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Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Teams hit testing trail at Silverstone: 19 June 07


With the back-to-back North American races behind them, the Formula One teams return to testing this week in preparation for the forthcoming French Grand Prix. The majority will be in action at the UK’s Silverstone circuit, where a three-day session kicks off on Tuesday.
Any fans hoping to get a glimpse of man-of-the-moment Lewis Hamilton will be disappointed, as McLaren have opted to give him some time off ahead of his Goodwood Festival of Speed appearance next weekend. Instead, test driver Pedro de la Rosa will partner Fernando Alonso for the championship leaders’ programme.Ferrari will be aiming to make up more ground on the silver cars after their improved Indianapolis showing. The Italian squad will be bringing a completely different aero package to try out on the F2007.Ralf Schumacher will make an appearance for Toyota on day One, while French tester Franck Montagny and Italian race driver Jarno Trulli are also understood to be part of the Japanese team’s line-up during the test.BMW Sauber will continue to rest Robert Kubica after his Montreal shunt. Driving duties at the German-Swiss team will be performed by Nick Heidfeld and German tester Timo Glock. Williams, meanwhile, will field a different driver each day - Kazuki Nakajima on Tuesday, Alex Wurz on Wednesday and Nico Rosberg on Thursday.Spyker will be pushing hard to extract more pace from the F8-VII following some encouraging pace from Adrian Sutil in the US, while Toro Rosso will be trying out their new quick-shift gearbox on the STR2 for the first time.The biggest concern for the teams at Silverstone will be the weather - there is a strong chance of rain throughout most of this week. That shouldn’t worry Honda, however, as they have deserted British shores for Jerez in Spain, where it is widely predicted they will be trying out a heavily-revised RA107 in a bid to inject some much-needed life into their 2007 campaign.Check back throughout the week for the latest pictures and news on the teams’ progress. Note - schedules provisional and subject to change.

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