Heidfeld upbeat over new Sauber

Heidfeld completed 59 laps of the Italian venue in the Petronas-powered machine, lapping in 1m00.59secs. Michael Schumacher set a new lap record in last year's Ferrari at 58.78secs on Monday.

"I have a really good feeling with the 2002 car," said Heidfeld. "This is a first contact and I need more mileage overall, but my new first impression of the new car is very good. The engine never stopped and the car was never towed back to the pit during the entire day."

Heidfeld's programme was interrupted this morning (Wednesday) due to snow, but the team was happy with the progress made so far.

"From the installation lap right to the end of the day, the new C21 ran with complete reliability," said Sauber's technical director Willi Rampf. "We checked all the systems and detected no problems, and our first set-ups and data measurements were extremely satisfactory. Our only disappointment was to see the snow this morning."

Heidfeld's team-mate for 2002, Brazilian Felipe Massa, completed 66 laps in last year's C20 chassis. His best time was 1m01.42secs.

"I'm desperately looking forward to the real test with the C21 in Barcelona next week," said Massa. "The weather has not been really helping here!"

Sauber has also announced that Red Bull will continue to back its cars in 2002, its eighth year of continued support. The energy drink's logo will remain in place on the engine cover of the car.