NewsOnF1 - 21 - 28 March News

28-Mar: At the Thursday press conference for the Brazilian Grand Prix, Rubens Barrichello has once again indicated that while he is disappointed not to race with the new car, he accepts Ferrari's decision and said "It's obvious that I would have liked to have had the new car because after four days testing in Barcelona, I felt that the car was better in every respect, so for sure, when I knew that we were only bringing one car, to be racing in my home country at my racing track, it feels sad not to have it, but I accept it and, as I've said, it is the best weekend of my year, so I have to make the full usage of the old car. I have no points yet for various reasons but I'm feeling good. I'm feeling competitive, and I'm going to be a 101 percent on the car that I have."
He denied reports in the Italian media that indicated he'd threaten to retire at the end of the season and said "It's just sad to have this type of thing. I have no problems with Ferrari, I have no problems with anything. I'm entitled to have my opinion. I sit down with Ross and Jean, we talk and by no means am I a man of no opinion. I have my opinion. Right now I'm a happy man with Ferrari. It's my third year and everything is going quite OK. I'm coming to my home race. I don't have the new car but I have old the one which is competitive. It's reliable so let's go and see what it does. I have no problem with that."
Rubens also added that given there was only one new car available, it was only fair to give it to Michael as he had more points.

Ralf Schumacher was very confident for this race and the following one at Imola and said "Certainly after Malaysia we seem to be very strong. I'm pretty confident for this and even for the next race. Last year we managed to be stronger than Ferrari there, so you have to say that we look a lot stronger but there are some circuits on the schedule where we struggled last year which is what we have to wait and find out."
As for McLaren, he hopes that they'll take longer to catch them and said "Looking at McLaren, it's pretty early days to judge them yet. Given them a few more races. I hope it takes a longer time than a few more races, but I'm sure they are going to be up there again."

Jenson Button who had to give up third place in Malaysia to Michael Schumacher after his car developed a suspension problem is still disappointed with not finishing on the podium for the first time and said "I think when you're running in fourth for the whole race it's a good position to finish in, but when you've been running in third, for whatever reason - people having reliability problems or whatever - and it could be an easy third, it's always tough to end up fourth off the podium as I haven't yet been there. But I think it shows that we are moving forward which is good and we keep improving race by race, which is a big bonus for the team really. Hopefully that will show here also."

Enrique Bernoldi blames the lack of testing for Arrows reliability problems but is very confident that they have a good package and said "We only had a few days of pre-season testing which wasn't a lot because it was a new car, and when you have a new one you always have some small problems and different problems which stop you doing a lot of mileage. But we are very positive and we are confident because the car is a car which shows to be pretty competitive and we are improving at every race. Malaysia was better than Australia and even if we couldn't get a result at the end we showed that we had the potential for a better place than last year. We are still getting to know the car, because of the few mileage that we did pre-season, as we are learning in this race and learning and developing new things, so we are progressing quite a lot and I'm really happy about what I feel we could get from the new car, the team, the engine, everything."

Felipe Massa driving for the first time in Formula 1 in front of his crowd is aiming for a top 10 finish and said "I am hoping to do my best. I would like to qualify maybe in the top ten or twelve. I think we have a good car and I think it's possible to finish in the top ten. Each race is different. We don't know what will happen. I think I would like to say that I can finish in the top ten."

Main Brazilian Grand Prix Page

28-Mar: Rubens Barrichello has expressed his disappointment at not being able to race in the new car in front of his home crowd but accepts Ferrari's reason behind it and said "I had driven the car for four days and now we come to my home grand prix, which of course is the one where you like to perform better than any other one, so I am disappointed not to have the new car. But I am a professional and I have been told it was impossible to bring two of the new cars here and I accept that.
I will not have available to me what seems to be a better car, but I will be driving a car that is consistent and strong, the modified F2001.
The first three races of the season are always tough on all aspects of the car and the Interlagos circuit is especially difficult for the cars. I am not saying I wish problems on anyone else; indeed we saw in Malaysia that even the F2001 can have a problem, but this car is well tried and we will be trying to put together a package that is competitive for the grand prix."

