But Hanspeter Brack claimed there was nothing sinister about the team's decision. "The objective of our test in Barcelona is to evaluate new aerodynamic components," Brack told Pitpass.com. "Our times were so slow and inconsistent on Wednesday, that the engineers are not certain about the cause. It was therefore decided to continue the test with Felipe Massa in order to have another reference."

Villeneuve was probably breathing a bit of a sigh of relief by the end of the day though, as Felipe Massa's best time was not much better than his own. Villeneuve had been 3.702 seconds behind the leading McLaren Mercedes of Pedro de la Rosa yesterday. Massa drove 83 laps in chassis C24-05 but could only come as close as 3.390 seconds of today's leading car, the BAR Honda of Jenson Button.

While Villeneuve may take some comfort in knowing that the problem seems to lie in the C24 instead of himself, the team as a whole has clearly got a long road ahead of them to get the C24 competitive. Their development and testing budget are limited compared to their richer rivals, but that hasn't stopped the small Swiss squad from staying optimistic.

"In the morning we first adapted the car's set-up to Felipe's driving style," said race engineer Giampaolo Dall'Ara. "We then mainly concentrated on evaluating mechanical development parts as well as new aerodynamic components. At the end of the test day we did a long-run with decent pace as part of our race preparation. Overall, we could feel an improvement today, but still need more understanding to meet our goals."

With rain in the forecast, Felipe Massa will finish the week's test tomorrow. There appears to be an upcoming test at Fiorano but we do not have dates or a confirmation on that just yet. Fiorano is Ferrari's private test track and we had previously understood that SAUBER's switch to Michelin this year would prevent them from testing there. We will clarify this situation as soon as information becomes available.

For full 2005 pre-season test results click here.

P	Driver	Team	Engine	Car	Tyre	Best Lap	Gap
1	Button	BAR	Honda	BAR007	M	1:13.552	-:--.---
2	Trulli	Toyota	Toyota	TF105	M	1:14.231	0.679
3	Sato	BAR	Honda	BAR007	M	1:14.247	0.695
4	Wurz	McLaren	Mercedes	MP4/20	M	1:14.391	0.839
5	Barrichello	McLaren	Mercedes	MP4/20	M	1:14.645	1.093
6	Alonso	Renault	Renault	R25	M	1:14.670	1.118
7	Badoer	Ferrari	Ferrari	F2005	B	1:14.761	1.209
8	Zonta	Toyota	Toyota	TF105	M	1:14.826	1.274
9	Raikkonen	McLaren	Mercedes	MP4/20	M	1:14.929	1.377
10	Heidfeld	Williams	BMW	FW27	M	1:14.932	1.380
11	Coulthard	Red Bull	Cosworth	RB1	M	1:14.957	1.405
12	Fisichella	Renault	Renault	R25	M	1:15.018	1.466
13	Pizzonia	Williams	BMW	FW27	M	1:15.141	1.589
14	Webber	Williams	BMW	FW27	M	1:16.050	2.498
15	Massa	SAUBER	PETRONAS	C24	M	1:16.942	3.390
16	Bernoldi	BAR	Honda	BAR007	M	1:17.243	3.691

View a Printer Friendly version of this Story.

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon

SPORTNETWORK SPECIALS

• Think you know your sport? Click here to try the Sportnetwork Prize Quizzes

Sauber F1 Poll