7-June:
At the Friday press conference for the Canadian Grand Prix, Guenther
Steiner talked about what he has done since he joined the Jaguar Racing
team as their Managing Director and said "A lot of people have seen we
have changed some of the staff we have got there. We just reorganised
everything a little bit and it took me a few months to realise where I have to
work. We are still continuing and this restructuring will go on for the rest
of the year and even next year. You always have to move up to go quicker, but
up to now we have to strengthen our aerodynamic department, which was the
weakest link of the company in my opinion, not only down to people, but also
we didn't have a wind tunnel to start with and the wind tunnel that we did use
was in America. We used it two weeks a month and didn't have enough people and
that is the biggest change we have made. We went from thirty people to fifty
people in the aero department and our next gains will come from there, but we
are still working on a lot of other parts on production and other parts of the
company."
As for the modifications expected in time for Silverstone, Steiner believes
they are on track and said "Everything is going to program at the moment.
We will have a package at Silverstone. We are still evaluating and testing. We
start testing three weeks on the car and then we will see how much we gain.
But everything is on course and in production now."
Otmar Szafnauer talked about his role at Honda and
said "I'm the vice president of Honda Racing Development and previously
I've come from British American Racing. I was the operations director at
British American Racing for three years and prior to that, you may notice by
my accent, I came from America and raced in the USAC Formula 2000, owned my
own team and did a bit of racing there as well.
I will be the representative at these events and yes, I think my English
hopefully is up to the standard that everyone in this room expects. But there
are many English-speaking Japanese people at Honda as well."
Szafnauer explained the current situation at Honda with regard to engine
development and said "We were able to improve the engine we started the
season with and improve on the Austria-spec qualifying engine to the point
where we met our Canadian Grand Prix performance targets with that engine.
Therefore we had a choice coming into Canada, and we opted to use the previous
engine rather than introduce the new engine which is at its infancy of
development and continue to develop that, and you will see that engine
shortly."
On the new engine he said "It's quite a task to produce an engine
mid-season and it's quite difficult to produce that new engine, test it a week
before the race introduction and have it all go well. We were fortunate to
have developed in two routes. One continued to develop the engine we started
the season with, at the same time introduce an all-new engine, so we had that
option for this Grand Prix."
Jenson Button wasn't happy with the way practice went
today and said "It hasn't been the best - except for England winning, of
course. The first run in practice we had a problem and I had to sit out the
whole session, which was a shame. In the second session, yeah, we just didn't
seem on the pace where we thought we would be but again. It's only practice
and we have just been working on the race set-up and I think we've got a good
race set-up over a certain number of laps. It's just getting that one lap
sorted which obviously we will work on tomorrow morning, because I think we
need to."
He added that they have a few modifications for this race and said "I
think the car is working very well. Aerodynamically we keep getting new bits
on the car. Also the engine, to start with, is a lot more reliable than it was
at the start of the season and it's also got more power. Also tomorrow in
qualifying we've got a slightly better engine than we have had previously, so
I'm looking forward to that."
Jacques Villeneuve poured cold water on the good performance
of the BAR team today and said "We end up being quick on Friday but by
taking fuel out, so it looks good."
While he was pleased with the modifications made to the car this weekend he
doesn't expect to qualify in the top 10 and said "They feel good, they
definitely feel good and it's an improvement. I think it's the first time in
four years where you feel there's an improvement on the car, so that is a very
nice thing, but I think it will be very, very difficult for us to be in the
top ten tomorrow because I don't think we are that competitive.
We've made a step forward but everybody else has. Hopefully our step forward
is bigger than the opposition's, so even if we have a six, seven, eight tenths
better car, for example, anybody else will have a half second car better,
that's only three tenths difference. It's not the whole eight tenths so I'm
not sure exactly what is the difference anyway. So don't expect a major leap.
If we qualified comfortably before 14th, 15th, 16th, then now we will be
12th."
Commenting on the new Honda engine he said "We tested it in Silverstone
and we weren't happy running it here because we didn't put enough miles on it
so it wasn't ready to be raced."
Overall however, Villeneuve indicated that he is optimistic and said "I
actually am more positive with the progress possible with the team now since
we have all the new technical people in place. I think that finally the team
can make a step forward. Now, we still have to see what the engine is capable
of and I think everyone working hard at Honda has realised there is a lot of
work that is needed and that is why there is a new engine that is ready and
almost usable."
As for the pressure racing at home, he said "This year there is pressure
at every race because we haven't been capable of being close enough to the
points anywhere. So there's not extra pressure coming here. Of course, after
today, because people think we are competitive now because we had a good
Friday, there will be pressure tomorrow and I expect a little bit of
disappointment tomorrow."
Oliver Panis indicated his frustration at his bad
luck so far and said "It is quite a bit tough this time, but we have to
wait. When you cry you put harm down or you continue to work hard and continue
to develop the car. This is the way I try, and the new aero kit we have here
is definitely a little bit of an improvement, but I quite agree with Jacques,
we need to try to continue to push hard and to improve the car again to start
going for better positions in qualifying."
Panis added that he enjoys racing here despite his accident here in the past
where he broke both his legs and said "I like the racing here and all the
time I have had good results. I am sure I have had a bad accident but it is
not Montreal's fault or the Canadian Grand Prix's fault. At this race I had a
big accident, but I don't care about this and I continue to be concentrated
and I like this race."
7-June: What the teams and
drivers said following Friday practice in Canada ... Report
7-June: Canadian GP
– 2nd Friday Practice Session: David Coulthard sets the fastest time
of the session ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya and Michael Schumacher. Kimi
Raikkonen, Ralf Schumacher and Mika Salo make the top 6
... Timed Results ... Report
... Notes
7-June: Canadian GP
– 1st Friday Practice Session: Rubens Barrichello sets the fastest
time of the session ahead of Michael Schumacher and Giancarlo Fisichella.
David Coulthard, Kimi Raikkonen and Heinz Harald Frentzen make the top 6
... Timed Results ... Report
... Notes
Friday
Practice Session 1
Friday Practice Session 2
Saturday Practice Session 1
Saturday Practice Session 2 Qualifying Session
Warm-up Session Race
11
AM Montreal Time / 3 PM GMT
1 PM Montreal Time / 5 PM GMT
9 AM Montreal Time / 1 PM GMT
10:15 AM Montreal Time /
2:15 PM GMT 1 PM Montreal
Time / 5 PM GMT 8:30 AM Montreal Time / 12:30 PM GMT
1 PM
Montreal
Time / 5 PM GMT
