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Formula 1 news, results and statistics when you need it |
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Following the initially positive signs that the new F2001 showed at
the Fiorano track, the team hit some problems when testing the car at
the Mugello track limiting their track time on one of the days to just
6 laps. The lap times set at Mugello have not been as impressive as
those at Fiorano with the best time set in the new car still half a
second slower than the best time last year,
Overall though the car does appear to be reliable and fast with both Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello covering race distances in the F2001. The team did not test the new F2001 alongside any other team so any kind of comparison cannot be made. The first time Ferrari and McLaren are scheduled to be on the same track will be on Friday practice in Melbourne. Ferrari will continue to test at Mugello and Fiorano before shipping their cars to Melbourne.
Following the car's launch on the 7th of February, the team conducted
an extensive test at Valencia until the 14th of February with Mika
Hakkinen, David
Coulthard, and Alexander Wurz. The team did hit some problems
during the test however they were consistently fast and a McLaren was
at the top of the timesheet every single day on dry or wet. McLaren
was the only team to set times below the 1:14 mark and David Coulthard
slashed the lap record by almost 1.5 seconds.
McLaren have failed to finish either car in the last 2 Australian GP's despite displaying a stunning pace. They would not want to repeat that again. The team will have a final test session at Barcelona before heading to Australia. A productive 6 day test at Kyalami saw both Ralf
Schumacher and Juan
Pablo Montoya cover a good number of laps on each day. With 2
FW23 chassis' at their disposal, both drivers took part on every day.
With BAR the only other team at the track, it is hard to make
comparisons as BAR has only a single car and appeared to be
concentrating on reliability. However, Williams with Ralf Schumacher set
the fastest time on 4 of the 6 days and slashed the lap record (since
testing returned in 99') by over 2 seconds. Juan Pablo Montoya was
slightly off the pace on the first 3 days however he managed to get the
better of Ralf on the 4th day.
Following the teams launch at Venice, the team started an extensive
test session that ran until the 15th of February. The team had only 1
B201 car available and Giancarlo
Fisichella and Jenson
Button shared the testing duties.
The team continue to struggle with their new Renault engine and on several days only managed to run a handful of laps. In terms of speed, they weren't fast either as they were consistently slower than Prost. Rumours of major design problems with the engine were strongly denied by the team however it remains to be seen whether the new wide angled Renault engine will deliver the expected superior power with a good degree of reliability.
The team conducted a 6 day test at Kyalami alongside the Williams
team. Jacques
Villeneuve and Olivier
Panis shared the testing with only one BAR003 available. In
terms of reliability, the team appears to be one of the most reliable
on the grid with the team covering over 500 laps in 6 days in a
single car getting close to what Williams covered in 2 cars during the
same period. Speed wise though, the team appeared to lack the pace of
the Williams team despite the fact that they set the fastest times on
2 of the 6 days, they were over half a second off the pace on the
other days.
Olivier Panis was the fastest of the two drivers however they did
not test on the same day. The team will conduct a test session at
Barcelona prior to the Australian GP
The team conducted a test session at Valencia with 2 EJ11 chassis'.
Both Heinz
Harald Frentzen and Jarno
Trulli were present and the team appears to have solved the
clutch problems they had following the launch.
The team set the closest times to the McLaren team although they were still off the pace by over half a second.
Jos
Verstappen and Enrique
Bernoldi continue to share the sole A22 car available. The
team started testing at Estoril but due to bad weather conditions
decided to move to Valencia. The team still have reliability problems
with the new car with both drivers suffering interruptions during the
test, the last of which was when Bernoldi hit the tyre barrier after
the throttle on his car stuck open. .
Both Nick
Heidfeld and Kimi
Raikkonen returned to testing at Valencia and while they
showed some reliability with Raikkonen covering over 100 laps on one
day, they had a few interruptions during the test with engine and
electronics problems.
Speed wise they did not show signs of the strong pace they showed following their car launch. This time they were consistently midfield runners setting times around 2 seconds off the pace of the McLarens.
Eddie Irvine and Luciano Burti
took part in testing at Valencia. The team showed some good
reliability however speed wise, a Jaguar was at the bottom of the
timesheets each day. Despite that, Bobby Rahal, Jaguar's CEO though believes
that they are in a reasonable shape and said "I am certainly not
expecting us to run with McLaren so if they are a little bit faster I
am not too dismayed. I think people are making a bit more of all this
than there is because of the lap times. I guess I'm trying to
under-promise and over-deliver. I am sure we are not perfect by any
stretch of the imagination, but we are guarded about our objectives.
The minute you start making any grandiose statements you are inviting
disaster. During recent testing, when we have run new developments, I
felt we made progress. We are in reasonable shape at this stage of the
game."
Minardi:
The only action the team had was a shakedown of one of the 2001 European Minardi cars at a private track near Milan. The team have announced Fernando Alonso as their first regular driver and an announcement is expected soon regarding their second driver. It appears that the team will be conducting their testing at Melbourne.
Most improved team already ?
The Prost team have certainly grabbed the attention as Jean Alesi, Gaston Mazzacane and newly signed Pedro de la Rosa continue to set stunning lap times and break records during testing at Estoril. The team tested alongside Benetton and Arrows and Prost were consistently faster than both. Jean Alesi is so happy with the new AP04 that he is aiming to get Prost into the top 6 of the Constructors' championship. Let's hope that these lap times are not PR laps as Jaguar's CEO Bobby Rahal described them! |
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