Sunday February 6th, 2000

Ferrari Prepare New Car Launch

The first of the new Ferrari F1 challengers for the 2000 season is expected to be finished at the Maranello factory today (Friday) and will be given its first systems checks at Fiorano prior to its official unveiling on Monday. On Tuesday and Wednesday Rubens Barrichello is expected to carry out a test programme at Fiorano with last year's F399 and Michael Schumacher will probably have his first run in the new car on Wednesday afternoon. A second chassis will be ready in about ten days. Meanwhile Luca Badoer has undertaken three days of aerodynamic testing at the Vairano circuit this week with one of the F399s.

McLaren Mercedes Unveil New Car at Jerez

The latest McLaren Mercedes MP4/15 was officially unveiled at Jerez on Thursday where it was also confirmed that DaimlerChrysler had taken up its option to purchase 40 per cent of the TAG McLaren Group. One of the new cars was on hand for Mika Hakkinen to drive while a development version of last year's MP4/14 was being tested by David Coulthard. Both cars were fitted with the latest Mercedes F0110J 72-degree V10 engine with a radical exhaust layout which endowed the cars with a distinctive high-pitched wail. McLaren also confirmed that the huge amount of testing scheduled for the 2000 season was behind recruiting Olivier Panis as the third McLaren-Mercedes team driver. "It is unrealistic to expect Mika and David to be in a position to handle that entire workload in addition to the races," said Ron Dennis. "So we have decided to opt for an experienced F1 driver in Olivier rather than bringing on another young driver." Hakkinen completed 34 laps for a best time of 1m 25.32s in the new car, interrupted only by an unscheduled pit stop when he pressed a wrong button in the cockpit. "It is fabulous," said Mika of the MP4/15. "The potential is enormous. The team has managed to solve all the problems we had last year." Coulthard completed 93 laps for a best of 1m 24.42s in the older car.

Jordan Confident with New Car

The new Jordan Mugen Honda EJ10 will start serious circuit testing next week at the Circuit de Catalunya after its officially unveiling in London on Monday. Eddie Jordan said he aimed to celebrate the tenth anniversary of his team's F1 debut by challenging McLaren and Ferrari for the world championship with the new cars to be driven by Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Jarno Trulli. "If we are going to be championship contenders then we need two very strong drivers pushing each other at the front of the field," said Jordan. "I believe that we have one of the very best driver pairings in F1 today and predict that Jarno will be the revelation of the coming season just as Heinz-Harald was last year." Frentzen began testing at Barcelona on Wednesday when he covered 58 laps for a best time of 1m 23.10s. The car lost time with clutch problems in the morning and suffered a leaking hydraulic pump in the afternoon. On Thursday Frentzen got down to 1m 22.44s. "We completed 86 laps today without any problems," said the German driver, "which indicates that the car's reliability is very good. We are making good progress and understanding the car more each day."

Jaguar at Silverstone

Eddie Irvine was the sole Jaguar driver on track action this week, at Silverstone, whilst Johnny Herbert spend some time skiing on the French Alps. Irvine practised pit stops and worked on the car balance at the English circuit, where his progress was marred by some drizzle. His fastest lap around the National circuit was 1m 43.50s. The Ulsterman managed to complete a total of 101 laps, many of it devoted to develop systems using chassis numbers 02 and 03. Andy Miller, the team's race director, now seems optimistic for the team's new test sessions, starting on 10 February at Barcelona, when Johnny Herbert will be back in action.

BMW Williams Prepare for Kyalami

The BMW Williams team is travelling to South Africa this weekend for seven days of hot weather testing which will start next Monday. This will be the first test for the Williams-BMWs in the sort of weather conditions that the team is expecting for the first race of the season in Melbourne next month. Jenson Button, meanwhile, is working hard on his personal fitness programme in an effort to build up sufficient physical durability to perform to his optimum over a race distance. "There are still a lot of new components to be tested and assessed for the new Williams FW22 before it races," said a team spokesman this week.

Benetton at Barcelona

The Benetton Playlife team began a four day Barcelona test on Tuesday where Giancarlo Fisichella was driving the new B200 and Alexander Wurz concentrating on the older B199, the Austrian continuing work on braking and transmission systems. Fisichella suffered a transmission problem on the first day which required the fitting of a new gearbox. On Wednesday Fisichella got down to 1m 22.45s after 82 laps in the new car with Wurz on 1m 23.25s before the two men swapped chassis at the start of Thursday.

Prost Postpone Testing

The Prost-Peugeot team decided to postpone further testing until next week after Jean Alesi's new AP03 suffered a rear suspension breakage in testing at Barcelona on Tuesday just after the new car was officially launched. The new car was taken back to base in order to study the cause of the problem.

Sauber Launches New Car

The Sauber-Petronas team officially unveiled its new C19 contender in front of 8000 members of the public in Zurich on Wednesday. The team will next test from 11-13 February at Barcelona with two cars.

Arrows Starts with de la Rosa

The new Arrow-Supertec A21 started testing at Barcelona on Wednesday this week with Pedro de la Rosa at the wheel. He managed nine laps for a best of 1m 25.6s before an oil radiator leak thwarted his progress. Meanwhile, at Leafield, the Arrows technical team celebrated the news that the new A21 has passed the mandatory FIA crash test. The team has yet to define a title sponsor but hopes to announce two associate backers at the new car presentation, due to happen on either February 24th or 25th.

Minardi Confirm Launch Date

The Minardi team has confirmed that its new car will be launched on 16 February although the venue has not been nominated. The first 2000 chassis was completed last week and will test at Barcelona from 17-22 February and then again at Mugello, probably for two days. The team hopes to cover 2000 km before the first race in Melbourne.

BAR to South Africa

British American Racing join BMW Williams at Kyalami next week for hot weather test programmes. Although two of the latest chassis will be available, Jacques Villeneuve will drive for the first three days and Ricardo Zonta the last three.