BAR Honda Valencia Friday test report

Lucky Strike B.A.R Honda
Valencia, Spain
Friday, 18 January 2002

Day two sees steady progress in Valencia

Lucky Strike B.A.R Honda continued to make steady progress today on their second day of testing in Valencia. Jacques Villeneuve and Olivier Panis once again ran their new BAR004s, both concentrating on chassis set-up work and tyre testing.

Olivier completed 78 laps in the 004/01 and was second only to Ralf Schumacher at the end of the day with a fastest lap time of 1.13.762. He put a further 320 kms on the car - another good chunk of mileage for the Honda engine. A mechanical hitch forced Jacques out of the car for most of the day but it was resolved in time to get him back on track for a single 22-lap run and 32 laps in total.

Anthony Davidson also made good progress in the BAR003, in which he completed 64 laps and a comprehensive suspension programme.

Team Principal Designate, David Richards, was also in Valencia today to monitor the team's progress: "It was good to see the team in action and to spend the day at the track getting to know everyone a little better. The results we are achieving with the new car appear encouraging but nobody is kidding themselves - there is still an enormous amount of hard work to be achieved between now and Melbourne."

Olivier Panis
"Today was a positive second day for me. I did 78 laps and the car continues to feel good at this stage. I lost a little time with an oil leak but we were able to try many different things and generally everything reacted very well. We improved the balance and learnt a lot about the car so I look forward to two more days of testing here."

Jacques Villeneuve
"Unfortunately I lost most of the day to a mechanical problem and only had an hour of track time at the end. I didn't really have the chance to get to grips with the car but it felt quite quick anyway."

Anthony Davidson
"We've made good progress in a number of areas and found a definite improvement with the braking system in particular. Hopefully this progress will translate when applied to the BAR004 over the course of the weekend."

Steve Farrell, Chief Engineer
"We completed plenty of set-up work again today and, although we did have a couple of problems on Jacques' car, we were able to resolve them and get him out for a long run at the end of the day. Everything looks good on that car now so we're planning to continue the work tomorrow, with Jacques staying on for an extra day. Once again, we're making good general progress and every day we are finding that weak areas on last year's car have been addressed with the BAR004."

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