LIFE BEGINS ANEW

It is Monday January 10, 2005. It is early in the morning in Jerez, Portugal, it is bloody cold and the Christmas stuffing has only just worn off. It is, however, time to get back to work for the F1 test teams and there will be hardly a day that goes by between now and the end of February when the planes are loaded up for the flight to Melbourne when someone is not testing somewhere. This test went for seven days with the first five planned for (hopefully) dry weather and the last two for wet tyre testing.


Williams and BAR were the first two teams to break cover for the new year. Williams had Webber and both race hopefuls, Nick Heidfeld and Antonio Pizzonia on hand in “B” versions of last years car evaluating new suspension and gearbox components but with last years aero package. BAR had their “concept” car on hand, last years chassis with an upgraded Honda engine and this year’s gearbox, suspension and aero kit, for Button and test drivers, Anthony Davidson and Enrique Bernoldi.

Williams, with last year’s aero kit, were always going to be amongst the fastest and sure enough, one of their drivers topped the timesheets on each of the first three days. The surprise was that it was Nick Heidfeld who topped the sheets on day 1 beating team leader Webber’s best by a tenth of a second. Webber topped the times for the next two days with a best of 1’16.347, which would be the second best of the entire week. Heidfeld continued to impress the Williams team, after pipping Webber on day one, he was just two tenths down on day two and bettered anything that Pizzonia could come up with during the rest of the week. Admittedly Pizzonia suffered a string of niggling problems which hampered his runs but as every test goes by where Heidfeld is faster than he is, it becomes more likely that the German will get the race drive. Pizzonia needs to show some speed, fast.

BAR were the quickest of any team running a 2005 aero package on their 006 “concept” car. Buttons best of 1’17.568 was half a second up on the new Toyota and the interim Ferrari. Davidson was just a couple of tenths off Button and while Bernoldi was at the bottom of the time sheets at the close of proceedings he did top the list on day six in the wet.

Toyota and Renault turned up in time to start running on Tuesday, Renault had test driver Franck Montagny doing long distance Michelin tyre testing with last year aero kit so he was never going to be all that quick. In his four days of running he completed 444 laps, the equivalent of almost seven Grand Prix distances. Toyota were the first to reveal their new 2005 car, the TF105, and had one for Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli with test driver Ricardo Zonta running in one of last years chassis. Both Ralf and Jarno expressed optimism with the TF105 with Ralf saying “I must say it is one of the few cars that felt good from the start.” That it is running with an interim aero package, they will not reveal the final version until just before the Australian GP to avoid giving anything away, is a promising sign for Toyota. That they finished ahead of Ferrari who had an early version of the car with which they will start the season is a sign of how far they have come. It must be noted however, that Ferrari had just Marc Gene’ on hand. As competent a driver as Gene’ is, he ain’t no Michael Schumacher. Gene’ finished the test with the second slowest best time, a whole two and a quarter seconds off the pace. I couldn’t imagine that happening with the German in the seat. Ricardo Zonta showed some good pace in the old car and set the best time on the forth day of the test ahead of the battling McLaren twins.

The only other team to show was McLaren who again were doing tyre testing for Michelin but also let their drivers do some quick short runs so Juan Pablo Montoya can get a feel for how the car feels on light tanks. Of the three, test driver Alexander Wurz was the best with a time of 1’16.052, which was also the fastest of the week. Montoya set the week’s third fastest time, half a second slower than Wurz with Kimi Raikkonen a further three tenths back. On the only day that they ran together however, Raikkonen pipped his new team-mate by a tenth and could depart a happy man after winning round one in what is shaping up as one of the highlights of the year. If McLaren can produce a car that is capable of winning we could have some great races between Raikkonen and Montoya.

And it is just six weeks to Melbourne.

BEST TIMES DRIVER CAR TIME 1 Alexander Wurz McLaren MP4/19C 1'16.052 (5) 2 Mark Webber Williams FW26B 1'16.437 (2,3) 3 Juan Pablo Montoya McLaren MP4/19C 1'16.558 4 Ricardo Zonta Toyota TF104B 1'16.672 (4) 5 Nick Heidfeld Williams FW26B 1'16.736 (1) 6 Kimi Raikkonen McLaren MP4/19C 1'16.814 (7) 7 Antonio Pizzonia Williams FW26B 1'17.070 8 Franck Montagny Renault R24B 1'17.458 9 Jenson Button BAR 006B 1'17.568 10 Anthony Davidson BAR 006B 1'17.705 11 Jarno Trulli Toyota TF105 1'18.048 12 Ralf Schumacher Toyota TF105 1'18.242 13 Marc Gene' Ferrari F2004B 1'18.255 14 Enrique Bernoldi BAR 006B 1'18.589 (6)

(-) fastest on day

Sam Snape

18-01-05