Mf1 determined to do well

The 2006 F1 season kicked into gear in Bahrain on Friday as the cars finally took to the track for the new season’s first day of practice. MF1 Racing made its first official appearance under its new identity, with three M16s in action.

Now more than ever, the first day of a Grand Prix meeting won’t always provide a pointer as to how the rest of the weekend will go, because many teams are being very careful with engine mileage and doing little running. There’s the added complication of six third cars running to a different set of parameters, and doing a lot of laps.

It was undoubtedly a good start for MF1, and particularly for Tiago Monteiro, for the Portuguese driver finished the afternoon session 20th of the 28 runners. He was less than a tenth of a second off the Honda of Rubens Barrichello, and ahead of several high profile runners – including the Toyotas of Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli. As ever, no one knows what the opposition is up to, but there are clear signs that the team has moved on from where it left off last year.

With Christijan Albers dialling himself in on his first outing for the team, and third driver Marcus Winkelhock running 24 laps and amassing a lot of data, it was a solid day’s work.

“I think the second free practice was quite promising,” said team principal Colin Kolles. “I know we were running quite a heavy load of fuel, and Tiago did his lap with yellow flags and Yuji Ide spinning in front of him. I’m not pleased with the positions – we always want to do better – but I’m pleased that the gaps to the others are not so big. OK, we don’t know how much fuel they had, but we know how much we had.

“Marcus did a professional job. It was his first time on track here, and he spun once, but it’s difficult in these conditions with all the dust. The engineers are very happy with him.”

All three cars ran without major problems, and that bodes well for the rest of the weekend. Technical Director James Key – enjoying his first day in the firing line – was pleased with progress. “We had no big dramas, and brake cooling was OK, which is always a concern around here. We didn’t do quite as much running as we would have liked because there were quite a few yellow flags. Tiago’s was a genuine lap time, it was a really good lap. Marcus also did a very good job today. His lap times were good, and his feedback was excellent. He did exactly what we needed him to do.”

Attention now turns to Saturday. There’s an hour of practice in the morning, after which the teams will make their final choice of the prime or option tyre for qualifying. And that will be a step into the unknown for everybody.

MF1’s target is to get at least one car in the top 16 during the first session, which will guarantee passage through to the second round. “This would be a good start,” admits Kolles.

It’s going to be a fascinating day for everyone in the sport…