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Formula 1 news, results and statistics when you need it |
2002
British Grand Prix What the teams and drivers said - Friday |
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Formula 1 news, results and statistics when you need it |
2002
British Grand Prix What the teams and drivers said - Friday |
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Drivers Championship
Constructors
Championship What the teams and drivers said - FridayFerrari ( Rubens Barrichello - 1st, Michael Schumacher - 2nd ) Jean Todt: "For once, we have had a different Friday to usual, because of the unfavourable weather conditions with cooler temperatures than normal for this time of year. We only used wet weather tyres during the two hours of free practice. We worked towards the race, both in terms of looking at tyre choice and of fine tuning the set-up of the car, in case we see a repeat of these conditions on Sunday. The Bridgestone tyres proved to work well in these conditions." Ross Brawn: "A very useful day’s work which saw us running in every possible variation of wet conditions. We were able to use all three types of wet weather tyre, to understand how and when to use them and we have got the information we need in case it’s a wet race. When Michael spun at the start of the session, a combination if unusual circumstances brought the engine management software into action, stalling the engine. However, there was still plenty of time to work through all our planned programme." Rubens Barrichello: "I am happy with the work we have done today. We based our programme on the data we acquired at the test here a month ago and were able to do a good job on a track where the conditions were changing very quickly. Compared to our situation at the test, we have made a further step forward in finding the best set-up for the car on this circuit." Michael Schumacher: "Considering I only drove for one hour of practice today, I think our performance is reasonable. This morning I made a mistake and then spun. After that, we then faced an issue because the engine stalled which usually doesn’t happen. The car seems quite competitive, although we don’t know what the situation will be tomorrow, as conditions are expected to be dry. The intermediate tyres worked very well." Jordan ( Giancarlo Fisichella - 3rd, Takuma Sato - 5th ) Gary Anderson: "We had no problems today really, apart from the conditions. We tried a few different tyres, but with constantly changing conditions it’s difficult to know how the car will behave. We completed everything that we were planning to do and there are a few problems to fix but I’m relatively happy." Giancarlo Fisichella: "The car went well today, as it usually does in wet conditions. I was quite confident and we worked through the set-up plan and obviously we took that in the right direction. We are quite confident about tomorrow. If it is wet, we could to be on the third or fourth row, although if it is dry, we may find it difficult to reach the top ten." Takuma Sato: "It was a very good day. Bridgestone have brought us very good intermediate tyres which meant we were able to be very quick. Giancarlo and I are comfortable with driving in the wet and we enjoyed the run today. I am confident at this circuit and I have been able to go flat out immediately because I didn’t have to spend time learning the track, so there was a lot of time for trying tyres and set-up work." Williams ( Juan Pablo Montoya - 4th, Ralf Schumacher - 11th ) Sam Michael: "We had a difficult start. The engineers worked with the data over the break and the mechanics did a good job with the engine change on Juan’s car. The afternoon was a lot more productive as we managed a number of system checks on the new bodywork we have here. So we’ll be confident with it come the race on Sunday." Dr. Mario Theissen: "Very early in the first hour Juan had an engine problem. As the engine continued running for quite a while after the problem appeared, we will not be able to find out the reason for the failure here at the race track. The engine is going to be taken to Munich today to be examined. It has been a while since we have run under wet conditions and therefore today’s focus had to be on set-up and tyre work." Juan Pablo Montoya: "It went pretty well, especially after the start we had this morning with an engine failure, which allowed me to get only 5 laps in during the first session. Then we worked mainly on the wet tyres and the wet set up. We normally seem to struggle in the wet but today was quite encouraging. We’ve done a lot of work and I am pretty happy about it." Ralf Schumacher: "We had very difficult conditions today with a wet and variable track. It was really slippery and I spun a few times, although without any consequences. Of course we still haven’t chosen our tyres and have a lot of work ahead of us in this respect. Also from an aerodynamic point of view, we couldn’t make any informed decision under such conditions." BAR ( Jacques Villeneuve - 6th, Olivier Panis - 14th ) David Richards: "Finding a good balance was no easy task in these track conditions and it’s no surprise that the drivers experienced such mixed fortunes today. Jacques had a very good first day’s running and was able to put the car in a much-improved position for