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Ferrari
Ferrari is scheduled to start a six-day test program today at Mugello, where Michael Schumacher will drive on Friday and Saturday, Rubens Barrichello the next two days, then Schumacher again for the last two days. The team will use the second F2001 chassis (208), that has some slight modifications developed after early tests of the original car. Luca Badoer will shake down the three race cars for Melbourne, probably on Saturday at Fiorano.

McLaren
Mika Hakkinen, David Coulthard and Alexander Wurz remained at Valencia after last week's official launch of the McLaren/Mercedes MP4-16, putting the new car through an intensive bout of development testing. Hakkinen initially drove the new car and Coulthard took over for the weekend, working his way down to a track-record 1:13.278 best by Tuesday evening. Wurz concentrated on tire testing with the MP4/15-K development car, setting second-fastest time to Coulthard on Monday and third-fastest time overall the following day. The new McLaren suffered minor technical problems, both on the chassis and engine side. Commented McLaren managing director Martin Whitmarsh, "It is early days yet for the new car. We were disappointed that we experienced a few reliability issues, which we intend to address before the first race in Australia. Overall, however, we were not disappointed by the car's competitiveness." In the wet conditions which prevailed on Wednesday, Coulthard was two seconds faster than Verstappen's best in the interim Arrows test car.

Williams
The BMW Williams team completed what technical director Patrick Head described as an "intensive and productive" six-day test at Johannesburg's Kyalami circuit which included hot-weather trials, brake and tire evaluation in preparation for the Australian Grand Prix. By Monday Ralf Schumacher and Juan Montoya had dipped into the high 1:19 bracket despite track temperatures nudging into the 104degF bracket. Despite several engine-related problems during the course of the test with the new BMW Type P80 V10 units, the general view was that the test had been extremely positive. "In total we have covered over 1650mi of mileage during this six-day test," said Sam Michael, Williams F1's chief operations engineer. "We have learned a lot about the cars and the tires, while BMW has also exploited this test well and been rewarded with some useful mileage in preparation for Melbourne." Montoya, who sustained minor nose damage to his car during a minor off-track moment over the weekend, commented, "I am pleased with the lap times I have achieved after some good set-up work from the team. But I still have some work to do before my first F1 race start, and I will address this in Barcelona next week."

Benetton
After Giancarlo Fisichella carried out initial tests on the Benetton B201 at Estoril, Jenson Button took over the new car on Sunday and by Monday was the only car running at the Portuguese track after poor weather had prompted Arrows to switch to Valencia. Button had managed 14 laps only on Sunday, then posted 48 laps the following day. On Tuesday the team continued to focus on set-up work and began some brake development before an engine-related problem brought the test to an early finish after only 16 laps. On Wednesday Button continued with set-up work and basic engine mapping. Commented technical director Mike Gascoyne; "It has been a satisfying day today. We got a good long run in again on the new car and got a further engine up to mileage. Each time we have done this we have made good progress with the chassis and our times reflect that." On Thursday Button continued the program alone, getting down to 1:19.440 during a program which included long runs and working on qualifying set-up.

British American Racing
The BAR/Honda team is happy with the results of its tests at Kyalami and have decided to miss next week's Barcelona test in order to concentrate on preparing the race cars for the Australian Grand Prix.

Jordan
The Jordan/Honda team began a test at Valencia on Monday where they ran two of the new EJ11 chassis for the first time. In hot and sunny conditions, both Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Jarno Trulli concentrated on chassis set-up work, Frentzen managing third fastest time, .6sec quicker than the Italian. On Tuesday Trulli split the McLarens while Frentzen covered 99 laps, a tire evaluation program also supplementing their chassis work. Cool and wet conditions prevailed on Wednesday, with both drivers concentrating on wet-weather settings, the combined total of pre-race season tests with both EJ11s now reaching nearly 3000mi.

Arrows
After facing conditions of rain and low clouds at Estoril last week, the Arrows team moved on to Valencia on Sunday where testing began in sunny and bright conditions. Enrique Bernoldi took over the new A22 while Jos Verstappen ran the A21 test car to complete a tire test program, using 2001 Bridgestone rubber and posting a time 0.3s faster than Bernoldi, who had a trouble-free time in the new car. On Monday the drivers swapped cars, but Verstappen lost a lot of time with a technical problem on the A22, managing just 22 laps all day. On Tuesday the fine weather continued with Bernoldi continuing in the A21 test car, only a slight spin spoiling his progress. Verstappen's progress collating and analyzing data from the new car was frustrated by another technical problem and so he only covered 33 laps. Rain adversely affected the team's efforts on Wednesday. On Thursday it was confirmed that the team's test driver for the season would be Johnny Herbert, who will have his first test for the team March 7-9 at Silverstone. Commented Herbert, who will be involved in 10-15 tests this year, "Hopefully my experience will help the team and help their development. I have already driven with traction control, so that is another factor that will help the team."

Sauber
The Sauber/Petronas team tested at Valencia for three days with both Nick Heidfeld and Kimi Raikkonen using the new C20s, although Heidfeld's car was late arriving from the Hinwil factory and was not available until the end of Monday morning. Raikkonen's car then suffered a minor gearbox electronic problem that caused the gearbox to be dismantled before it could be rectified. Initially the emphasis was on aerodynamic development. On Tuesday the test went much smoother, apart from a minor oil leak on Heidfeld's engine which was rectified before it caused a serious problem. He continued the aero program while Raikkonen did a race distance. Poor weather shifted the emphasis to wet-weather testing on Wednesday, Heidfeld managing fifth fastest for the day, but Raikkonen lost time with transmission problems and was almost 2sec slower. "It might be St. Valentine's Day, but it has been a frustrating test for me and today's weather continued that trend just when I wanted to push hard," said Heidfeld. "I'm now looking forward to running at Mugello on Sunday before flying off to the first Grand Prix of the season."

Jaguar
The Jaguar team was testing this week with two new R2s at Valencia, the team concentrating on integrating new aerodynamic components while trying a variety of detailed chassis set-ups in preparation for the start of the season. "The engine has run reliably and we seem to have got rid of the locking rear brake problem which troubled last year's car," said a Jaguar team spokesperson. Both drivers had minor off-track moments during the rain on Wednesday morning.

Minardi
The Minardi team is planning to shake down its new car at Vairano next Wednesday where Fernando Alonso will do the driving. He is currently training in a European Minardi F3000 car. His co-driver, yet to be confirmed, will probably join him.

Prost
Prost Grand Prix has concluded its pre-season tests and is busy preparing for Melbourne. The team is very happy with the reliability displayed by its AP04 over 21000mi and is also happily surprised by its apparent competitiveness. Jean Alesi posted the fastest laps during tests at both Barcelona and Estoril. Pedro de la Rosa will shake down the cars on Feb. 21 at Lurcy-Levis prior to their departure for Melbourne.

F1 Matters

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2001 F1 Sporting Regulations

2001 F3000 Sporting Regulations

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