Austria 1999: Team Press Releases, Practice
Friday Practice - Press releases for:
Jordan,
McLaren,
BAR,
Sauber,
Williams,
Ferrari,
Stewart,
Minardi,
Prost,
Benetton,
Arrows
Jordan
Damon Hill produced an excellent performance on Friday's free practice session at the A1 ring in Austria today, finishing in first place with a best time of 1.13.303. Heinz-Harald Frentzen had a less productive session, having to retire early with a gear box problem.
DAMON HILL
"That was fun! I enjoyed myself and am delighted to finish the day in first place. The team has done a great job to develop the car and now I feel I am able to really fight, something I have missed for most of this season. When the car feels good you can really start to dig deeper - although I went off so many times, I wondered whether I should be taking up a new career as a rally driver! The reason I went off was that we had not found the right set up, but obviously we fixed it by the end of the session. If I can keep this balance tomorrow we should do well."
HEINZ-HARALD FRENTZEN
"My position today does not reflect where we should be but I feel confident that tomorrow we will put things right. I was not able to find the right set up today and had to finish running early because of a gear box problem. We will work on finding a good set up and lap time tomorrow."
The T car, chassis 6 is set up for Heinz-Harald Frentzen for tomorrow's qualifying.
McLaren
Both West McLaren Mercedes drivers' David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen enjoyed a positive day's practice as they prepared for the Austrian Grand Prix. David and Mika were both consistently the quickest in the session until the last lap which saw Mika finishing today's practice in second place with a 1:13.325, closely followed by his team mate with a 1:13.376.
MIKA HAKKINEN
"It was a good practice session. I am not yet one hundred percent pleased, but we made good progress as we worked on the balance and handling of the car and I am feeling very positive about qualifying."
DAVID COULTHARD
"I am happy with the progress we made today, especially as we picked up grip throughout both sessions. I am looking forward to tomorrow."
RON DENNIS
"A very productive practice which saw both drivers improving their times through their own, and their engineers' efforts. Today's times, as always, are reflective of varying fuel loads and tyre degradation. Our main competition remains unchanged."
NORBERT HAUG
"The A1 Ring is a circuit where weight is a crucial factor. Therefore we have to wait and see what the grid order will be tomorrow. I do not expect our main opposition, Ferrari, to be in ninth position, qualifying will demonstrate where everybody really stands."
British American Racing
A1-Ring, Spielberg, Austria, July 23, 1999 - Rookie Ricardo Zonta achieved his best Formula One practice result to date, setting a time only three-tenths of a second behind provisional pole-sitter Damon Hill, and two-tenths ahead of team-mate Jacques Villeneuve in today's free practice for Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix.
Zonta's time, fourth best overall, was set on new tyres and on a lap relatively clear of traffic. Villeneuve's best time was set on old tyres, but when he went out again on new tyres hoping to improve his time, he was forced to back off because of yellow flags.
Briton Hill, who only two weeks ago was contemplating the last race of his career, turned in a best time of one minute, 13.303 seconds in his Jordan, ahead of the two McLarens of World Champion Mika Hakkinen, and David Coulthard who featured times of 1:13.325 and 1:13.376 respectively.
The 4.323km/2.648 mile A-1 Ring near Spielberg is familiar to both British American Racing drivers. Villeneuve won here in 1997, but it is Zonta's third sortie on the circuit in a third type of car. In 1997, Zonta finished second in a F3000 race, and last year won a race here en route to the world championship in the FIA GT1 category.
JACQUES VILLENEUVE
"We worked well on set-ups today, but I don't personally think this is a difficult circuit to set the car up for - you brake, you turn and you accelerate - so it's easy to get the right set-up. The track seemed good today, quite clean with no rubber and the grip was pretty good by the end of the session. The A1-Ring has always been good to me in the past, so I feel positive coming here. Although today's performance is encouraging, it's only Friday, but we're going to give it our best shot Saturday and hope for a top six points)position."
RICARDO ZONTA
"The work we did at our last test at Monza has helped us a lot. My car felt very good today. It was consistent in the corners, which meant I was able to push. Jacques and I are now running with the same differential - at Silverstone I still had the older spec one and I think this gave Jacques a second's advantage over me in qualifying. Now we're the same and I think the lap times show this. I still have quite a bit of understeer in the fast corners but we're gradually improving this, and I think we can be even quicker."
