteiro: 1:20.40