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This weeks Misano-test thread
Comments
Should be re-written 'I had one or two requests 'two push.......I had to ask the concept of this cos I had'nt done it all season!!!'
???
MISANO ITALY, November 24, 2004 - After to days of concentrated testing the focus of the Minardi team at the Autodromo Santamonica today switched to its F1x2 two-seater program. In the course of the morning and afternoon sessions, drivers Christijan Albers, Patrick Friesacher, Zsolt Baumgartner and Nicolas Kiesa took 45 passengers for high speed, high adrenalin tours of the challenging, 4.060km misano circuit. The majority of the passengers on t is occasion were nominated Minardi technical partner, Bridgestone, plus commercial partners, Superfund and The Global Group. At the conclusion of the day's activities, the hard working two-seaters had covered a combined total of 550 kms, and will now be checked over and re-prepared for there final Misano session, Friday.
Continuing the teams policy of giving talented young drivers a chance to demonstrate there abilities in a formula one car, Dutch DTM star and former European Minardi F3000 driver, Christijan Albers, is scheduled to test a Minardi Cosworth PS04B tomorrow morning, at misano, with promising Venezuelan, Pastor Maldonado, taking over in the afternoon.
ZSOLT BAUMGARTNER
"It's been a great pleasure to be here and to drive the Minardi two-seater once again. I hope the passengers enjoyed it - I had one or two requests 'two push', so I could only oblige. The Misano circuit is very interesting and good fun to drive in a F1x2 car. Also, because these events are a lot more relaxed than a race weekend or a test, you can really enjoy them."
NICOLAS KIESA
"This is my sixth time driving the Minardi two-seaters this year, but it's the first time I’ve driven at Misano, and I have two say, I liked the circuit. There are quit a few corners were you can really accelerate on the exit, and combined with very good grip and traction from the chassis, it gives the passengers an accurate sense of what F1 performance is all about."
RICHARD SAILSBURY, Minardi F1x2 Team
"It has been another successful day for the Minardi F1x2 programme, and once again, it seems a lot of excited and happy individuals have stepped out of the cars at the end of there passenger rides. As usual, the drivers all did an excellent job, and i'd like two thank them for there efforts. We will now start getting the cars ready for Friday, which will mark our penultimate two-seater date this year, the final appearance being at the bologna motor show in 10 day's time."
- Ends -
Minardi Testing Details
Location: Autodromo Santamonica, Misano, Italy
Date: November 24, 2004
Weather: Cold, cloudy with short sunny spells
Air temperature: 11-13 deg C
Track temperature: 12-13 deg C
http://www.s-h-systems.co.uk/a54049.html
Church View guest house guest book:
[Edited on 25/11/2004 by Clown]
More pics from today can be seen here: http://www.f1racing.net/en/gallery.php?catID=1486
TOMS PR: [Edited on 25/11/2004 by Minardus]
+++Homer wants Sergej!+++
[Edited on 25/11/2004 by Bantamtim]
From Faenza
ALBERS AND MALDONADO TEST AT MISANO
MISANO, ITALY, November 25, 2004 – The fourth day of the Minardi team’s week-long test at the Autodromo Santamonica saw the Faenza squad continuing with its driver test and evaluation programme after the Minardi F1x2 cars were in action on the circuit yesterday. Promising young Venezuelan, Pastor Maldonado, was first on the track on Thursday morning and performed impressively, quickly acclimatising to the performance of the Minardi Cosworth PS04B and steadily reducing his lap times until he achieved his fastest lap of 1 min 11.330 secs. Dutch DTM star, Christijan Albers was next up, and as expected, was quickly up to speed, producing laps in the 1 min 11 sec bracket before setting the fastest lap of the day, at 1 min 10.800 secs. Tomorrow, it will be the turn of the Minardi F1x2 cars again at Misano, with Jos Verstappen, Nicolas Kiesa and Zsolt Baumgartner among those scheduled to drive.