CRAIG POLLOCK : Managing Director, British American Racing
"I think the team did a great job today, especially Ricardo who put in a wonderful performance. Jacques' best chance of a quick lap was spoiled by the yellow flags coming out, but we're quite pleased with fourth and eighth positions."
ROBERT SYNGE : Team Manager, British American Racing
"Both our drivers have been winners at this circuit and, for Ricardo particularly, that gives him added confidence for his first time here in F1. We're very pleased with his performance. We have incorporated some important new developments which we tested last week in Monza into the car's suspension, and we seem to have found the way to extract more of the car's real potential. This is the first of a series of developments - both suspension and aerodynamic - that we plan to introduce in the next few races."
Sauber
Jean ALESI
This morning was very difficult for me; I was a spectator ! I did only seven laps before I encountered a problem with a rear wheelnut during a routine wheel change. In the end the team had to change the whole rear upright, so I lost the session. This afternoon was much better. I could attack again, and the car was working very well.
Pedro DINIZ
This morning I tried some new dampers, which made the car feel better, but I still had some mid corner understeer. We changed the set-up a little this afternoon and improved things further, and I'm quite happy with the way it went. This is a circuit that suits our car, and I'm feeling confident that we can qualify well tomorrow.
Peter SAUBER
Naturally we are happy to have both drivers well within the top 10, but we must remember that these are only Friday times.
Williams
It was quite a calm start for both Winfield WilliamsF1 drivers Ralf Schumacher and Alex Zanardi, who were sixth and twelfth respectively in the first free practice sessions for the Austrian Grand Prix. In addition to some further improvements, both cars were fitted with the new parts that were successfully tested last week in Monza.
RALF SCHUMACHER
"This first day here in Zeltweg was not so bad, I am quite happy with the car so far, although in today's free practice session I missed a little bit of grip both, front and rear. I hope that we can improve by changing the set-up of the car for tomorrow's qualifying and I am confident that the Winfield Williams Team will do a good job here in Spielberg."
ALEX ZANARDI
"I am reasonably satisfied with today's free practice session. We had quite a good run, free of big problems, where we could try several new parts. I am looking forward to improve my performance in tomorrow's qualifying session."
JAMES ROBINSON : Senior Operations Engineer
"We had a very demanding day, spent working on a number of new parts and with the tyres. Yesterday's heavy rain made the circuit conditions difficult for everyone. So we are really looking at front tyre condition and how that's going to develop in the race."
Ferrari
JEAN TODT
"Today we worked on finding the right set up for the race. Both drivers used only one set of tyres each. We are happy with the overall performance of the car. Mika lost control of the car, spinning off into the gravel. He was unable to continue and therefore missed the last part of the afternoon session. But anyway, he did a good job. I think it is looking good for tomorrow."
EDDIE IRVINE
"This was a usual Friday, doing a lot of laps on old tyres and with a heavy fuel load, so I am not bothered about my time from today. The car is pretty much the way it should be. There are a few minor improvements we can try tomorrow morning. We made a good step forward before my last two runs this afternoon, but traffic and old tyres meant we did not see the difference on the watch. Tyre choice will be straightforward here. I like this circuit and it is fun to drive."
MIKA SALO
"The morning session went very well. We made a lot of changes to the car and improved it a lot. This afternoon, we continued to improve and also did some pit stop practices which was useful as everything is new to me here. Then unfortunately, I made a small mistake and lost control of the car in a high speed corner. I was trying something different for the first time. It was part of the learning process Unfortunately, it cost me forty minutes of practice time. But generally, I am comfortable with the car now and I think I can have a very good weekend here. There are still a few changes I want to try on the car tomorrow morning, which should make it better for qualifying."
Stewart
Rubens Barrichello finished tenth fastest after today's Free Practice sessions for the Austrian Grand Prix. Johnny Herbert ended up 11th quickest.
RUBENS BARRICHELLO
Are you pleased with the progress you made today?
