1989 February 6 @ 12 - F1 testing @ Jerez

Описание: Ayrton Senna smashed the Jerez lap record last Sunday afternoon, using Goodyear qualifying tyres and an improved Honda V10 engine to carve 3secs off his 1988 turbocharged pole time.
Until that point, the Jerez test, which was planned to be the major Goodyear test of the winter, was badly affected by rain.
Five teams arrived to begin work on Monday (6), these being McLaren, Benetton, Williams, March and Ferrari. The weather, however, caused problems, with much of Tuesday, Thursday and Friday being disrupted.
Honda had its new RA109E engine on hand for Alain Prost to try and when the Frenchman departed Jerez on Wednesday evening he had set the fastest time at 1m23.0s, well under Ayrton Senna’s pole time at last year’s Spanish GP.
The Frenchman’s time was set on race rubber, and Prost was not particularly happy with the balance of his car, which was laden with logging equipment and somewhat overweight.
Ayrton Senna took over the work on Thursday morning, but then rain interrupted until the weekend. The car handled well on race tyres, but was rather more unpredictable on qualifiers, and Senna waited until the very end of the test on Sunday before setting his stunning time.
In addition to the engine and tyre work, the McLaren team was also testing a variety of different Shell fuels.
Benetton was busy with three chassis, for both Alessandro Nannini and Johnny Herbert. The Italian concentrated on the old B188 while Herbert continued to add up the miles as he tried the ‘active’ Benetton. The system continues to improve with each outing, but Johnny still found himself stranded out on the circuit on several occasions. The team had all-but completed its planned programme by Thursday lunchtime and when the rains did not clear, the team packed up on Friday.
March had both Ivan Capelli and Mauricio Gugelmin on hand for most of the test and the duo concentrated on tyre work, there being little new on the 881s, one of which featured higher profile sidepods.
At the weekend both Gugelmin and Capelli were given qualifiers to try, Capelli recording a 1m22.8s before departing at midday on Saturday, while Gugelmin recorded a 1m22.2s lap on Sunday morning.
Williams continued its work for Renault with the FW12RC (R for Renault and C for the bodywork modifications). Riccardo patrese was present early in the week with Thierry Boutsen taking over on Thursday as the rains began. Both drivers recorded similar times, while the Renault engineers continued their development programme on the new V10. A race distance run was planned for Saturday, but a gearbox oil leak put paid to that and the team packed up.
Ferrari had left on Friday, having a miserable time with the new 640. Electronic difficulties saw Berger’s plane despatched to Italy to collect new parts, and, although the Austrian reported that both chassis and the engine were better than the 639, the weather and a variety of small problems kept him and Mansell from setting any competitive times. Mansell suffered a couple of spins and a small oil line fire early in the week.
(From: Autosport, 16 February 1989)

(Time for each day from: 1989 Autosprint no.7, 14 February)
Monday 6
1. Alessandro Nannini – Benetton-Ford – 1m23.47
2. Gerhard Berger – Ferrari – 1m24.22
3. Alain Prost – McLaren-Honda – 1m24.48
4. Nigel Mansell – Ferrari – 1m25.78
5. Ivan Capelli – March Judd – 1m26.31
6. Johnny Herbert – Benetton-Ford – 1m28.36
7. Mauricio Gugelmin – March-Judd – 1m31.47

Tuesday 7
1. Alain Prost – McLaren-Honda – 1m26.20
2. Nigel Mansell – Ferrari – 1m28.60
3. Mauricio Gugelmin – March-Judd – 1m31.68
4. Gerhard Berger – Ferrari – 1m32.59
5. Johnny Herbert – Benetton-Ford – 1m36.30
6. Alessandro Nannini – Benetton-Ford – 1m38.30
7. Riccardo Patrese – Williams-Renault – 1m39.10

Wednesday 8
1. Alain Prost – McLaren-Honda – 1m23.01
2. Alessandro Nannini – Benetton-Ford – 1m23.06
3. Riccardo Patrese – Williams-Renault – 1m23.11
4. Nigel Mansell – Ferrari – 1m23.82
5. Gerhard Berger – Ferrari – 1m24.50
6. Mauricio Gugelmin – March-Judd – 1m24.88
7. Ivan Capelli – March-Judd – 1m24.94
8. Johnny Herbert – Benetton-Ford – 1m26.75

Thursday 9
1. Ayrton Senna – McLaren-Honda – 1m23.34
2. Gerhard Berger – Ferrari – 1m23.58
3. Mauricio Gugelmin – March-Judd – 1m23.90
4. Thierry Boutsen – Williams-Renault – 1m23.94
5. Nigel Mansell – Ferrari – 1m24.10
6. Ivan Capelli – March-Judd – 1m24.20
7. Alessandro Nannini – Benetton-Ford – 1m24.73

Saturday 11
1. Ivan Capelli – March-Judd – 1m22.80
2. Ayrton Senna – McLaren-Honda – 1m23.80
3. Mauricio Gugelmin – March-Judd – 1m24.60
4. Thierry Boutsen – Williams-Renault – 1m28.02

Sunday 12
1. Ayrton Senna – McLaren-Honda – 1m21.14
2. Mauricio Gugelmin – March-Judd – 1m22.20

#f1 #f1testing #retrof1