Most teams have been putting in the test mileage since before Christmas but
Spyker has been noticeably absent from the winter season. The new car was
launched on February 5th and was due its first track excursion the next day
but chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne is not concerned about the delay.
 |
|
Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer. Photo by Nikki Reynolds.
|
 |
Gascoyne joined Spyker in November 2006 after a stint with Toyota and is
familiar with the Silverstone-based team from his time there when it was
Jordan. He came to the team in its new conception as overseer of the
technical department and is full of praise for the work James Key has done
on the new F8-VII.
"One of the good things about the coming year is having James in the company
as technical director," Gascoyne said at the launch of the car. "He was made
technical director sort of 18 months ago when the team was bought by Midland
and he and his people have done a great job to get the team back on an even
keel where they can design a car and get it out."
Spyker (then MF1) was supplied engines by Toyota in 2006 but for 2007 the
team will be Ferrari-powered. The agreement wasn't announced until the end of September 2006
so that delayed the new car, but Gascoyne professes to have no worries about
getting up to speed, especially as the team has been a Bridgestone partner.
"With the Ferrari deal coming so late it was not possible to do much before
that in the way of testing," he conceded. "But we're not really starting on
the back foot because the construction of the tyres is based on a
construction we know well, so I think we know the inherent characteristics
of the tyres."
Testing is a time and money consuming endeavour, a necessary evil perhaps,
but Gascoyne is confident that Spyker will not suffer due to the lack of
winter track time. "We don't have an issue with the lack of testing," he
stated.
"The one thing about testing is that it consumes resources and if you've got
resources you make sure you're putting them into the most productive things.
In some respects we could have made the car for Melbourne a little bit
quicker but if it needs to be a second and half quicker rather than a tenth
and a half quicker, it's not the best use of resources if a tenth and a half
is all we could achieve."
Spyker hopes the initial concept of the F8-VII will be a good basis on which
to build and a newer version will appear probably around mid-season. "There
will be a B spec car later in the year but I can't say exactly when that
will come in," Gascoyne said. "We'll only introduce it when we're satisfied
that it will be a step forward."
