Arrows Silverstone test 7-9 March 2001

Johnny back in the driving seat as he gets his first taste of the OrangeArrows

It was an overcast and damp Silverstone that greeted Johnny Herbert and the OrangeArrows team for his first test with the team after having been announced as the Test and Development driver. On the first day of a three-day test, Johnny's maiden run was one of familiarisation with the A21 prototype, before starting work on the testing programme.

As his first outing in an F1 car for six months, Johnny was eager to get back into the driving seat. The circuit started wet after heavy rain overnight but conditions improved early on in the session, however wet weather tyres were used until lunch. During the morning, Johnny acquainted himself with the characteristics of the car and worked with the engineers on setting up the A21.

Brighter skies and sun improved conditions for the early afternoon testing, with temperatures reaching 17 degrees, allowing the team to run on grooved tyres whilst they carried out electrical testing on the car. 46 laps were completed in total and Johnny set the fastest time of the day with a 1:25.42.

Pleased with today's progress, Johnny looks forward to tomorrow's run of the A22.

"I've had a really good day today. Obviously it's great to be in a Formula 1 car again and I'm enjoying working with the OrangeArrows team. The guys are great and it's a really friendly atmosphere. To be honest, I was surprised with how the car handled, but we still have a lot of work to do. I was expecting there to be a lot more problems we would have to sort out, but I'm relatively happy with the way things have gone. I'm looking forward to tomorrow as I'll be driving the A22 and it will be good to see the characteristics of this season's car which will be more advantageous for us. We can now start work on developing it and ironing out some of the problems the team had in Melbourne."

Johnny and the team will continue testing at Silverstone for the next two days.

- Arrows F1