Team Rundown: Friday 2003 Australian GP

By Andrew Hooper
March 7 2003

 

 

  
Team Rundown
 
Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro: Rubens Barrichello 1st, Michael Schumacher 4th.

Rubens Barrichello: "That was a new experience but there are no points and it doesn’t get you a good grid position. But it still feels good to be fastest. It was a completely new feeling to have to find a compromise between going 100% and making no mistakes. I do not sure that everyone was running low fuel today so we will have to see what happens tomorrow."

Michael Schumacher said that he was disappointed to be only fourth fastest. "It seems that I was the track cleaner today and it was pretty slippery. When you drive in the session like this it is fun but when you get back to the pits it is a bit boring because you are hanging around and you cannot do anything about and cannot do anything about it like you could in the past."

Neither Ferrari driver reported any problems.

BMW WilliamsF1 Team: Juan Pablo Montoya 10th. Ralf Schumacher 16th.

Neither driver had any major complaints about the car but both said that the car needs to be developed.

Juan Pablo Montoya: "The balance of the car was OK. I cannot complain about anything but we are lacking speed."

Ralf Schumacher admitted that he made a mistake. "I really got it wrong in the first sector," he said. "That was my only problem. But even with perfect run you can see from the lap time that we have a lot of work in front of us. The car was mega-nervous and heavily understeering in the slow corners."

West McLaren Mercedes: Kimi Raikkonen 2nd, David Coulthard 6th.

David Coulthard admitted that he did not have a very exciting session.

"It felt a bit flat," he said. "One lap and that was it. Game over. I think that the best way to judge the new system is to see how things pan out over the whole weekend and then judge if it is a better system. I had a pretty average qualifying run. The fuel pump failed at the end of the morning session and the boys did a great job to get it fixed in time but there was a bit of an imbalance in the car."

Kimi Raikkonen was happier. "I wanted to be in the top six and I pushed too hard and went wide in the first corner but otherwise it was a good run."

Raikkonen was lucky in the morning not to hit anything when he had a big spin in the fast section at the back of the track. This damaged the under tray and he lost track-time while a new part was fitted.

"Our aim was to have two cars in the top six in qualifying and we have done that," said Ron Dennis.

Mild Seven Renault F1 Team: Fernando Alonso 7th, Jarno Trulli 9th.

The Renault team had a satisfying day but found that running three cars in the morning test was harder work than expected. There were engine changes for the two race cars between the sessions and that took longer than expected so the cars went out late in the free practice.

"The temperatures were higher in the afternoon," said Renault's Denis Chevrier, "and the engines behave differently than in the morning and that disrupted Jarno a little. We were surprised by the speed of the BARs. We did not expect that.

"After 18 months being a test driver it is satisfying to be back," said Fernando Alonso. "The car was well-balanced and it went OK but I had a bit of a slide on my lap."

Sauber Petronas: Nick Heidfeld 12th, Heinz-Harald Frentzen 13th.

The team had a troubled morning session with some electronic problems but recovered well in the afternoon.

The problems this morning did not help," said Heidfeld, "but I am happy with the car. I enjoyed the lap but I made a couple of mistakes."

Frentzen went out in the spare car because of an electronic problem in the morning but this suffered a lot of oversteer. "I had a big slide early on and that really hurt my lap but the balance was not too bad."

Jordan Ford: Giancarlo Fisichella 14th, Ralph Firman 17th

The team's major problem was that Fisichella lost time in the morning with a fuel pump problem and so qualifying was difficult.

"Overall it was not too bad but we now need to concentrate on lessons learned for the qualifying session. The tyres were graining a little in the first two corners."

Ralph Firman was disappointed with his performance.

"I am still learning about the circuit. I was driving as hard as I could to find the limit and I pushed too hard. I was also picking up understeer as the lap went on as the tyres were going off. We need to look at that."

Jaguar Racing: Mark Webber 15th, Antonio Pizzonia 19th

Qualifying was a big disappointment for Mark Webber and Antonio Pizzonia but the team was happy with the potential of the cars.

"The car was better than the drivers today," said Dr Mark Gillen. "However we are satisfied with the way things have gone today It is still very early stages to understand how the format will work."

Antonio Pizzonia lost a lot of time in the morning as Webber was switching between the two cars and things were not helped when he lost time with a fuel pick up problem in the morning session.

"It would have been a lot easier if I had known the track better," said Pizzonia. "It was easier this morning when I was running lap after lap and getting familiar with it. It was not easy. I made a mistake by over-pushing."

Webber was also disappointed.

"I am very frustrated. I braked too late a Turn 1 and then again at Turn 6. i was trying too hard and I have to control the aggression better. It was a lot of pressure but I have no issues with the car. I have to do a better job myself."

Lucky Strike BAR Honda: Jacques Villeneuve 3rd, Jenson Button 5th

The big surprise of qualifying was the performance of the two BARs despite engine problems in the morning session. Villeneuve had to switch to a spare car after a fire with his own car.

"I was really surprised because I did hardly any running or set-up work this morning. So I only completed a few laps and I did not know where to be on the racing line or where to brake. The car was very easy to drive in the first two corners I was not as quick as I could have been because I did not know where to brake."

Jenson Button was also happy. "It was nice to be fighting with the quicker guys," he said.

European Minardi Cosworth: Jos Verstappen 19th, Justin Wilson 20th

Joe Verstappen had little to say about events of the day while Justin Wilson found that running on a low fuel load was a big difference.

"That was a big shock," he said. "The car was moving quite a bit around at the back and the tyres were performing totally differently. Overall I think that things were not too bad."

Panasonic Toyota Racing: Olivier Panis 8th, Cristiano da Matta 11th

The team was very happy with the result of Friday.

"Generally the car is good," said Ove Anderson. "There is a lot of potential. Olivier understeered in the first sector and he lost time. Cristiano was very impressive. He was flying. It is a good start."

Panis suffered a fuel pump failure in the morning session but it did not cause too much trouble. "I am really happy with the result first time out. I was really able to push the car. Like every driver I think I could have done better but I am pleased with the result. But I am happier with the potential."

Bridgestone

Hisao Suganuma: "We are quite happy that both Ferraris and BARs performed well on the flying laps. I hope it stays like this tomorrow. Rubens's time was fantastic but generally the performance of our tyres on a single lap is quite encouraging. Most drivers ran our primary option tyre which we believe to be the right choice.

Michelin

Pierre Dupasquier: "Both options are well-suited to the track but it is too early to tell if one is better than the other."
 
 
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