By Phil Huff (03/02/2004)
February 3 2004

The first test with the all-new BAR Honda 006 began yesterday in Barcelona. The car had its first shakedown on Saturday afternoon prior to being launched to the world's media on Sunday. Jenson Button drove the BAR Honda 006 on Monday, and will continue to do so on Tuesday and Wednesday with Takuma Sato driving the Concept car on all three days.

Jenson has been undertaking some initial set-up work with the new car. On his fourth run of the day, Jenson ran an evaluation run to compare the new car to the Concept car, and broke the lap record he set himself two weeks ago, by recording a time of 1:13.868 at the revised Barcelona circuit. In total Jenson completed 26 exploratory laps on Monday.

Takuma spent his morning working on car set-up in the Concept car. and also enjoyed a successful day of testing, completing 76 laps. He has been focusing on an intensive Michelin tyre development test. Takuma recorded the third fastest time of the day, with 1:15.602.

Geoffrey Willis, Technical Director at Lucky Strike BAR Honda, reported "Today was the first full day's testing of the BAR Honda 006 and I am happy that the car ran without any problems, and met our expectations in terms of performance. Our running was limited, firstly by poor weather this morning, and then again as we stopped early this afternoon in order to investigate a small concern with the engine.

"This morning, Jenson ran an evaluation lap for comparison with his previous best time at Barcelona, and was able to reduce the unofficial lap record again to 1:13.868. This confirmed our performance predictions, and we then continued with a set-up and tyre programme. Of course, we are still in the middle of testing, and while the car performance is encouraging, the true test with be on Saturday afternoon in Melbourne.

"Takuma has had another very productive day of testing with the Concept car and has continued to work on our main Michelin tyre development programme, which at the moment is our number one priority. He has completed a lot of laps considering our reduced time on track, and is gathering a lot of useful information for the team."