Villeneuve's Debut in the C24 Hampered by Reliability

Former World Champion Jacques Villeneuve made his debut today in Sauber's 2005 car, the C24, but his first day of testing was hampered by technical problems in the car.

Sauber completed today a three-day test session in Valencia, where Felipe Massa ran with the C24 for the first two days. His teammate Villeneuve had his first day of testing today, and he managed to cover only 23 laps in total, with a best time of 1:14.239.

"After two almost trouble-free days we lost a lot of valuable running time today due to a few minor technical problems with the electric and the hydraulic system," commented Sauber's technical directoe Willy Rampf. "However, to find out such difficulties in an early stage is the reason why we have roll-outs. For the forthcoming test...we will have solved these problems and start with the set-up work."

Villeneuve himself said, at the end of the day: "At the first day you always have to expect problems. Although Felipe had two good days, my day today wasn't very useful. However, concerning the car itself I can say that I feel comfortable in it, but because I couldn't do a lot of test work I cannot tell a lot. I'll see more on next Wednesday.

"But you can feel that the car is more nervous now. The reasons for this are mainly the different end of braking and turning into the corner. I now look forward to the next test where we will start to work on the car's balance."

Commenting on their first testing session, Rampf also added that "overall we are quite happy with the results of these test days. On Friday we successfully completed the roll-out of the C24, and we were able to confirm that all major systems such as cooling and brakes are working properly."