Barcelona Test Day 1
Location: Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
Track Length: 4.655km
Driver: Ralf Schumacher
EUROPE TRICK
Panasonic Toyota Racing returned to action at Barcelona’s
Circuit de Catalunya as the team continued preparations for
the first European race of the 2007 world championship. The
TF107 has undergone considerable aerodynamic modifications
in preparation for next week’s Spanish Grand Prix, including
revised bodywork. This morning was sunny at Barcelona and
the lack of wind made conditions perfect for testing before
clouds arrived during the afternoon. Ralf Schumacher was at
the wheel for Toyota, looking at set-up options and differential
settings. At the early races of 2007 Ralf has struggled with
the new car’s front end so he spent the day pushing
for a solution to make the car work better for him. The timing
screens had him as fastest of all but that was due to skipping
the chicane on the lap in question. In reality he was 4th,
0.788s from the top. The Toyota team will continue testing
at the Circuit de Catalunya tomorrow with Jarno Trulli driving.
Ralf Schumacher – Chassis TF107/01
Best lap time: 1m 21.983s
Position: 4th
Total laps: 93
Total distance: 432.9km
“In general it was a successful day and we made it
through everything that we had planned. I’ve had some
problems with the front end at the last couple of races in
low grip conditions but it seems to be better here. We made
quite a few changes in the set-up and after that I was able
to brake and turn in the way that I’m used to. So that
helps me and we got along quite well with the car today. My
fastest lap time came when I went through the chicane but
we were still not far from the top so it has been a good test.
Obviously we will have to wait and see how it is at the race
itself next week, but I’m looking forward to it.”
Gerd Pfeiffer, Test Team Manager
“We are spending the week focusing on next week’s
Spanish Grand Prix and today was a good first day. Ralf has
been complaining of understeer during the last two races and
so we have been working on finding a better set-up for him.
It was another difficult morning but we made progress during
the day and he was much happier during the afternoon. We worked
on the differential too and that also went well. Of course
we are also running the new aerodynamic package that we have
lined up for the next race. Jarno will be testing tomorrow
so we will now change the car for him overnight. But so far
it has been a positive day’s work.”
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