Midland continue to find the time at Valencia

By Huw Alban
February 17 2006

This is what we wanted to see – gradual progress, always moving in the right direction. Despite unfavourable weather the team still made progress today, shaving another 10th off the Valencia lap time although the gap to the top has widened again.

I’ve definitely changed how I feel from Tuesday, and perhaps next time I won’t be despondent about the times set on the first day of a test session. Since Tuesday the team have gradually improved the M16 and that progress shows in the lap times. OK, it would be great to see full seconds being ripped away, but the fact that the progress is small suggests strongly that the team really are working methodically to understand how this car behaves – a 10th here, and a 10th there will make all the difference when it comes to racing proper.

According to the team press release, Thursday was a case of:

“Worsening weather conditions in Valencia made some of today's testing program difficult. The team did, however, make progress in the key areas of reliability and performance. “

Christijan Albers echoed my sentiment on the performance gains on Thursday. "It was a hard day, due to the strong wind, which affected the downforce on the car a fair amount,” he said after the test.

“However, we managed to gain lap time and were quicker than we were yesterday. It's not quite the step that we would have liked, but it is still an improvement, which is always positive."

Adrian Sutil’s debut for Midland was cut short by technical issues, but he had nothing but praise for the way the team conducted themselves under pressure. "I didn't get to do a lot of running on my first day but I did get a few laps in. I know the circuit from Formula Three, but today's experience was completely different. The Formula One car was very interesting compared to the cars I have driven previously; it was great. The car itself felt very good, very fast. There's a lot of grip in the corners and you can brake really late. We had a few problems, but everyone stayed very calm and worked through them. That's the sign of a good team."

I’m not so concerned about technical issues at tests – after all isn’t that what testing is for ?

Tiago Monteiro takes over in the M16 for the final day at Valencia today. Adrian Sutil gets another chance in the EJ15B this morning, with Christijan Albers taking over tyre testing duties in the 15B in the afternoon. After that the team will pack up and head to Barcelona for the next three day test next week.

Full list of times from Valencia on Thursday:

1. H. Kovalainen - Renault R26 - 1'10"631 (+0"000) - 141 laps
2. G. Fisichella - Renault R26 - 1'10"930 (+0"299) - 119 laps
3. K. Raikkonen - McLaren Mercedes MP4/21 - 1'11"173 (+0"542) - 71 laps
4. J.P. Montoya - McLaren Mercedes MP4/21 - 1'11"188 (+0"557) - 49 laps
5. D. Coulthard - Red Bull Ferrari RB2 - 1'11"216 (+0"585) - 71 laps
6. N. Rosberg - Williams Cosworth FW28 - 1'11"232 (+0"601) - 77 laps
7. A. Wurz - Williams Cosworth FW28 - 1'12"229 (+1"598) - 116 laps
8. C. Albers - MF1 Racing M16 - 1'12"767 (+2"136) - 50 laps
9. A. Sutil - MF1 Racing EJ15B - 1'17"912 (+7"281) - 28 laps