APRIL 28, 2005

The joys of testing

Minardi is a team that can do without additional problems but yesterday's test at Mugello was spoiled somewhat when Christijan Albers collided with Chanoch Nissany while the two cars were running around the Florence circuit. It seems that there was a misunderstanding as the Dutchman went past the Israeli driver. The team was careful not to apportion blame as Nissany is a useful source of additional income to the team and it is inevitable that people will assume that the shunt was his fault. The team did however manage to continue testing with Patrick Friesacher in a third car. The arrangement does not contravene the testing agreement of this year as the team is only running two cars at any one time. The plan to put Marchy Lee Yin-Kin in one of the cars has been postponed because of what the team said was a "logistical problem". This could either mean that there are not enough cars available or that the Chinese driver's money did not arrive.