Testing at Silverstone

(3-Jul-98) - All teams have been testing this week at Silverstone in
preparation for the British Grand Prix which is held on July 12th, also at
the Silverstone circuit.

Although Ferrari showed that they are back at the top, McLaren again
started strong on Wednesday, the first day of the test. Mika Hakkinen was
fastest on Wednesday after 21 laps. He lowered his team on Thursday to
1:25.419, over 0.6s faster than second fastest that day, Eddie Irvine.
David Coulthard was second fastest on Wednesday and third fastest on
Thursday. Both McLaren drivers did many laps on Friday with high fuel loads
which dropped them back on the time sheets. Testdriver Ricardo Zonta also
drove on Thursday and carried out many pitstops to work on the refuelling
with the pitcrew following the team's problems in Magny Cours.

Ferrari also ran with two cars, the same cars that finished first and
second in France. Except for a transmission failure on Schumacher's car on
Wednesday, both cars suffered no problems. Both Schumacher and Irvine
worked on the setup of the car on Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday they
worked with Goodyear on new tyres while Irvine also used a modified front
wing. Just like many other teams, also Ferrari will start testing with a
longer wheelbase car. They plan to run it at Monza from July 14th.

Villeneuve and Frentzen also concentrated on setup work for the British
Grand Prix. On Wednesday and Thursday they ran with the same cars they also
used in France. The car was only fitted with slightly modified sidepods. On
Friday, Frentzen used a modified chassis which is a further development of
the so called FW20B. The German was able to put in some competitive
laptimes with the new chassis which indicates that Williams has fixed the
problems. Frentzen ended the testing with a 6th fastest time on Friday of
1:25.396, only 0.6s behind the fastest time of the week set by Ralf
Schumacher.

Also Jordan ran with modified sidepods besides some changes to the
suspension. Honda brought a modified exhaust system to the test which is
very likely to be used for the British Grand Prix as well. Ralf Schumacher
and Damon Hill started the test with 1:28 laptimes but both progressed
through out the test. Despite an off on the morning, Ralf Schumacher
clocked the fastest laptime of the week on Friday afternoon with a time of
1:24.782. Damon Hill was positive about the changes to the car: "I am
very pleased with the new modifications," he said. "I feel that
the work we have done in testing will have a positive effect not just for
Silverstone, but also for other circuits. The aerodynamic modifications are
certainly a step forward.". Though the Briton feels that tyres will
almost certainly be the most important factor the coming Grand Prix.
"It it is cold, we may be at a disadvantage.".

Sauber was having a tough time at Silverstone with three engine failures.
The team tested the latest development Petronas engine which was first used
in the French Grand Prix but didn't brought them much success there either.
The team will now revert to the engines as used in Canada and continue
development on the engines to work on reliability. Sauber is expected to
continue to use Ferrari engines next year despite rumours that they might
switch to Mecachrome because these engines are cheaper. Sauber and Petronas
want to continue developing the engine themselves which is only possible
with Ferrari engines. Alesi and Herbert weren't able to set competitive
times. They were outside the top 10 all three days.

Also engine problems at Arrows. Salo ran alone on Wednesday and Thursday
but his running was limited by an oil leak. On Friday, Diniz joined the
test and both drivers carried out some back-to-back engine testing. Both
drivers are still complaining about a lack of power from the Hart developed
Arrows V10 engine.

The Benetton team began their testing well in Silverstone on Wednesday with
Fisichella and Wurz setting the third and fifth fastest times when they
were working on general set-up work. On Thursday morning, Fisichella
focused on suspension work while Wurz was occupied with brake evaluation.
They both worked on tyre testing for Bridgestone in the afternoon. The duo
ended the week on 5th and 6th place on Friday while testing various
combinations of tyres, fuel loads and setups.

The Prost team ran with a modified front suspension which Panis reckoned
had improved the performance since the French Grand Prix. Trulli took over
the running on Thursday afternoon , but the car kept the set-up of Panis.
The times of both Panis and Trulli where down of the rest. The team is
struggling with their new chassis this year after it became clear the newly
developed longer wheelbase chassis was a failure.

Rubens Barrichello started testing for Stewart Grand Prix on Wednesday and
was joined by Verstappen on Thursday. The Brazilian's running was stopped
early on Thursday due to an engine failure of the latest Ford V10 P5. Both
drivers were running the long wheelbase car which is an improvement over
the old chassis according to the team.

Tyrrell's principle goal of the Silverstone test was to solved their recent
engine reliability problems. Unfortunately, Takagi broke another engine
after just 26 km on Thursday and then crashed on Friday morning.
Fortunately he didn't injure himself. The team will start the British Grand
Prix in the same configuration as France, but with some slight aerodynamic
modifications in line with the quick Silverstone track.

Minardi were also running at Silverstone since Wednesday. Nakano had an
engine problem on Thursday, while Tuero was due to change one today,
Friday. The Italian team passed the rear crash test with success after
introducing a new rear wing support. It is not known yet whether they will
have time to fit the cars with the new supports for the next Grand Prix.

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