19/09/2006
NEWS STORY
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Renault's Heikki Kovalainen was the quickest of eight drivers on duty at Silverstone today.
The French squad started its final planned test session of the 2006 season with Kovalainen and giving Nelson Piquet Jr his debut drive with the team.
Heikki started his programme with set up changes to the car and as the track conditions improved he was able to work on tyre selection for the Japanese Grand Prix. On the other side of the garage, Piquet Jr joined the team for his first test as a Renault driver and focused on discovering the R26 and the team's working procedures. The Brazilian acclimatized himself well and showed a good level of performance on his first day with the team.
"We made good progress today regarding the tyre selection for Suzuka," said Kovalainen. "The track was changing a lot so we will need to analyse the data to evaluate the level performance of each type of tyre but it was a good day of testing."
"It was a good first day of testing," added Piquet. "There are some similarities with the GP2 car in terms of the clutch and electronics, but I still have a lot to learn, so the main thing for today was to do as much running as possible, and to take everything on-board. It's important I think to learn a lot straight away and to meet the people I am going to work with. It was a busy and interesting day, and I felt comfortable in the car straight away which is quite positive I think."
"We started slowly this morning owing to the poor track conditions," said Christian Silk, "and then we worked on tyre testing for Suzuka as it is our priority for this session this week. Regarding Nelson, we wanted him to acclimatize to the team and our way of working and procedures. He did a nice first day of testing and acclimatized himself well."
Second quickest was Toyota's Ricardo Zonta - who is heading to Renault next season - with the Japanese team's new boy, Franck Montagny, ending the day third on the timesheets. Although he has not signed a contract yet, the Frenchman was able to familiarise himself with the team.
Due to the fact that Ricardo was not feeling well and will head home earlier than planned, Franck will carry on testing tomorrow, while Ralf Schumacher will also be on hand to begin his final grand prix preparations.
"Both drivers worked hard today and concluded the session with competitive times," said test team manager, Gerd Pfeiffer. "Franck's programme focused mainly on tyre testing and helping us collect data in preparation for the last grand prix races. He was very helpful and showed he has a great deal of experience in Formula One. Unfortunately, Ricardo was not feeling too well in the morning.
"However, because he worked really hard in the afternoon despite his cold, we were able to finish up the tyre testing for the Chinese Grand Prix. Tomorrow we will continue preparations with Franck and Ralf at the wheel."
"I am quite happy to have driven today," said Montagny. "Overall, I had a really good feeling - about the car and its handling, the team and everyone who worked with me today. I felt that everyone was very professional and made me feel comfortable. Of course, I will need more time to get to know all the areas of such a large team. For my part, we focused on tyre testing and I am sure there is still a lot to do, but my overall feeling was quite positive. I was glad to be of help to the team and enjoyed driving the car."
"Today's running went well, even though I am fighting off the flu," added Zonta, "and it was hard to concentrate in the car with fever and cold symptoms. We lost some time in the morning due to this, but in the afternoon I pushed hard in order to help the team collect the data they needed. I could not do as much balance work as we wanted to and therefore started the tyre testing straight away. Today was the final tyre test for Shanghai and hopefully tomorrow Franck can carry on for me and the team can get a full day's testing in for the following races."
MF1 had Christijan Albers and Adrian Valles on duty, the Spaniard running in the morning before handing over to the Dutchman.
"Adrian started today by completing 28 laps in his first F1 test," said Dominic Harlow. "His times improved throughout the day. We are very happy with his feedback and approach. Christijan Albers took over for the remaining 49 laps to run a tyre programme for the Chinese and Japanese Grands Prix. We are satisfied with the completion of our programme for the first day of this test."
"Driving an F1 car for the first time was an amazing experience for me," said Valles. "I really like the Silverstone circuit as its high-speed corners are a real challenge. I think towards the end of the day that my lap times began to improve and I would like to thank the team and engineers for the support that they gave me today."
"Today was satisfying," added Albers, "and I am happy with the tyre work we have completed for the upcoming races. We obviously still have to score that first point so it is as important as ever to ensure we make as much progress as possible during these sessions. I was happy with how the car felt and am looking forward to getting back racing when we arrive in China in 10 days time."
Sakon Yamamoto was Super Aguri's sole representative. The Japanese driver completed 36 laps in the morning whilst running through the team's planned aerodynamics and electronics programmes. In the afternoon he ran through a series of brake tests and commenced the team's tyre programme.
Sakon will continue the testing duties tomorrow morning, whilst Takuma Sato will join the team in the afternoon.
Narain Karthikeyan drove an interim WilliamsF1 fitted with the Toyota powerplant, however his day came to a halt after just seven.
"Today saw the first running of the Toyota engine and the Williams 2007 gearbox in an FW28B chassis," said Mike Condliffe. "We completed some short runs for system checks and encountered various teething issues on the chassis side that we will rectify for tomorrow's running. As with most new projects, there are plenty of items that need work. Tomorrow, Alex Wurz joins Narain on track."
As previously reported, due to the weather conditions, and the late arrival of engines from Mercedes, McLaren opted to abandon its full test programme today and instead designated the session - which comprised just 9 laps - a shakedown.
The shakedown allowed Lewis Hamilton (pictured) to familiarise himself with the MP4-21, whilst conducting systems checks, before the British driver has his first full day of testing with the team tomorrow. Pedro de la Rosa will join Lewis for the two day test on Wednesday and Thursday.
"What a feeling," said the Englishman, "I couldn't stop smiling when the team fired up the engine this morning! Although today's shakedown has just been to familiarise myself with the car, complete radio checks, practice manual launches and that kind of thing, the experience of driving the Team McLaren Mercedes MP4-21 is just fantastic. I cannot wait to put in more mileage and really find the limits of the car tomorrow. It has been a great year for me to date, and alongside winning the GP2 Championship I have worked hard to ensure the team feels I am ready to have this test. It is going to be an intensive couple of days with the test team and I am looking forward to starting the test proper tomorrow morning."
To check out our Silverstone test gallery click here