By Huw Alban
January 20 2006

Midland F1 Racing completed their four day private test at Silverstone today with Tiago Monteiro enjoying clear, bright and sunny weather. MidlandF1Online were there to view some of the action... According to the team press release published this evening:

MF1 Racing completed a four-day test at Silverstone running the Toyota-V8 engine along with the 2006 gearbox, electronics and rear suspension package in the interim EJ15b chassis, prior to launching the MF1 Toyota M16 on Feb 03.

Adrian Burgess - Sporting Director
"We have had a very productive week at Silverstone, despite the wintry damp conditions, managing to accumulate over 1200km with Tiago and Christijan. We ran the EJ15b with the V8 engine and introduced our 2006 gearbox, rear suspension package and new electronics components due for the M16. This has given us a good insight to the major parts of the M16 car and the reliability has given us confidence for the package as a whole"

Tiago Monteiro
"It was good to be back in the car after a month off, the team had four days testing which were productive as we were trying a few new parts for the new car. Despite the weather, we were able to test a lot of reliability issues in the rain and luckily the dry. Overall giving us a general idea of the direction we're going. Now I'm looking forward to the launch of the new car early February."

I was very lucky to actually be at the test today for a few hours and viewed Tiago and the team going about the business of testing (article and pictures to follow in a feature pending approval by Midland F1). I won't say too much, but the team looked calm and relaxed, the car looks fantastic, and the technical people I spoke with were both happy and confident with regard to the development work completed this week. I was informed today that the team is now looking forward to some endurance testing when it gets to Jerez in early February.