JANUARY 23, 2003
Testing in Spain
Testing continued for seven of the teams Thursday in Valencia and Barcelona. It was Kimi Raikkonen setting the pace in Valencia, while Michael Schumacher was fastest in Barcelona.
Raikkonen drove alongside Alexander Wurz and Gary Paffett for McLaren, while Nick Heidfeld was behind the wheel for Sauber and Juan Pablo Montoya and Marc Gene tested for Williams.
In Barcelona, it was Ferrari setting the pace. Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello and Luca Badoer were the three fastest drivers on the circuit, all three driving F2002s.
BAR drivers Jacques Villeneuve and Jenson Button were both in new 005 chassis Thursday at the Circuit de Catalunya. "The car is better everywhere," said the Canadian. "The fact that it's got more downforce and the weight distribution is lower helps mainly in the high-speed corners. It's very stable in high-speed corners but also much more nimble, so you can carry more speed into the slow-speed corners and when you start accelerating it doesn't snap as much as it did last year. I'm quite happy. We are just waiting for bits now so we can work on the set-up."
Jaguar also continued to develop the new R4 with Mark Webber and Antonio Pizzonia, while Giancarlo Fisichella was behind the wheel for Jordan in Barcelona.