Driving the RB1 in BahrainThe car ran as reliably as a Swiss watch today and in the warm conditions, the engineers sensibly went for the carbon wing rather than the Swiss Chocolate one, even though Switzerland’s Neel Jani was in the cockpit.
Neel who will be Scuderia Toro Rosso’s “Man Friday” in the third car at this year’s Grands Prix was having his first taste of Formula 1 for almost a year. “Until today, I only had a thousand F1 kilometres under my belt, some of it dating back to 2004,” he said. “So today, I was getting used to the speed and the braking power and especially the cornering – at first you think the car can’t go through the turn at that speed, but you have to tell yourself it does…and it does! I really enjoyed myself and look forward to my next test in Imola.”
The technical programme today was aimed mainly at getting Jani used to the car. “We sent him out on track with the set-up we had established over the past two days,” commented Team Principal Franz Tost. “After a while, we started making small changes to the aero settings, the ride height and weight distribution, so that Neel could feel the effect of these changes. He did a good job today.”
Tomorrow is the final day in Bahrain and it will be a tight fit in the car as both race drivers are sharing the cockpit. On second thoughts, we will put them in one at a time: Speed in the morning and Liuzzi in the afternoon.
Bahrain - 15/02/06
1. F. Massa - Ferrari F2004 V10 - 1`30"029 (+0"000) - 92 laps
2. J. Button - Honda RA106 - 1`31"278 (+1"249) - 140 laps
3. R. Barrichello - Honda RA106 -1`31"640 (+1"611) - 102 laps
4. M. Schumacher - Ferrari 248 F1 - 1`32"229 (+2"200) - 37 laps
5. N. Jani - Toro Rosso Cosworth RB1 - 1`33"028 (+2"999) - 76 laps
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