FEBRUARY 16, 2005

Alonso in the spotlight

Fernando Alonso set the fastest time in testing yesterday in Barcelona, outrunning Juan Pablo Montoya by 0.236s, while the McLaren driver was just a tenth ahead of the Toyota of Ricardo Zonta, indicating that perhaps the Toyota is not as bad a car as some of the stories that have been circulating are suggesting. What was interesting in the test was that the Williams-BMWs were nowhere near the pace and while this may be an indication that the team was not going for times, there has been little evidence since the start of testing that the new FW27 is right on the pace. Having said that Ferrari to has not been setting any major times and so we must wait until the cars get to Melbourne to see just how the relative competitiveness of the cars actually is. The two Jordan-Toyotas ran in Barcelona but were a long way from the pace and that will no doubt add to Minardi's hopes of beating the team.