A23 shakedown delay caused by Cosworth prob ?

By Huw Alban
April 27 2002

The chat session on this site on Thurs night revealed that the shakedown run for the new Cosworth A23 had been called off because of (rumoured) problems with the rear of the car. Several news sources are now indicating that the team will do a shakedown perhaps over the weekend at a secret location.

The previous shakedown stories indicated that the team were planning a shakedown run at a British circuit at the end of this week, in preparation for the next scheduled test days at Valencia. On Thursday night, a chat room contributor 'Huub' (indentity unconfirmed) told us that the shakedown had been cancelled because of 'rear end' problems.

Today, message board contributor King_just has indicated that the rtlgrandprix F1 news service are saying that there is a problem with the Cosworth engine and not the actual car itself - perhaps this is what was meant by 'rear end' problems. Unfortunately, details are scarce and this news is rumour at the very best.

Back on the subject of shakedowns, the team are rumoured to be scheduling the run for either this weekend or Monday with a view to joining the Valencia test on Wednesday. As before, it would appear that only Enrique Bernoldi will be driving and there is no mention of Jos Verstappen being involved.

The car will run in an interim livery, probably the black and orange-striped setup we've seen over the last two years at early tests. The team are also considering an official launch date, which is likely to be in the next few weeks.