Silverstone Thursday test report 2002-02-21

Formula One Test Session, Thursday 21 February 2002
Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit, England

Drivers: Takuma Sato (Jordan), Heinz-Harold Frentzen (Arrows), Enrique Bernoldi (Arrows), Kimi Raikkonen (McLaren)

Testing was extended into a fourth day at Silverstone to give the teams some extra time to prepare their cars for the Australian Grand Prix. McLaren, Jordan and Arrows all took advantage of this offer, and braved the treacherously wet conditions to run their cars for the last time before Friday practice next week. Testing was restricted to the National circuit, which is a 1.5 mile circuit that uses the top third of the Grand Prix circuit plus an infield straight.

McLaren made their first appearance of the year at the British venue with new signing Kimi Raikkonen very briefly shaking down two chassis, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. He did a handful of laps in each, and soon after returning to the pits the cars were packed up and the team left the circuit. He set a competitive time, despite the fact he was just carrying out systems checks.

Arrows took full advantage of the day and did a large amount of running. Enrique Bernoldi set the fastest time during his 58 laps in the morning. Heinz-Harold Frentzen was on track for a most of the afternoon and competed an impressive 83 laps. His run was only interrupted by minor damage to the front of the car. He also did some practice pit stops and on one occasion spun in front of the pitcrew, narrowly missing them all and coming to rest just inside the garage.

Jordan carried out software tests using the EJ11 chassis and race driver Takuma Sato. The team had a trouble-free day and Sato did several short runs, giving a lot of useful feedback to the team. He did practice starts upon leaving the pitlane. His fastest time almost matched that set by Kimi Raikkonen.

Jaguar were present in the pitlane but were using the occasion to film a television advertisement.

The teams will now fly out to Melbourne. Most are leaving on Saturday and will arrive in Australia on Monday.