| | FIORANO, Italy -- Former world champion Michael Schumacher tested Ferrari's new Formula One car for the first time on Wednesday -- in the dark.
Schumacher completed just four laps of Ferrari's Fiorano circuit in the F1-2000 car shortly after 6:00 p.m. His team did not release his times.
"It's very important for us to have been able to do these four laps before the start of regular training tomorrow," the German said. "There were no problems with the car. The only thing that bothered me was the wind coming in under my helmet.
"I would have liked to have pushed a bit harder but the lack of light didn't allow me to," Schumacher said at the end of a day given over almost entirely to tests by his teammate Rubens Barrichello.
The Brazilian completed 40 laps, recording a best time of 1 minute, 05.989 seconds.
In other tests, further heavy rain at South Africa's Kyalami track limited the number of laps completed by the BAR and Williams teams on Wednesday.
Williams was able to give British newcomer Jenson Button a taste of the car in the wet. He did 39 laps and was faster than former champion Jacques Villenueve in the morning with a time of 1:37.595 compared to the Canadian's 1:37.816.
Dutchman Jos Verstappen, the new signing for Arrows, was quicker than the Jordan, Benetton and Prost drivers in tests in Barcelona although the times mean little with teams trying out different aspects of the cars. | |
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