Sauber Barcelona test notes 2003-03-28

Team Sauber Petronas completed its first three-day season test at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona today. Nick Heidfeld took over the driving from Heinz-Harald Frentzen and covered 39 laps in chassis 05 to set a best time of 1:19.812. The race crew is now heading towards Sao Paulo where the third round of the Formula 1 World Championship will take place from 4 to 6 April. Straight afterwards there will be a two-day test in Monza with Nick Heidfeld.

Jacky Eeckelaert (Head of Vehicle Engineering):

"The test today was actually planned to function as a synergy of the last two days and was supposed to confirm the data gathered so far. However, the weather and track conditions changed quite a bit today from completely wet to completely dry and therefore it turned out to be difficult to back-check and compare the data of the last days."

"In addition to that Nick's car experienced a mechanical problem in the afternoon at a time when the track finally became dry which had perfectly fitted our intentions. Unluckily, the defect could only be fixed just 15 minutes before the test finished and by that time it started to drizzle again. For those reasons Nick could not cover as many laps as previously planned and we made some wet tyre tests."

"Considering the whole three days we can say that the tests on Wednesday and Thursday took place as intended. Unfortunately today was not our lucky day. However, looking at the number of covered laps on the first two test days, 200 laps altogether, we fulfilled 90 per cent of the test programme by yesterday already. Our main focus was on testing several new aerodynamic parts and we could make some improvements. Overall we can be happy with what we have done those days and are confident with regard to Brazil."

Nick Heidfeld
39 laps, 184.47 kilometres
Best time: 1:19.812

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