Le Castellet Jordan testing notes 96-02-04 (PR)

Paul Ricard: 1st - 4th January

The Total Jordan Peugeot team left Paul Ricard in buoyant mood yesterday (Sunday) at the end of a productive four days at the French circuit. Rubens Barrichello set a best time of 1'07.89 after what he described as a "very exciting test".

"Despite the fact that the weather ruined the first two days this was both a very exciting test, and a very interesting one as well" said the Brazilian. "The new Jordan 196 is different from the previous cars I have driven and we are taking positive steps with everything we do Martin finally managed to get a little amount of dry running in Barcelona and that enabled us to discover the way to go forward. Already the 196 is a better car than last year's and we've hardly started with it; I'm sure I could not have done that time with last year's car"

Martin Brundle concured with his team-mate's view that the previous test in Spain was important in pointing the way forward, "Barcelona was very significant because we actually had a dry track - for some of the time anyway - and that enabled us to begin to understand the car and what makes it work" he explained. "There are lots of differences, not just in terms of changes to the regulations but also in the philosophy of this car over the 195, and it took a little while to understand how the car wanted to work Towards the end of Barcelona we started to hone in on what we needed, and on the last day there we got the car flying. We did a very competitive time, in less than ideal conditions, with fuel still on board and we really got a good feel for the car. Then we went to Ricard and carried on from there

Next stop on Jordan's schedule is the Danielson facility in France Where the team will spend a day carrying out aerodynamic mapping tests. They then move on to Barcelona (12th - 15th Feb) before the final pre-season test scheduled for 20th - 23rd Feb at Estoril

Testing times (1st 4th January)

1. Michael Schumacher (Ferrari) 1'07.60 2. Rubens Barrichello (Total Jordan Peugeot) 1'07.89 3. Olivier Panis (Ligier) 1'08.93 4. Pedro Diniz (Ligier) 1'09.80 -- Stephen M Baines

"[The Autosport sticker] started to peel off in the middle of Eau Rouge and it distracted me. In fact it was the first thing to hit the barrier" Tiff Needell - Jaguar XJR-15 Challenge - Interview with Autosport

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