By Phil Huff
March 31 2003

Sauber Petronas started its first three-day season test at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona on Wednesday. Heinz-Harald Frentzen in chassis 05 covered 89 laps to set a best time of 1:19.069. Heinz-Harald Frentzen will continue tomorrow while Nick Heidfeld will take over on Friday. Jacky Eeckelaert, Head of Vehicle Engineering at Sauber Petronas, said "Our test programme for today basically comprised working on tyre data and testing new aerodynamic parts. Already at the Grand Prix in Sepang last week we chose the type of Bridgestone tyres which we will be using in Brazil. Today we made the final check with regard to achieved lap times and wear. While the race team was in Malaysia our engineers back home were making further aerodynamic tests in the wind tunnel.

"Based on the data gathered they developed new parts which we are hoping will bring improvements for us. We started to test those under real race conditions. However, the changing track conditions today had an influence on the test results and we therefore must carefully analyse the data with respect to this. Still we are hoping to make use of the improvements in the aerodynamic set-ups in Brazil already."