Testing Round up so far

By Kristien Barker
April 14 2006

A round up of this weekes testing so far at Barcelona After a session at Paul Ricard last week, the Renault F1 Team has returned to Barcelona for three days of tests at the Circuit de Catalunya. Notes from the tests

The Renault F1 Team will spend three days testing this week in Barcelona.


After a session at Paul Ricard last week, the Renault F1 Team has returned to Barcelona for three days of tests at the Circuit de Catalunya.

The start of the European season means the team has a busy programme, and both race drivers will be in action this week as they focus on preparing for the forthcoming Spanish Grand Prix.

Fernando Alonso and Heikki Kovalainen were on track today. They completed interesting work on set up changes as they continued to explore the handling of the R26, and both ran important tyre evaluation programmes. Excellent track conditions allowed the team to complete its work in spite of some electrical problems on Fernando’s car this afternoon, which delayed his running.

The Renault F1 Team was once again very competitive as Heikki set the fastest time in 1’14.952, while Fernando finished up third on the timesheets.

Tomorrow, Giancarlo Fisichella will replace Heikki Kovalainen in one of the R26 chassis, meaning both race drivers will be in action. Fernando completes his testing programme tomorrow evening, and Giancarlo and Heikki will be in action for the team on Friday.



race driver festival in Barcelona for the second day of testing of the Renault F1 Team.


With mild weather and 18 race drivers on track, this second day of testing in Barcelona seemed more like a Grand Prix weekend. With Fernando Alonso and Giancarlo Fisichella at the wheel of the R26, the Renault F1 Team was taking things seriously!

The programme of the day was mainly focused on chassis set up in order to adapt the R26 as effectively as possible to new Michelin tyres. Regarding the engine, the team continued working on the development of the B Spec, which has so far performed in line with expectations.

It was once again a very productive day with 218 laps covered by the team. Fernando was once again extremely competitive and set the second-fastest laptime in 1’14.532, which he recorded early this morning. His team-mate, Giancarlo Fisichella, worked hard on his first day of testing. He completed a busy programme today and finally set the fifth-fastest time of 1’15.105.

“We had a productive day once again and we completed an interesting programme on both cars. The package was extremely reliable, which allowed us to do lots of running and to complete our programme. We learned a lot about the handling of the R26 and we made some interesting steps for the next races”, explained Christian Silk, Chief Test Engineer.

Tomorrow, Heikki will be back on track for the last day of testing alongside Giancarlo Fisichella.