PASTOR MALDONADO Best lap: 1 min 11.330 secs Total laps: 22
“I’m really impressed. This is my first time in a Formula One car, and I just didn’t expect such power. This year, I have been driving a much smaller, less powerful car in Formula Renault 2000, and I have also tested an F3000 car, but the F1 car is something completely different. It’s amazing! Personally, I’m very happy to be here today, because F1 has always been my objective, as it is the dream of all racing drivers. I think I did a good job this morning, and I feel satisfied with my work.”
CHRISTIJAN ALBERS Best lap: 1 min 10.800 secs Total laps: 20
“Firstly, I want to thank Paul Stoddart, for giving me the chance to drive the Minardi. I have become accustomed to Touring Cars in the DTM, and it’s good to be back in a Formula One car, although they remain physically demanding to drive – I can feel it in my neck even now! The team worked really well, but as only eight out of the 20 laps I did were flying laps, there was not a lot of set-up time. My main aim this morning was to show the speed I am capable of and what I can do in the car. I know I could have gone quicker, but considering the number of laps, I think the time wasn’t too bad.”
GIAN CARLO MINARDI
“It has been a very productive day. We have seen a young Venezuelan driver, in Pastor Maldonado, who put in a very good performance, especially considering he has made the considerable jump from Formula Renault to Formula One. Albers also put in a very good performance today. Considering how different from one another the drivers are we have had here at Misano, I think it has been a really interesting week. We are also satisfied that all of the drivers who have driven a Minardi here have produced extremely good laps times at a very high level. This means the car is relatively easy to learn and drive. Now we will work with these drivers, and hopefully, one of them will have a future in Formula One.”
- Ends -
Minardi Testing Details
Location: Autodromo Santamonica, Misano, Italy; Date: November 25, 2004
Weather: Cool and sunny with a light breeze
Air temperature: 8-12 deg C
Track temperature: 12-14 deg C
Driver: Pastor Maldonado (VEN) Driver: Christijan Albers (NL)
Chassis allocation: PS04B/04 Chassis allocation: PS04B/04
The kid looked as if he did okay - especially considering he was running against a DTM star.
Hopfully he is starting to think his chances of a F1 drive are starting to run out and is looking at Minardi for a seat.
Montiero and Albers to race, and Maldonado(with his large amounts of Venezuelan oil money) as test and reserve driver.
Maldonado pumped out some pretty impressive lap times considering he's just stepped up from FRenault. Almost half a second better than either of the Will's, I'd say the kid deserves a shot.
Also, good to see TDW relegated to nothing more than 2xseaters. Might make him pull his head in a bit and realise he's not God's gift to F1.
Uniform? I think GCM was in his new uniform - driver manager uniform.
from http://www.huismanracing.nl/ Very good to see that Muermans is still very much on board.
It appears that van Hooydonk has backing from Leaseplan.
if he ends up driving for us, there had best be a clause stating he needs to buy himself a facelift before the launch...
[Edited on 26/11/2004 by FlyingPanda]
Give the kid a longer run in to F1 and make him eternally grateful to Minardi(the team and Gian Carlo), and try to build something that will keep him and his sponsors involved with Minardi for an extended period.
This will help him with his driving career and help bring in some much needed cash to the team, instead of having sponsors comming and going on a regular basis. And in the mean time the team can gain from the cash and hopefully pick up some decent results with Tiggy and Chris behind the wheel.
It's a win - win situation for everybody. :D
I have said before and will continue to do so that we need to get these young guns to sign on to multi year deals so that we have a win win situation.
If they stay and they are good we win - if they choose to leave we sell their contract for $$$ and we win.
Btw, grandprix.com has info about the Van Hooijdonk test:
Changes in the PR dept?
