Early in the week Williams management were talking about a “shoot out” between Antonio Pizzonia and Nick Heidfeld to take place at the Jerez Test beginning December 7. If indeed it was a shoot out then Pizzonia is lying mortally wounded in the dust as Heidfeld was not only three tenths faster on the only day they both ran but was fastest of all in the wet on day five and the fastest of all three Williams drivers over the whole six days. By the end of the week, Sam Michael, Williams Technical Director, was talking down the “shoot out” claiming that any comparisons were worthless because of car issues. The only problem with that comment is that the only car “issues” affected Heidfeld who had a hydraulic leak on the Friday morning. Pizzonia had no such dramas on the day completing a trouble free 141 laps. Heidfeld was simply impressive all week. On his first day (Thursday) he completed 122 laps and finished the day just 0.049 seconds behind team leader Mark Webber, on the Friday he beat Pizzonia and on the Saturday he was the quickest in the wet by almost nine tenths of a second over the next best driver. It would appear that Frank and Patrick now have some serious thinking to do regarding their second race driver for next year.
Another driver who was having a make or break test was Red Bull hopeful, David Coulthard. Despite being written out of the drive by new team owner Dietrich Mateschitz just a week ago he now appears to be back in favour. On the two days that he ran he was comfortably faster than any of the other Red Bull drivers on hand. On Tuesday in his first day in the car he set a time of 1’18.079 which was six tenths better than regular driver Christian Klien and one and a half seconds better than the other hopeful for the seat, Vitantonio Liuzzi. On Wednesday he was again six tenths faster than Klien and eight tenths up on Liuzzi. One would think that he hasn’t done himself any his chances any harm in this showing. After Coulthard had left on the Friday,, which was the quickest day of the six, Klien set a creditable seventh best time of 1’17.117 and ex Sauber tester Neel Jani managed a 1’19.002.
Ferrari began it’s mammoth Bridgestone tyre testing sessions with three drivers on hand. Luca Badoer racked up an enormous 369 laps in just four days supported by Marc Gene’ who completed 228 laps in two days and Rubens Barrichello, back from a short holiday, who did 134 laps in his two days. Bridgestone technical manager, Hisao Suganuma said,”We’ve looked at ten constructions and ten compounds and it has been a very good test. We tested many new things and will now assess the data to decide which tyres we will bring for testing in January.”
Time wise, the best of the test was the McLaren team who had three of their four drivers in the top three positions overall. Pedro de la Rose was the only driver to dip under the 1’16’ second bracket with a brilliant lap of 1’15.837 on Wednesday. He continued this form being fastest on Sunday as well in the wet. He was followed by Raikkonen who was quickest on Thursday and Friday and second overall, and Montoya in third who set the best time on day one.
Toyota also continued to show off-season form with Trulli, Ralf Schumacher and Ricardo Zonta all showing good pace and Ralf was delighted with the progress that the team has made since he began testing with them.Also in action were B.A.R. and Renault who continued to do plenty of mileage for Michelin. B.A.R. Were running their “concept” car with the 2005 rear end bolted onto this years chassis for drivers Button, Sato, Davidson and Bernoldi and Renault had Fisichella and Montagny on hand running with a 2005 aero package.
BEST TIMES
DRIVER CAR TIME 1Pedro de la Rosa McLaren MP4/19C 1'15.837 (2,6) 2Kimi Raikkonen McLaren MP4/19C 1'16.307 (3,4) 3Juan Pablo Montoya McLaren MP4/19C 1'16.545(1) 4Nick Heidfeld Williams FW26B 1'16.740 (5) 5Rubens Barrichello Ferrari F2004B 1'16.800 6Jarno Trulli Toyota TF104C 1'16.838 7Luca Badoer Ferrari F2004B 1'16.932 8Ralf Schumacher Toyota TF104C 1'16.937 9Antonio Pizzonia Williams FW26B 1'17.097 10Christian Klien Jaguar R5C 1'17.117 11Ricardo Zonta Toyota TF104C 1'17.154 12Alexander Wurz McLaren MP4/19C 1'17.308 13Mark Webber Williams FW26B 1'17.521 14Franck Montagny Renault R24B 1'17.650 15Giancarlo Fisichella Renault R24B 1'17.850 16David Coulthard Jaguar R5C 1'18.009 17Jenson Button BAR 006C 1'18.155 18Anthony Davidson BAR 006C 1'18.243 19Takuma Sato BAR 006C 1'18.400 20Marc Gene' Ferrari F2004B 1'18.789 21Vitantonio Liuzzi Jaguar R5C 1'18.792 22Neel Jani Jaguar R5C 1'19.002 23Enrique Bernoldi BAR 006C 1'19.007
(-) Fastest on day.
Sam Snape
13-12-2004