Renault F1 Barcelona Testing, Day 1,
Day 1 of testing at the Circuit de Catalunya saw Fernando
Alonso and Giancarlo Fisichella at work in the new R26, conducting
reliability and tyre development.
The Renault F1 Team began three days of testing at the Circuit
de Catalunya today, with Fernando Alonso and Giancarlo Fisichella
in action for the French team, both at the wheel of the new
R26 chassis.
The day got off to a slow start owing to very cold track
temperatures during the early morning. This made running impossible
as the tyres were not generating sufficient temperature. Both
drivers were able to begin their programmes at around 11am,
and then worked without major incident throughout the day.
The focus for today's testing was primarily on continuing
to put mileage on the new chassis and RS26 V8 engine. In addition
to this base-line work, both drivers conducted tyre development
for Michelin, completing medium distance (less than 10 laps)
runs.
Fernando and Giancarlo finished the day second and fourth
respectively on the timesheets. They completed 178 laps, a
total of 824 km.
Fernando Alonso: "I did 94 laps today,
which is very good for a new car. The important thing for
this early stage is that we had no mechanical problems, so
I am quite happy with our results so far. I was still experimenting
a bit today because this is the first time I have driven at
Barcelona with the V8, so you need some time to get used to
the different driving style. The car is easy to drive here
as well, and my feeling so far is very good."
Giancarlo Fisichella: "We had a good
day, with lots of laps and no big problems. The main job today
was working on tyres and we completed a big programme with
Michelin. Overall, it was a good day for us."
Christian Silk, Chief Test Engineer: "This
was a very good opening day of our test. The programme got
off to a slow start, but once the circuit had warmed up properly,
we were able to run a big programme. The main focus of the
day was tyre development, and we got some excellent results
for Michelin from our work on compounds and constructions.
We will be hoping to continue in a similar fashion tomorrow."
DRIVER TEAM BEST LAPS
1 MASSA Ferrari 1:15.664 67
2 ALONSO Renault 1:16.200 94
3 BUTTON Honda 1:16.578 72
4 FISICHELLA Renault 1:16.728 84
5 BARRICHELLO Honda 1:16.737 52
6 HEIDFELD BMW 1:17.046 61
7 TRULLI Toyota 1:17.068 109
8 PANIS Toyota 1:17.422 91
9 MONTOYA McLaren 1:17.481 80
10 COULTHARD Red Bull 1:17.582 76
11 SPEED Toro Rosso 1:18.092 86
12 PAFFETT McLaren 1:18.247 68
13 KUBICA BMW 1:20.016 61
|
