By Huw Alban
March 31 2006

Without the benefit of observing the timing screens live today, it’s a little difficult to form a fan judgement on how Midland F1 went today. Reading through the team’s comments, however, it is clear that progress has been made in Australia. Dedicated forum contributor CRX stayed up to witness the two practice sessions, and his commentary can be found on the forum under the thread entitled “Australia GP – Friday Practice”. It is clear from his notes that the team made steady progress pace-wise throughout the two sessions, and that MF1 were very strong in the second sector of the lap.

Tiago Monteiro shone for the team logging the 19th fastest time out of the 28 drivers that took part in the second free practice session. Remember the preview wish that we wanted MF1 to at least draw level with STR? Tiago even managed better than that, shading Robert Doornbos’s time by a 10th and a half! Come on!

Christijan didn’t fair quite so well and appeared to struggle with tyres. An unfortunate spin towards the end of the second session didn’t help either, but Christijan is a racer and it’ll be interesting to see where he ends up in the third and final free practice session tomorrow.

I have a good gut feeling about free practice so far. I wanted at least one car in the top 16 at the end of the first 15 minute qualifying session, and all evidence points to me potentially getting my wish.

Comments from the team:

Adrian Burgess, Sporting Director: “We covered a lot of laps today with the third car, while the two race cars ran their normal programmes. We’ve tried to work out a couple of reliability issues over the course of the afternoon, so hopefully we’ve made some good progress there. The race cars worked well today, with no issues. Christijan had a small spin at the end of the second session this afternoon, but the damage was relatively minor and shouldn’t be a problem for tomorrow. We’ve got plenty of useful information to digest overnight regarding tyres and strategy, lots of good data. Our pace was also pretty encouraging. Tiago made a reasonably good run late in the second session, so we’re looking forward to building on that tomorrow.”

Tiago Monteiro (POR)
Chassis: M16-03, Car #18
First Timed Session Classification: 14th, 1:31.812, 10 laps completed
Second Timed Session Classification: 19th, 1:29.713, 21 laps completed
Quote: “In the morning, we didn’t do any performance runs; we just checked out all the systems to make sure everything was working properly. We had a lot of work planned for today and we managed to get through it all without any issues. We solved our problems pretty early on, so that allowed us to focus on improving the car in the second session. The team did a fantastic job – the more I drove, the better the car felt. I like this kind of track, so I felt confident right away and was able to push hard. We know where our weak points are, so we’re going to work on that tonight. But obviously, compared to our opponents, today was a pretty good day. It’s still too early to get overly excited about the times, but it’s good to know we’re making progress with the car’s pace and that we know how to get even more out of it.”

Christijan Albers (NED)
Chassis: M16-02, Car #19
First Timed Session Classification: 13th, 1:31.039, 9 laps completed
Second Timed Session Classification: 25th, 1:30.830, 18 laps completed
Quote: “I have to say we had a really good day today. The first session went really well, and the second session had a promising start on the same set of tyres. Then, when we changed to a new set of tyres that just didn’t suit me, I had a lot of problems with understeer and raising the temperature. I also had a little spin near the end of the session, which was a shame, because that spoiled what was otherwise a very productive day. But we’ll be all right tomorrow. I’m sure we’ll find a solution and make the right tyre choices.”

Markus Winkelhock (GER)
Chassis: M16-04, T-Car
First Timed Session Classification: 17th, 1:36.859, 17 laps completed
Second Timed Session Classification: 26th, 1:31.260, 25 laps completed
Quote: “I think it went pretty well today. During the first practice, I had to learn the track, as everything was new. I was very careful in the beginning because the track is narrow and the walls are quite close to the track. The surface is also pretty bumpy, so I had to search for all the bumps before pushing hard. In the second session, we changed something on the car, which made it much more balanced and easier to drive. I was feeling much more comfortable toward the end but I encountered some yellow flags when I went out on a new set of tyres, and I also made a small mistake, so that’s unfortunate. But I think we’ve got enough information to make a good tyre choice for the weekend, and that’s the most important thing.”