Jerez Tyrrell testing notes 97-02-07

TYRRELL TEST AT JEREZ February 7, 1997. - The Tyrrell F1 team is in a buoyant mood after completing the first two days of a five-day test programme at Jerez, Spain. Running two of the new 200 mph Tyrrell-Ford 025 cars simul- taneously for the first time, the team enjoyed a series of trou- ble-free runs on the 2.75-mile circuit near Seville. Tyrrell race drivers Mika Salo and Jos Verstappen covered a total of 137 laps during the team's second dry-weather test session, following last week's successful runs at Barcelona. On Thursday, Mika Salo completed a total of 40 laps with the original 025 and was pleased to post a fastest time of 1:23.98 - less than half a second behind Jean Alesi's Benetton-Renault. Today (Friday), the Finnish ace completed a series of short runs, working through a preplanned set of suspension changes which both drivers were trying out. He covered a total of 32 laps, with a best time of 1:24.43 in windy conditions. "It was very bad weather today," commented Salo. "Super windy in the morning with lots of dust blowing across the track and overcast all day, but at least it didn't rain. Despite that, we had a very good day and learned a lot about the car. "The chassis feels responsive and the engine is strong; it's a great circuit for testing with lots of different corners." Tyrrell's flying Dutchman, Jos Verstappen, covered 35 laps on Thursday in the factory-fresh second 025 car, giving the newly-arrived car its initial shakedown runs. The car was delayed briefly twice by a faulty air pressure sensor, but otherwise ran fault-free straight out of the box to record a fastest laps time of 1:24.73. Today, Jos ran a similar test programme to Mika, but suffered a couple of spins and the team decided to change the differential. After this stop, the car ran perfectly and Jos recorded a fastest time of 1:24.16, during 30 laps. Verstappen commented: "Today the circuit was slower and this morning I had a couple of spins after a problem with the diff. "The new diff was fine and I'm pretty happy with the progress we made. Everything's been going really well and I've been enjoying the Ford engine torque around the Jerez circuit." Overnight, both cars will have scheduled engine changes prior to undertaking race distance reliability testing on Satur- day. Both Mika and Jos will continue testing on Saturday and Tyrrell's official test driver, 22-year old Tora Takagi of Japan will take over some of the driving on Sunday. The team is scheduled to finish testing at Jerez on Monday evening and will resume testing at Estoril on Tuesday, February 18th.

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* 1st 2.00 #8604 * Garlic Caramel: A terrible dessert idea.