Red Bull doesn't help Arrows keep it's wings

By Huw Alban
April 28 2002

Heinz-Harald Frentzen had an adventurous day today at Valencia, the newly signed German having two rear wing failures. A testiment to the drivers skill though was that both times the car was brought to a halt without any serious damage. OrangeArrows continue at Valencia tomorrow.

Heinz-Harald's induction into the team has been far from smooth so far. He suffered a minor off yesterday, on his first outlap, when his A23 stalled at the last corner. Today's failures have been far more dramatic, with the rear wing failing twice.

The first incident involved the wing falling off the A23 at high speed. Heinz-Harald was able to bring the car to a halt in a cloud of dust in the gravel trap at turn 1. Later in the day an identicle failure occured, but this time the A23 was pitched into a series of spins and it was reported that there was small contact with the barriers. Several news sources have indicated that there was no serious damage to the chassis.

Technical Director, Mike Coughlan, felt that the failures today otherwise masked a very useful test session. "I was pleased with the progress we made this morning, so it was a shame we had the problems with losing the rear wing. The good news is that this has happened now, rather than in Melbourne. We will rectify the situation before we continue testing. Generally speaking though I’m encouraged by what we’ve achieved so far."

At the end of the session Frentzen recorded the 5th fastest time of the day.

Friday's times:
01. Juan Pablo Montoya - Williams - 1:12.410 - 69 laps
02. Pedro de la Rosa - Jaguar - 1:13.229 - 78 laps
03. Antonio Pizzonia - Williams - 1:13.377 - 91 laps
04. Ralf Schumacher - Williams - 1:13.484 - 69 laps
05. Heinz-Harald Frentzen - Arrows - 1:13.491 - 20 laps
06. Jacques Villeneuve - BAR - 1:13.577 - 86 laps
07. Olivier Panis - BAR - 1:13.744 - 66 laps
08. Anthony Davidson - BAR - 1:14.177 - 81 laps
09. Alex Yoong - Minardi - 1:15.353 - 38 laps
10. Mark Webber - Minardi - 1:15.908 - 30 laps