Mechanical problems for Renault

The ING Renault F1 Team today completed its three-day test programme at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya. The team had a busy final day, interrupted by a handful of mechanical problems, but was nonetheless able to complete its planned programme.

Giancarlo Fisichella suffered a mechanical failure towards the end of the morning, and was only able to begin the major part of his programme in the afternoon. The Roman conducted aerodynamic evaluations, followed by set-up testing on his car. Giancarlo set ninth-fastest time of the day in 1:22.758.

Heikki Kovalainen was scheduled to complete a major set-up development programme, but his day was cut short by mechanical problem that proved to be minor, but required lengthy work on his car. The team therefore decided to begin preparing his car ahead of its departure this weekend for Bahrain. Heikki finished the day in P10, with a time of 1:22.783, having completed 57 laps.

Chief Test Engineer Christian Silk commented this evening: "This was once again a very busy test for the team, with race and qualifying simulations on the first day, followed by set-up programmes on the next two. We got through a lot of the programme and made some good progress, but we still have some unanswered questions - which is why we are looking forward to testing in Bahrain next week. We are taking a step forward at each test, we are feeling more confident about our package, and that was the case again this week. We will use the data collected this week in Barcelona as the starting point for our work next week. Conditions will be the hottest we have encountered so far, and we will be able to focus on doing plenty of set-up work with the car. The first race is approaching quickly, so there's no time to lose!"

Giancarlo Fisichella, R27-02, 91 laps, 418 km, fastest lap: 1:22.758
Heikki Kovalainen, R27-03, 57 laps, 262 km, best lap: 1:22.783