Ferrari finaly in form

After finishing at the bottom of the time sheets all week, Ferrari driver's Barichello and Schumacher ended testing today at Barcelona in 3rd and 4th place respectively. The timesheets were topped again however by the McLaren of Pedro de la Rosa with a 1m14.542s.

Thursday testing times from Barcelona

1 DE LA ROSA McLaren 1m14.542s

2 FISICHELLA Renault 1m14.608s

3 BARRICHELLO Ferrari 1m14.641s

4 SCHUMACHER Ferrari 1m14.920s

5 KLIEN Red Bull 1m14.982s

6 ALONSO Renault 1m15.021s

7 COULTHARD Red Bull 1m15.094s

8 HEIDFELD Williams 1m15.578s

9 LIUZZI Red Bull 1m15.656s

10 PIZZONIA Williams 1m15.794s

11 SCHUMACHER Toyota 1m16.281s

12 KARTHIKEYAN Jordan 1m17.589s

13 MONTEIRO Jordan 1m18.372s

Minardi my be Banned from first 3 Races

Minardi have for a long time planned on using their 2004-spec car in the first 3 races of the 2005 season. Due to their extremely low budget, their were unable to run an interim car. Becuase of regulation changes over the winter however their car will be technically illegal. According to FIA president Max Mosely, Minardi would be able to run their 2004-spec car if they were able to attain unanimous support from the other 9 teams. As of now they have the approval of all the other teams except Farrari. Despite the reduction in allowed downforce for the 2005 regulations the new Ferrari F2004-M will still be faster than Minardi's 2004 car. Paul Stoddart, Minardi's team principle, has threatened to take legal if they are not allowed to race. According the him there were some errors in they way the new regulations were enacted.

New Track in Istanbul Coming Along Nicely 

Kimi testing the new MP4-20 at Valencia 

Winter Testing Shed's some Light

After a full week of testing by all the major teams at Barcelona and Valencia an idea of the 2005 season has begun to take shape. Kimi Raikonnen set the bar at Valencia on thursday setting a low 1:09. Michael Schumacher was the closest to Kimi's time, however only managed a full second slower in a 2004-spec car. The BAR Honda's have had some reliability problems, and have seen several engines blow, while the Toyota's are worried about the amout of wear on their rear tires. Sauber have admitted some concern over their new chassis, claiming unexplainably slow times at Valencia, an aerodynamically demanding course. They say these deficiencies did not show up at Barcelona, a fast sweeping track that does not rely on downforce as much.

Driver Line-ups taking shape

With all but one race seat filled the 2005 driver line-up has finally taken shape with several surprises. The buy-out of Jordan Racing by Russian conglomerate Midland Group, lead by Alex Schnaider, saw the appointment of two rookie F1 drivers. Both have connections with Midland's newly appointed racing director Trevor Carlin. Narain Karthikeyan will become the first Indian driver ever to race in Formula 1 and has been described as "super-quick, sometimes a little bit raw and wild in his style, but a proven race winner." Tiago Monteiro was signed to the second seat and will become the first Portuguse driver in a decade.