DUTCH TREAT
MISANO, ITALY, November 26, 2004 – The fifth, and final, day of Minardi’s week-long programme at the Autodromo Santamonica had a distinct flavour of the Bas Pays about it. The team’s two-seater F1 cars were back in action for the second time in three days, with Jos Verstappen, Zsolt Baumgartner, Nicolas Kiesa and Robert Doornbos handling the driving duties. In addition, Dutch Porsche racing star, Patrick Huisman, and Belgian F3000 competitor, Jeffrey van Hooydonk, sampled Formula One performance for the first time, both men having brief runs in a Minardi Cosworth PS04B. At the conclusion of the day’s two-seater programme, the F1x2 team had provided a total of 62 guests – nominated by commercial partners, the Muermans Group, Puma and Brevi – with passenger rides around the 4.060-km Misano circuit. This brings the number of passengers carried during the two days to over 100, with the hard-working F1x2 cars having covered a total of 1300 km in that time.
JOS VERSTAPPEN
“After a year away from driving, I really enjoyed getting back in the Minardi F1x2 car, especially as sponsor, Harry Muermans, is here with all his guests. It is always very exciting for the passengers in the back of the two-seaters. It has been an excellent day, and a very good event for the sponsors and Minardi.”
JEFFREY VAN HOOYDONK Best lap: 1 min 15.930 Total laps: 5
“It was really great. I never thought it was going to be so fast on the straight and also that the braking would be so amazing. In the beginning, I found it just a little bit difficult because the throttle was very sensitive and the power was immediately there. I needed a little time to get used to it, but overall, it was really great, even though it was only a few laps. Now I have a real impression of what a Formula One car is all about, and I’m really happy I took this opportunity. I have been racing for 10 years, and now I have finally had the chance to drive an F1 car, I know why I did all this training – you really need every bit of physical and mental preparation to drive a Formula One car. It was like a computer game, only faster!”
PATRICK HUISMAN Best lap: 1 min 20.420 secs Total laps: 6
“It was a fantastic experience. Normally, to get to drive a Formula One car, you race in all the single-seater categories first. For me, this was the first time driving an open-wheel car, so it was something very special. It was both strange and a bit scary initially. The engine was quite easy to get used to, but the braking is very, very impressive, as are the forces in an open car with the wind buffeting your helmet. I took it very easy today and just wanted to enjoy the experience. I think it is probably not so difficult to go four or five seconds quicker, but then to find those last two or three seconds is always the most difficult part in motor racing. I really enjoyed it – it was the best day of my life and I hope maybe I can experience it again in the future. You never know. Finally, I’d like to thank Harry Muermans, for talking with Paul Stoddart and the Minardi team so that I could have a run in the car.”
PAUL STODDART
“The whole team has done a fantastic job all week long to have completed so many runs. Both the Minardi F1 and F1x2 teams have put in serious effort here. Whether it’s the young drivers, who have driven a Formula One car for the first time, or our guests, who have experienced F1 from the passenger seat, you have only to look at their faces as they arrive back at the garage to see what a successful event it has been. It has also been particularly pleasing to see so many smiles from the guests of the Muermans Group, as Harry Muermans has been such a staunch supporter of the Minardi team over the past few years.”
- Ends -
Minardi Testing Details
Location: Autodromo Santamonica, Misano, Italy; Date: November 26, 2004
Weather: Cool and sunny with morning mist followed by scattered clouds,
Air temperature: 9-13 deg C
Track temperature: 10-14 deg C
Driver: Patrick Huisman (NL) Driver: Jeffrey van Hooydonk (BEL)
Chassis allocation: PS04B/02 Chassis allocation: PS04B/02
Distance covered: 24.4 km Distance covered: 20.3 km
I would think that even if he bought in say the Padre and his sponsors to a testing year then race deal in the future and his sponsors stay with us for that time period it would be even better for GCM in the long run. And the team then benefits as well.
MinardiF1 wins, GCM wins, the Padre wins and his sponsors win! Sounds too easy doesn't it.
It would be best to get a long term deal for sure but with the way Minardi has been rolling drivers thru the machine and the lack of results for the past few years the short term maybe the only deals they can get - even with potential one shot and yer gone types.
I think PS ought to rethink the relationship he has with the MAN as he is running out of time.