"We made a big change to the car after the first session which cost me a bit of track time during the second hour but we still managed to get through quite a lot of set-up work. I'm not totally comfortable with the way the car feels just yet. I would like to be able to attack it a bit more."
Are you still on course to better last season's fifth place in qualifying?
"I think top six is a realistic target if its dry but if we have any more rain like yesterday's torrential downpour I'm sure I can sneak into the top four. Based on today's times it looks like there will be quite a tight battle for the top 10 positions."
JOHNNY HERBERT
How were the track conditions today?
"It was quite dirty to start with which is always the case at the A1-Ring. As the day wore on it stabilised and there was a lot more grip towards the end of the second session. If there is no more rain before qualifying I think we are in pretty good shape."
What improvements were made to the car today?
"We found a nice balance at the end of the second session. I felt much more at home in the car. We managed to reduce the understeer I experienced this morning but there is still some way to go. The new exhaust system we have fitted on the cars has made the engine run smoother and has improved the driveability."
PAUL STEWART : SGP Chief Operating Officer
"Both drivers went through comprehensive set-up changes and the times are very close at the top. It's re-assuring that all the modifications we ran at the Monza test proved reliable in their first race weekend outing today."
MARTIN WHITAKER : Director, Ford Racing, Europe
"Both Rubens and Johnny used the Series 2 engines today and we experienced no problems. However for the rest of the weekend both cars will be fitted with the new Series 3 engine which will improve top end performance and provide a wider spread of power."
Minardi
LUCA BADOER
"It is a great satisfaction to see that such aerodynamic modifications work really well. Today we managed to optimize the car, doing a good job in terms of set-up. All the work done turned out a fine performance. Furthermore, this proves, that a competitive car leads to good results."
MARC GENE
"This session turned out to be very exciting. All the merit goes to the Team who worked very hard in this period. Today I did my job as I do everyday, but the car was a large improvement with the new aerodynamics which I find very efficient. Also Ford has made very good modifications with the new evolution engine. At the end, the job that everybody did led us to be so competitive, we are only nine tenths from pole!"
The T-car (chassis 03) is prepared for Luca Badoer.
Prost
JARNO TRULLI
"I drove in both sessions with plenty of fuel. My car lacked grip, specially in the quick curves. We have tried different set-ups in order to use the tyres in the correct way on this particular track, well-known for its low level of grip."
OLIVIER PANIS
"The engine problem which I had on my car caused me to lose the benefit of the first session. We changed the engine for the afternoon and the work done was fruitful. The balance of my car is good, but to be quicker, we need to find more grip. Our analysis of the day has made several things clear. In the present circumstances, with so much fuel, it is difficult to go faster."
VINCENT GAILLARDOT
"We have spent the two sessions today working to prepare for the race with heavy fuel loads on both cars. We have tested different ideas in relation to the behaviour of the tyres which seem, here, to wear very little."
Benetton
Summary : The free practice sessions were dedicated to working on race set-up. Fisichella used only one set of tyres and Wurz used two having flat spotted his first set. Despite the relatively slow times, caused by both cars going off the track, the team feels it has resolved in part the set-up problems from Silverstone.
Weather : Cloudy sky with some sun, dry track
Pat SYMONDS : Technical director
In spite of our lowly positions in practice, we did some good solid work which we hope will pay off later in the weekend. Having identified some of our problems from Silverstone we are concentrating on set-ups to work round these issues and feel we can be much more competitive tomorrow. The main problems we encountered today were Alexander spinning and losing time on the circuit and Giancarlo having a continual brake problem that we were not able to fix during the session but which we will attend to tonight.
Giancarlo FISICHELLA
I may have only been 18th fastest but I am much happier than usual as the set-up has considerably improved. Unfortunately though the brakes weren't well balanced and I went off the track and damaged the nose and the undertray. The repairs took a lot of time and so I couldn't complete many laps. If I hadn't lost so much time I would have been able to do much better. It was also a great pleasure for me to be visited today by the entire Roma football team.
Alexander WURZ
The track is very slippery and we are struggling with grip so we are sliding around a lot. The balance is not far off but there is still a lot of understeer. I spun off towards the end of the second session as I made a mistake and went too far on the kerb.
Arrows
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