Ferrari ahead at Barcelona testing

Ferrari led the way at Barcelona on January 28th, while some teams wrapped up testing at Valencia. The interim F2004M, with which Ferrari will start the 2005 season, featured an unusual front wing design as other teams' new cars have also done. The aerodynamic regulations for this season have been producing some strange visuals.

Scuderia tester Luca Badoer topped the time sheet with a best of 1:15.894 over 74 laps. Michael Schumacher was a tenth behind and the pair worked on development and tyres. Juan Pablo Montoya was third fastest as McLaren continued work with the new MP4-20.

Felipe Massa rounded off the times in the Sauber C24, fourth, but was hampered by the cold conditions early on. "We found it difficult to achieve the right car balance today and therefore we will focus on more set-up work tomorrow to improve it," said race engineer Mike Krack.

Testing wound up at Valencia with Renault test driver Franck Montagny ahead, clocking a best of 1:10.398. Giancarlo Fisichella was also on duty for the French squad and worked on development of the new R25 chassis. Renault will launch the 2005 challenger in Monaco next week. Takuma Sato was third quickest for BAR and team tester Anthony Davidson was sixth.

"This week's test in Valencia has given the team the opportunity to run two 007 cars which is testament to the hard work that has been going on back at the factory," said BAR test team manager Andrew Alsworth. "Although the initial part of the test was completed under difficult track conditions, we were still able to work on various reliability issues."

Jarno Trulli and tester Olivier Panis concluded Toyota's week second and fifth fastest respectively. "Valencia has been a difficult place to test this week because it has been extremely cold -- especially early in the mornings," said Trulli. "Thursday was a typical day here, with the cold making life pretty hard for us. At the end of the day the wind started gusting quite hard too, making it difficult to make comparisons."

Panis had his first taste of the TF105 and was impressed with the new car despite the difficult conditions. "I've been mainly working on tyres, but the problem was that the two first days were so windy, it made it very difficult to understand what was happening with the car," the Frenchman commented.