The glass is half full
Panasonic Toyota Racing's drivers, Ralf Schumacher and Ricardo Zonta, wrapped up the three day test programme in Le Castellet today. Although yesterday's testing saw a short rainfall in the afternoon and the clouds threatened to rain down on the circuit all day today, the team managed to finish the programme and prepare for the upcoming race, which happens to be Ralf's 150th race.
Plenty of fans will be on hand at the Nürburgring to cheer on the team at their home race and the Panasonic Toyota Racing team will be focussed on bringing home more points.
FIRST THINGS FIRST
Ralf Schumacher tested the B-car for the first time, putting in just over 100 laps.
Ralf Schumacher - Chassis TF106/07B
Best Lap Time: 0m58.840s
Total laps: 101
Total Distance: 328.654km
Ralf Schumacher "Today we tried different tyre specifications and set-ups for the coming races. I worked with the new car and everything is going as expected, but we had some delays while work was being done on the car and therefore I cannot say a whole lot about it yet. In general, we have improved on the tyre warm-up issue and tried various different compounds from Bridgestone. Although the coming races will be challenging because we are still developing the car and our strategy, I think the team is doing a good job and moving in the right direction."
LONG DISTANCE RUNNER
Ricardo Zonta covered quite a distance over this test session, assisting in race preparations.
Ricardo Zonta - Chassis TF106/01
Best Lap Time: 0m59.163s
Total laps: 153
Total Distance: 497.862km
Ricardo Zonta "We spent the last three days on a version of the circuit that was new for us. We did a lot of Bridgestone tyre work as well as set-up testing for Nürburging. It went pretty well and I put in over 300 laps over the three days. Today we finished the programme early getting through the test after pushing hard the whole day. I think the team can be satisfied with the work we got through during this test."
THE GLASS IS HALF FULL
Reviewing the week and looking ahead, Gerd Pfeiffer, Test Team Manager is optimistic about race preparations.
"This test has been quite productive for us. With both cars we worked on general set-up and tyre testing, as well as smaller items like damper set-ups. We also analyzed some issues from the last race and it looks like we've found some good solutions. The B-car covered a lot of mileage and we will continue to work on this specification at the next test after the Spanish Grand Prix. We will return to Paul Ricard, where the circuit will be set up to simulate the conditions at the Monaco Grand Prix. The new specification is showing a good potential and we expect to use the B-car in Monte Carlo for the first time."
