Williams Barcelona test notes 2004-01-23

The fifth and final day of testing at the Circuit de Catalunya saw Juan Pablo Montoya, Marc Gené and Nico Rosberg in action for the BMW WilliamsF1 Team. Conditions at Barcelona were again good, with bright sunshine and temperatures rising to 16°C.

Juan Pablo finished testing by focusing on completing the race weekend simulation he had started yesterday, successfully completing a distance of 800 kilometres. He wound up the day by simulating race starts in the WilliamsF1 BMW FW26.

Meanwhile, Marc concentrated on the mechanical set-ups of the FW26. The Spaniard posted a fastest time of 1:16.182 and completed 99 laps without experiencing any problems.

Nico Rosberg again joined the two BMW WilliamsF1 Team drivers in the 2003 spec FW25A. The 18-year-old spent 81 laps testing gearbox and aerodynamic set-ups setting a fastest time of 1:16.491.

Sam Michael (Chief Operations Engineer, WilliamsF1):

"This week, we ran two FW26 cars for the first time, with all the running performed in race conditions in order to test a number of different set-ups on each car as well as to check sensitivity to tyre degradation on longer runs. A number of minor, but important, transmission problems were encountered which we expect to overcome prior to the next test. Nico Rosberg assisted on two days of the test and performed very well in the 2003 specification FW25, as his lap times demonstrated."

Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director):

"Following our productive test in Jerez last week, we have also managed to work through to a heavy programme at this week's test in Barcelona. For the first time, two FW26s were running with our new BMW P84 engine. Obviously the focus of the test was on set-up work with the new chassis, but we also completed another race simulation and were able to record a lot of data for the engine set-up."

The BMW WilliamsF1 Team will continue testing next week, starting on Tuesday in Valencia.

-williams-