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Testing Watch by Stephen Slater |
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The waiting is almost over. It's 4pm on a chilly afternoon at Silverstone, and as the February sun sets over the Northamptonshire circuit, a new season of Formula One is preparing to begin. Tomorrow the cars will be packed in crates and flown 10,000 miles across the world to Melbourne, Australia, where the new season gets under way on March 7th. Today's session has been mostly for ironing out any last minute problems, checking the components, and rehearsing the pit crews for the real thing. Present today are three of the ten teams. Jordan and McLaren are running one car each (Pedro de la Rosa piloting the latter, with Giorgio Pantano and Timo Glock sharing duties for the Irish team). BAR have been here since Monday, when they were joined by Renault and Williams who have left a day early to prepare for Australia.
F1 tests are now for many more people than just technicians. Today there is free access for all the public, and despite the cold weather they've turned out in their droves. The teams often use these sessions (though not today's) to entertain sponsors, provide hospitality, and even helicopter rides for guests. BAR have been running two cars, for Jenson Button and test driver Anthony Davidson, the latter a strong reminder of how short memories are in F1. In 2002, Davidson was billed as the next big thing, a man likely to get a top team drive in 2003. Sadly, his two races at Minardi were nothing to write home about, and he is now mostly forgotten by the F1 community. Who will become the Anthony Davidsons of 2004, and who will make heads turn? From today it's difficult to tell... |
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I've decided this season to attend all the Silverstone test sessions, to try and appreciate the differences and similarities between the cars and drivers. This week most of the F1 teams have been testing, either here, or at Imola in Italy. At Silverstone it is clear, but bitterly cold with a nasty windchill to make things worse. The viewing area is restricted to Bridge Corner, the Luffield complex and the exit of Woodcote, but this is spectacular enough, the entry speed for Bridge is blinding. We try and get some photos with our digital camera, it takes five attempts before we actually manage to catch a car, and even then it's out of focus.
Accompanying me today are two friends, Steve Eyre and his 9 year-old son George, attending his first ever F1 event. I was his age the first time I saw a Formula One car, and remember how exciting the speed was. He is full of questions, such as 'Can you hear yourself think when they go past?' Driving at Silverstone is not only for the F1 drivers, at a nearby warehouse you too can go flat out against the clock and other drivers, on the karting circuit. Being 9, George can only race against under 16s, and as there are none around he embarks on his own mini 'test session', where he comes very close to matching the instructor's time! Aside from a burger van there is very little in the way of hospitality available, so for lunch we make our way to 'The White Horse', the pub in Silverstone Village. |
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We return for 2pm as the cars emerge onto the racetrack again, but this time only BAR seem to be running. Of all the teams BAR have by far the biggest operation, Button completes 51 laps, setting the fastest time of the day in the process with a time of 1m20.297s. Davidson completes 67 laps, longer than a race distance and setting the second fastest time. With the end of running today BAR will have completed over 21,000 miles during pre-season testing. The focus this week has been on preparation for next weekend's Australian Grand Prix with reliability testing of the race engines and race engine systems.
So as we decide there's nothing more to stay for, the cars are packed away, ready to be flown to Australia. They, and us, will be back here in April. Will the teams' preparations be shown to be good enough, or will the optimism be short lived? Melbourne sees the first chapter in this fascinating story. |
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