Austria 1999: Team Press Releases, Qualifying
Qualifying - Press releases for:
McLaren,
Ferrari,
Jordan,
Stewart,
Williams,
BAR,
Benetton,
Prost,
Sauber,
Minardi,
Arrows
McLaren [start]
Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard both experienced initial problems when they started the West McLaren Mercedes bid for pole position in today's qualifying session. These took the form of a fuel pump problem on Mika's car and an electronic glitch on David's. But, once Mika changed to the T. Car and David's car had been reprogrammed, both drivers went on to put in the fastest times of the day. Mika claimed pole position with a 1:10.954 whilst David will start beside his team-mate from the front row of the grid on a 1:11.153.
MIKA HAKKINEN
"I had to change to the T.Car as my race car cut out at the exit of the pit lane and that always makes you feel a bit nervous, although the T. Car is exactly the same as your race car. But it was great teamwork and we got the right result. This is a tough grand prix, hard on the cars and brakes with many things that can happen, but I am going to go flat out and try to gain the maximum from the race."
DAVID COULTHARD
"I had a small electronic problem at the start of the session which I came back in to check before starting my qualifying laps. But apart from that, I have felt really comfortable with the car all weekend and I think we should have a great race tomorrow. I have been quick all weekend and I think that if we have reliability, the same conditions, then we expect the race to be very close."
RON DENNIS
"A satisfying qualifying session for both drivers in which they got most of the performance from their cars. Mika suffered a fuel pump failure on his race car and he did the whole of qualifying in the T.Car. This is particularly pleasing for the mechanics who work on this car as they rarely get the opportunity to enjoy a pole position. David had a small problem on his first lap because of a programming error but this was quickly rectified."
NORBERT HAUG
"Our team gave a great performance today. Mika had to use the T.Car and posted the fastest lap of the weekend which is an outstanding job. David being less than two tenths of a second slower in second spot made this session a perfect one for us."
Ferrari [start]
JEAN TODT
"We could have expected to have a car on the second row, but with a smaller time gap to pole. Mika Salo performed well, considering this was his first qualifying session for Ferrari. It is a shame he made a mistake in the first sector. But for that, he could have improved his time by two or three tenths. Considering the pressure he was under, he did well. In tomorrow's race, it will be important to get both cars to the finish."
EDDIE IRVINE
"The reason for the big gap to pole position is that my brakes were inconsistent: one lap I would lock the fronts, the next it would be the rears. Because of that I could not commit to the corners. If you look at the section times, then the gap is not so big and as this problem with the brakes does not occur in race conditions, I am confident for tomorrow. Third is a good place to start, and I hope to get past David and try and chase Mika. The car is well balanced and we will be much closer in the race."
MIKA SALO
"I found it difficult to balance the car and at first I was struggling in the slow speed corners. We fixed that, but then it was not perfect in the high speed ones. We changed the car a lot throughout the day and before my final run we got it right. I went a bit wide at the first corner and lost it there. The times are so close on this track, that another couple of tenths would have put me in fourth, so I am happy that I am only half a second behind Eddie. The time I lost yesterday affected this afternoon's performance, but seventh place is not bad, the car feels good in race trim and it is a long race. I hope to score more than one point tomorrow."
Jordan [start]
Heinz-Harald Frentzen produced his best qualifying performance of the 1999 season to take fourth place behind the two McLarens and Eddie Irvine's Ferrari. This result puts him in his strongest starting place yet this year, in the knowledge that he will be racing with new modifications to his car and engine.
HEINZ-HARALD FRENTZEN
Commenting on his performance, Frentzen said, "After a difficult morning trying to find the right set up, I had not expected to finish so high up. This is the best result we have had all season and I am very pleased with the job we did today. This morning we were struggling to find the perfect balance for this track but we made the right modifications in time for a successful qualifying session. You really have to be very accurate with the changes you are making to the car on this circuit and we have worked very hard this weekend analysing the data. It is great that it worked out. I have a lot of confidence in the car for tomorrow and we will be running some modifications for the first time in a race, so I am looking forward to a good day."
DAMON HILL
Damon Hill was not able to find his form of yesterday and qualified 11th. His hope is to find a good race set up and he aims to finish in the points. The Austrian circuit has very low grip and could see many drivers sliding off into the gravel, giving Damon the chance to move up the grid.
The McLarens continue to dominate the top end of the grid. Hakkinen again took pole, with his team mate behind him. Eddie Irvine will start along side Frentzen.
Michael Schumacher's replacement, Mika Salo, finished 7th. The two Stewart cars of Herbert and Barrichello lie between Salo and Frentzen.
Despite threatening skies, the heavens did not open during qualifying and the forecast is for a dry race.
Stewart [start]
Rubens Barrichello will start tomorrow's Austrian Grand Prix from fifth position on the grid. Next to him will be his team mate Johnny Herbert who qualified sixth - the first time both Stewart-Ford cars have been in the top six.
