By Huw Alban
June 14 2006

Today dawned bright and sunny and by lunchtime the sun cream was being applied again. It must have been a curse, as the rain clouds rolled in and played their part on day 1 of the latest Silverstone test.

It was quite bizarre. Only a day ago I was here at Silverstone watching round 8 of the Formula One World Championship, and here I am again and my word is the atmosphere different?

It's still busy, but this time it's busy with workmen pulling apart hospitality units and grandstands. The paddock was desolate - all of the team trucks and special accommodations had been removed, and there were lorries and pieces of prefab buildings everywhere. A far cry from the ordered, peaceful, and squeaky clean appearance of the Grand Prix paddock that I had the pleasure of viewing on Friday.

Surprisingly Midland F1 were the only team here at this the first day of the three day test. Rumour has it that the rest of the F1 pack are heading off to Monza for three days before packing up and making the flight to Canada. Seems daft really since everyone was here with their personnel and equipment anyway, and the weather forecast was for good weather in Northamptonshire this week.

Fabrizio del Monte was already in the car, and had already completed an installation lap by the time I arrived at the circuit. Oh, the joy and freedom to be able to drive around the circuit access roads again; what bliss! The team are only running one car for the three days with Fabrizio and Tiago Monteiro sharing the driving duties today.

After the team had checked the car over, Fabrizio set off on what was supposed to be a 3 timed lap run. On his out lap the engine noise suddenly died, and I overheard on the circuit marshal's radio that he was stopped in the middle of Club corner. Oliver Knighton was desperately trying to speak to Fabrizio on the team radio system, but there was no reply. The team mechanics speculated at the time that the car must have shut down.
Fabrizio returned to the garage and shrugged his shoulders at Oliver. According to him engine power just suddenly died away leaving him coasting. Once the car had returned to the garage the team diagnosed the problem to a loose connection on the cut-off switch in the cockpit. This switch apparently has three positions, on, off, and extinguisher. When the car stops the switch must be put into off to prevent the sensitive electronics from overheating.

The connection was strapped up for now, but I did note that the lunchtime break had already been reserved to tidy up the wiring loom underneath the drivers seat.

As Fabrizio prepared for his next run, Oliver was crouched down next to the driver (who was sat in the car) and explained in some detail the procedure he wanted followed with regard to him changing from first to second. I noticed that throughout the morning Oliver had to re-explain this procedure to the Italian driver.

Fabrizio's next run was a 6 timed lap run, which he cut short unexpectedly. I don't know why this happened, but did observe Oliver asking Fabrizio a lot of questions about the brakes.

The next 10 timed lap run passed without incident. Overall I felt that Fabrizio was being very cautious throughout this run, whether it was due to inexperience or because the particular test programme required it remains to be seen. One thing that was clear was that he was being assessed today for his Super Licence, the talk being that he is due in the third seat for the Hungarian Grand Prix. An MSA steward was in constant attendance outside the Midland F1 garage watching everything that was going on.

At 12:00 midday Fabrizio put in another run, and appeared to be a lot more confident with the car. After 4 timed laps he suddenly slowed and completed 3 deliberately slow laps before pitting.

Half an hour later he was back out again and completed a normal three lap run. This time through Maggotts and Becketts he looked to be pushing quite hard and it was the first time today that I was aware of him actually trying to put in a decent time. After that he then went about a slow and deliberate 6 lap run where he hardly pushed at all. I was stood on the outside of Copse corner and watching him shoot up the start/finish straight and around Copse and then really slow down to do an almost constant speed for the rest of the lap.

This concluded his morning in the car, and after lunch Tiago Monterio was suited up and stood in the garage in deep conversation with Oliver.

It appeared to take a long time to get the car ready for the Portuguese driver, but the teams guests didn't mind. Tiago posed with them and alongside an EJ15B in MF1 colours, signed loads of caps and magazines, and gave a long in-depth explanation of the M16 steering wheel. It was quite fascinating hearing him talk about the difference between long and short traction control, engine and differential settings, and how these things can be altered. He also described how the switches that are used to change these things are done more by feel than by sight. He explained that there is so much vibration that it is impossible to see the little numbers on the switches anyway. The way that he does it is to make an alteration whilst keeping his eyes on the track, and only glance down for a split second at the steering wheel display to check that he's made the right one. He also mentioned that during the course of a race distance he would be making adjustments every couple of laps to compensate for tyre wear and the fuel load burning off. Driving an F1 car isn't simply about your left foot and a steering wheel. Really interesting stuff.

As the team neared completing the preparation of the car the skies clouded over and a few spots of rain started to fall. This didn't prevent Tiago from putting in 3 timed laps, but the team were looking anxiously at the sky the whole time.

Tiago put in one more 3 time lap run, again whilst spots on rain were falling, and when he returned to the garage there was a real urgency in the team to get on fresh tyres and send him out again before the weather deteriorated any further. Unfortunately those grey clouds had other ideas and heavy rain fell for about 40 minutes.

I spent those 40 minutes learning some useful facts. Did you know that Midland F1 prepare and have ready 16 full sets of tyres per car per day of the test? Did you also know that the tyre warmers could be used to boil a kettle if you wanted? Also, I was astounded to discover that in the course of a normal tyre test each compound is only used for 3 full timed laps, before the next type is bolted on and compared.

Also, those low speed runs being done by Fabrizio in the morning session were tests conducted at a constant speed. Of course the team wouldn't tell me exactly what was being tested, but at least now we know why he was driving like that. Interesting what you can learn when it rains.

I took firstly to Stowe and lastly Club corner to view Tiago's last 5 laps of the day. I had asked whether the team would run in the rain and was told that if the weather was persistently wet then the team would do some wet weather work. As it happens it did stop, and after a short wait to let the worst of it run off Tiago put in two short runs to finish off the day.

I'm back here tomorrow to see Tiago, and Giorgio Mondini put in some miles on the M16 and hopefully the weather will hold better for us.

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