19/01/2006
NEWS STORY
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Honda continues to set the pace at Jerez, as Jenson button and Rubens Barrichello topped the timesheets on the third day of testing at the Spanish track.
Ahead of next week's debut of the team's 2006 contender, both drivers continued with 'concept' cars. More importantly however, today marked the first time we have seen the team's 2006 drivers running together, and it was interesting to note that they were separated by 0.49s.
The Brazilian's early runs were limited due to the cold ambient and track temperatures. Once the track had warmed up however, he ran through set-up work. In the afternoon Rubens completed a tyre evaluation as he continues to acclimatise himself with the latest specifications from Michelin. Unfortunately, he lost some track-time due to an engine change, necessitated by a technical problem.
Button completed two early set-up runs whilst waiting for the temperatures to rise, then ran through a further set-up programme before beginning a tyre evaluation. The Englishman continued tyre evaluations in the afternoon focussing on longer runs.
Toyota had Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli on duty, the German finishing third fastest as the team worked on set-up, suspension and the team's new Bridgestone tyres. Both drivers had productive days, putting in a lot of laps and collecting useful data to round off the week's work.
Toyota is now scheduled to test at Barcelona next week as the team continues its preparations for the start of the 2006 season.
"We have spent the week mainly doing set-up and working on different suspension settings," said Schumacher. "Today we've put in some work on the set-up to find a bit of direction for the new tyres and this afternoon I did a tyre test. Of course it takes a while to adapt to a new tyre manufacturer and we're still in the early stages.
"It's a complicated process," he added, "with constant development going on but we are feeling pretty confident that we can make good progress ahead of the new season. We have a lot of tests still to do, so we'll be working hard over the rest of the winter."
"This was our second straight test at Jerez, so our focus here this week was to finalise our evaluation of the Bridgestone tyres at this type of track," said Pascal Vasselon, the team's General Manager Car Design and Development. "We have also looked at some very interesting chassis options. There have been a few disruptions with technical problems but testing is all about evaluating the limit of certain parts. We have always run our own work and development in parallel with the tyre development. We may have a new tyre partner but while that makes things slightly more challenging it is still usual business for us. Now we will head to Barcelona and Valencia where we will face very different but complementary conditions for our preparations for the 2006 season."
Splitting the two Toyotas were the WilliamsF1s of Alex Wurz and Nico Rosberg.
"Today, Nico and Alex put further mileage on the 2006 gearbox and engine to improve reliability in time for the start of the race season," said Sam Michael, just a week before the launch of the team's 2006 car. "At the same time, they worked through various aerodynamic and electronic set-up changes and completed long runs for Bridgestone on different tyre constructions and compounds."
Weather
Air temperature: 16 C
Track temperature: 17 C