By Huw Alban
April 29 2002

The team, especially Heinz-Harald Frentzen, has been very strong this weekend and it is no surprise that the post-qualifying press quotes are down-beat. Frentzen is reasonably happy with 13th, but is still not happy with the balalnce of the A23. Bernoldi was hampered by having to take to the spare. Heinz-Harald Frentzen has been inside the top 10 fastest cars throughout all four of the free practice sessions, and looked in great shape for a competitive result. His qualifying hour started well, but he seemed to struggle to improve on his initial time. The rest of the grid however made siginificant gains pushing the German quickly down the order.

"Well, not a bad result," Frentzen said in the press statement. "I think we have shown again today that we have potential. The balance still isn't 100% as it should be for qualifying but that situation should improve soon. The car is generally better in race trim, more competitive, so I'm looking forward to having a good race tomorrow."

Enrique Bernoldi's first run came to a dramatic halt when his Cosworth engine expired. From there it was an uphill struggle for the young Brazilian to improve. "I lost my first run and a set of tyres along with it," he said after the session. "I wasn't happy with the balance of the T-car so that slowed me down later on. I was a bit quicker on my last run but was held up which is a shame as I feel I could have beaten both the Jaguars today."

Technical Director, Mike Coughlan, feels the same way as this site. "Slightly disappointed," his press statement started. "Heinz-Harald did a good job today, however we feel we should be in the top 12, hence the disappointment. The Bridgestone tyre looks strong for the race. I'm concerned about the problem Enrique had at the start of the session but we'll have to look at the data to find out what went wrong there."

For the races that we have seen so far, it is a proven fact that the A23 appears to be more competitive in race trim than it does in qualifying trim. Heinz-Harald Frentzen was slicing through the field in Brazil before the track-rod problem occured, and being a bit further up the field will hopefully give the German a bit more of a head start for tomorrows race. In addition, 13th is probably a good position to start from in order to avoid, and make the most of, any first corner incidents. The weather is set to remain fine and dry for tomorrows race, so rain will not be a benefitting factor.

The only other question mark that is hanging is reliability. The team have told this site that they have a procedure for eliminating problems and so far this year that procedure seems to have working in getting both cars off the line. Tomorrows races will be very interesting...