13/01/2006
NEWS STORY
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There was no need to look at the calendar today, as six teams continued testing at Jerez de la Frontera.
It was hard to keep count of the red flags - over 40 - as cars broke drown, spun off and engines detonated... and that was before the rain began to fall.
It wasn't all bad news though, with Fernando Alonso leaving the Spanish track with a huge grin on his face, having posted the best time of the day, in the 2006 car.
The final day of running shared a common theme with the rest of the test for the French team - run as many laps as possible to collect information about the new R26 package.
Alonso had the new car for the second successive day as the team looked to complete long runs during the afternoon. However, uncertain weather conditions saw rain showers disrupt the running, while the numerous red flags also slowed proceedings - though none were caused by the French outfit.
Giancarlo Fisichella concluded his week's work with a second day aboard the R25. He worked on tyre development, collecting data that will be transposed directly onto the new car beginning in Barcelona.
"I think we had a good week," said Alonso. "We wanted to do lots of miles, and we did it without any big mechanical problems.
"I feel good in the car," he added, "and I am looking forward to getting back in it at Barcelona in ten days. We will work again on the reliability, and hopefully we can start to look at the performance too. We should have some new things to test already, so it will be very interesting."
Second quickest was Anthony Davidson, who was partnered by Rubens Barrichello, who 'enjoyed' his second outing in the V8 powered 'concept' car. Enjoyed isn't perhaps the right word, for the Brazilian was one of several drivers to experience an engine failure, his detonating in typical Honda style.
The Brazilian continued to acclimatise himself to the V8 car, completing further familiarisation runs and working on set-up. He completed a couple of dry runs in the afternoon session, followed by a wet run at the end of the day on intermediate tyres, completing a total of 33 laps over the course of the day. Davidson continued his work in the V8 car running through further aerodynamic evaluations alongside general set-up work.
Barrichello will remain in Jerez on Saturday to complete a wet tyre programme with Michelin.
Tyre testing remained the focus of the Mercedes test programme. Gary Paffett and Pedro de la Rosa put in the fourth and fifth fastest times of the day respectively.
Heavy rain towards the end of the session limited running in the late afternoon, as a result the two McLaren drivers completed just over 360kms of the Spanish track. Both Gary and Pedro had minor electronic software issues, which saw them stop out on track twice and once respectively.
The final day of this week's session will take place tomorrow (Saturday) with Pedro. This will be a wet test for the Michelin runners, with the track artificially dampened to allow the teams to complete wet tyre testing.
Nick Heidfeld was BMW's sole representative, the German starting with systems and software checks, followed by some set-up work. The team ran a tyre test programme for Michelin and evaluated different brake specifications.
The German-Swiss team's 'new' car, thought to be designated the F1.06, is launched at Valencia next Tuesday.
It was a torrid day for WilliamsF1, with Mark Webber and Alexander Wurz, the Australian suffering a massive failure which caused his car to spin and almost crash into the barriers. Sources close to the team have told Pitpass that the main concern is with the new gearbox, though the team is confident that the problem will be resolved in the not too distant future.
"We covered good mileage with Mark's car and tested some tyres for Bridgestone at the same time," said Sam Michael. "Unfortunately, however, we had some reliability problems on Alex's car that resulted in limited track time for him today. We will now review these faults and return to Jerez next week with Nico and Alex."
"For me, this was a very useful test to meet and get to know the team and to start learning their working philosophy," said Wurz. "Although I was busy familiarising myself with the way everything operates, as well as the new engineers and technicians I am working with, we immediately started with our programme and it ended up being a positive first test for me overall.
"In particular, I was really happy with the engine power levels for my first time driving the V8 and, of course, it was my first time on Bridgestones, which have a very different sensation under cornering and 'feel' coming back through the steering wheel. I had to change my driving style a little to suit the tyre characteristics, but it was good to try the Bridgestones for the first time at a tough tyre track like Jerez."
"Cosworth's test objectives for Jerez were to accumulate track miles and collect feedback from the drivers on some of the latest specification CA2006 components and systems," added Cosworth's Simon Corbyn. "Overall, progress with the engine is good and we are working hard to finalise the engine specification for the initial races. Driver feedback on engine performance continues to be very positive. Unfortunately, we did suffer an engine failure this afternoon and are now working through possible solutions to the problem."
Propping up the timesheets was Christian Klien in the Red Bull, who managed just 24 laps until an 'off' brought his day's work to an early conclusion.
"That all went very well," said Head of Race and Test Engineering, Paul Monaghan. "Christian was quite encouraged by the car's performance today, but unfortunately, an off-track excursion meant we had to bring this session to a premature end to repair the damage prior to tomorrow's Michelin wet track test."
Weather
Air temperature: 8-16 C
Track temperature: 7-19 C.
Dry initially with heavy rain later on
To check out our Jerez test picture gallery - featuring over 340 pictures, click here