Teams Open Testing Season in Rainy Silverstone

Argentine Gaston Mazzacane had his first outing for Arrows at a wet Silverstone on Friday as testing for the new Formula One season got under way.

Mazzacane, with the struggling Minardi team last season but still searching for a drive in 2001, completed nine laps in a shakedown of the new Arrows A21 prototype powered by a Peugeot-derived AMT engine.

"Gaston adapted to the car surprisingly quickly and we tested out various different system settings and had good results from these," said test team engineer Greg Wheeler.

"The engine performed well and the conditions were very difficult with it being so wet but we had no dramas.

"The car is showing to have very good reliability and the components are working together very well."

Jaguar, Jordan and Benetton also joined in the Silverstone shakedown -- a check of the systems before most of the teams head off to Spain at the weekend for more concentrated testing in Jerez, Valencia and Barcelona.

Friday was the first day testing was allowed after a month-lomg break following the end of the 2000 season.

Brazilian Luciano Burti turned out for Jaguar in his first appearance as a fully-fledged racing driver after graduating from the test driver role along with his replacement Tomas Scheckter, son of former champion Jody.

Australian Mark Webber gave the new Renault-powered Benetton a brief outing in his debut as official test driver.

And Brazilian Ricardo Zonta, a driver with BAR last season, did a shakedown for Jordan in his first session as tester.

It was also Jordan's first outing with full Honda backing after using Mugen prepared engines in 2000.

"We tested the new electronics systems and all went well in preparation for Jerez," said Zonta. "The car felt good and I'm optimistic for the future."

Tuesday will see the start of serious testing, including the debuts of Briton Jenson Button at his new team Benetton and Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya, the driver who replaced him at Williams at the end of last season.

Both are due to be on track together in Jerez.