By role
January 23 2004

Spanish Driver Fernando Alonso took the wheel of the Renault R24 for the first time yesterday. Alonso finished 3rd on the trime sheets showing a good pace on only the third day of testing after the tarmac baptism on Tuesday. The key for a new car is to show speed right out of the box letting the team time to sort out the set-up characteristics in order to increase pace and improve driveability.

In many cases, innovative designs mean that the cars need a while of dialing in befiore they show a competitive pace.

This is what seemed like when Jarno Trulli finished 10th on Wednesday after two days of working with the new car.

However, doubts have lowered after Fernando ALonso was able to post a time of 1.15.525 yesterday at the Spanish Track of Barcelona.

Alonso's time was almost one second shy of the best time set by Jenson Button and one tenth of a second slower than the Ferrari F-2003-GA of Michael Schumacher.

Alonso completed 102 laps, 473 kilometers, as he conducted a race simulation in the morning without any major problems.

At the wheel of the R23B was test driver Franck Montagny who did a total of 131 laps, 607 kilometers, to set a best time of 1.17.444.

Executive Director of Engineering, Pat Symonds, was sattisfied with the fact the R24 was able to complete a race distance without any problem:

"This morning, the R24 completed its first race distance, running a simulated two-stop race. To achieve this so early with a brand new car is very encouraging, and demonstrates our commitment to ensuring reliability is at the top of our agenda this year, in order to exploit the potential we believe this package possesses."