Cosworth pleased with pre-season testing

Cosworth’s F1 general manager Mark Gallagher says the company is happy with its performance during pre-season testing after the three Cosworth teams managed more than 11,700km of running in the four tests in Spain.

The engine supplier has supplied three different units to the three teams due to the differing programs being run over the winter, with Williams the only one of the three to currently make use of KERS and Hispania still using the older 2010 engine due to the fact that all of its pre-season running came with its 2010 car.

With all three teams having a year of experience working with Cosworth, the main aim of testing was to work on engine durability and Gallagher said it had been a much smoother off-season than twelve months ago – when Cosworth was busy preparing for its return to the grid.

“It has been a generally positive pre-season testing program for Cosworth and overall a smoother start to the season than last year," Gallagher said. “We’ve worked well with Williams to adapt the CA engine to their new KERS-enabled package and have seen more confidence exuded from the newer teams, Marussia Virgin and Hispania. Both of our ‘new’ teams are no longer ‘new’ so we expect and welcome them to be more demanding on Cosworth as the season unfolds. That is how we worked with Williams last year and it certainly brings out the best in Cosworth.

“It was a shame that HRT couldn’t run their car in Barcelona last week but with a Williams gearbox and a Cosworth engine, the rear end of their F111 should be reliable and competitive. It’s been a productive build up to the new season, so we head to Australia in the hope of some exciting racing and Cosworth engineering firmly in the mix."