In Barcelona the preparations for the new ...

Published on 06 February 1998 by Verstappen Info Page

In Barcelona the preparations for the new season go on uninteruptedly. Williams, Benetton, Jordan and Minardi were all busy testing at the Spanish Grand Prix track. Frentzen set the quickest time, just ahead of Fisichella. Damon Hill said to be dissapointed no to be up with Frentzen and Fisichella as the team packed up on Thursday. Fisichella was said to be happy with his new Bridgestone tyres. 'The Japanese rubber seems to be more consistent than the Goodyears which appear to lose grip earlier', according to the Benetton driver.

Tyrrell looks back on the four day testsession in good spirits. The team had three primary goals for its first serious testsession with the new 026. First of all Tyrrell wanted to optimize the suspension settings, secondly they wanted to familiarize Takagi with the new car and finally the team wanted to give the car a full Grand Prix distance to check the reliability. When the test ended on Wednesday all aims had been accomplished.
Toranosuke Takagi drove 138 troublefree laps in the 026 this week. Despite the rain in Barcelona the team gained enough data. Tora set his best lap on the first day, even before the team had got a chance to optimize the set-up of the car. The rain played up later but the team is confident that there is much more to come when they can run on a dry track. Tyrrell will be able to prove this next week when the team will return to Barcelona. From Wednesday on will have their final test before the cars are shipped to Australia.
Whether Jos will be present at this test remains to be seen. Verstappen follows the proceedings of the new car with great interest. He declared to be confident about the performance of the car after the tests at Silverstone and Barcelona. Jos expects that the 026 is a giant leap forwards compared to last year's 025.
Huub Rothengatter let us know that he is still working to finalize a deal between Jos and Tyrrell. "Jos and Tyrrell are both looking forward to healthy sporting partnership but the financial situation delays the negotiations. Therefore we are still looking for several extra sponsors", according to the manager of Verstappen who regretted not to have any news for the awaiting fans.