MF1 complete pre-season programme

Christmas card image
By Huw Alban
February 28 2006

MF1O had the pleasure of watching the team go about its final day of pre-2006 season preparation today at Silverstone. A mixed bag of weather was in store for us ranging from clear blue skies and sunshine, through to a snow blizzard!

Today was the first day of public testing at Silverstone circuit, and despite the freezing temperatures was very well attended by the public.

Midland and Super Aguri were present at the track today, although the latter didn't take to the circuit until the afternoon missing all of the good weather.

Midland were shaking down the second M16 chassis, which had only been completed last night. The team will take the two tried and tested chassis to Bahrain, along with an untested T-car and enough spares to build a fourth M16 should that prove necessary.

The pit lane road was frozen over at 09:00 and needed gritting, but unfortunately that didn't help one of the circuit staff from slipping and falling squarely on his backside! Unfortunately I didn't have my camera to hand, otherwise I'd be bribing Gary right now (BigPip will know who I mean) to keep the picture off this site :o)

Markus Winkelhock found it very funny, and imitated a fall several times as he waited outside the Midland garage for the session to start. Around 10:00 the green lights came on and Giorgio Mondini was quickly out on an installation lap - his first taste of the M16.

It has to be said that all the drivers today were taking it easy and not pushing any lap times. Bearing in mind that the air temperature struggled to stay on the plus side of freezing all day, it was probably a wise decision not to prang the new car on it's first outing.

I went out to Maggotts and Becketts during one of Mondini's runs and noted how smooth he appeared through that challenging complex of corners. Fortunately for Giorgio during his runs the sky was clear and bright with brilliant spring sunshine, but clouds were gathering over Copse corner signalling a change in the weather later.

He completed a series of short runs, with the team undertaking various checks under the bodywork at each visit back to the garage. James Key (who looked a lot less tired today) and Adrian Burgess paid particular attention to those little wings on the nose of the M16 just above the front suspension, and to some aero devices around the area of the radiator intakes - no idea why.

Around 12:00 Giorgio traded places with Markus Winkelhock, who then got his first taste of the M16. I viewed most of Markus's time in the car from the Abbey chicane, keen to get as many images of the M16 on track as possible. The next public test at Silverstone is in April, so it's going to be a while before I can share some time with the team again.

Markus looked a lot more aggressive than Giorgio, although that just could have been down to the fact that the track would have by now completely melted and dried out. Markus rounded out the morning for the team, with the session finishing a little later than normal.

During the morning I had bumped into Tiago Monterio signing pictures for a fan behind the pit garages. He was due to take his go in the new car in the afternoon, and the team were set up with air bottles and hoses ready for some pit stop practice.

It must have been around 15:30 in the afternoon before anything stirred in the pit lane - my fingers were completely numb with cold. The shutters to the Midland garage went up and team members started to gather around the mock pit box. The M16 was pushed out of the garage, with Tiago at the wheel and the team set about some 'dry' pit stop practice runs which included pushing the car into the box. This went on for some 20 minutes or so, when suddenly it started to snow. Despite the balmy weather the pit stop practice continued, and I got a couple of bizarre pictures of the M16 covered in snow flakes! No doubt Midland now have their corporate Christmas card images ready for this years distribution in December!

Just as the team stopped and wheeled the car back into the garage the snow stopped, the clouds parted and the sun burst through - someone up there in the big blue has a keen sense of humour me thinks.

I decided to the go trackside - Club corner this time - and witnessed Tiago completing sedate single laps as the team practiced pit stops.

Not quite the emotion today as has been present in past visits to the team, but it was good to interact with a couple of the drivers and with some of the team again. My impressions from today were that the team were relaxed and going about their jobs in an orderly fashion with no dramas or surprises. This has left me today with another feather in the 'confidence' cap that Midland are more well prepared for the 2006 season than some media outlets would suggest.

All eyes here at MF1O are now looking towards the team's first competitive performance in Bahrain in two weeks time. Good luck boys!

A big thank you to all at Midland Group and Charlotte at Midland F1 Racing for arranging this visit and making all this material possible.