Jacques Villeneuve is clearly disappointed with the results achieved in the BAR so far and doesn't expect any significant improvement until Imola and said "This has been a very difficult and disappointing start to the season, but I am confident that the changes mean we will be heading in the right direction, although only time will tell. There is no point in looking back, we now have to look forward and work on improving our car and the whole way we operate. We aren't expecting to see any massive improvements in Brazil but hopefully by Imola the results will start to show."
Team boss David Richards admits that their is a long way to go yet before the BAR is competitive and said "The last week has seen some major changes within BAR including a fundamental reorganisation of the team. We have to balance the necessity to improve performance in the short-term whilst making the changes required to deliver our long-term goals. I am confident that we now have a stable base from which we can start building for the future, but we still have a long way to go."

28-Mar: "Williams one, two again ?" is the title of the 6th issue from the Diagnosis and Prognosis Series for the 2002 season. In this issue, the Heretic looks at the upcoming Brazilian Grand Prix - Issue 6

28-Mar: While David Coulthard is aiming to win in Brazil he realises that it could be difficult in the face of the tough competition from Ferrari and Williams and therefore he would be happy with a points finish and said "Although I have a difficult start to the 2002 season, the West McLaren Mercedes team does have a package that is capable of winning races and we have all been working hard to increase reliability. Of course the desired outcome for me in Brazil would be a repeat of last years result, however I am primarily focusing on opening my points tally for 2002."
McLaren's Managing Director Martin Whitmarsh stressed on the importance of being competitive and reliable in Brazil and said "The West McLaren Mercedes team has been working hard following the unsatisfactory result in Malaysia in a bid to marry competitive performance with reliability. We have again demonstrated in testing this week in Barcelona that we have the capability to achieve the complete package, and we now must translate this into the race environment in Brazil."

After scoring Toyota's first points in Melbourne and demonstrating potential for another strong finish in Malaysia, Mika Salo heads to Brazil with even more confidence as he believes the track suits the Toyota. He said "I can't wait to get started at Interlagos because I think it will suit our car well. Power is important - and I think our engine is okay - and you don't have to run maximum downforce. The car deserved points in Malaysia, so I hope I can put that right here. I like the lay-out of the track, although the bumps make it hard on both the car and the driver."
However team boss Ove Andersson is trying to lower the expectation and said "More than ever, my job is to pour water on everyone's expectations at each race! We are performing better than we expected at this stage of the programme, but I don't want people to expect too much. Look at Brazil next weekend: we have not tested there, so we have a steep learning curve. Having said that, I am very pleased with the progress we are making. We took a bit step forward in the way that we work in Malaysia and, if we make similar progress in Brazil, I'll be happy."

Effective from the 1st of May 2002, Jaguar Racing have appointed Ben Agathangelou as head of Aerodynamics who moves across from Renault F1. Jaguar Racing Managing Director Guenther Steiner said of the new appointment "Ben will bring a new and experienced technical dimension to this team. We have never really lacked in any other aspect of our racing package apart from aerodynamic efficiency and combined with our new wind tunnel, we can now set clearly defined goals which will allow us to compete on an even playing field with our competitors in Formula One.
Our efforts at recruiting the best personnel do not stop here and we look forward to announcing some more additions to our team in the very near future."
Jaguar Racing have also announced that their new wind tunnel will start effective operation next week with a 16 hour per day operation increasing to 24 hours per day in the very near future.

27-Mar: The Quali-flyer's bold prediction for the 'Real Race' in Brazil ... Report

27-Mar: "Why did Ferrari opt for one F2002 ?" - Topic of the week - Have Your Say

26-Mar: Following Ferrari's decision to take one F2002 to Brazil, Michael Schumacher has indicated that he was now even more optimistic about his chances and said "I was optimistic before that we could compete for victory, now I'm even more optimistic. The tests last week in Spain were, to a large extent, very promising. The F2002 is faster than the F2001 so, therefore, I was delighted with the team's decision."
Michael acknowledged that they haven't tested the new car under conditions similar to those expected in Brazil but remains confident about it's reliability.

