21/07/2006
NEWS STORY
McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen topped the timesheets on the final day of testing at Jerez, the last day of testing before the Summer-break.
The Finn was joined by Gary Paffett as the Woking team continued its preparations for the races in Germany, Hungary and Turkey.
"It has been a demanding four day session for the test team this week, as we prepare for the six week break in testing activities," said Martin Whitmarsh. "An exhaustive schedule allocated to the test team will bring developments on line and prepare for the three races that take place in this period.
"Work at Jerez has included the full Michelin evaluation programme for the German, Hungarian and Turkish Grands Prix. As with the last test at Jerez, this element of the programme has benefited from extremely high track temperatures, which we expect at these three races. This has enabled us to work on performance in these conditions with Michelin.
"The test also saw a push on certain aero and mechanical areas of the MP4-21, with work including front and rear suspension and wing packages. There has been positive feedback from all three drivers and we believe some of the modifications will be well suited to the characteristics of Hockenheim. As is the nature of this type of analysis, it saw the drivers spending periods of time in the pits during the week as components and set-ups were modified on the two cars. However, we achieved our objectives for the week within the running that was completed and our primary focus now turns to Hockenheim next weekend."
Second quickest was Christian Klien in the Red Bull, however, the Austrian's time was set during a low-fuel run, and should not be taken as a significant step forward by the Milton-Keynes based outfit.
"We had a couple of engine and clutch related problems on the first two days, but we completed the programmes all the same," said Red Bull's Chief Test Engineer, Ian Morgan. "Apart from tyres, we did more aerodynamic development work, as well as testing power steering and suspension geometry. Overall it has been an encouraging test and it's good to see our car near the top of the time sheet, which hasn't happened in a while."
Having topped the timesheets on Thursday, Honda could ony manage third and seventh today, with Rubens Barrichello out-pacing Anthony Davidson.
Both drivers spent the day working on tyre programmes for the Hungarian and Turkish Grands Prix. They also continued to progress the aero and control systems evaluations from the previous two days.
"It was a good test this week," said the Brazilian. "We made improvements and learnt a great deal, particularly about the aero parts that we took to France last weekend and how to improve the set-up of the car to optimise these. We also worked on some electronic devices which look to be an improvement. So I am confident that we have made a step forward and will look forward to next weekend to see how we sit alongside the others."
Heikki Kovalainen and Fernando Alonso finished fourth and fifth, the Finn suffering a mechanical failure in the last hour of the session.
Gearbox problems compromised Nico Rosberg's day, as the German continued with tyre evaluations for Bridgestone.
BMW had Jacques Villeneuve and Robert Kubica on duty. In the morning the Canadian, who took over from Nick Heidfeld for the final day, did set-up work, systems checks on the electronics, brake material tests, aero work on new parts and also tyre compound testing for Budapest. In the afternoon he did tyre casing testing. In the extreme heat he did some longer runs and the engineers were pleased with the outcome, as they obtained answers to several questions.
Kubica duplicated development work from the third day at the last test in Jerez. He also did tyre work.
Like WilliamsF1, Toro Rosso has chosen to run just one driver at this week's test, Tonio Liuzzi finishing eleventh on the timesheets, ahead of the two Toyotas.
Following his accident in practice for the French GP, it was decided to give Scott Speed as much recovery time as possible to get over his back injury, hence Liuzzi and Neel Jani represented the Italian team this week.
"We evaluated quite a lot of new aerodynamic components, with some positive results, so that some of the parts will be brought into use as soon as next week's race at Hockenheim," said Chief Engineer, Laurent Mekies. "A lot of our time was spent working on traction control and optimising traction in general. In these very hot conditions, the drivers did an excellent job to produce the consistent lap times needed in testing, which is no easy task at this track in the middle of a hot afternoon."
It was a mixed day for Toyota. After suffering engine-related problems on Ricardo Zonta's car yesterday, the team needed to rebuild the car for Jarno Trulli. Unfortunately the work on the car prevented Jarno from starting today's testing until lunchtime. Ralf Schumacher however started the day normally and was able to finish his test programme as planned.
"Unfortunately I did not get to accomplish much today," said the Italian. "For the few hours that I was running, I just did some long runs to collect data for the tyre choice. I am however quite confident that the tyres are doing well in these hot temperatures. Hopefully we can take advantage of this at Hockenheim and Hungary."
"We were concentrating on finishing our tyre programme and some general set-up work for the coming races," added Ralf. "I especially wanted to get in as much running as possible as this is the last test before the summer break. My car needed to be worked on half way through the day, so we lost some laps, but in the end, the day was successful and we worked through a lot of different possibilities for the next races."
"This was a long, tough week for the entire team," admitted test team manager, Gerd Pfeiffer. "Although we had a very good start on Wednesday, yesterday turned out to somewhat challenging after having lost the usage of Ricardo's car. We are really pleased with Olivier's work and how much he got through. We can definitely use all the data he collected to help make future tyre choices. Ralf and Jarno also had challenging days today. Jarno had a delay in the morning due to work on his car, while Ralf did his best to make use of the test day, even though some test items needed to be changed out of his car. All in all, I think the team did a good job considering the circumstances and the results that we have found will be useful."
Splitting the two Toyotas was Christijan Albers in the Midland, the Dutch driver completing 99 laps.
"With this, the last chance for a true circuit test before the August testing embargo, we ran a comprehensive tyre study, checked some aero developments that arrived at the test at the last minute, and further suspension developments," revealed chief race and test engineer, Dominic Harlow. "We are satisfied with the results of our three-day programme here, having covered nearly all the items on what was quite a long test list."
"It was another good test day for us," added Albers. "We concentrated on tyres in the morning but the track lost a lot of grip in the afternoon when it became very hot. The suspension development is coming along quite well and I think we gathered some useful data for the coming races."
The next major test gets underway at Monza on August 29.