24/01/2006
NEWS STORY
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While his Ferrari colleagues were unveiling the Italian outfit's 2006 contender at Mugello, Marc Gene was hard at work in Spain, where the Scuderia began a four-day test at Barcelona.
At the wheel of a V8 powered 2004 car, the Spaniard completed 88 laps, posting a best time of, 1:16.583, as he concentrated on engine and tyre work.
On Wednesday, Felipe Massa takes over before Michael Schumacher arrives with the 2006 car on Thursday.
Second quickest - but fastest of the 2006 cars present - was Jacques Villeneuve, as the BMW F1.06 continues to show an impressive pace. The Canadian, spent the morning concentrating on set-up work, in addition to carrying out a number of practice starts, before switching to long runs in the afternoon.
Teammate, Nick Heidfeld, at the wheel of the Sauber C24B, lost track-time in the afternoon as a result of a gear selection problem.
Tomorrow, the German will take over the 2006 car, while test driver, Robert Kubica gets his hands on the Sauber.
Juan Pablo Montoya had his first run in the McLaren MP4-21, following its shakedown yesterday. The Colombian took to the track for the first time at 09:00 for an installation lap and began his longer runs shortly after 10am, having allowed the track to warm up slightly. The cold weather of yesterday had continued, with the track only reaching 5 degrees Celsius by 12noon local time.
Juan Pablo's quickest time of the day was a 1m17.639, which was the third fastest time of the day. He put in a number of long runs, including a 21 lap stint shortly before lunchtime, followed by 16 and 19 lap runs in the afternoon.
Meanwhile, test driver Gary Paffett continued his programme of Michelin tyre work in the interim MP4-20. The Englishman completed 50 laps of the Spanish track, covering over 230km prior to an accident shortly before 14:00, which was as a result of the cold, low grip track.
Thankfully, Gary was uninjured, however his MP4-20 was badly damaged and the test team pushed hard during the afternoon to get him back out on track for the final 15 minutes of the session. This time allowed Gary to take his total kilometres for the day to 265.
"It was great to get my hands on the MP4-21 today," said Montoya. "Actually I was at the shakedown yesterday for a few hours. Having spent some time at the McLaren Technology Centre recently I have seen the MP4-21 being built and I couldn't wait until today to see the car on track!
"We have had an encouraging day, it feels very similar to last year's car but a little bit better, but it is very early stages. Our focus today was similar to yesterday with Pedro, just continuing to work through all the systems checks. We were able to cover over 400 kilometres, and continue getting valuable data for the team to work on."
Propping up the timesheets was Robert Doornbos, who was making his debut at the wheel of the RB2, as the team focussed on development of the car's control systems.
"We acquired some good data on that front," said Technical Director, Mark Smith. "We also ran a totally different mechanical set-up on the car to the one we used at the last test and the way the car ran today was very encouraging. We have made a good step forward, but we still have a way to go."
David Coulthard will drive tomorrow and Thursday, with Christian Klien bringing the test to a close on Friday.
Weather
Air temperature: 4-14 C
Track temperature: 4-13 C.
Cloudy
To check out our Barcelona test picture gallery, click here