By Ian Lockwood
December 4 2005

Having signed as Red Bull Racings Test & Reserve driver, Doornbos was put straight to work at Barcelona. Robert enjoyed a fine first couple of days behind the wheel of a Red Bull Racing car at the Circuit the Catalunya.

Day One - 29th November 2005

At the 4,727 kilometer long track near Barcelona, Robert drove 53 laps in total in which he mainly focussed himself on the development of the new restricted Cosworth V10 engine.

Though most teams and drivers started the day enthusiastic at 09:00h, the track temperature appeared to be too low to keep going.

ROBERT DOORNBOS: “This morning I woke up really early, as I was very eager to start testing in the RB1. Though the sky was clear and blue, the temperature was only 01 degree celsius. Therefore the track temperature was too low to do some serious runs. When I exited the pitbox my tyres were warmed up to 90 degrees celsius, but as soon as I entered the first corner they had fallen back to only 50 degrees.”

Therefore the real action at the Spanish circuit started somewhat later, around 11:00h. Robert drove a new restricted Cosworth V10 powered car, whereas Christian Klien had a ‘regular’ V10 at his disposal.

ROBERT DOORNBOS: “You feel the differences right away. Some of the corners where I had to lift last year, could now easily be done flat out. As the engine requires a different driving style, I concentrated myself on this subject in the morning session. After a while things started to get more automatically though.”

As the morning session progressed, Robert started to get quite busy working through his programme for today. In the first few hours the team mainly focussed on the development of the Cosworth engine in which the data and the output of both drivers were very important. Over the lunch Robert drove a first ‘baseline run’, so he could have a real first impression of his new machinery. After that Robert completed his programm in the final three hours of testing before the circuit closed at 17:00h.

ROBERT DOORNBOS: “The car feels really good. It handles smooth and easy, so that’s nice. Next to that I was impressed by the software. My first acquintance with Michelin also just worked out very well!” 

“I’m happy with the work done today. I’ve seen and learned a lot allready, and look forward to tomorrow. Testing for Red Bull Racing is definitely the best thing I could possible wish for, and therefore I’m happy to be part of the ‘Red Bull family’ now. I hope everyone in The Netherlands are just as excited as I am!”

Day Two - 1st December 2005

At his second day of testing for Red Bull Racing, Robert Doornbos drove 112(!) laps at the 4,727 kilometer Circuito de Catalunya today. Under sunny but cold conditions, the 24-year old Dutchman succesfully completed his busy programme for this week at the Grand Prix circuit near Barcelona.

While his teammate David Coulthard mainly focussed himself on evaluating different compounds of Michelin tyres and set-up work for the RB1. It was Robert’s task to further develop the software today among others. Equiped with a restricted Cosworth V10 engine, Robert started his day with testing brakes before switching his attention to the software related subjects.

After the lunch, Robert practised some starts in order to finetune these settings and mainly focussed himself on engine braking and gearshifts. Over the course of the day Robert drove around nine long runs of 10-12 laps each in which he only used two sets of Michelin tyres. To supply the team with usefull information on all subjects it was more important to show a constant performance in stead of clocking fast laptimes today.

ROBERT DOORNBOS: “I’ve never driven so many laps at one day in my F1 carreer as I did today! It proved to be a positive day for the team as we were able to fully complete our programme. I ran a basic set-up the entire day in order to gather as much information as possible under similar circumstances. My tests in the upcoming months will also be aimed at development work rather than just setting fast laptimes. This ofcourse to reach the desired level of competitiveness before we travel to Bahrain!” 

Next week, Red Bull Racing will continue its testing activities in Spain. At Jerez de la Frontera RBR has scheduled a three-day test with one RB1 car. Whom of the drivers will come into action at which day(s) will be decided later this week. The new, Ferrari V8 powered, RB2 will have its circuit debut in the hands of David Coulthard at Silverstone on 16th December.

Source: www.robertdoornbos.com