Jenson Button who missed out on his first podium finish at the Malaysian GP is hoping to have another chance at the podium this weekend but is also realistic that Renault is not yet competitive with the top 3 and said "It would be nice to get on the podium. Hopefully, I might get the chance to do that and to achieve what I missed out on at the last race in Sepang. We can't compete with the quickest teams on pure pace at the moment, but if the circumstances fall in our favour again we could get there. We shall have to wait and see where we qualify and then see what happens in the race."

Niki Lauda has admitted that his Jaguar cars will struggle near the back of the gird in Brazil as not much improvements have been developed for the car and said "Brazil will be another tough weekend for us. We will work very hard at optimising the car's balance and set-up on Friday and then aim for better qualifying positions on Saturday.
Not an easy task given that we haven't had time to make any significant changes to this car since it arrived from Malaysia. Right now we are making our own lives hard by starting from the back of the grid and this is why we must improve our qualifying positions quickly."

25-Mar: "Williams vs. One Ferrari" - The Brazilian Grand Prix Preview is now available ... Race Preview

Brazilian Formula 1 Grand Prix Schedule:

Session	Time (Local / GMT) - Current local time
Friday Practice Session 1 Friday Practice Session 2 Saturday Practice Session 1 Saturday Practice Session 2 Qualifying Session Warm-up Session Race	11 AM Sao Paulo Time / 2 PM GMT 1 PM Sao Paulo Time / 4 PM GMT 9 AM Sao Paulo Time / 12 PM GMT 10:15 AM Sao Paulo Time / 1:15 PM GMT 1 PM Sao Paulo Time / 4 PM GMT 9:30 AM Sao Paulo Time / 12:30 PM GMT 2 PM Sao Paulo Time / 5 PM GMT
Go to the Brazilian GP Page

24-Mar: The Ferrari team decided today to take one F2002 car to Brazil and allocated it to Michael Schumacher. Team-mate Rubens Barrichello will have a modified F2001 at his disposal. Both drivers will have modified F2001 cars as spare cars.
Jean Todt said "The development programme on the new car, which has gone ahead over the past few weeks means we have been able to take the F2002 to the Interlagos race. The new car has proved to be quick and reliable. We will send one F2002 car to Interlagos, chassis 220, which was given a shakedown test by Luca Badoer at Fiorano this morning. The car will be allocated to Michael Schumacher, who will have a modified F2001 as a spare car. Rubens Barrichello will have two modified F2001 at his disposal for his home race."

Luca Badoer who shook down the F2002 covered 16 laps with a best time of 59.487.

24-Mar: Following their 1-2 victory at the Malaysian Grand Prix, the Williams BMW team heads into the Brazilian Grand Prix expecting nothing less than a win. Last year both their cars retired after being hit from behind but this year they are hoping that they'll be luckier.
Ralf Schumacher who won the Malaysian GP said "I strongly believe that in Brazil we can beat Ferrari again. Last year Juan was going to win the race if Jos Verstappen hadn't run into him. And last week in Malaysia, we were even closer to Maranello's cars than the year before, therefore why shouldn't it work again in Brazil? We like the Interlagos track, even if it isn't easy to find a compromise between not being slow on the straights but quick enough through the infield.
After testing in Barcelona, where we have tried out a couple of small aerodynamic changes, I am pretty confident about racing in Brazil."
His team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya who finished second in Malaysia said "Last year I was very close to scoring my first points in Formula One, but Jos Verstappen put an early end to my chances. I hope this year I can make up for the lost opportunity, especially because last season we were stronger at Interlagos than in Malaysia. I am confident we will have a good run in Brazil."
Gerhard Berger, the head of BMW Motorsports said "After the one-two victory in Malaysia we are very much looking forward to Brazil. The Interlagos circuit layout suits our engine quite well; two straights, especially the uphill start/finish section, require engine power. The track has a lot of bumps that we have coped with quite well in the past. The Malaysian GP has shown that high temperatures also suit our Michelin tyres, and also our BMW engine did cope with this demanding requirement as well."