RUBENS BARRICHELLO
You seemed to be struggling a little this morning, how did you turn things round for qualifying?
"I had a problem with turn-in oversteer this morning and I felt like a passenger at times. But we improved the car's handling and mechanical grip as the session went on and the car felt very good by the end. I think fourth was probably the best I could have done. I left it a little late for my last run and caught some traffic. I owe a lot to my engineers and mechanics who gave me a nice car this afternoon."
What are your prospects for the race?
"There are chances to overtake under braking here so I expect to be challenging for the podium if I can get a good start and our race strategy works out. We have improved the car in race trim at the last couple of tests and the Silverstone race proved that we can run competitively at the front, so I'm confident for tomorrow."
JOHNNY HERBERT
Sixth place, your best qualifying position of the season - how does it feel?
"It has taken me and the team a bit longer than expected but now we are in the top six it's a big relief. Considering I was fourth quickest this morning I'm a little frustrated not to be one or two places higher up."
You have been consistently quick all weekend - what do you attribute this to?
"First of all the testing we did at Monza last week has been very beneficial. My main problem this year has been to put in a quick lap on low fuel. The car felt great and I was able to be a bit more aggressive than usual. This is also my first trouble-free start to a weekend so I felt more relaxed for qualifying. My final run was hampered first by the yellow flags and then I was held up by traffic, so I could have gone quicker."
PAUL STEWART : SGP Chief Operating Officer
"To fill the third row of the grid for the first time this year is a tremendous achievement. For Johnny in particular this is a satisfying result. We now have a good opportunity to pick up points with both cars in the race and improve our championship standing. All the modifications we have made to the cars, including the introduction of the Series 3 engine, have worked well so far."
MARTIN WHITAKER : Director, Ford Racing, Europe
"Having both cars in the top six is an excellent performance by the whole team. We experienced no major problems and it marks a solid race weekend debut for the Series 3 engine. As a precaution we changed the engine in Rubens' car after Free Practice."
Williams [start]
The Winfield WilliamsF1 drivers, Ralf Schumacher and Alex Zanardi finished 8th and 14th fastest respectively.
RALF SCHUMACHER
"On my first qualifying run I could not achieve a better time because Villeneuve wasn't giving me any space to overtake him and when he saw me in the mirrors it was too late. In the second run I was very careful because I wanted to do a good time. Then, in my third run, I could finally achieve my fastest lap. Although everyone is very close together I must admit that after the free practice I expected to be in the sixth or seventh positions. Now we must really work hard for tomorrow's race to find a good set-up and I am sure that the Winfield WilliamsF1 Team will score some more points."
ALEX ZANARDI
"I am a bit puzzled because unfortunately in the morning we got some information that was no longer valid in the afternoon. Well Formula One is for sure no easy deal, but once more I made some strategy choices for qualifying that turned out to be not the right ones. Tomorrow is another day, after all, and I hope we will manage to have a decent race."
PATRICK HEAD : Technical Director
"I think that those grid positions are about par for the course for us at the moment and to improve upon that we have obviously got to make the car better. We expect to do that as the season continues but meanwhile now it's just a question of a good race preparation and we hope that we can finish tomorrow in good shape."
British American Racing [start]
Although both drivers showed steadily improved lap times today in preparation for the Austrian Grand Prix, the British American Racing team could not improve enough against the field to maintain previous provisional grid positions and so will start Sunday's race from the middle of the pack. Ricardo Zonta improved his time by half a second, but dropped 11 places to 15th, while Jacques Villeneuve slipped one place to ninth and will start on the fifth row.
Lack of traction was a problem right at the beginning of the day, but as the track became more grippy during the morning sessions, both drivers found that handling problems experienced during Friday's free practice were increased. Zonta, in particular, experienced difficulty setting up on new tyres, which seemed to exacerbate the understeer which he had suffered on Friday. As a result, he spun off the track twice during the hour-long qualifying session.
Neither car experienced any significant mechanical problems, although Jacques Villeneuve had a minor clutch malfunction, so as a precautionary measure the team changed his gearbox during the lunch break.
The McLaren duo of Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard start Sunday's race from the front row, with Eddie Irvine (Ferrari) and Heinz-Harald Frentzen (Jordan) on the second row. Hakkinen won his seventh pole position of the 1999 season with a best time of one minute, 10.934 seconds on the 4.319km/2.684 mile A-1 Ring circuit.
JACQUES VILLENEUVE
"At the moment I think that ninth is the limit for the car here. This morning the car was not very good on new tyres, so we went back to old ones. Also, we were too slow on the straights so we decided to take some wing off, and that was the wrong way to go. It's a pity because the mechanical side is working well, but we still need something more. On my last run I drove slowly while they were clearing Ricardo's car, but with cold tyres I was sliding all over the place, so I called it a day and came back in. On Sunday, we'll just have to try and make up places. The A1-Ring is a circuit where you can overtake, so the race should be full of action and surprises."
