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Monza test reports

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The first official test of the season is completed. The place was Monza in Italy and Alfa Romeo came out on top with Augusto Farfus being fastest. The Italian lapped the circuit in 1:58.783 and was the only driver to breach 1:59. BMW were right behind only a couple of tenths away in the times.

Independent team JAS Honda was the biggest surprise with the ace Roberto Colciago outpacing the work SEAT´s! Although SEAT were not far behind despite lacking engine power for the long straights. Jordi Gene was fastest of the SEAT drivers. Chevrolet and Ford still have work to do, not that surprisingly. Both of them were a couple of seconds behind the top. But for sure hard work on catching up is on the way. Have a look further down in this article for reports from each of the teams after the testing.

Alfa Romeo

The visit of Lapo Elkann, Brand Promotion Manager of FIAT Auto, during the FIA WTCC official testing in Monza, wound the Alfa Romeo drivers up. Augusto Farfus and Gabriele Tarquini set the pace, clocking the two fastest laps over the two days.

Farfus emerged as the fastest driver on both days: on Tuesday he was clocked at 1:59.492 and on Wednesday he managed to improve by 7 tenths, to 1:58.783. “I like this track very much and we have worked very well over these two days,” the Brazilian youngster commented. “I am very confident, because we managed to set good times using the race set up. Our cars has been developed a bit since last year, however our competitors have progressed as well. I’m sure it will be a very competitive championship.”

Farfus’s team mates were also quick: Gabriele Tarquini set the second fastest lap (1:59.094), James Thompson the fifth-fastest (1:59.681) and Fabrizio Giovanardi the sixth fastest (1:59.707).Farfus was also asked to drive Lapo Elkann for four laps in the Alfa Romeo 156 race car. “They have warned me that in case of an accident I would have put the whole company in serious troubles… But he’s a very nice guy, he was excited and pushed me to go; which I did, because my fastest lap time with him onboard was 2:03!”

BMW

The BMW drivers rivalled with their Alfa Romeo colleagues in setting fast lap times during the two day-official testing in Monza. BMW Team Deutschland’s Dirk and Jörg Müller topped the BMW patrol, setting the third (1:59.335) and fourth-fastest (1:59.525) laps over the two days, with gaps of five and seven tenths of a second from Farfus’s Alfa 156 respectively.

Antonio García was clocked at 1:59.807, the seventh-fastest time, while his BMW Team Italy-Spain team-mate Alessandro Zanardi was 12th fastest (2:00.178). “We are happy with these results,” team manager Roberto Ravaglia said. “Both our drivers have worked very well on setting the cars up.” 2004 FIA ETCC champion Andy Priaulx, struggled on day 1 at the wheel of his BMW Team UK car that was sporting a new and spectacular livery. “I was not particularly good; we were still struggling to find the balance with the new brakes. The new car is a bit different and I need to find the optimum set-up. Monza is all about slipstreaming, and my problem is that I don’t have a team-mate and therefore this is always a difficult track for me.” On day 2 Priaulx improved to nith-fastest 2:00.100, however still 1.3 seconds from Farfus.

SEAT

After having set the fastest times in the previous test sessions at Silverstone and Magny-Cours, SEAT Sport struggled to keep the pace of the BMW and Alfa Romeo cars in Monza.

With a lap in 2:00.163, Jordi Gené emerged as the best SEAT driver and clocked the tenth fastest time over the two days. His team mate Rickard Rydell was only three thousandths of a second slower than him, while SEAT Sport’s new boy, Peter Terting, improved consistently and finally posted a promising 2:00.463.

“We have been very happy with the tests in the last couple of weeks, where we were very competitive. But we know that Monza is a bit tough for us. Here we are about five kilometres slower of the other cars at the end of the straight. We know we have a slight engine disadvantage,” Rydell commented, and his team mate Gené added: “Our priority for both the tests in Monza and Imola is trying out a brand new chassis; therefore we have been focusing on the car´s set-up without striving for fantastic lap times.” SEAT Sport will test again in Italy next week, on Tuesday and Wedenesday at Imola, together with BMW Team Deutschland and BMW Team Italy-Spain.

Chevrolet

Chevrolet Racing continued the development work on the Chevrolet Lacetti on the two-day FIA WTCC testing at Monza. “We still have a long way to go,” said Chevrolet Europe’s Motorsport Manager, Eric Nève. “These two days have clearly shown the strength of the FIA World Touring Car Championship. We are where we expected to be. For a new manufacturer coming into a World Championship against some very experienced competitors there is no point in doing anything else but take a very conservative start.”

On the track, the drivers tried a few laps giving each other a tow in true NASCAR style and finally clocked lap times covered by only half-a-second: 2:03.018 for Alain Menu, 2:03.411 for Robert Huff and 2:03.515 for Nicola Larini.

“Basically, we have had two days in which we amassed as much data as we could,” team manager Mark Busfield explained. “All three cars ran in different specs; they were different on the engine, the brakes, the air intake… We are making good progress on the chassis and brake side, and we’re slowly gaining on the top end speed as well, but we’ll have to wait till we’ve analysed all the data to be able to see where exactly we have made what progress and how to quantify and translate it all to the right corrections or alterations to make for the first race.”

Alain Menu declared: “We are running on schedule. This first year is meant to be our apprenticeship. We will continue working on the car for improving its performances throughout the season. We are aiming to be ready to fight for a few victories in 2006.”

Ford

The Ford Hotfiel Sport team faced the whole FIA WTCC field for the first time during the official testing in Monza. Both drivers, Thomas Klenke and Thomas Jäger, had to clench their teeth at the wheel of their Ford Focus cars. Lap times remained in the 2:04 range: 2:04.574 for Klenke, 2:04.828 for Jäger. “Our car is still brand new,” said Klenke.

“It has good potential and we are improving lap after lap everytime we hit the track. Obviously we were not pleased to be so far off the pace in Monza, but we have to take into consideration that we were still running with a old engine from last season, with a brand new gearbox and with final gear ratios which were too short for Monza. Also the set-up was not the right one, as it suited more a windy circuit like Oschersleben. Altogether then, we were not so bad.

But for us Monza is certainly not the best track where to start the season. Now we have decided to cancel our plan of testing in Imola. Instead we’ll go back home and test again in Oschersleben, which is close to the team’s workshop. This will enable us to make quick changes to the car as soon as the test happens.”