SAUBER Kicks off Monza Test as Ban Ends

By Jamie Makin
September 3 2004

Team SAUBER PETRONAS started its three-day test at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza today. Giancarlo Fisichella covered 90 laps in chassis C23-05 to set a best time of 1:22.024s. Tomorrow he will continue before Felipe Massa will take over on Friday to complete the test.

An enforced 6-week summer test ban has given the teams a much-needed break. It has not stopped SAUBER PETRONAS from continuing development on their C23. Development work in the new wind tunnel has provided upgraded parts at every recent grand prix weekend. The testing ban has been lifted now and all ten teams were eager to get out on track yesterday.

SAUBER's work centered around preparation for the upcoming race at Monza. The car ran reliably and placed 10th out of 18 cars on the time sheets. Race Engineer, Giampaolo Dall´Ara talks about the week. "This week our main target is, of course, working on our low downforce level in preparation to the Italian Grand Prix here in Monza next week. In the course of this we concentrated today on assessing Bridgestone tyre compound specifications whereby we plan to validate the collected data by long-runs tomorrow. As Monza is very hard on brakes we ran brake tests today, too."

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