RICARDO ZONTA
"I am very disappointed because on Friday we seemed to have the balance right and things were going well. Today's track conditions were different and we didn't seem to be able to get the right configuration - I had bad understeer and it was difficult to really push. It also meant that we spent too much time working on the set-ups and I wasn't able to put in two quick laps together."
CRAIG POLLOCK : Managing Director, British American Racing
"A disappointing session after Friday when everything went so well. We thought we'd have both cars in the top 10, so we are not too happy with the final result. However we need to get points now, and so we have to concentrate on getting both cars to the end of the race and into the points on Sunday."
ROBERT SYNGE : Team Manager, British American Racing
"We thought we could do better than that because we felt the cars were capable of more. Ricardo went off on his slowing down lap - he locked up under braking at the first corner - and that unfortunately delayed Jacques on his final flying lap. Otherwise no particular problems with the cars, they're just not as fast as we would have liked."
Benetton [start]
Summary : Both drivers used a low downforce set-up. Wurz qualified in the top ten. Fisichella didn't manage to equal the time set in morning practice.
Weather : Cloudy sky with some sun, dry track
Pat SYMONDS : Technical Director
After the promise shown this morning, this result is worse than we expected. It was nevertheless a good effort by Alexander to get into the top ten, although Giancarlo is considerably slower than he was this morning and we need to find out why. We have obviously had to run the cars here with somewhat of a compromise set-up due to the problems discovered after Silverstone which may have cost us a little bit in qualifying, but should help us with our race performance.
Alexander WURZ
We changed the set-up a bit for qualifying. I was disappointed with my first set of tyres as there was very low grip. Then on the second set I posted my fastest lap which was quite good. My last run wasn't so quick as there was traffic and quite a few people had gone off in front of me, otherwise maybe I could have improved again.
Giancarlo FISICHELLA
I didn't even manage to equal the good time I set in practice this morning. I had hoped to qualify in the top ten but the track seemed really different. I made a few mistakes because it was really difficult to drive the car on the limit with such low downforce and this compromised my performance. Anyway we have certainly taken a step forward since Silverstone.
Prost [start]
JARNO TRULLI
"I think we have worked well in this session. We have used the potential of the car, even if, in my fastest lap, I was three-tenths slower in the first sector, without making any errors. I don't know why and we have to study the data. If I had not lost these three-tenths, I would certainly have kept the position I had in the morning, during free practice, which was in the top ten."
OLIVIER PANIS
"We spent all morning working on making the best choice on tyres. I made the first two runs on new tyres and my third on the second set again which we had saved. It would have been even better if I had done more laps on the second set to make them more competitive. Furthermore, today I suffered from a lack of top speed."
ALAN JENKINS
"In this qualifying session, the team worked progressively and well even if the final result does not appear to confirm that. The difficulty this afternoon has been in choosing between new tyres and old ones, as the air temperature went down but the track temperature came up. Jarno was slowed down by yellow flags on his final run; without them, I think he would have improved his time."
Sauber [start]
Jean Alesi
"This morning we had a good set-up and I was confident for a qualifying place in the Top 10, but this afternoon my race car developed an engine problem during my first run. It wasn't cured by the second, so I aborted that and took over the spare C18. Thaz wasn't set up the same way, and though I set my best time on the first lap of my third run, it was very disappointing. I aborted my last run because the car just wasn't working as well as it had this morning."
Pedro Diniz
"We struggled to balance my car all day, without success. On my last run I even tried a pair of used front tyres, because the car doesn't seem to like new tyres here, but that didn't help. It just made the understeer worse and made the car very difficult under braking."
Peter Sauber
"You can come up with an explanation or everything, but I have nothing to say about this unexpected result."
Minardi [start]
LUCA BADOER
"I feel satisfied because a technical step forward has been achieved and it has been clearly perceived. It is the first time we started the qualifying session ahead of both Arrows, our rivals. We feel sure we can get a better improvement in the race. Yesterday and this morning we were decidedly better than in the qualifying session because we had a race set-up. I feel confident I will do a good race tomorrow."
MARC GENE
"I feel disappointed. Today we didn't manage to exploit the car's potential. After yesterday's free practice, we did a few modifications which could lead to a further car's improvement but the result was not as we expected. Data gathered during this morning free practice turned out to be wrong in the qualifying session thus preventing us from detecting a good strategy for tyres and set-up. In the end we found the right direction but it was too late because I was not able to score a good lap time. Although things didn't turn out very well today, I look forward to a pretty good race tomorrow. The car has improved a lot and it is definitely more driveable."
CESARE FIORIO
"Developments in terms of performances are definitely confirmed even though in the qualifying session Marc couldn't find a good balance thus being unable to exploit his car whereas Luca succeeded in posting a good lap time. Unfortunately the last set of tyres was not as performing as the previous one and we, therefore, couldn't attack the two cars ahead of us which were within our reach."
Arrows [start]
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