Date |
: |
March 21-22, 2002 |
Present |
: |
Lauri Ouvinen |
Photos |
: |
60 |
Well, here we go again with more testing photos... I wasn't really planning on attending
another F1 test session so soon, but having been informed about the presence of all the top
teams at the post-Malaysian GP test, I finally decided to make the trip to Barcelona from
Bilbao (where I'm living currently) for the two last days of the test (Thursday and Friday).
After all, it's not often you have the opportunity to see so many teams in action. In fact,
everyone except Minardi and Arrows were present. You could also immediately notice the
increased media presence compared to the last time. There was plenty of action on the track
and the only breaks in testing were caused by red flags.
Ferrari was testing with three cars - two F2002s for Schumacher and Barrichello and one
F2001 for test driver Luca Badoer. The team was trying to decide which chassis to use in
the Brazilian GP. From the beginning the red cars set the pace. Schumacher was trying hard
and sliding the car a lot at the Seat hairpin. It's obvious that Ferrari has two extremely
good cars so most teams would probably want to share the problem they have.
On Thursday and Friday Williams ran Ralf Schumacher and test driver Marc Gené who was
working really hard, doing over 100 laps on both days. You can feel that the BMW engine has
plenty of power but the traction control makes a really ugly noice! The car seems to be
reliable though. McLaren meanwhile haven't sorted their problems. Both Coulthard and Wurz
hit trouble on Friday.
Renault could run only a few laps on Thursday with Trulli because of mechanical problems.
Button was testing on Friday and again looked confident in the car. Like Ferrari, Jaguar
tested both last and this year's car in order to find out which one has more potential,
although you have to say their situation looks desperate. De la Rosa tested both cars on
Thursday. On Friday, he had the new car and Irvine tested the old and new ones.
Sauber ran Felipe Massa on Thursday and Nick Heidfeld on Friday. Massa had an off on Thursday.
Giancarlo Fisichella did plenty of running for Jordan. BAR had one car each for Olivier Panis
and test driver Anthony Davidson whereas Mika Salo was the only Toyota driver running on
Thursday and Friday.
The weather was hot and sunny with temperatures reaching 27 C on both days. I shot a total
of 9 rolls of Fuji Sensia 100 slide film and chose 60 pictures for the three following
galleries. I was pretty satisfied with the results considering that I only have a 28-105 mm
lens with double extender in Spain. Thanks for Teemu Möttönen for letting me use his Canon
EOS 650 body when the batteries run out of my camera on Thursday.
Also take a look at our 2002 pre-season testing photos here. |