AUGUST 9, 1999

Barrichello quick as Ferrari piles the miles

THERE was testing last week at Silverstone, Mugello, Fiorano and Lurcy-Levis with the biggest test taking place at the British track. There were four teams in action and at the end of the test it was Rubens Barrichello who had set the pace at Silverstone with a best lap of 1m26.47s after 140 miles of running. The team ran youngster Luciano Burti for the first two days, the Brazilian completing 285 miles and Johnny Herbert did the final day but completed only 50 miles.

Second quickest in the test was David Coulthard who spent two days in the company of Nick Heidfeld doing development work for McLaren. David completed 340 miles of running with a best of 1m26.66s while Heidfeld did 220 miles and recorded a fastest lap of 1m27.60s.

Jordan ran a new specification Mugen Honda V10 engine for Heinz Harald Frentzen on the first day of the test, the German completing 240 miles of running before he handed over to Damon Hill who did both days, completing 350 miles while doing back-to-back testing with a normal car and a long wheelbase version of the Jordan 199.

The Williams team ran both drivers for two days with Ralf Schumacher completing 200 miles and Alessandro Zanardi 270Êmiles. Schumacher's best was a 1m27.60s.

At Mugello Prost and Sauber were both in action with the French team running Olivier Panis on the first day and Jarno Trulli on the second and third days. The pair completed around 750 miles between them while the Sauber team also had a busy time with both Pedro Diniz and Jean Alesi in action. The two covered around 500 miles of running.

At Lurcy-Levis Benetton's Laurent Redon and BAR's Patrick Lemarie did aerodynamic mapping work up and down the runways of the little French facility while Ferrari and Minardi both ran at Fiorano.

Ferrari began work on Tuesday with Mika Salo running for two full days, covering 620 miles before handing over to Eddie Irvine. The Ulsterman completed another 375 miles on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, including 50 miles on an artificially damp track.

Minardi ran both Luca Badoer and Gaston Mazzacane, completing a total of 150 miles of running.

At the weekend Luca Badoer and Salo did some display runs at Zandvoort as part of the Marlboro Masters Formula 3 event.