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Formula One Test Session Silverstone Circuit, England Wednesday 22 August, 2001 Mark Gledhill (Motorsport.com) The second and final day of testing at Silverstone saw McLaren, Arrows and Jaguar continuing ...

Edited: Mar 27, 2008, 5:35 AM

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Formula One Test Session Silverstone Circuit, England Wednesday 22 August, 2001 Mark Gledhill (Motorsport.com) The second and final day of testing at Silverstone saw McLaren, Arrows and Jaguar continuing their programmes, and Jordan doing practice starts on an infield circuit. The weather started cloudy and became more sunny and warm throughout the day. McLaren race driver Mika Hakkinen and test driver Alexander Wurz continued testing for the team. They tried a variety of long stints and short qualifying-style runs throughout the session. Each time the McLarens returned to the pits the team had a fire extinguisher on hand which was used on the rear of the cars before pulling them back into the garage, even though there was no obvious fire. Hakkinen started with several pairs of flying laps, setting times in the high 1m 21s range, and ran with sensor housing at the rear of the car which were used to gather telemetry. The team made minor changes to the wheels and brakes each time the Finn returned to the garage, as the driver studied the data and talked intensely with mechanics. Meanwhile Wurz was some two seconds slower and concentrating on much longer runs, with the driver complaining that the rear of the car was twitching a lot and also suffering a quick spin near the end of a lap during the morning. The team did a lot of work with the suspension of the car while Wurz chatted with mechanics and posed for photographs. Arrows race drivers Jos Verstappen and Enrique Bernoldi were testing for the team today. Bernoldi’s engine sounded rough on its early laps and the team worked on it for almost an hour. He then went back out and spun off the track, but the car was quickly dusted down and the driver returned to the track shortly afterwards. He did lots of short runs during the day, working on suspension components and lapped in the mid 1m 25s to 1m 26s range. His team-mate Verstappen had an off in the afternoon with the car coming to a halt in the gravel trap at Vale, but otherwise had a successful day working on brakes. The car did not suffer any problems and Jos also did many short runs, lapping at a similar pace to Bernoldi. Chief Engineer Graham Taylor described it as “a slightly frustrating day” but said that valuable data was obtained from new parts in preparation for next year. Jaguar had three cars at the circuit today, with race drivers Eddie Irvine and Pedro de la Rosa, and Jaguar Formula Three driver Andre Lotterer continuing testing duties for the team. Irvine was the first of the three to take to the track, working on tyre testing and also rear suspension settings. He did the most laps out of the Jaguar drivers, and achieved the rare feat of setting a time faster than his qualifying time for last month’s British Grand Prix. He said: "If we’d taken out the fuel and ran the tyres we would have normally used we probably would have run a 1m21s, which compares to qualifying at the GP of a 1m23.2s, so we’ve taken a big step forward." Andre Lotterer was planning to do a Grand Prix distance while testing electrics, but an engine problem forced him back to the pits and the engine was changed. He returned to the track midway thought the afternoon and managed twelve laps before the engine cut out, but it was soon fired up again and he squeezed a few more laps in before the end of the session. Pedro de la Rosa worked throughout the day testing suspension settings and doing set-up work on his car. During the afternoon a front wheel bearing failed causing the car to run off the track, bounce over a kerb, and come to rest in a gravel trap without it’s front wing. Pedro immediately came onto the radio to say that he was okay, and the team quickly repaired the damage and he was back on the track shortly afterwards. He said “We are doing a lot of important testing, including geometry testing for next year. Most of the development now is for the R3, but I’m hoping that we will be more competitive in Spa than we were in Hungary.” Jordan were also at the circuit, but only testing on the straight of the National circuit. The team had a makeshift garage at one end of the straight and Andrew Gilbert-Scott was doing practice starts for the team all day, to help develop the troublesome launch control system on the car. He completed around 20 starts during the session and did not suffer any obvious problems. This two day test allowed the teams to work on reliability, by doing simulated Grand Prix distances, and also testing components for next year. Some drivers suffered a lot of problems during the day or their cars were worked on by mechanics for a considerable amount of time, whereas other drivers spent a lot of time talking to mechanics and making small tweaks to the car. Hakkinen was pushing the car hard, and Irvine raised a few eyebrows with a very fast time in the Jaguar R2. Unofficial times from Silverstone (day 2 of 2): 1 Hakkinen (McLaren) 1:21.758s (56 laps) 2 Irvine (Jaguar) 1:22.502s (55 laps) 3 Wurz (McLaren) 1:23.490s (40 laps) 4 de la Rosa (Jaguar) 1:24.384s (39 laps) 5 Verstappen (Arrows) 1:25.579s (40 laps) 6 Bernoldi (Arrows) 1:25.579 (35 laps) 7 Lotterer (Jaguar) 1:26.497s (37 laps)

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