Minardi has successful Mugello test

MUGELLO, ITALY, APRIL 20, 2001 -- European Minardi F1 personnel today pronounced themselves highly satisfied at the conclusion of the team's first test of the season. The Faenza-based squad has spent the last three days at the Mugello circuit, near Florence, its engineers concentrating on developing the traction-control system that will be fitted to the European Minardi PS01 chassis at the upcoming Spanish Grand Prix. Regular drivers, Fernando Alonso and Tarso Marques, drove the team's designated test chassis on Thursday and Friday respectively, while promising Dutch youngster, Christijan Albers, had his first taste of current Formula One power on Wednesday, acquitting himself well. All three drivers provided useful feedback to the technical staff.

FERNANDO ALONSO
"Our test programme on Thursday turned out to be a very busy one, not only for me, but for the whole team. We worked on several innovations, including the automatic gearbox. We focused on the starts, to optimise the traction-control system, and I believe we had a very productive session. Even my lap times proved better than the team's previous reference times, so I feel happy with the outcome."

RUPERT MANWARING, Sporting Director, European Minardi F1
"The team has had a productive test here at Mugello, and the work done on traction control has been absolutely invaluable. All three days have been very good in terms of setting up and honing the traction-control software, but today has been absolutely great thanks to the weather, which has allowed us to test on soaking wet, drying, and completely dry track surfaces. It couldn't have been better."

GABRIELE TREDOZI, Technical Co-ordinator, European Minardi F1
"This has been the team's very first test of the new software that will be introduced at Barcelona, and all three days turned out to be very demanding with a lot of hard work. We are satisfied, although there is still a huge amount of work to be done to improve and optimise the software. Apart from the traction-control system, we also focused on the "multi-up and multi-down" device -- the automatic gearchange sequencer -- and on starting technique. Both Fernando and Tarso adapted well to the innovations, especially the traction-control system."

-Minardi