An “encouraging” test for Midland at Jerez

By Huw Alban
February 11 2006

Tiago Monteiro got a treat on Friday at Jerez – an M16 chassis all to himself. He put it to good use to recording the 8th fastest time out of the 12 drivers running at the test. Christijan Albers, in the EJ15B,lapped some 1.3 seconds slower !

The weather started poorly on Friday, but soon cleared up allowing the team time to continue working on engine, tyre, and control system development.

Technical Director, James Key, appeared to be very pleased with the work done last week but admitted that there was a performance issue.

"It has been a very encouraging week, we have done three full days running on the new car with no reliability issues," he was quoted as saying. "We have tried out new mechanical systems which are working as we hoped, and had good development on our control systems. The cooling levels on the new car are as expected and the outcome of data has been as anticipated. The Toyota engine has been faultless all week."

"There are a few issues to resolve on the performance side and we are working on that now but think we have a solution and will hopefully make the car run quicker. It was an encouraging day today with improving lap times. We have also tried new Bridgestone tyres which performed very well. Overall it's been a very good and motivating test, the drivers have both done good jobs and are happy with the car."

Fans on the forum have voiced concern over the times being posted by the new car, despite the fact that in reality we have no idea what the team are testing. I had wondered whether the team were simply being careful with their one and only M16 chassis and not pushing to the limit (a thought somewhat confirmed by forum contributor CRX’s trackside observations). Above however is an admission from the team that they perhaps weren’t being as careful as we thought (and saw) and that there is a problem. I am somewhat encouraged by the fact that James has been allowed to make a public admission as this suggests that there really is a solution and that the team are very confident that the solution will bear results. Fans here at MF1O will be glued to those timesheets from Barcelona next week.

The full list of times from the test are given below:

1 . G. Fisichella - Renault R26 - 1:17.763 (+ 0.000 ) - 76 laps
2 . H. Kovalainen - Renault R26 - 1:17.870 (+ 0.107 ) - 59 laps
3 . K. Raikkonen - McLaren Mercedes MP4-21 - 1:18.027 (+ 0.264 ) - 28 laps
4 . N. Heidfeld - BMW Sauber F1.06 - 1:18.445 (+ 0.682 ) - 80 laps
5 . P. de la Rosa - McLaren Mercedes MP4-20B V10 - 1:19.488 (+ 1.725 ) - 49 laps
6 . G. Paffett - McLaren Mercedes MP4-20B V10 - 1:19.912 (+ 2.149 ) - 91 laps
7 . R. Kubica - BMW Sauber F1.06 - 1:19.994 (+ 2.231 ) - 82 laps
8 . T. Monteiro - MF1 Racing M16 Toyota - 1:20.112 (+ 2.349 ) - 78 laps
9 . A. Wurz - Williams Cosworth FW28 - 1:20.314 (+ 2.551 ) - 79 laps
10 . S. Speed - Toro Rosso STR01 Cosworth V10 - 1:20.500 (+ 2.737 ) - 79 laps
11 . C. Albers - MF1 Racing M16 Toyota - 1:21.497 (+ 3.734 ) - 63 laps
12 . M. Webber - Williams Cosworth FW28 - 1:23.494 (+ 5.731 ) - 15 laps.

Times courtesy of Circuito de Jerez