Stewart, Bar Suffer Testing Week.

Both the Stewart and British American Racing teams continue to work on their 1999 challengers, after neither was fully content with recent testing performances.


Stewart drivers Rubens Barrichello and new signing Johnny Herbert both reported understeer with the latest SF-3 chassis, although general reports about the car suggested that it was a definite improvement over the 1998 model. Low temperatures and ice on certain parts of the Silverstone circuit prevented either driver from making an accurate, and full, assessment of the car's potential, however, with oil pressure problems in the latest Ford engine also hampering the test.


BAR boss Craig Pollock refused to be content with fastest times at the recent Barcelona test, claiming that he remains worried by reliability problems with the team's first chassis.


(I am a little disappointed with the reliability of the car,) Pollock said, (but it's performance outweighs those problems. The test has demonstrated that we still have a great deal of work to do, however.)


Both Stewart and BAR will resume testing at Jerez later this week.