Renault Barcelona test notes 2006-11-30

The Renault F1 Team concluded its testing programme for the week this afternoon in Barcelona. This first session of the 06/07 winter schedule saw the team makes its debut running Bridgestone tyres ahead of the coming season. After three days of extensive running, in which the drivers completed nearly 2500 km, the world champions were pleased with the work they had accomplished, and with the information collected on the Japanese tyres.

Heikki Kovalainen ran the new 2007 gearbox for the first time today, taking over those duties from his young team-mate. The team's priority was on driver feeling and feedback with the new unit destined for race use in the coming season. Heikki was pleased with his day's work, setting second-fastest time of the day in 1:16.609 and completing 117 laps. His time was the third fastest of the entire week's testing.

Across the garage, Nelson Piquet Jr. focused on tyre testing and their impact on set-up. The young Brazilian completed his programme without problem, and continued to settle in to the team. He finished the day eighth on the timesheets after 95 laps and a best time of 1:17.428.

Heikki Kovalainen:

"This was a good final day for the team. I am pleased because we made good progress this week, and worked very hard on all three days. This is a good starting point, and we have a long winter's work ahead of us, starting next week in Jerez."

Nelson Piquet Jr.:

"These three days of testing were very interesting for me, both in terms of continuing my learning process about Formula 1 and for settling in to the team. I feel at ease now, I am starting to get to know the team and I think I made good progress this week. I now need to continue the same way."

Christian Silk, Chief Test Engineer:

"This was a good last day of testing. When we arrived in Barcelona, our main aim was to understand how to run the car, in collaboration with our new partner Bridgestone. We achieved that, which is very positive. The whole team put in a lot of effort this week, working late into the night to prepare the cars and analyse the data. And I think the progress we have made over the three days shows the effort was worth it. We will now continue in the same direction, and we hope to have made solid progress by the team we conclude testing before Christmas."

-credit: renault