Races are won back at base - Gascoyne

With the start of the 2007 FIA Formula One World Championship just seven weeks away, it’s car launch and testing season in the F1 community. Some teams have been putting in the kilometres, others have had cities at a standstill, but the Spyker F1 team has remained largely behind closed doors back at base finalising preparations for the launch of its 2007 car on Monday 5 February.

The 2007 car’s first shakedown will not be until the day after the launch, with two exclusive days at Silverstone before a further nine test days over the following three weeks. The team’s first official test will be held in Barcelona from 12 – 14 February, with a further three days in Valencia the proceeding week and a third and final test in Barcelona in the final week of February.

Spyker’s chief technical officer, Mike Gascoyne, believes the team’s relatively late debut and small amount of testing before its first F1 championship campaign will not effect its reliability, “With the late engine call switching from Toyota to Ferrari, and the late arrival of the engine, we couldn’t test earlier than this, so we’re taking a measured approach to testing at the start of the year. We’ve got a programme that will make the car reliable for first few races, but we won’t reach a higher level of competitiveness until later in the season so it makes sense to do a professional job to start with and put our resources to better use later in the year when we have a quicker car.”

Resources at the start of the year will instead be used to maximise performance back at the factory. “We’re not a team with unlimited budget,” Gascoyne added, “so we have to make sure we’ve got enough the money going where it’s needed most, which is back at the factory improving the car.”

“Races are won back at base and, as such, we’ve balanced the first half of the year to strengthening the team. We looked carefully at the areas that needed restructuring,” Gascoyne continues, “We are a small team, not supported by a big manufacturer or engine supplier so we manage our budget carefully.”

Unlike most other teams, Spyker won’t be present at the warm weather Bahrain test, which Gascoyne describes as a ‘huge logistical effort and financial drain.’ “The effort that would go into it doesn’t really make sense. Yes, you get to check the systems work in hot conditions, but if you’ve done the groundwork properly, everything should be OK. Our job now is to ensure.