Juan Pablo Montoya broke Valencia’s lap record and Michael Schumacher set a new best time at Fiorano as F1 teams continued testing their 2003 cars on Tuesday.
Juan Pablo Montoya broke Valencia’s lap record and Michael Schumacher set a new best time at Fiorano as F1 teams continued testing their 2003 cars on Tuesday.
The Williams-BMW set a best lap of 1:10,15s, beating this year’s previous best time of 1:10,62s, set by McLaren-Mercedes Kimi Raïkkönen, by almost half a second. Renualt’s new signing, Fernando Alonso, set the second quickest time of the day, ahead of Rubens Barrichello in an uprated version of Ferrari’s F-2002.
Williams was testing a new aerodynamic package on its BMW-powered FW25. According to , the new package includes a new front wing, bargeboards and some mechanical updates.
The team’s chief operations engineer, Sam Michael, said: “It’s all going very well. We’ve got the two new aero package updates which we didn’t have at the test at Barcelona and it all looks pretty good.”
Renault test driver Allan McNish was happy with the balance of his car, despite setting the slowest time of the test. “The car is good,” he said. “We just need more power. With heavy fuel the balance is okay.”
Barrichello completed 114 laps in his 2002-spec Ferrari, concentrating on extended runs and tyre development.
Meanwhile, the Brazilian’s team-mate Michael Schumacher had his first run in the Ferrari F-2003 GA at the team’s Fiorano circuit in Italy – and instantly broke the lap record.
The five-time world champion clocked a best time of 57,045s in the new car, which was 0,431s faster than the previous lap record, set by the German in the F-2002 last July.
Schumacher was happy after the test, in which he completed 78 laps. “Today, we achieved a very good result with great reliability,” he said. “I am very happy with this first day of testing.”
The German said on Tuesday that the decision to continue in F1 after his Ferrari contract expired at the end of 2004 was “entirely up to him”. At this stage, Schumacher plans to keep on driving for as long as Ferrari continues to produce a constantly improving car.
“I’m in the lucky position that the decision depends mainly on me,” Michael told magazine. “The car is changing so I have to change. The day when I don’t do anything or don’t want to do anything is also the day that I’d be better off giving up.”
Valencia test session (Tuesday)
Pos Driver Chassis-engine Time Laps
1 Juan Pablo Montoya Williams-BMW 1:10,15s 53
2 Fernando Alonso Renault 1:10,86s 75
3 Rubens Barrichello Ferrari 1:10,96s 114*
4 Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW 1:12,53s 62
5 Ralph Firman Jordan-Ford 1:13,70s 46
5 Allan McNish Renault 1:14,33s 49