16/07/2004

Jerez Test Round-Up

Dates: 13-16 July 2004
Location: Circuito Permanente de Jerez Jerez de la Frontera Spain
Drivers: Cristiano da Matta (13-14) Olivier Panis (15) Ricardo Zonta (13-16)
Track Length: 4.428km

Ricardo Zonta
Total laps: 350
Best Lap Time: 1m17.856s
Chassis: TF104/06
"The TF104B car will race for the first time at next week's German Grand Prix but I've been working on the standard TF104 during this test at Jerez. Tuesday was a very good day - we completed all the electronic tests we had planned we were on the pace and my lap times were consistent without any mistakes. It's nice to have tests like that when everything works well and there's no sitting around because of problems with the car. On Wednesday I compared shock absorbers before moving on to tyre tests for the rest of the week. We now head to Hockenheim and as a team we are very optimistic about the TF104B. We need something to produce results and we hope that is exactly what we're going to have."

Olivier Panis
Total laps: 81
Best Lap Time: 1m18.678s
Chassis: TF104/09B
"I was only here in Jerez on Thursday. But it gave me a chance to try out the monocoque of the TF104B which we will race for the first time at next week's German Grand Prix. We will only have the full aerodynamic package available in Hockenheim so we can't make any predictions yet. It was also difficult to maintain the flow of the day here because we had gearbox and electrical problems. Nevertheless we carried out a tyre test for Hockenheim and we achieved 81 laps which was a lot considering the problems we were faced with. So the guys did a good job to keep the car on the track as much as possible and we ended up completing the programme we set out to do."

Cristiano da Matta
Total laps: 106
Best Lap Time: 1m19.218s
Chassis: TF104/09B
"This test gave us our first chance to try out the new chassis for the TF104B. We have high hopes for the updated car but it's impossible to assess its performance yet. The new aerodynamic package is going straight to Hockenheim and we won't be able to test that until the race weekend itself. But at least we've given the monocoque a shakedown to get through some of the small problems now. I missed quite a bit of running on both days with electrical glitches but any time a new car goes onto the track for the first time we need to see if something unexpected comes up and find out how to fix it. We did some work on suspension and we also put in a tyre test both for Hockenheim and the Hungaroring as there is no testing between the two races."