McLaren Valencia test notes 2005-02-21

The Team McLaren Mercedes team commenced its final test before the start of the 2005 FIA Formula One World Championship in Australia on Sunday 6th March, at the Valencia circuit in the South of Spain today.

Pedro de la Rosa and Alex Wurz were in action, both behind the wheel of the team's interim MP4-19B cars, as the MP4-20s for the 2005 season returned to the McLaren Technology Centre to be stripped and rebuilt before leaving for Australia on Friday 25th January, following their final test in Barcelona last week.

This week's test is another multi-team session, with Ferrari and Williams also present. Today's session saw red flag's halting running three times. Despite this, the Team McLaren Mercedes team were able to complete a number of long runs during the course of the first day at the 3.940 km Valencia circuit. Both drivers completed a combined total of approximately 926 km - three times a Grand Prix distance.

The programme for both drivers concentrated on simulating the Friday of a Grand Prix weekend, including the morning and afternoon practice sessions. This included tyre comparison work with both Pedro and Alex swapping between the prime and option Michelins during the course of the day.

Pedro set the fastest time today (1m09.030). Meanwhile Alex finished second out of the five drivers at the track being just 0.017 of a second slower than Pedro (1m09.047s), putting in 107 laps. Neither driver had any reported problems.

Pedro de la Rosa:

"We completed another constructive session today in Valencia in the interim cars. This test is of course the final session before we race for the first time in Australia in 12 days time, and we spent the day simulating all the running that will take place on the Friday of a Grand Prix, obtaining some useful results."

Alex Wurz:

"We have put in a significant number of miles today, although we are using the MP4-19B's we are continuing to test hard to take advantage of all track time before the Australian Grand Prix. We have a good set of data from today and are looking forward to building on it tomorrow."

-mclaren-