JANUARY 6, 2002

Where the testing is happening

The winter testing ban is over and on Monday the leading teams will be in action again with Williams starting off the testing at Barcelona on Monday with three interim cars.

THE winter testing ban is over and on Monday the leading teams will be in action again with Williams starting off the testing at Barcelona on Monday with three interim cars, designated FW23C. These will be driven by Ralf Schumacher, Marc Gene and Antonio Pizzonia with Juan-Pablo Montoya taking over from Pizzonia on the second day. The Brazilian will be back in a car on Thursday when he replaces Ralf Schumacher. The team will then go straight on to Valencia for a test between January 14-20.

McLaren will also be in Barcelona with two interim cars (designated MP4/16B) and these will be shared by David

Coulthard, Kimi Raikkonen, and Alexander Wurz. It will be the team's first outing on Michelin rubber. The team will also be going on to Valencia but will back in Barcelona on January 19 for the launch of the MP4/17.

Ferrari has decided to leave Italy and will be in Barcelona from Tuesday with test drivers Luca Badoer and Luciano Burti running in two F2001s. After that the tempo of testing will increase with intensive testing planned at Fiorano.

Sauber will have two C20 chassis in Barcelona this week with Nick Heidfeld and Felipe Massa. The new Sauber C21 will be unveiled on January 25 near Zurich but will be tested before the launch at Ferrari's Fiorano testing facility on either January 15 or 16.

Tuesday will see the appearance at the Circuit de Catalunya of the Panasonic Toyota team with Allan McNish running in the prototype TF102 for two days before handing it over to Mika Salo.

Renault will also appear in Spain on Tuesday with two Benetton B201s with Jarno Trulli, Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso all in action. Also starting work that day will be Jaguar with the first R3 for Eddie Irvine. Pedro de la Rosa will run in an R2B. The team will then go on to Valencia where Niki Lauda is due to run one of the older cars.

Jordan will join the fun in Barcelona on Wednesday for a two day test before going on to Valencia. The team will use two old cars and will run its two new drivers Giancarlo Fisichella and Takuma Sato. British American racing will also be in action in Spain with both Jacques Villeneuve and Olivier Panis expected to run in the new BAR-Honda 04.

Minardi will not be seen in Barcelona but is expected to join the hunt with two old cars. The team is not expected to get its new car (with the Asiatech engine) until just before the start of the season. The team will be running Alex Yoong in Valencia and a second car will be shared between Matteo Bobbi, Antonio Garcia and Franck Montagny.