Teething troubles on first day

Testing
By Phil Giles
January 20 2003

Teething troubles marred the first full day of the EJ13's testing schedule. The team are in a wet Barcelona for the start of their pre-season test programme.

The car completed 15 laps of the Circuit de Catalunya, but a series of technical glitches meant that the car ran for a few installation laps and one ore two "Gentle" timed laps.

The car experienced an oil leak in the morning which caused damage to the engine bay and an infuriating gearbox problem which cut the day short.

“The track was wet this morning and we lost most of the day repairing damage from the fire" Said Gary Anderson. "Giancarlo completed about 15 laps although no timed laps in the dry. Some of these things shouldn’t happen, but testing is like that and you just have to accept it. I’m impressed with what the car’s like and it was good to get the testing programme proper off the ground so we can start addressing these little troubles.”

“We did a few installation laps this morning in the wet and just two fairly gentle timed laps" Commented Fisi. "We had a problem quite early on which meant we couldn’t run until late this afternoon and I only got a couple of laps before a problem with the gearbox stopped us again. It’s difficult to get a proper impression of the car on a day like this but I feel there’s quite a good response from the car and engine. Let’s wait until later in the week to evaluate it properly."