Jerez Test Full Q&A
By Karl & Toyota
June 25 2005
After sitting in the garage at the Indianapolis Farce, it was time to get the cars out on the track again this week in Jerez. The team did not run Ralf Schumacher in his bid to be fully fit for the French GP, so Brazilian Zonta ran the TF105 with Panis and Trulli.
Full Test Times:
Wednesday:
1. MONTOYA McLaren 1m18.207s
2. ZONTA Toyota 1m18.374s
3. DAVIDSON BAR 1m18.463s
4. VILLENEUVE Sauber 1m18.666s
5. WURZ McLaren 1m18.696s
6. MONTAGNY Renault 1m18.734s
7. KLIEN Red Bull 1m19.226s
8. ALONSO Renault 1m19.233s
9. PANIS Toyota 1m19.356s
10. COULTHARD Red Bull 1m19.592s
11. BERNOLDI BAR 1m19.792s
12. CARROLL BAR 1m22.448s
1. MONTOYA McLaren 1m17.405s
2. BUTTON BAR 1m17.580s
3. SATO BAR 1m17.764s
5. ZONTA Toyota 1m17.962s
6. KOVALAINEN Renault 1m18.136s
7. PANIS Toyota 1m18.530s
8. KLIEN Red Bull 1m18.823s
9. PIZZONIA Williams 1m18.969s
10. WURZ McLaren 1m19.237s
11. COULTHARD Red Bull 1m19.439s
12. VILLENEUVE Sauber 1m19.611s
13. HEIDFELD Williams 1m19.990s
1. BUTTON BAR 1m17.154s
2. ALONSO Renault 1m17.197s
4.
5. TRULLI
6. MONTAGNY Renault 1m17.549s
7. SATO BAR 1m17.559s
8. DE LA ROSA McLaren 1m17.685s
9. PIZZONIA Williams 1m17.970s
10. HEIDFELD Williams 1m18.136s
11. BERNOLDI BAR 1m18.570s
12. COULTHARD Red Bull 1m18.619s
13. ZONTA
14. DAVIDSON BAR 1m18.678s
15. LIUZZI Red Bull 1m19.681s
16. SPEED Red Bull 1m19.885s
Olivier Panis (Panasonic Toyota Racing 3rd Driver)
Ricardo Zonta (Panasonic Toyota Racing Test Driver)
Gerd Pfeiffer (Chief Test Engineer, Toyota)
JT: "I was running just the single day and so I had a big programme of performance evaluation on the Magny Cours tyres to do. It was very intensive and I completed more than 100 laps. We had no technical problems, I finished the work and I am quite optimistic for the French Grand Prix."
OP: "Yes. On Wednesday we had a very good day and chose the prime tyres for the the French GP. That was all very satisfactory although the car set-up was not perfect. We changed it overnight and the car was much more to my liking on Thursday."
OP: "It was basically tyres again, yes, but we did more work with the option tyre than the prime. We had a small gearbox glitch but didn't lose any of the programme because I was scheduled to stop early in any case. I had a promotional commitment in Dublin to attend and then three days at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in England."
RZ: "It was basically a very intensive tyre programme with some damper testing on the final day. It went very well. We did three long runs on Thursday to do race distance evaluation on the Magny Cours tyres. It was a productive day with no mechanical problems, although the weather was very hot, which is even harder on tyres."
RZ: "Absolutely. Especially after flying straight back across the Atlantic and doing almost 1300kms of testing in three days. I think I deserve a rest!"
GP: "Ralf has no lasting ill effects after his accident at Indianapolis last Friday but we always make driver safety the priority. The team's medical staff decided that the sensible thing to do was maximise Ralf's recovery time before Magny Cours, where he will return to the cockpit alongside Jarno."
How would you sum up the test overall?
GP: "It was a very good test and we got through an excellent work load. We had one more damper configuration we would like to have tried with Ricardo on Friday but we had to stop to change an oil cooler and he ended up just one lap short of the magic 100 laps on that day. But with almost 1300kms to his name over the three days, I don't think we can complain!"