Testing concludes in preparation of Austrian GP

By role
May 9 2003

Testing concluded for the Renault F1 team yesterday in preparation of the Austrian GP. The team run two cars with Jarno Trulli and Alan McNish at the Paul Ricrad track in the South of France.

Jarno Trulli continued to evaluate the new spec engine that will be used at Austria while Scot Allan McNish tested suspension and tyres with last years car.

Despite concentrating in long runs Trulli was 4th faster yesterday behind the Williams of Ralf Schumacher and the McLarens of Alex Wurz and David Coulthard.

Mike Gascoyne, Renaults Technical Director, was quite satisfied with the results of the test and confident that the improvements in the engine can make the R23 more competitive at the A1-Ring:

“Again another productive day of testing. Jarno continued to run the new-spec
engine in the R23. He also concentrated on long runs to assess the tyres with
Michelin for the Zeltweg circuit. Allan completed his scheduled day’s work in the
R202 covering suspension work and a tyre programme. Overall, the two days we
had a satisfactorily result and we now look forward to the race in Austria.”

Quite important to note that the new spec engine has not experienced any problems during the two days of testing what gives confidence to the team to maintain the high reliability of Renault.