French GP Arrows preview

Pedro de la Rosa:
"I think Magny Cours will be a good circuit for the car as it suits it quite well. It's a very flat track with a smooth surface, a long straight at the back and then there's very fast chicanes and the car is always good on fast corners. The last part of track has slow speed corners which need a lot of traction and this is another area where our car is strong".

Jos Verstappen:
"I think Magny Cours should be a good race. The circuit and our car suit each other quite well and there are some fast corners and long straights which I like. Let's hope too we can continue the team's success".

Latest technical and test information
The Orange Arrows Test team were at Magny Cours following the Canadian Grand Prix with the majority of teams present, for a three day test. Driving the test car on Wednesday was Jos Verstappen, who after his brilliant result in Canada was continuing the A21 development program. Unfortunately during Wednesday morning, the first day of the test, the car suffered a mechanical problem that resulted in Jos having a large accident at turn 2. Jos fortunately walked away from the accident with no more than a stiff neck. The car was returned to the factory at Leafield for engineers to investigate the components and understand the cause of the problem and repair the car. Jos Verstappen returned home to allow his neck to recover and the race t-car, just back from Canada, was sent out to Magny Cours by early Thursday afternoon, although this delayed testing for Pedro de la Rosa to continue with the programme. Jos had completed 32 laps on Wednesday with a time of 1:17.809 placing him in 8th.

On Thursday the Test Team had a very busy day, but one that resulted in very few laps being run by Pedro de la Rosa. When the t-car arrived the team mechanics had to complete and engine change, gear ratio change and set-up adjustments to suit the French circuit. The car did take to the circuit for the last hour of the day and completed 9 laps before a minor oil leak forced the car back into the garage. The mechanics began checking over the car in preparation for a full days running on Friday with Pedro de la Rosa.

Friday saw Pedro and the Test Team making up for lost time, a total of 83 laps were run, the race set-up work involving tyres options and both aerodynamic and chassis set-up. The team were pleased they were able to complete so many laps and happy with the data they were able to gather.