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Williams FW26
test summary
January 13, 2004
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Following the launch of the FW26 last week, the BMW WilliamsF1
Team have spent the past seven days testing the new car at
Jerez, with drivers Juan Pablo Montoya, Ralf Schumacher and
Marc Gené all undertaking testing duties.
Piloting the FW26 for the first three days of the test,
Montoya concentrated on mechanical and aero set up work.
Despite some initial teething problems, the new car
completed 193 laps over this period, with Montoya securing
the best time in two of the sessions.
Ralf Schumacher took over development work on Saturday and
spent the initial stages working on set up before
successfully completing a full race simulation. In
accordance with the new regulations for the forthcoming
season, the BMW P84 engine comfortably managed the 800
kilometer distance, a testament to BMW's efforts over the
winter period.
The team's official test driver, Marc Gené, ran the modified
FW25A and FW25B over the course of the week. Marc performed
extensive tire testing with Michelin, endurance runs with
the new engine as well as supplementary electronics testing.
Aside from the inevitable teething problems, the team has
recorded significant mileage over the week, set some
impressive times and accrued valuable data. The test may
have highlighted the potential of the FW26 but there is
still a significant amount of work to be done before it is
rolled out on the grid in Melbourne.
Sam Michael (Chief Operations Engineer, WilliamsF1):
"All of the people at WilliamsF1 and BMW should be happy
with what the FW26 has achieved at its first test. This is a
result of the hard work by all the staff over the Christmas
and New Year period, and the effort put in by the test and
race teams at the Jerez test. It is a good foundation that
we now need to build upon and quickly ramp up the
development curve to ensure we are fully competitive come
Melbourne."
Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director): "The team
has carried out seven days of intensive and successful
testing. The comparison between the FW25 and the FW26, which
was running for the first time, was interesting. I would
like to compliment our partner WilliamsF1 - the FW26 ran
without problems right from the beginning and proved to be
fast. Both chassis have been equipped with the BMW P84, our
race engine for the 2004 season. Engine wise, we are pleased
with the progress of development. The focus has been equally
on engine set up and reliability. Due to excellent test
conditions - very few red flags and generally good weather -
we have been able to record more than 4000 test kilometers.
We will now return to Munich with the information we
gathered in Jerez to prepare for next week's test in
Barcelona."
Ralf Schumacher: "During this test I could finally
have a proper run in the FW26, unlike at the launch where I
only ran for 3 laps. I must say that driving the FW26 is a
lot of fun. I am not going to speak in a superlative way
about the car, but everything is very, very promising so
far. When you drive a new car you can feel if it's good or
bad and the test in Jerez showed that the car behaves very
well. Even if I am not watching our competitors too much at
the moment, I was pleased to set the new track record and
was about to improve it, when a technical problem forced me
to call it a day and Kimi Raikkonen managed to set an even
better time.
We had mixed weather during the test, including some fog
which hampered our progress, but all in all I managed to
achieve quite considerable mileage. We have several areas to
improve upon, of course, but this is what winter tests are
for."
Juan Pablo Montoya: "The effort that everybody in the
team at WilliamsF1 and at BMW has put into the new car is
fantastic. It has lots of potential, although it is
early days. We will now have to wait and see what the others
come up with."
Jerez daily best times (number of laps), best lap time of the day in
bold:
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Driver / Car
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Tire
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07.01.04
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08.01.04
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09.01.04
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10.01.04
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11.01.04
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12.01.04
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13.01.04
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K Raikkonen
McLaren Mercedes
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M
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-
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-
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1:18.367
19 / 37
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1:18.870
39 / 87
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1:16.074
29 / 32
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-
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-
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R Schumacher
BMW WilliamsF1
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M
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-
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-
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-
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1:16.319
79 / 80
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1:16.110
29 / 87
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1:17.875
57 / 89
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1:26.968
20 / 63
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M Gené
BMW WilliamsF1
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M
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1:18.045
38 / 41
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1:17.123
103 / 106
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1:17.299
13 / 71
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1:18.137
88 / 92
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1:16.245
58 / 63
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-
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1:29.116
9 / 77
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J P Montoya
BMW WilliamsF1
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M
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1:16.630
35 / 51
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1:16.650
44 / 86
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1:17.498
9 / 56
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-
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-
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-
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-
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D Coulthard
McLaren Mercedes
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M
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-
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1:19.113
12 / 17
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1:18.630
20 / 76
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1:17.031
99 / 104
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-
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-
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-
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P de la Rosa
McLaren Mercedes
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M
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-
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1:18.145
55 / 61
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-
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-
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1:17.237
99 / 117
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-
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-
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J Trulli
Renault
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M
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1:18.096
21 / 92
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1:17.907
93 / 133
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1:17.664
20 / 86
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-
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-
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-
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-
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R Zonta
Toyota
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M
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1:17.790
68 / 72
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1:17.945
20 / 105
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-
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-
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-
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-
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-
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C da Matta
Toyota
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M
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-
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-
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1:17.837
42 / 46
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-
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-
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-
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-
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T Sato
B.A.R. Honda
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M
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-
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-
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1:18.956
76 / 81
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1:17.875
80 / 103
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-
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-
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-
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F Montagny
Renault
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M
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1:18.453
34 / 102
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1:17.927
15 / 82
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1:18.345
37 / 73
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-
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-
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-
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-
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R Briscoe
Toyota
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M
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-
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-
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-
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-
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1:18.422
102 / 103
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1:17.936
41 / 107
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1:28.128
20 / 92
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F Massa
Ferrari
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B
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1:18.983
31 / 60
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1:18.391
19 / 77
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1:18.878
18 / 80
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1:18.606
59 / 62
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-
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-
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-
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O Panis
Toyota
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M
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1:19.333
25 / 47
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1:18.626
27 / 88
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1:18.493
12 / 93
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-
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-
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-
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-
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L Badoer
Ferrari
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B
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1:19.093
37 / 59
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1:18.621
9 / 74
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1:18.530
71 / 83
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1;18.792
52 / 79
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-
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-
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-
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J Button
B.A.R. Honda
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M
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-
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-
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-
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-
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1:18.563
22 / 39
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-
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1:27.365
11 / 76
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A Davidson
B.A.R. Honda
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M
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-
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-
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1:19.724
21 / 22
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1:18.870
39 / 87
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-
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-
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-
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