22-Mar: On the final day of testing for the Bridgestone runners, Rubens Barrichello topped the timesheets ahead of team-mate Michael Schumacher with Olivier Panis third fastest. Rubens best time of 1:18.256 was the quickest time this session but remains over a second slower than the lap record set earlier this year.
Rubens was just under half a second faster than his team-mate as he concentrated on set-up for the Brazilian GP while Michael completed a race simulation. Ferrari have yet to decide on which car to take to Brazil.

9 teams were present with 15 drivers setting laptimes. Marc Gene covered the most number of laps with 131 evaluating Michelin tyres. Ralf Schumacher was next covering 102 laps followed by Nick Heidfeld with 99 laps. Luca Badoer covered the least number of laps with 36.

A number of Michelin runners will continue testing tomorrow under artificially wet conditions.

Click here for the test times from Barcelona

22-Mar: Following the 3 days test at Barcelona which included comparison tests between Jaguar's 2002 contender (R3) and last year's contender (R2), the team decided to continue using this year's car. Niki Lauda told the Jaguar Racing website that the difference between the two was too small and said "The performance differential between the two is just not big enough to go on with last year’s car. Also we cannot afford to spend precious resources on any kind of parallel development, so this is where we are and I am satisfied we have done everything to make sure that our next move is forward.”
Despite the team scoring points in Australia, the R3's performance so far this season has been mediocre and last week at the Malaysian GP, Lauda confirmed considering switching back to the old car if it proved much faster.

21-Mar: Michael Schumacher topped the timesheets in the F2002 on the third day of testing at Barcelona ahead of his team-mate Rubens Barrichello and McLaren's test driver Alexander Wurz. Michael Schumacher's time was 0.4 seconds faster than that of Barrichello but over a second off the lap record.
Nine teams were present with 14 drivers setting lap times. Marc Gene completed the most number of laps with 107 as he continued evaluating tyres for Williams while Luca Badoer completed 98 laps evaluating tyres for Ferrari. Jarno Trulli only managed 7 laps as an unidentifiable problem with the front of his car prevented any valuable running.
Despite the number of drivers, there no major incidents during the session although Felipe Massa caused a red flag situation when his car stopped on the track.
Jaguar continued their comparison tests between the R2 and R3 with the R2 over 0.7 seconds faster than the R3's best time yesterday.
Jacques Villeneuve pulled out of the test coinciding with the major restructure announced at BAR. The team however indicated that Villeneuve was complaining of a back problem.
Testing continues tomorrow.

Click here for the test times from Barcelona

21-Mar: It appears that BAR have brought their expected restructure forward two weeks following their disappointing performance at the first 2 races of the season. Team boss David Richards announced a 15% reduction in the workforce with Engineering Director Malcolm Oastler and Chief Designer Andy Green the most high profile members to leave.
Richards is aiming at creating clearer lines of reporting and a leaner organisation. He said "I have the greatest respect for the people who created this team, and the dedication they have shown to the task, but at the end of the day the organisation has not delivered. I know that Malcolm and Andy recognise that the results have been below their expectations and I appreciate their disappointment, and thank them for their efforts. We need to build a team with a very clear structure, with the very best people and give them the responsibility to deliver against precisely determined goals. As I have said from the beginning, B.A.R has many extremely talented people, and what we are now doing is giving them the framework within which they can fulfill their true potential."

Newly appointed Technical Director Geoff Willis who came over from Williams is expected to play a major role within the organisation.

21-Mar: "Two Williams and two Schumachers on the podium" is the title of the 5th issue from the Diagnosis and Prognosis Series for the 2002 season. In this issue, the Heretic looks at the aftermath of the Malaysian Grand Prix - Issue 5

21-Mar: So what is the Quali-flyer's 'Also Ran' award ... Check it out