Jos: 'Fantastic!'

Published on 30 January 2003 by Huub Rothengatter

Earlier this evening we had Jos on the phone who has left Valencia and has joined the rest of the team in Faenza, Italy. Tomorrow they will start preparing and fitting the HANS system.
Jos had a very successful day: "Everything went well, I needed about 10 laps to get the right feeling with the car."

Jos, as if he's never been away

Jos was almost 2 seconds faster than Justin Wilson's time from yesterday. Jos's fastest time (1:15.182) was set in his 20th lap. "That lap was on new tyres. We didn't have that many new sets so an improvement of that time was not possible. In the afternoon the wind picked up and that does influence your lap times considerably.".


"Hi, I'm Jos"

Jos drove a grand total of 49 laps, most of them in the morning. Never before was there a Minardi that fast on this circuit. "A fast time with tyres that are not suitable for Formula 1" Jos comments. "I am very glad that the people at Avon were so helpful. It's like I've never been away."


Giving feedback to Paul Stoddart

The discussions between Minardi and tyre manufacturer Bridgestone didn't get his attention. "I don't know how that situation will develop." Something that Jos did notice is the enthusiasm of the team. "I received a nice compliment of my engineer Greg Wheeler. He told me that I was as fast as ever."

Jos did not experience any physical difficulties. "That is a sign that my preparation has been 100%. Those hours of exercising are paying off." Next week Minardi will not test. According to Jos Minardi is planning to do another test in about 2-3 weeks, if everything goes well with the new PS03."

Tomorrow afternoon, Jos will fly back home. He can look back on a few very useful testing days at Minardi.