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GP2 Features & Interviews (2006)
GP2 Feature - The Mid-Season Tests
06/07/2006
GP2’s mid-season test traditionally acts as a springboard to better things. It’s the first time since the start of the season that the teams have been able to run their cars outside a race weekend; it’s an opportunity for engineers to experiment with car set-up and drivers with their techniques.
Last year, ART Grand Prix used it to make progress with car set-up and eventual champion Nico Rosberg – who had yet to win a race at that stage in the season – never looked back.
ART need no such breakthroughs this year. Already, they have twice as many championship points as their nearest challengers and Lewis Hamilton has a comfortable lead in the driver standings.
For Racing Engineering, however, the test was a welcome chance to improve the handling of their Dallara-Renaults. The Spanish squad have had a disappointing season by their standards and, despite hiring proven race winner Adam Carroll over the winter, they’ve scored points in only two rounds this year.
“We haven’t had the best of years so far,” says Carroll, “but we’re getting there. The last race at Silverstone was better and we made progress at the Paul Ricard test. I’m really happy with the work that the boys and I have done and I think you’ll see the improvements we found in the next races.”
Carroll ended the two-day Paul Ricard test in 10th place, 0.5s behind pacesetter Jose Maria Lopez and 0.1s ahead of race winner Hamilton. Carroll’s teammate, Javier Villa, was 23rd, 1.3s shy of Lopez.
“We weren’t looking for a quick time when we arrived at the circuit,” says team boss Alfonso de Orleans Borbon. “We were here to work and we spent a lot of time analysing everything. We tried set-ups that we plan to use for the rest of the season and we made a lot of progress. We cannot wait to get to the next race at Magny Cours.”
Carroll finished fourth and sixth in the two Magny Cours races last year, when driving for Super Nova, and he’s hungry for similar results this time around.
“We’re getting better with every race,” he says. “My aim is to stand on the top step of the podium as soon as possible.”
Racing Engineering lies sixth in the team standings, all of their points having been scored by Carroll at the Nurburgring and Silverstone. Carroll lies seventh overall in the drivers’ standings with 21 points.
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