a Friday. Olivier on the other hand struggled with a less responsive car and that’s a problem we will have to be on top of at the end of practice tomorrow. The weather will no doubt have a hand in qualifying but our objective is to put both cars inside the top 10 for the start of our home race on Sunday." Jacques Villeneuve: "We had a good first day today. Two very good sessions and the car feels very driveable in the rain which is great. In the past, I've always had a car which has been difficult to drive in the wet but it seems that this car works well here. It's good and it means we can be aggressive. If the rain stays all weekend then it's looking good for us. If it's dry, then I'm not sure where we'll be. The problem with qualifying in the wet is you have to be out at the right time and because you only have 12 laps you never know when the track is going to be at its quickest so its very difficult." Olivier Panis: "Not a very good day at all today. Generally, the car was very difficult to drive and then I lost a lot of track time in this morning's session due to a traction-control related problem. That's the last thing you need in these track conditions. The problem was fixed for this afternoon but then I struggled all the way through the second session with oversteer. We tried a lot of things to improve it but nothing seemed to make the problem better. This feels like a very different car to the one I had in the Nurburgring; the balance is not good at all. We have to work through everything in the debrief now to try to find a solution for tomorrow morning." McLaren ( Kimi Raikkonen - 7th, David Coulthard - 12th ) Ron Dennis: "Our performance in the extreme wet is not too bad, but in the intermediate conditions towards the end of the second session we just lacked grip. Whatever the weather brings for the rest of the weekend let’s hope it’s at either end of the spectrum and not in the middle." Norbert Haug: "A practice day where it was difficult to improve the performance because of the changing weather conditions. The order of the cars behind both Ferraris shows who was out at the right time with the right tyre." Kimi Raikkonen: "It was very wet and tricky out there because there was a lot of aquaplaning but we learnt a lot about the tyres. We will see what the weather brings for the rest of the race weekend. We would prefer for it to be dry as we will have more data available, but we will have to wait and see." David Coulthard: "In these difficult conditions it’s always a matter of what time you are out on the track and which type of tyre you are using. As a result tyre evaluation was not easy today. However we have experienced these conditions at Silverstone before and will take this into consideration if the weather stays the same for the rest of the weekend. We don’t really know where we are in the wet compared to the other Bridgestone runners except Ferrari." Sauber ( Felipe Massa - 8th, Nick Heidfeld - 10th ) Willy Rampf: "It's difficult to draw and valid conclusions on days like these, when the track conditions keep changing so much. We did our tyre comparison, as part of our race preparation, but that's about all. Both cars were completely reliable, but now we have to squeeze all the work we couldn't do today into tomorrow's free practice, ready for qualifying.." Felipe Massa: "To begin with my set-up wasn't very good. I had understeer this morning and not enough traction, and that's why I went off into the gravel with 15 minutes left. But we worked hard and the car was a lot better this afternoon." Nick Heidfeld: "I had no technical problems today, and because of the weather we were at least able to do all our wet tyre comparisons, but it was one of those days when it was difficult to really push. Every time I got a rhythm going I kept coming across yellow flags where other drivers had gone off. The balance was okay towards the end of this afternoon's session, but it could have been better even with the track being so slippery." Renault ( Jenson Button - 9th, Jarno Trulli - 16th ) Jean Jacques His: "On the engine side, we had no particular problems today. In these conditions however, it is the driver-chassis-tyre combination that is most important, meaning we didn't manage to collect much data. Naturally, it is frustrating, but there was nothing we could do about the weather." Mike Gascoyne: "A useful day for us which allowed us to evaluate the three different types of wet tyre. Jarno had a few problems with set-up, and both drivers suffered from understeer as the track dried. Overall, it was useful to be able to conduct these evaluations, but we are hoping for dry conditions tomorrow." Jenson Button: "We had a good morning, but it tailed off a little during the afternoon. It's a shame to be ninth, but we need to finish our work from today in case it rains later in the weekend. In terms of the aero package, it was hard to judge in these conditions - we need to wait for the sun to come out." Jarno Trulli: "A difficult day for me. The car feels strange, and seems to be behaving differently to normal. We worked on set-up and tyres to try and solve the problem, but we didn't get to the bottom of it. I'm definitely not happy, and we now have to analyse all the data in order to be more competitive tomorrow." Jaguar ( Pedro de la Rosa - 13th, Eddie