13/04/2006
NEWS STORY
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Following Toyota's dismal start to the season in Bahrain, the Japanese teams has subsequently shown distinct signs of a revival, with Ralf Schumacher finishing third in Melbourne, and now, ahead of the start of the European F1 season, Jarno Trulli topping the test times at Barcelona.
With 18 drivers in action, the congestion on track led to a number of red flag incidents, with a total of nine stoppages interrupting today's running.
Toyota's schedule focused on tyre and aerodynamic work, as well as pit entry practice. Trulli had a delay in the morning yet both drivers were able to put in constructive days, completing 154 laps between them.
"To be honest, I am happy with today's running," said the Italian, "even though I had some issues with the car in the morning. We have improved the tyres and the car set-up a lot since the first two races, and finally as a result this is fitting my driving style. This is a huge improvement for me and today's results show that we are moving ahead.
"We still have a lot to work on, but everything has to go step by step. The team has worked hard to find the optimal solutions and I am confident that for myself I have found a good direction and that the tyres are working better with our car."
"Today was relatively successful," added Schumacher, "as we got through our test programme as planned without any big problems. We concentrated on tyre testing and some set-up work for Imola and the coming races.
"The track was busy with many cars, but in decent condition and this is similar to what we could have in Imola. In general, we have learned a lot about the tyres and the car and therefore we are working on doing our best with the package that we have. Tomorrow we will focus on long-runs and tyre testing."
"We had a very good day and found some interesting tyres," said Dieter Gass. "From today's runs we have also been able to confirm our previous tyre choices, which is a positive step for us. Although we had some issues during the day, we managed to finish the whole test programme that we had planned with both cars - mainly working on aerodynamics, set-up and tyres. Looking forward we are pleased with the progress made and will continue working hard to the results we are aiming for."
Tomorrow the team will once again be in action with Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli at the wheel.
Second quickest, and only 0.010s off the pace, was the ubiquitous Renault, driven by Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard was partnered by Giancarlo Fisichella.
The programme today for the French team was mainly focused on chassis set up in order to find the optimum way to exploit the Michelin tyres. Regarding the engine, the team wanted to continue the evaluation and mapping of the new spec B, which has so far performed in line with its objectives.
"We had a productive day once again and we completed an interesting programme on both cars," said Christian Silk. "The package was extremely reliable which allowed us to do lots of runs today and to complete our programme. We learned a lot about the behaviour of the R26 and made did interesting steps for the next races. Barcelona is a very good track for development work and we will have a busy day again tomorrow."
Michael Schumacher's day got off to a bad start when he suffered an engine failure, however as the session continued he crept further and further up the timesheets, as he got to grips with the revised 248 F1 which he will use at Imola next week.
While the German concentrated on the development of various new components and aerodynamic solutions, as well as finding the best set-up for the car, teammate, Felipe Massa, continued with the endurance run begun by Marc Gene over the previous days, as well as the on-going Bridgestone tyre development programme.
Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya were in action for McLaren, the Finn finishing fourth quickest.
Both drivers concentrated on evaluating the prime and option Michelin tyre selection for the Spanish Grand Prix whilst continuing with the set-up work carried out yesterday.
For BMW, Jacques Villeneuve joined Nick Heidfeld. In the morning, the German did some aero work and then in the afternoon did both set-up and tyre work.
Jacques, who suffered an engine problem, focussed on aero and set up work and also tyre evaluation work for Michelin for the Barcelona race.
Robert Kubica will join the Canadian for the final day of testing on Friday.
Nico Rosberg was the quicker of the two WilliamsF1 drivers on duty, the German finishing seventh quickest, whilst Mark Webber could only manage sixteenth.
"Mark and Nico practised starts at the beginning of the session while also evaluating internal mechanical parts for reliability," said Mike Condliffe. "Nico also successfully completed some back to back comparisons on new suspension parts while Mark tested software control of the transmission, before the pair both continued tyre evaluations for Imola in the afternoon. It has been a very productive test so far and we continue here tomorrow with two cars piloted by Mark and Alex."
Jenson Button joined Rubens Barrichello for the second day of the test. He spent his early runs finding a good balance on the car before beginning an aero evaluation. The Englishman continued his aero evaluation after lunch, alongside some chassis set-up work.
Barrichello spent the morning working through an aero evaluation, followed by a tyre programme. He began the afternoon with a couple of set-up runs to prepare the car for a tyre evaluation looking at the options for the forthcoming races.
"Our best test of the year," is how Chief Test Engineer Ian Morgan summed up Red Bull's three day session, which served a variety of purposes. It was the final test at the Catalunya Circuit prior to the Spanish Grand Prix to be held here next month and as such, the team worked on tyre choice and car set-up for this event.
"We also evaluated some new aerodynamic parts with pleasing results and these should bring an improvement for the next race in Imola," added Morgan. "It was also good for both drivers to get plenty of time to work on set-up and find a car balance that they are happy with."
Although both drivers lost some track time on Tuesday, the last two days saw them put in a lot of laps and get through the planned programme.
It was another high mileage trouble-free day to bring Toro Rosso's three-day test to a close. It was Scott Speed's turn to get behind the wheel and the American's programme centred on general set-up work for the forthcoming San Marino Grand Prix.
"We did some fuel level evaluation and also carried out some damper testing, as this is a very important part of the package for riding the kerbs at Imola," said Chief Engineer, Laurent Mekies. "We have completed a big mileage here in Spain and now we have a week to get the most out of the data we have gathered, before what is effectively a home race for the team, based just down the road from Imola in Faenza."
Due to a hydraulics problem, Takuma Sato could only complete 22 laps. Consequently, the Super Aguri driver could be found at the bottom of the timesheets, 5.3s off the pace.
"Each test day takes us a little further up our very steep learning curve," said chief engineer, Mark Preston. "We had planned a number of tyre tests today however running was cut short due to hydraulic problems. We will restart testing tomorrow with Taku carrying out an important tyre construction test followed by Yuji evaluating a number of compounds that will help the SAF1 Team better understand the envelope of the car."
Tomorrow (Friday) is the last day of testing here.