Lassee in an EJ11.

Jordan today, Tuesday, began a four day test at the Circuit de Catalunya with Takuma Sato on duty to further refine the performance of the new EJ12. The Irish team are also giving a first drive in an F1 car to the up-and-coming German 19 year old Marcel Lasée.

Sato completed 46 laps in the EJ12, executing systems checks and general set-up work and Lasée ran the EJ11 for 44 laps, familiarising himself with the car and carrying out some set-up work for the team. Halfway through the session the team changed the front and rear suspension geometry on Lasée’s car.

Commenting on his first drive in a Formula One car, Lasée said, “It was my first time so obviously this is a new world to me and it was quite strange, but everything went OK. The power, brakes and downforce are just unbelievable and it was exciting to be driving on the circuit at the same time as Michael and Ralf Schumacher. I am a little tired as it’s more physically demanding than usual for me, especially on the neck, however I’m looking forward to tomorrow when I’m hoping I can go a bit quicker.”

Takuma Sato said, “Today was really just to get comfortable in the new car with proper test conditions, after my first drive in the EJ12 at the shakedown last week, and we did that successfully. I’m excited about the new car and doing more familiarisation and development in the next few weeks.” Despite these positive comments, word from the circuit is that Takuma had major problems with his seat in the EJ12 and was in great discomfort for much of the day. Revised parts are supposed to be on the way from the factory to help solve this problem.

Head of Race and Test Engineering, Gary Anderson, said, “We did some oil system work on the new car accomplished all we set out to achieve today, although we’ve still got a lot of work to do over the remaining three days of the test. Marcel did a good job, he’s a quick learner and seems very competent.”

Takuma Sato and Marcel Lasée will continue testing tomorrow and will be joined in the afternoon by Giancarlo Fisichella.