By role
February 5 2004

Renault F1 driver Fernando Alonso is heavily testing the R24 car at Barcelona this week. On its second day of testing this week Alonso was able to lead the times with a 1.14.670. Alonso was running a race distance simulation on the morning to later on continue with front tyre testing and set-ups for the new car.

Alonso's best time during the race simulation was a 1.16.812 on lap 52 of 79 laps that he did during the simulation.

Later on in the afternoon Alonso was able to set the best time of 1.14.670 more than 2 seconds faster that his time earlier on the day.

Alonso was happy with the results so far of his car:

“We had another good day. I am feeling more and more confident in the car, and it is gradually becoming much better to drive. It was encouraging to once again complete a race distance without any problems this morning. There is still room to improve, but we are definitely moving in the right direction.”

The time was faster by just 1/1000 of a second to Ralf Schumacher who set a best time of 1.14.671 after 49 laps. Jenso Button finished 3rd with a best time of 1.14.703 after 115 laps.

Franck Montagny was also testing with the R23B. He set the 6th best time with a time of 1.15.290 after 85 laps.

Pat Symonds was very pleased with the results of the tests and with the performance of the two drivers present yesterday at Barcelona:

“The R24 ran nearly faultlessly today, and we were extremely pleased with the results. Fernando set his fastest time during this afternoon’s tyre test, but we were once again very encouraged by his consistency on longer runs. Franck also had a productive day, and tested tyre compounds that merit further investigation tomorrow.”