Schumacher heads Barcelona testing
As Michael Schumacher said after the Luxembourg GP following his loss to Mika Hakkinen in the penultimate Grand Prix of this year's F1 World Championship, he has commenced an intensive testing programme in order to give himself the best possible chance of taking the title in Japan.
Two days after the Nurburgring race he was back in the driving seat for three days of testing at Barcelona where he recorded the fastest time in each of the three days. His F300 chassis was set up in short configuration except for the final morning. On the first day, despite an off track excursion, he did 87 laps with a fastest of 1m 22,68 secs. On Wednesday he had a spin but ended the day with 84 laps and a best of 1m 22,031 secs before improving to 1m 21,972 secs during 88 laps of running on Thursday.
He was trying a large number of tyres and explained, "We are able to narrow the choice for further tests before Japan." Scuderia-Ferrari test driver Luca Badoer was driving another F300 chassis in order to assess aerodynamic and mechanical set-ups. On the three days he completed respectively 14 laps (1m 25,368s), 84 laps (1m 23,731s) and 45 laps (1m 24,001s).
Next week, Ferrari will continue their intensive testing programme at Fiorano trying new components which might be used at Suzuka. The three drivers Schumacher, Irvine and Badoer will each run two days of testing, while a further two testing sessions are planned at Mugello before the team leaves for the Japanese GP.
Zanardi has his first Williams test
CART Champion Alex Zanardi had his first familiarisation test at the wheel of the Williams-Mecachrome FW20 in Barcelona last week running Tuesday and Wednesday along with regular test drivers Juan Pablo Montoya and Max Wilson.
Two FW20s were on hand for Zanardi to test, the Italian running 65 laps the first day posting a best time of 1m 24,70 secs compared with Montoya's best of 1m 24,47 secs after 36 laps.
"It is certainly different from the Formula One that I left in 1994," said Zanardi. "It is a completely different car from what I am used to driving in the USA. It will take time for me to get used to certain things like the semi-automatic gearbox, the left foot braking and the grooved tyres, but I have a good team behind me," added Alex.
"The handling of the car was really different to my CART car, mainly because of the weight difference and its narrower track. I could say that I was surprised, because I was expecting a car which would be capable of braking much deeper into a corner. In fact, it's not that superior, actually CART cars are a lot of fun and definitely easier to drive than F1 cars - at least from what I have seen today."
James Robinson, senior operations engineer at Williams commented, "Alex was obviously getting a feel for the car and getting used to the left foot braking which he was finding quite sensitive. It was very encouraging to see him in good mastery of all the controls and we did not have to tell him twice about all the functions on the car."
On Wednesday Zanardi completed another 43 laps for a best time of 1m 24,43 secs, while Montoya did 28 laps to record a best of 1m 24,37 secs. In order to prepare for the Cart race in Houston the following weekend, Zanardi completed his programme at 3 pm , his FW20 then taken over by Max Wilson who covered 20 laps with a best of 1m 25,80 secs. He continued testing on Thursday and set a 1m 25,47 secs after running 36 laps.
McLaren splits their testing effort
The McLaren team were running at two different circuits last week with Mika Hakkinen spending two days at Magny Cours trying out wet weather tyres on an artificially flooded track surface. No information of that session was released.
Meanwhile, David Coulthard was in Barcelona where he had two MP4/13 chassis at his disposal, one of which had been modified with minor technical modifications for back-to-back comparisons to assess them for the Japanese GP. On Tuesday, Coulthard ran 86 laps for a best of 1m 23,26 secs and on Wednesday 73 laps with a best of 1m 23,04 secs. Thursday saw his best time of the week at 1m 22.03 secs after running just 7 laps.
Hill tests two days for Jordan
Damon Hill spent two days of testing in Barcelona for the Jordan team, completing 54 laps on Wednesday for a best time of 1m 24,15 secs. The team worked on general chassis set-up and carried out back-to-back tyre evaluation as well as some modifications to the bodywork.
Hill's session on Wednesday was cut short when he crashed heavily after being forced to take evasive action to avoid a collision with Giancarlo Fisichella's Benetton. The Italian driver apparently lifted off going into a corner which forced Hill to leave the track, the British driver happily unhurt in the incident.
The steering column of the car was badly damaged, but the car was repaired for Thursday when Damon covered 48 laps with a best of 1m 23,44 secs. He lost more time in the afternoon due to a gearbox failure.
Three days of testing for Benetton
The Benetton Playlife team began a three day test programme at Barcelona on Tuesday with both Fisichella and Wurz concentrating on chassis set-up work. Fisichella ran 57 laps (1m 24,549 secs) and Wurz 40 laps with a best of 1m 24,848 secs.
On Wednesday the team focussed on more set-up work during the morning and tyre development in the afternoon. Fisichella ran another 79 laps and Wurz 40 laps.
By Thursday Fisichella had improved to 1m 23,14 secs after 37 laps and Wurz 1m 23,71 secs with 36 laps.
Sauber tests with Muller
Jorg Muller was testing for the Sauber Petronas team in Barcelona running a development programme in preparation for next year's car. His best time was set on Thursday when he recorded a 1m 23,95 secs after 29 laps.
BAR starts test programme in Barcelona
British American Racing started an intensive programme in Barcelona on Tuesday with test driver Jean-Christophe Boullion. The car was an interim Tyrrell-based chassis fitted with a Supertec Sport engine. The purpose was to test the compatibility of the engine with the BAR electronic and hydraulic systems.
The team judged the programme to be very productive and on Thursday morning Boullion was allowed to try for a fast time equipped with a new set of option tyres and a fresh engine. He got down to a 1m 23,46 secs, which was third fastest behind Schumacher and Hill at the time.
No test for Arrows
The Arrows team did not test this week, preferring to complete work at the factory in preparation for a pre-Japan test at Silverstone which will be carried out by Mika Salo on October 14th/15th. So far, there is no news of Pedro Diniz' future with the team.
Stewart in Spain
Rubens Barrichello ran three days of testing in Spain for the Stewart-Ford team after which he returned home to Brazil for a short holiday. He ran a total of 180 laps from Tuesday to Thursday having improved his times from 1m 25,5 secs with a heavy fuel load the first day to 1m 22,69 secs on the final day. Mario Haberfield, The Brazilian recently crowned British F3 Champion for Paul Stewart Racing, has been invited to do another round of tests in mid-October.
Minardi in Argentina
There was no testing programme for Minardi after Luxembourg, Giancarlo Minardi on his way to Argentina with Esteban Tuerro to sign commercial contracts. The Buck of the 1999 monocoque has now been completed.