Honda Valencia testing notes 2002-02-08

B.A.R Honda started a five-day test on Wednesday. By the last day (Sunday) of the test, the team will have run all three B.A.R Honda 004s and last year's B.A.R Honda 003 with Jacques Villeneuve, Olivier Panis, and test drivers Anthony Davidson and Ryo Fukuda. During the test the team will add the Melbourne aero package to the 2002-spec car in readiness for the Australian Grand Prix on 3 March.

Villeneuve completed 86 laps in his B.A.R Honda 004 today (Friday) setting a best lap of 1:13.6s, the sixth fastest time of the day. Panis, who was also driving a 2002-spec car, was just a tenth of a second behind his team-mate, recording a fastest time of 1:13.7s.

B.A.R Honda will continue testing in Valencia over the weekend, before returning to the UK to prepare for a four-day test, which starts on 18 February at the Circuit Paul Ricard in France. Jordan Honda begins a three-day test on 11 February at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain.

Shuhei Nakamoto, Race and Test Team Manager, Honda Racing Development commented: "It's been a tough week as there have been a number of small problems affecting the programmes with both teams, which is not unusual at this time of year. There's also been a lot of red flags, so unfortunately we haven't done as many laps as we planned. We had one engine failure with B.A.R, but the cause has been identified and a countermeasure put in place. We are looking forward to a more productive test next week back in Barcelona."

Giancarlo Fisichella, Jordan Honda, is feeling positive: "I am very happy about the start we have made with work on the EJ12; naturally there is a lot still to do, but we are all committed to the objective of making the car as quick as possible. The team at Jordan and Honda are combining their maximum efforts to get good results."

Jacques Villeneuve B.A.R Honda, commented: "We're slightly more competitive again this test. The car was working well and the chassis felt fine. There were a lot of red flags today (Thursday) though, so it was hard to do much proper work."

Olivier Panis, B.A.R Honda, said: "Again, testing has proved to be extremely frustrating. In fact the past two days (Wednesday and Thursday) I've had my fair share of problems, which have hampered my possibilities to exploit the car to its full potential. We are all still working very hard though and I hope to have a bit more luck in the next 3 days in order to complete as many miles as possible and continue the development work as it should be."

Takuma Sato, Jordan Honda, commented: "This week has been basically very positive, I have done some mileage and think that the new car is improving all the time. I did a 25 lap non-stop run today (Thursday) and there were no problems at all which is good news for everyone. The team is great and I am working well with James, my engineer and Gary Anderson. Really, things are going well at the moment for me".

-honda-