Astromega upbeat after new car test

The Belgian outfit became the first to run the B2/50 this year in the private sessions which came to an end today (Thursday). New signing Mario Haberfeld drove on all three days in one car, while prospective drivers Nicolas Kiesa, Rodrigo Sperafico and Formula Volkswagen racer Rob Nguyen shared the other.

Team boss Sam Boyle said that the drivers, the mechanics and the engineers were all impressed with the Lola. "All the drivers said it was a nice car to drive," he said. "It was reliable too. The car is what everyone was asking for because for drivers it is closer in feel to Formula 3 and Formula 1, and it is a new challenge for engineers.

"It responds very well to tuning and there is definitely a lot of work the teams can do on performance. After three years with the old car, we were looking for hundreths of a second, and now we can make big steps. It has revitalised everyone and people are enjoying it again."

Haberfeld's best time of 1m22.8s was a full two and a half seconds quicker than the team's ex-driver Giorgio Pantano managed in the old car during a test last year. The team managed a total of 400kms over the three days, with the experienced Haberfeld unsurprisingly setting the quickest time.