April 20, 2002
The Mapes-VO team arrived in France with just one aim... improve the engine... and with the help of new test driver Andrew Cooper they are doing just that with him just finishing a 3-day development session on the Honda engine.

Although its not been said publically its without a doubt that Mapes-VO have not been 100% happy with the BHP provided by Honda in the 2002 season, this session was believed though to be very beneficial and help them be more competitive as we dealve deeper into the European race season. Although rather outspoken at times the team though are as one, Matt Maple attending every race meeting and test striving to get the best out of there drivers all the time, generally assisted by his sidekick "coffee man" Mapes-VO are getting the best from limited resources in there first season in F1 Racing.

As usual they had some comments from HQ and speaking after day three from a satelite phone Peter said;

"I wish to thank Andy for the great work he has done the past few days, and I wish him all the best tomorrow for the final day of testing. I got all times and data by email and I'm impressed by the laps Andy is doing. They are remarkably fast".

Matt joining in the praise by adding;

"Yeah, Andy has been great we just ask him to do something and its done before we have time to have a cup of coffee, im very happy with his progress and there is much more to come from this man".

As usual though the Mapes-VO management couldnt leave without a joke and peter said "I'm sorry I can't be there in Magny-Cours but I'm currently defending one of our Mechanics in court. He is being accused of pouring sugar in van Renswoude's car in Brazil. We still deny anything, but somebody heard Mikko Jakonen saying that it would be the best to pour some sugar in their tanks, because we couldn't beat them on speed. Thinks are looking quite good now, because there isn't any evidence that proves our mechanic actually committed this act".

Matt was all in favour of Peters absence and said "I dont know what to do now, im bored with no one to play with, i didnt get home til 2am last night because Kieran decided he wanted a kart race to improve his skills on street tracks, the things people do for there drivers". *laughs*

Matt was later seen playing golf with Mikko Jakonen in the paddock area, Mikko along with Kieran have been in France lending a hand and some moral support to the new Mapes-VO test team which is having its first full test here in France.