Monday February 28th, 2000

Although most teams are planning to run a two-day shake-down of their cars in Silverstone this week prior to shipping their cars to Australia, the final serious pre-season test for the majority of teams took place in Jerez for three days last week.

During the final day of testing most teams went for a "qualifying" lap to check the outright performance of their cars, Eddie Irvine topping the weeks times with his Jaguar teammate Johnny Herbert just one tenth slower. Irvine's best of 1m 23.24 secs came after three days of set-up and reliability testing, the team having apparently cured their earlier oil system problems that caused so many engine failures.

Giancarlo Fisichella also ended the week on a high note for the Benetton team running his first race distance in the latest B200 chassis with no major problems and the third fastest time of the week. The team started off the week with a lot of gearbox problems caused by sensor trouble. "We found the cause of the problems on Friday morning and the car ran well for the last day, so we should be in good shape for Melbourne," said Fisichella. Alexander Wurz' day was delayed by an alternator problem, the Austrian setting the eighth quickest time of the day and a best of the week at 1m 24.2 secs.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen took the fourth fastest time of the week, but set his time early on on a slower track when he stopped running at midday on Thursday to hand over the lone Jordan running to his teammate Jarno Trulli who ran the second half of the test. Trulli ran only two flying laps on Thursday when a software problem caused gearbox and engine damage on the straight. The team solved the problem for the final day and the Italian got his first serious laps in the car running 66 for the day and fifth fastest for the week at 1m 23.71 secs in similar configuration to Frentzen's best lap.

After a test plagued by engine and electrical problems, Ralf Schumacher and the Williams BMW team also got on top of things on the final day for the German to set a best of 1m 23.89 secs for the week. Test driver Bruno Junqueira stood in for the injured Jenson Button who had strained a muscle in his back. Junqueira ran the last two days of the test to set a best of 1m 24.46 secs.

As usual the McLaren team were playing their card close to their chest regarding their outright performance. On Thursday, test driver Olivier Panis actually set the best time of the week for McLaren with a 1m 24.0 secs dead running in the old 99 chassis for all three days. Mika Hakkinen ran the new car the first day to set a best of 1m 24.445 secs before stopping out on the circuit. Coulthard took over for the rest of the week setting a best of 1m 24.1 secs at the same time as Panis set his best lap on Thursday, wich led to speculation in the pit lane that perhaps McLaren had not made as big an advance with their new car this year as their rivals seem to have done. Coulthard repeated his time on Friday for sixth fastest of the day.

After a bad start to the test when a rear wing failure sent Pedro Diniz spinning off into the tyre barrier at the first corner, things got better for the Sauber team who continued running the final two days with Pedro Diniz. Mika Salo was unavailable, still recovering from the bruising he took when he crashed heavily in Barcelona the previous week. Diniz set a best of 1m 23.80 secs on Friday running a full Grand Prix distance and different chassis and aerodynamic set-ups.

Jacques Villeneuve and Ricardo Zonta shared a single BAR-Honda at the test, Zonta running the first day to set a best of 1m 26.114 secs, while Jacques Villeneuve improved to a 1m 24.75 secs best for the week, the car proving very reliable throughout the test, but lacking in speed. "It's important to make it to the finish in the first couple of races of the season. The car has proved very reliable and we should be able to do that, hopefully in the points," said Villeneuve.

A finish will certainly be the prime objective of the Prost team in Australia, their week in Jerez starting off badly with more electrical related gearbox problems that kept the car in te garage for most of the day. The team finally got some 60 laps on the car on Thursday with Alesi running a 1m 25.9 secs best for the week. Heidfeld took over the car on Friday and managed 42 laps with a best of 1m 24.40 secs.

News of Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro's private test programme in Mugello was keenly followed in paddock in Jerez, the Ferrari team certainly well placed for the season with the news that both Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello have been well under the pace set by last year's car.

Overall best times for the week:

Pos  Driver        Team                Time
 1.  Irvine        Jaguar-Cosworth     1:23.24
 2.  Herbert       Jaguar-Cosworth     1:23.32 
 3.  Fisichella    Benetton-Playlife   1:23.41
 4.  Frentzen      Jordan-Mugen Honda  1:23.52
 5.  Trulli        Jordan-Mugen Honda  1:23.71 
 6.  Diniz         Sauber-Petronas     1:23.80 
 7.  R.Schumacher  Williams-BMW        1:23.89 
 8.  Panis         McLaren-Mercedes    1:24.00 
 9.  Coulthard     McLaren-Mercedes    1:24.10 
10.  Wurz          Benetton-Playlife   1:24.23
11.  Heidfeld      Prost-Peugeot       1:24.39 
12.  Junqueira     Williams-BMW        1:24.46 
13.  Villeneuve    BAR-Honda           1:24.71
14.  Alesi         Prost-Peugeot       1:25.90 
15.  Zonta         BAR-Honda           1:26.11

The Jerez lap record is 1:23.072 (R. Barrichello)

Testing times for February