By Huw Alban
February 13 2006

Midland F1 Racing are staying in the sunnier and warmer climes of Valencia this week continuing their programme of development on the M16 car. Both James Key, and now Tiago Monteiro have admitted that there are early problems with the teams’ new creation. First to go on record was James Key, Technical Director, admitting last week that the team had identified a performance issue with the car. James backed up his statement by admitting that the team did have a solution to the problem, and no doubt this solution will get some track time this week.

In today’s issue of the Portuguese Autosport, Tiago Monteiro has gone a little farther in explaining just what the issue is (and thanks to CRX and zha for providing and helping with the translation).

"We have to learn to work with this chassis, as the suspension is a lot different from the EJ15B," Tiago was quoted as saying by the magazine.

"The M16 is very nervous when braking and that is still giving us some problems because we lose speed as we enter the curbs. But we noticed more aerodynamic drag as we seem to have much more grip, and it reflects on the lap times."

The team are due to test at Valencia from the 14th to the 17th of February before moving on to Barcelona for a three day test next week.