Bad 2nd Day at Barcelona

By Ian Lockwood
February 22 2006

It was a frustrating day for Red Bull Racing today. Coulthard & Klien were both scheduled to do a simulated run through of the upcoming Bahrain GP weekend, but the weather, fortune and mechanical gremlins had other ideas.

As the pitlane opened at 9 am in Barcelona, the track was still damp and conditions were chilly so after an installation lap both Coulthard & Klien returned to the warmth of the rather swish new Red Bull Racing Test Hospitality Unit. When they did return to the track. their luck hadn't changed. Whilst driving down the pitlane following an exploratory lap Coulthard was his by Williams rookie Nico Rosberg who hadn't seen signs from his team warning of DC's presence.

Following this little incident of was time for the mechnical gremlins to disrupt RBR's plans. Coulthard who was running an old spec Ferrari engine (not a Bahrain specification unit) suffered a failure and Klien's run was stopped on lap three by a gearbox failure. The team admitted that the gearbox was a high mileage unit, but would have expected it to last a little longer.

For the majority of the day both Red Bull drivers propped up the bottom of the timesheets having completed just 3 laps each. As the session drew to a close Christian managed to get back out for a further 32 laps, and DC managed to go out again with less than half an hour to spare and put his lap total for the day to 12. Needless to say, given the circumstances, neither driver set the timesheets alight finishing 9th & 10th out of 14!

 

The team hopes its luck changes tomorrow when both drivers will be attempting a qualifying simulation, and a Bahrain race distance run.

 

 

 

Ian Lockwood