Team SAUBER PETRONAS' new driver Giancarlo Fisichella conducted his first Formula One test for his new team today (25 Nov) at the Circuito de Catalunya in Barcelona. He ran a scheduled programme in chassis C22-05, which focused on damper tests, and covered 99 laps with a best time of 1m 18.532s.
“For the first day with my new team I'm quite happy with the result,” Fisichella said. “I covered almost 100 laps, which is a lot for Barcelona. In the morning we had some problems with the car set-up and my seat position was not the optimum and needed some adaptation. Later I was able to complete the scheduled test programme for today, but there is still a lot to learn. It's a very nice and familiar atmosphere at Sauber. Everyone works in a very professional and friendly manner.”
“Today has been Giancarlo's first run for us,” said chief race engineer Jacky Eeckelaert. “He has the reputation of being a very professional and factually thinking racer and he underlined this. Although he had some minor problems in the morning with his seat he was still very quick on the track and made very few mistakes. And this in a car he had never drriven before. He did a very good job today. I can say that I recognised him from the time at Jordan in 1997 when we worked together in one team. He is still the same pragmatic guy.”
Commenting on the Fisichella’s run today, Jacky added, “Today marked Giancarlo´s first run for our team. It is quite natural that we gave him time to get used to the C22. In the morning he experienced some minor problems with his seat and the pedals, and hence we had to optimise his driving position before we could start with our test programme for today. In the afternoon we focused on long runs to assess new damper set-ups which we had previously tested on our seven-poster rig in Hinwil. Overall I´m quite happy with our test today. Giancarlo has high potential and I´m confident we can learn a lot with his help.”
Fisichella will continue testing in Barcelona tomorrow and Thursday. From 8 to 10 December Felipe Massa will test in Jerez. Test driver Neel Jani will complete the test programme for this year on 11 December, again in Jerez.
The following are his laptimes as compared to the other drivers:
1. L. Badoer Ferrari 1:17.804 69 laps
2. F. Massa Ferrari 1:18.106 93 laps
3. G. Fisichella SAUBER PETRONAS 1:18.532 99 laps
4. T. Sato BAR 1:18.566 44 laps
5. J. Button BAR 1:19.165 38 laps
Ed's Note: We here at PETRONAS Motorsports would like to wish all of our Muslim viewers in Malaysia and around the world a very merry Eid-ul-Fitr. May all your wishes and prayers in the past month of Ramadhan be answered by Allah Almighty. And please, please drive safely! See you all back on Monday (1/12/03).