Fisichella Visits Enstone for Seat Fitting

Giancarlo Fisichella, who returns to Renault next season, visited the team's British factory at Enstone yesterday for a seat fitting, ahead of the first round of off-season testing.

Fisichella, who raced for Sauber in 2004, visited the Enstone factory for the first time since leaving the team - then badged Benetton - three years ago.

"It has been an emotional day," the Italian commented. "For me, visiting Enstone is a bit like coming home - the factory is bigger, there are more people, but the atmosphere here is still the same. Most of the mechanics and my engineers are the same people I worked with three years ago, so I felt at ease straight away. I am pleased but also very excited to be back."

Fisichella's former Benetton race engineer, Alan Permane - who was this season Jarno Trulli's engineer and later Jacques Villeneuve's - was present at Fisichella's seat fitting, and he said: "The seat fitting went very smoothly.

"Within the cockpit, the car has not changed significantly since Giancarlo left the team and of course, we began working from his old settings. It needed some minor tweaks for him to feel fully comfortable, but he soon found a position he was happy with."

Fisichella is scheduled to begin testing for Renault in the first testing session of the off-season, on November 24th at the Barcelona circuit. His Spanish teammate Fernando Alonso is not currently scheduled to run any tests before the beginning of 2005.