Two days of testing at Barber

For the last test session before the start of the season, a total of 16 drivers traveled to Alabama this Saturday, to take on the long configuration track at Barber Motorsports Park and its sixteen turns. The aim of this last test session is obviously to evaluate the cars and their behavior on the road, before the inaugural round in St Petersburg, Florida, on April 5, when a first series of tests had already been carried out. last month at Homestead-Miami Speedway, regarding the ovals.

The first strong point that we could draw from these two days of testing is undoubtedly the excellent form of the New Zealander Scott Dixon, reigning champion of the category, who literally dominated the Saturday session with a time of 1?10??5005 placing him more than a tenth behind his pursuer. There is no doubt that he will be, once again this year, the man to beat.

“The team did a great job, that’s clear. Both cars are very fast and on top of that they have not shown their full potential yet. We established our performance earlier in the day, just before midday, while this afternoon we only focused on the settings. It was a great day, we are quite confident for the future. »

Second best performer of the session, rookie Robert Doornbos is increasingly asserting himself as the outsider with whom he will have to be reckoned. The Dutchman completed his fastest lap in 1:10:6341, on a circuit whose configuration is familiar to him since he had already covered it in Champ Car.

“I'm happy to drive at a circuit I know, where I can use my experience to tune the car to my liking and get to know the team better. We adapted the car according to my requests and it worked. I think it's very important to make a good first impression, because the team gave me that chance. They now know what I am capable of, I know I can win races, I just need a chance to prove it. »

Behind Pilot Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing, we also find Tony Kanaan in great shape, since the leader of the Andretti-Green Racing team ultimately ranks only three hundredths behind Doornbos, while the rest of the AGR drivers are rather disappointing. In difficulty, Marco Andretti only recorded the eighth performance of the day, while Hudeki Mutoh finished eleventh and Danica Patrick only fourteenth. In fourth position we find Dario Franchitti, who is ahead of the two Penske drivers Ryan Briscoe and Will Power.

It is the latter who will take the first line in the timesheet for the second day, and for the weekend at the same time, thanks to a magnificent time of 1:09:4557. Target Chip Ganassi Racing driver Dario Franchitti finished just behind, 3 tenths behind, also surpassing the best time achieved the day before by Dixon.

In the end, the 16 drivers will have completed a whopping 1191 laps, thus accumulating as much data as possible for the urban Grand Prix of St Petersburg and Long Beach, but also maximum experience for novices in the category.

The repeated passage of cars, thus depositing rubber on the trajectory, as well as the optimization of settings are obviously not unrelated to this clear gain in performance. Behind the Australian, we find Target Chip Ganassi Racing driver Dario Franchitti, who finished just behind, 3 tenths behind, also outperforming the best time achieved the day before by Dixon. This performance is enough to reassure the Scot as well as his team about their burst of speed which comes at just the right time.

In third and fourth position, Ryan Briscoe is ahead of his teammate Scott Dixon, just ahead of Graham Rahal and Robert Doornbos. The latter used a rather effective configuration on this track and their learning, test after test, is starting to pay off on both cars.

No particular incident to note, apart from an exit from the track by Mario Moraes, who hit the tire wall shortly before the lunch break. He then spent most of his time in the pits and returned to the track for the final 20 minutes.