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Testing Roundup 16/2    

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Issue 1 - The Heretic  

February 12 - 15 News  

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15-Feb: In a surprise announcement, Johnny Herbert has signed with the Orange Arrows team as a Development and Test driver for the 2001 season. In October last year, Herbert declined an offer to test drive for Williams (story) as he was negotiating a drive in the CART series in the US. It appears that he ran out of options and decided to settle for a test role with the Orange Arrows team in Formula 1.
Johnny Herbert said "I see Orange Arrows as a team of people who are very serious about their racing performance but also like to enjoy life and that suits my philosophy down to the ground. This is a new challenge for me, I know I can make a valid contribution and I am very much looking forward to getting down to business."
Johnny Herbert will have his first test with the team at Silverstone from the 7th till the 9th of March.
The Orange Arrows team also announced that they will be unveiling their 2001 livery on the 1st of March in Melbourne.

15-Feb: The BAR Honda team have concluded their testing at Kyalami after 6 solid days of testing where the team managed to cover more than 500 laps with a single chassis. Both Jacques Villeneuve and Olivier Panis took part in the 6 day test.
Technical Director Malcolm Oastler described the team's preparation as the best ever and said "This has been a massive effort by the Test Team and drivers and to complete over 2000 kms at a test with one car is a measure of their endeavours. The information we have collected will enable us to go to Melbourne better prepared than ever before. We will now be looking to our partners Bridgestone and Honda for maximum effort to allow us to take the fight to the leading two teams."

The BMW Williams F1 team were also at Kyalami and had 2 FW23 car available with Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya taking part. The team covered over 2700 kms during the 6 day test but suffered a few engine related problems during the test. 
Dr. Mario Theissen, the BMW Motorsport Director described the test as "very useful" but indicated that there are still issues to be resolved and said "This six-day test has been very useful to us. Before Kyalami, we found solutions for several problems that occurred during the last test in Barcelona and they were all resolved - that's why we've managed a lot of mileage over six days in Kyalami. There is still some work to do around the periphery of the V10, such as cooling system, oil system and mapping. Subsequently, our engineers in Munich have already started work on these tasks."

Jean Alesi surprised everyone with the stunning pace that he has shown in the Ferrari powered Prost. Both in Barcelona and Estoril he has broken lap records. Now Jean Alesi wants to put the Prost team in the top 6 in 2001 and said "The most important thing is to succeed in placing the team among the top six of the constructors championship and to secure points as soon as possible. We do not want to be the last, like last year. What happened last year was very hard, but it is behind us now. Last year we had a bad car and you can't compare it with this year's car, the performances, the way it handles and the reliability."

14-Feb: The final day of testing at Valencia was run under mainly wet conditions however David Coulthard still managed to set the fastest time of the day just under 2 seconds faster than Jos Verstappen. Alexander Wurz was third.
5 teams were present with 10 drivers setting lap times. Jos Verstappen covered the most number of laps with 83 followed by Nick Heidfeld with 81 and Alexander Wurz with 75. Kimi Raikkonen ran the least number of laps with 18 as his Sauber C20 suffered transmission problems.
Due to the wet track, several drivers had small incidents with Heinz Harald Frentzen and Eddie Irvine going off. Enrique Bernoldi suffered a problem with the Arrows A22 and went off hitting a tyre wall.

Jean Alesi continued the impressive form the Prost AP04 has been showing during testing. He bettered his own lap record set here on the 8th of February by over half a second. Jenson Button had a better day with his Benetton B201 setting the second best time although over a second slower than Alesi. Gaston Mazzacane was thrid fastest.
Jenson Button covered the most number of laps with 60 followed by Jean Alesi with 58 and Gaston Mazzacane with 32 laps.
Testing continues tomorrow.

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Ferrari concluded testing at Fiorano with Luca Badoer at the wheel of the F1-2000 concentrating on electronics testing. He covered a total of 62 laps and 12 practice starts. His best time was 1:01.017.

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13-Feb: The Prost team returned to the track today after taking a day off. Test driver, Pedro de la Rosa set the fastest time at the Estoril circuit. He was 1.7 seconds faster than regular driver Prost driver Gaston Mazzacane. Jenson Button was third in the Benetton B201 as the team continues to suffer problems with their new Renault engine.
Pedro de la Rosa covered the most number of laps with 97 followed by Gaston Mazzacane with 93. Jenson Button only managed 15 laps as problems with the Renault engine brought his testing to a premature end.
Testing continues tomorrow.