Irvine - 15th ) Niki Lauda: "Not an ideal day to begin preparing for the weekend ahead, but this is Silverstone after all! The heavy rain has not lent itself well to our planned programme for today and instead of providing us with an understanding of the new aero package, we have had to resort to a wet tyre evaluation instead. The track was way too slippery, particularly in the second sector, and we can only hope for better conditions tomorrow. The drivers have, however, reported some encouraging feedback in certain areas of the car but until we conduct a full programme, the results from the new package remain inconclusive." Pedro de la Rosa: "A very frustrating start to our British Grand Prix, but it’s the same for everyone today. The track isn’t allowing us to really push the car to the limits and because of this, we are not in a position to make conclusions about the new aero package. There are certainly some improvements that can already be felt, but we need to understand the package a lot better and this will only happen in dry conditions. The stadium section coming out of Bridge is very slippery and many drivers have found themselves in the gravel today – including me. With different cars running different tyre compounds and fuel loads, today’s lap times cannot in any way be used as comparative data and until tomorrow, the full extent of our aerodynamic development work remains unclear." Eddie Irvine: "We have been very limited in what we can do today and in an effort to preserve some tyres for tomorrow and the race, we haven’t done anywhere near as much as we would have liked. The circuit is very difficult in places, particularly around the slower sections of the track. It’s really hard work out there and it makes it extremely hard to undertake a proper pre-race programme. We tried several variations of the wet tyre and did a few runs on the intermediates. We still have a fair way to go before we begin drawing any conclusions, but the early signs are encouraging, albeit somewhat diluted by the horrendous weather conditions." Minardi ( Mark Webber - 17th, Alex Yoong - 18th ) Paul Stoddart: "On a day when the Silverstone weather unfortunately lived up to its notoriously changeable reputation, KL Minardi Asiatech made useful progress developing its chassis settings for what may be a wet qualifying session, and perhaps even a wet race on Sunday. Both Mark and Alex did a good job in the tricky conditions and carried out some useful back-to-back comparisons with the 'heavy' and 'shallow' Michelin wet tyres. We can only hope the rain stops tomorrow to give everyone a chance to fine tune the dry weather handling of their cars."Mark Webber: "We had a positive day, but the changeable weather conditions meant we didn't make quite as much progress as we would have liked. This morning, the track was at its best about 15 minutes from the end of the session, but then it deteriorated when the rains came again with about 10 minutes to go. The circuit was a lot quicker in the second session and improving all the time, but then we had a couple of issues that prevented us from getting the best out of the car when the surface was at its driest. We worked through our wet tyre comparison and tried a couple of things in the second session that we thought we might use tomorrow, but they didn't really work out, so we'll revert to our plan from the first session. We're looking forward to Saturday, when hopefully, the weather will be an improvement on today." Alex Yoong: "I haven't driven in the wet at Silverstone for a long time, and it was a lot more slippery out there today than I remember. We improved the car as the day went on and we now have a good idea on the direction we want to take if the practice and qualifying sessions tomorrow are wet. Today's sessions were relatively uneventful for me until the last 10 minutes, when I experienced a gearbox problem and spun as a result." Toyota ( Allan McNish - 19th, Mika Salo - No Time Set ) Ange Pasquali: "It was a pity that Mika could do no running today but the team doctor explained that it is better for him to rest today in order to be fully fit for practice and qualifying tomorrow. Unfortunately we could only run with one car today and we struggled in the wet conditions. It is a similar difficulty to the one we had in Imola and we have not had enough wet testing since then to find a cure." Allan McNish: "We struggled quite badly today with general grip and balance of the car. In the first session I had understeer. Latterly towards the end of the second session we improved that but then gained oversteer. The circuit conditions were changing a tremendous amount, and it was a case of being out on the right tyre at the right time in the drier conditions." Mika Salo: "I did not feel too well when I woke up this morning. I went out at the beginning of session one to do an installation lap to see if the car was okay, but my stomach was really painful. Team doctor, Riccardo Ceccarelli, examined me and said that I have a kind of stomach infection. He recommended I rest today and is quite confident that I can drive again tomorrow." Arrows ( Heinz Harald Frentzen - No Time Set, Enrique Bernoldi - No Time Set ) Team did not take part in the practice sessions due to a financial crisis.
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