Nick Heidfeld topped the timesheets in the new Sauber C21 at Valencia on Tuesday. The German easily out-paced the 2002-spec Williams trio, prompting BMW motorsport director Gerhard Berger to openly admit that he was very dissatisfied with the pre-season performance of the new FW24.
Nick Heidfeld topped the timesheets in the new Sauber C21 at Valencia on Tuesday. The German easily out-paced the 2002-spec Williams trio, prompting BMW motorsport director Gerhard Berger to openly admit that he was very dissatisfied with the pre-season performance of the new FW24.
Heidfeld’s best lap time of 1m13,717s, which was admittedly almost two seconds off the track record, was a tenth of a second faster than Takuma Sato, who was driving last year’s Jordan EJ11. The Japanese driver covered a virtual race distance by completing 73 laps of the tight Spanish circuit.
Promising rookie driver Brazil’s Felipe Massa recorded the third quickest time ahead of the Williams trio of Juan-Pablo Montoya, Ralf Schumacher and Marc Gene. The fastest of these was Montoya in the FW24 and he was just a fraction up on Ralf Schumacher, who was also in the new car. Marc Gene was a second further back in a 2001-spec machine and the Spaniard brought out the only red flag of the day after he spun without damage in the morning.
Therefore, it was hardly a shock when Berger recently told Autocar that he was dissatisfied with the pace of the FW24 challenger during a recent test session at Barcelona. Berger said the car failed to give the team the necessary extra performance to push them ahead of its nearest target, McLaren-Mercedes, the report said.
"It is true that after the first tests the new car did not produce the lap times we were expecting," Berger said. "I always regard the speed of a new car on its first outing as a very important sign. And, even taking into account the need to make chassis set-up changes, we are not satisfied."
Montoya and Schumacher have spoken positively about BMW’s new engine for 2002, but Berger said it was the overall performance of the FW24 that counted most.
"I don’t like to separate the chassis from the power unit," he said. "We are talking about a whole package here, but it looks like McLaren is ahead of us."
Meanwhile, Jenson Button was eighth quickest for Renault, ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella in the Jordan EJ12. Mark Webber and Alex Yoong put the Asiatech-powered Minardi PS02 through its paces, although neither driver covered many laps and both were some way off the pace.
Testing continues on Wednesday. While Arrows were planning to put the new A23 through its paces today, it has emerged that former Prost driver Heinz-Harald Frentzen will soon be named as the team’s second driver.
Frentzen has been widely rumoured to be in line for Jos Verstappen’s seat Arrows, despite protestations by the Dutchman’s manager.
According to Verstappen’s homepage, an official source has confirmed that Frentzen will be taking the Dutchman’s place in the team for the upcoming F1 season, F1-live.com reported on Tuesday.
Valencia, day two (unofficial)
Pos Driver Chassis-engine Tyres Time Laps
1 Nick Heidfeld Sauber-Petronas B 1m13,717s 99
2 Takuma Sato Jordan-Honda B 1m13,830s 73
3 Felipe Massa Sauber-Petronas B 1m13,933s 91
4 Juan Pablo Montoya Williams-BMW M 1m14,025s 55
5 Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW M 1m14,037s 57
6 Marc Gene Williams-BMW M 1m15,038s 66
7 Fernando Alonso Renault M 1m15,340s 49
8 Jenson Button Renault M 1m15,771s 39
9 Giancarlo Fisichella Jordan-Honda B 1m15,968s 53
10 Mark Webber Minardi-Asiatech M 1m18,048s 14
11 Alex Yoong Minardi-Asiatech M 1m21,002s 21
M = Michelin
B = Bridgestone
