Team Rundown: Saturday Qualifying 2003 French GP

By Andrew Hooper
July 5 2003

 

 

  
Team Rundown - Saturday Qualifying
 
Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro: Michael Schumacher 3rd, Rubens Barrichello 8th.

The Ferrari team could not match the Williams-BMWs in qualifying for the French Grand Prix. The problem appears to be one of tyres as the cars are lacking grip.

"I was the fastest through the speed trap in the first sector," said Michael Schumacher, "but I would like to trade that for pole position. Obviously we are losing out in the second and third sectors but I don't know why."

Rubens Barrichello was in even worse trouble

"All of a sudden the car was a lot worse than it was this morning. I had terrible understeer and couldn't do anything about it. We lose most our time in the second sector which is due to traction and problems in the medium fast corners."



BMW WilliamsF1 Team: Ralf Schumacher 1st, Juan Pablo Montoya 2nd.

"An all-Williams front row in Canada did not result in a victory," said technical director Patrick Head. "There are so many possibilities to get it wrong in the race. Ferrari might not look very strong today but you must never underestimate Michael Schumacher."

Ralf Schumacher was happy to be on pole position but was still cautious about the race.

"The weekend has started well but there are no points for pole position" he said. "We got some more top speed compared to this morning and that is important so we can defend our positions at the end of the straight during the race."

Montoya was very happy with his car.

"Up to now I have not felt comfortable when I was pushing hard in the car this weekend. We changed almost everything and in qualifying I had the best set-up I have had all weekend."



West McLaren Mercedes: Kimi Raikkonen 4th, David Coulthard 5th.

It was a solid performance from both McLaren drivers.

"That was about the best I could do," said Kimi Raikkonen. "Hopefully it will be OK for tomorrow. I had a little bit of understeer in the last sector but starting fourth is OK. We do not really know what the others are doing."

David Coulthard was a little mystified by the Williams strategy.

"I am optimistic for the race," he said, "but I am curious to see whether Williams is doing something different with strategy."



Mild Seven Renault F1 Team: Jarno Trulli 6th, Fernando Alonso 7th.

"I am happy with my performance," said Jarno Trulli. "I had a bit of trouble finding the right set-up this morning but things improved after that. Looking at the performance of our rivals it seems to me that it will be difficult to go after them tomorrow. However the race will be a long one and we hope to get a good result."

Fernando Alonso had no problems and was happy with his performance.



Sauber Petronas: Nick Heidfeld 15th, Heinz-Harald Frentzen 16th.

"The temperature obviously influenced the lap times," said technical director Willy Rampf. "The balance of both cars was OK and we seem to have cured the engine problems we were having. This afternoon, however, we lacked grip."



Jordan Ford: Giancarlo Fisichella 17th, Ralph Firman 18th.

"Good performance at this circuit depends on the grip," said Gary Anderson. "And we do not have any. As we suspected we are just not quick enough and so we focused on race strategy. Giancarlo made a mistake in the last sector and Ralph's lap was hard work."

Fisichella was very disappointed.

"I am not happy," he said. "The car is three seconds off the pace. OK I made a mistake in the third sector but quite honestly it did not make much of a difference."



Jaguar Racing: Mark Webber 9th, Antonio Pizzonia 11th.

"We are pretty pleased with that result to be honest," said Dr Mark Gillan. "Qualifying in the top 10 is what we wanted to do and we cannot really expect more than ninth and 11th. We are in a position to score points and that is what we are aiming to do tomorrow."



Lucky Strike BAR Honda: Jacques Villeneuve 12th, Jenson Button 14th.

"We are pretty much where we expected to be," said technical director Geoff Willis. "It was always going to be difficult but Jacques got a reasonable balance and managed to keep out of trouble - which was the main aim for both our drivers."

Jenson Button said that his performance was handicapped by lack of track time.

"Considering the problems, particularly this morning, it is not too bad as I only had 40 minutes of set-up time in total. I made one small mistake on my qualifying lap and overall I have to be reasonably happy after a difficult couple of days."



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

Minardi was back at the tail of the field after the excitements of Friday.

"I am not too worried since both cars had a decent amount of fuel onboard," said team boss Paul Stoddart. "We are not too far off the pace of the two Jordans. Obviously we need some help from the weather and changing conditions to pick up positions. We have to take a good look at Justin's car because it was the spare. It was a bit of a rush getting it ready after his race car suffered a driveshaft failure in the warm-up. I believe a three stop strategy is not silly tomorrow as the pit lane is quick here and I also expect a few drive-through penalties for guys crossing the white line at the exit of the pits."



Panasonic Toyota Racing: Olivier Panis 10th, Cristiano da Matta 13th.

Olivier Panis was frustrated by his performance.

"The car just lost grip this afternoon compared to how it was this morning," he said. "We just don't know why. The car was in the same configuration. It is a shame because the car had been very good all day."

Da Matta said that he was happy to be 13th after deciding on a different strategy for the weekend.

"I concentrated on the race set-up more than on qualifying," he said.



Bridgestone: Hisao Suganuma: "We may have missed pole position today but we are confident we will put up a strong challenge tomorrow in the race. We have won here in the last few years and I will guarantee that we will be fighting for a victory once again."



Michelin: Pierre Dupasquier: "The qualifying session reflected what we saw this morning. We are happy with the result even if we would like to have seen Michael Schumacher a little further back on the grid.
 
 
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