Honda-powered pre-season testing continues in Valencia

Honda-powered pre-season testing continues in Valencia

Following an encouraging test for both Honda-powered teams in Barcelona
last week, Lucky Strike B.A.R Honda and Jordan Honda travelled south to
Valencia to continue their intensive pre-season testing programmes.

Jordan Honda completed a three-day test yesterday (Thursday) with
Giancarlo Fisichella and Takuma Sato. Fisichella set the fastest time of
the day on the second day (Wednesday) of the test, a 1:13.28s, in his
Jordan Honda EJ12. He continued working on general set-up comparisons in
the 2002-spec car, focusing on oil levels and engine development for Honda
and tyre testing for Bridgestone. On the first day (Tuesday) of the test
Sato drove the Jordan Honda EJ11 and worked on general set-up in the
morning and spent the afternoon concentrating on race set-up, recording a
best lap and second fastest time of the day of 1:13.83s. Both drivers also
carried out practice starts with the team.

B.A.R Honda started a five-day test on Wednesday. By the last day (Sunday)
of the test, the team will have run all three B.A.R Honda 004s and last
year’s B.A.R Honda 003 with Jacques Villeneuve, Olivier Panis, and test
drivers Anthony Davidson and Ryo Fukuda. During the test the team will add
the Melbourne aero package to the 2002-spec car in readiness for the
Australian Grand Prix on 3 March.

Villeneuve completed 86 laps in his B.A.R Honda 004 today (Friday) setting
a best lap of 1:13.6s, the sixth fastest time of the day. Panis, who was
also driving a 2002-spec car, was just a tenth of a second behind his
team-mate, recording a fastest time of 1:13.7s.

B.A.R Honda will continue testing in Valencia over the weekend, before
returning to the UK to prepare for a four-day test, which starts on 18
February at the Circuit Paul Ricard in France. Jordan Honda begins a
three-day test on 11 February at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona,
Spain.

Shuhei Nakamoto, Race and Test Team Manager, Honda Racing Development
commented: “It’s been a tough week as there have been a number of small
problems affecting the programmes with both teams, which is not unusual at
this time of year. There’s also been a lot of red flags, so unfortunately
we haven’t done as many laps as we planned. We had one engine failure with
B.A.R, but the cause has been identified and a countermeasure put in
place. We are looking forward to a more productive test next week back in
Barcelona.”

Giancarlo Fisichella, Jordan Honda, is feeling positive: "I am very happy
about the start we have made with work on the EJ12; naturally there is a
lot still to do, but we are all committed to the objective of making the
car as quick as possible. The team at Jordan and Honda are combining their
maximum efforts to get good results."

Jacques Villeneuve B.A.R Honda, commented: “We’re slightly more
competitive again this test. The car was working well and the chassis felt
fine. There were a lot of red flags today (Thursday) though, so it was
hard to do much proper work.”

Olivier Panis, B.A.R Honda, said: “Again, testing has proved to be
extremely frustrating. In fact the past two days (Wednesday and Thursday)
I’ve had my fair share of problems, which have hampered my possibilities
to exploit the car to its full potential. We are all still working very
hard though and I hope to have a bit more luck in the next 3 days in order
to complete as many miles as possible and continue the development work as
it should be.”

Takuma Sato, Jordan Honda, commented: "This week has been basically very
positive, I have done some mileage and think that the new car is improving
all the time. I did a 25 lap non-stop run today (Thursday) and there were
no problems at all which is good news for everyone. The team is great and
I am working well with James, my engineer and Gary Anderson. Really,
things are going well at the moment for me”.


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