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Former World Champion Nigel Mansell may get back behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car yet again. This time however, it will be for promotional events only. Minardi's team owner Paul Stoddart is a good friend of Nigel Mansell and has indicated that while it is unlikely for Mansell to become a regular driver for the team, he may drive the European Minardi 2-seater at promotional events. 
Nigel Mansell made his debut in Formula 1 in 1980 with Lotus and won the World Drivers Title in 1992 with Williams. He drove in the CART series in the USA in 93 winning the title in his debut year. In 1994 he went back to Formula 1 and drove for Williams at 4 events winning one race but in 1995 he drove with McLaren for 2 races and left them claiming the car was not competitive.

13-Feb: On the final day of testing at Kyalami, Ralf Schumacher continued to set the pace although not as fast as yesterday he still managed a time below the 1:20 mark. Olivier Panis was second fastest while Juan Pablo Montoya was third. 
Olivier Panis taking over from Jacques Villeneuve covered the most number of laps with 91 followed by Ralf Schumacher with 54 and Juan Pablo Montoya with 41.
BAR continue to show high reliability while Williams appear faster but less reliable.
Both teams now return to Europe for more testing. 

Niki Lauda who was appointed the CEO of Ford's Premier Performance Division (story), has indicated that he took the job as a challenge since Jaguar have not won anything yet but is confident of taking Jaguar to the top and said "It's a new phase in my life, I'll have to start from zero, Jaguar has not won anything yet, and that's why I decided to accept the challenge. To be honest, the offer came at just the right time. I'm going to put Jaguar at the top of Formula 1."

13-Feb: David Coulthard sets another lap record at Valencia for the second day in a row. He was the only driver to set a time in the 1:13's. Jordan's Jarno Trulli was 2nd 0.7 seconds behind while Alexander Wurz was third. Eddie Irvine was the slowest of all setting a time over 2.5 seconds off the pace.
5 teams were present with 10 drivers setting lap times. Kimi Raikkonen covered the most number of laps with 107 followed by Heinz Harald Frentzen with 99 laps Jarno Trulli with 80. David Coulthard covered the least number of laps with 37 as he suffered a problem with his car which interrupted his testing. Several other drivers had problems as well with Alexander Wurz stopping on the track, Heinz Harald Frentzen's car having overheating problems, Nick Heidfeld with an oil leak and Jos Verstappen with a mechanical problem.
Testing concludes tomorrow.

Ferrari continued testing today at two fronts with Rubens Barrichello returning to Mugello and Luca Badoer testing for the team at Fiorano. Rubens Barrichello covered a total of 65 laps without problems in the F2001 with a best time of 1:24.627.

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Luca Badoer returned to testing after his forced break following his high speed crash on the 21st of January (story). He covered a total of 44 laps with a best time of 1:01.404 concentrating on electronic development. Badoer said on his return "I am not yet completely fit. I have a bit of pain and I still need to rebuild my muscle weight. There is no point in thinking about the possibility of another accident because if you do, you might as well stop. Now I am just concentrating on getting back to being one hundred percent again. This test is not particularly tough, because we are not trying to set quick times as we are just testing electronics."

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Badoer will continue testing tomorrow at Fiorano while testing at Mugello will resume on Friday with Michael Schumacher driving.

12-Feb: David Coulthard sets a stunning pace at Valencia setting a lap time that is almost half a second faster than the fastest time set here earlier this year by Mika Hakkinen. He was closely followed by McLaren's test driver Alexander Wurz. Heinz Harald Frentzen was third over 0.7 seconds off the pace.
5 teams were present at the track with Jordan and Sauber joining in. 10 drivers set lap times with Enrique Bernoldi covering the most number of laps with 96 followed by David Coulthard with 78 and Jarno Trulli with 68. 
Jaguar were the only team testing with Michelin tyres and both Eddie Irvine and Luciano Burti were at the bottom of the timesheets.
Jos Verstappen did the least number of laps as the Arrows A22 hit problems again. Kimi Raikkonen in the Sauber had a spin and hit the tyre barrier and slightly damaged the car.

Rubens Barrichello went back to Fiorano and carried out 8 pit stop practices as well as 8 start practices with the F1 2000. He covered a total of 52 laps with a best time of 1:01.077. Rubens moves back to Mugello tomorrow while Luca Badoer returns to testing at Fiorano after his accident a couple of weeks ago.

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Both Ralf Schumacher and his team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya have set new lap records at Kyalami since testing resumed in 99'. However it was Ralf Schumacher who ended up 0.09 seconds faster than Juan Palo Montoya as he set a time of 1:19.517. Jacques Villeneuve was third fastest over a second and a half off the pace.
Jacques Villeneuve covered the most number of laps with 109 followed by Ralf Schumacher with 83 and Juan Pablo Montoya with 63.
Testing concludes tomorrow.

Jenson Button was the sole driver at the Estoril track as the Prost team take a day off from testing. Jenson Button had a better day in the B201 compared to yesterday. He covered 48 laps and set a time of 1:21.097.

Click here for the timed results