Sato tests.

Following an early morning familiarisation lap of the circuit in a road car, Sato, alongside team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella, drove the team’s 2001 car, the EJ11, pending the launch of Jordan’s 2002 challenger, the EJ12. No date has yet been set for the launch.

The morning session was completed with the Catalunya track in differing states of dampness so times were not worth much in terms in time but Sato completed 25 laps in the first one and a half hours of the track being open, working on car and track familiarisation and driver comfort fine-tuning.
Teammate, Fisichella, also had a trouble-free morning, completing 28 laps.

After lunch the weather was more helpful, it was dry for much of the session before the heavens opened up, drenching the circuit once again, just before five o'clock. Both drivers completed the majority of their 65 trouble-free laps each on intermediate tyres, although a dry line appeared for a short while during the afternoon which enabled them to run on grooved tyres.
Nevertheless, both Jordan drivers had the opportunity to get good mileage under their belt, completing over 60 laps each. Fisichella, in his first test since moving from the Renault team, finished the day in 4th place, just ahead of Jarno Trulli, who made the move in the opposite direction.
Takuma Sato, working on traction control and control systems familiarisation in the afternooon, will be pleased with his first day at the wheel of the EJ11, finishing just behind the much more experienced Olivier Panis in his Honda powered BAR.

The Japanese driver was glad to be out on the track after the wait for the testing ban to end.“It’s great to be back testing in a Formula One car and also spend time getting to know the team at Jordan and Honda," he said. "They are all very professional and I’m looking forward to becoming more involved in the team atmosphere. I’ve had quite a productive morning so far and have just got out the car for a few minutes while we change some elements of the set-up.

"Due to the changeable track conditions it has been hard to work through the testing programme today, but I was still able to benefit from the day’s running by concentrating on familiarising myself with the car and its control systems. These next few weeks of testing are very important to me and I’m excited to be at Jordan and working alongside Giancarlo, and very much looking forward to my debut Grand Prix in Australia.”

Giancarlo was happy to be back amongst all the friends he made during his drive with the team in 1997. "I’ve had good day overall and it feels great to be back in a car after having the last two months away from the track. I am really happy as well to be back at Jordan and being with the team today has been just like coming home.

"Everybody is really friendly and I know a lot of the mechanics as they were with Jordan in 1997 when I last raced for the team. I’ve spent the day familiarising myself with the car and I am quite impressed with the EJ11 and the Honda engine. I’m looking forward to the next few days of testing and feel very optimistic for this year ahead.”

Another person to return to Jordan during the offseason was ex-Technical Director, Gary Anderson. Gary is now in charge of the test and race teams so was happy that his drivers got the experience of the EJ11 in both dry and wet conditions. "Both drivers really spent the day getting used to working with everybody in the team and familiarising themselves with the car and the engine. Track conditions in the morning were quite damp so we ran with wet set-up in the morning and dry set-up in the afternoon. During the day we made a few standard car set-up changes to enable the drivers to feel the differences and we’re happy with the day’s work. Takuma drove well within his limit and his confidence grew quickly during the day, and both he and Giancarlo are happy with their cars and adapted with ease to the team. Hopefully the weather will be more consistent tomorrow and enable us to make further progress with the testing programme.”

It was not such a good day for the 2002 cars. The 3 newly launched cars on the circuit had a bad day, all finishing to the back of the timesheets.

Both Sato and Fisichella will continue testing at the Barcelona circuit until Friday.