Friday practice - selected driver quotes 19 Mar 2004
For the first time in 2004, Ferrari failed to finish a session top of the timesheets. Find out what all the drivers made of their first day's work at Sepang.
Kimi Raikkonen, McLaren (1st, 1m 34.395s):
"A productive practice session, and of course it's pleasing to be fastest, but it's still early days. We went through our tyre evaluation programme, and the car feels good and is handling well, but we will see what happens tomorrow. It's definitely too early to say how much we have improved since Melbourne, but I'm looking forward to the rest of the weekend."
Ralf Schumacher, Williams (2nd, 1m 34.693s):
I have to say that I am very happy with the car. We focused on our homework intensely and have completed our programme without too many problems. This fact makes me very confident for tomorrows Qualifying. We are still discussing about what our tyre choice will be, but I am sure well find a good solution.
Mark Webber, Jaguar (3rd, 1m 35.054s):
I've had a good day here and despite the very hot humid conditions I am enjoying being out on track and seeing what we can do. The team have done a really good job in preparing the car and this is making it easier for me to get the most from the R5. Versus where we were last year when we were here with the R4, there is really no comparison. I spent most of today working on tyres and also set-up. The track is actually quite bumpy so its quite hard going on the car and as we could see there was a lot of people spending time off-track too!
Michael Schumacher, Ferrari (4th, 1m 35.094s):
It was an interesting Friday session, we did all the work we wanted to do. The car seems to be working well and I am quite happy with its balance, but there is still room for improvement. It certainly seems to be a step forward from what we have seen in the past here. But the signs are that it will be a tight competition tomorrow.
Juan Pablo Montoya, Williams (5th, 1m 35.100s):
Theres still room for improvement. I know theres more to come in the car than what I could show today, so its just a matter of exploiting my FW26 at its best. I had some grip problems, so not ideal conditions for setting a fast time however, I am confident we can improve for tomorrows Qualifying.
Jarno Trulli, Renault (6th, 1m 35.115s):
We ran a big programme today, particularly in terms of the set-up and the tyres. The first positive to draw from the day is that we had no problems at all, the second that we are not far from the quickest cars on the timesheet. We still need to work on the general grip level as well as the handling, but we can nevertheless be pleased with the progress we made today.
Felipe Massa, Sauber (7th, 1m 35.288s):
"This morning my car was so nervous at high speed that it was incredibly difficult to drive. That's why I went into the gravel at one stage. We changed the set-up completely for this afternoon and immediately it was much better. The track was getting better all through and we did our tyre comparison without any problem, so I'm pretty happy with things so far. We can still work on the set-up, but we have made a reasonable start to the weekend."
Fernando Alonso, Renault (8th, 1m 35.300s):
The main job today was to do the tyres, and we have completed a good amount of work on this point. The car seems quite sensitive to changes in temperature, with the handling altering significantly according to the weather conditions, and we still have a fair amount of work to do in order to get the set-up right.
David Coulthard, McLaren (9th, 1m 35.301s):
"A reasonable practice today showing that we are in better shape than a few weeks ago. I had a small problem which caused me to struggle with the accelerator pedal, so I was unable to go for fast times. However, where we really are performance wise we will only find out tomorrow and Sunday."
Rubens Barrichello, Ferrari (10th, 1m 35.373s):
We had a bigger advantage over the others in the morning session, but I am not concerned about our performance this afternoon, as we ran the whole time in race configuration and we can be happy with our work. I think we still have the edge over our rivals.
Jenson Button, BAR (11th, 1m 35.407s):
"We were able to complete our planned programme with my car, but I've struggled with to get a good balance for most of the day and we haven't been able to get on top of it yet. There is more to come from the car, we just have a lot of work to do in order to find it. We'll be spending the evening examining the data and trying to get to grips with the problem ahead of tomorrow."
Olivier Panis, Toyota (12th, 1m 35.524s):
"For me, it has been a highly positive Friday in Malaysia. Compared to the last race in Melbourne it feels like a different world. I am very impressed with the job the team has done to put new aerodynamic parts on the car and to make improvements at such an early stage of the season. The grip level has also improved as a result of the new aero parts and the good choice of tyres from Michelin. Now we have to continue to set up the car with the new parts we have, but things are looking quite positive for the weekend."
Ricardo Zonta, Toyota (13th, 1m 35.850s):
"I think we have found a good choice of Michelin tyre for this weekend. We tried both of the compounds and quickly found a fast, but consistent tyre. My lap time was also encouraging. With the last set, I was about 5-tenths quicker than my previous best lap, but then I hit traffic at the exit of turn 11 exit, which lost me time. Nevertheless, I am pleased with my second race weekend of driving the third car in Friday practice. I think the team and my crew worked extremely well and things appear to be going in the right direction."
Christian Klien, Jaguar (14th, 1m 35.996s):
Again this was another new circuit for me so this makes it more difficult for me to spend time working on the set-up and balance. I spent most of this morning working on circuit familiarisation and it is quite a hard track. There are some fast corners and I was doing my best to stay out of the gravel. This afternoon I spent more time working on tyres so I can discuss my option for the rest of the weekend, although Bjorn really helps out here. The conditions here are very hot and even with my training in Langkawi this is certainly more intense than Melbourne.
Takuma Sato, BAR (15th, 1m 36.292s):
"I had a problem with the brakes which compromised my running and I ended the day having completed only 10 laps, which is quite disappointing. We have a lot of work to do this evening and a lot of laps to do tomorrow morning in preparation for qualifying. Generally, a tough day."
Giancarlo Fisichella, Sauber (16th, 1m 36.353s):
"The balance of my car was getting better on the long runs this afternoon, but we still have to improve over short distances. We were changing things all the way through the second session, which helped, but there is a lot of work still to do before qualifying."
Anthony Davidson, BAR (17th, 1m 36.708s):
"I've really enjoyed my first taste of the Sepang circuit, despite these being the hottest conditions I've ever competed in. It's one of the most technical tracks on the calendar but I got to grips with it pretty quickly. It's a lot of fun to drive with some great late apex corners. I had a very positive morning focusing mainly on short runs to find the performance over one lap. The car felt good so I was pleased to end the session in third place. This afternoon, I was five laps into a longer run when an engine problem stopped me out on track. It's very disappointing because that run would have provided us with much-needed tyre information to help us with our selection for tomorrow."
Bjorn Wirdheim, Jaguar (18th, 1m 36.883s):
I have enjoyed today and although this was my first time at the track I got to know it pretty well in the first session as I really had to get on with the job of testing the tyres and set-up. Unfortunately my car came to a stop at the end of session two and I believe this may have been a sensor problem, although the team are working on this just now.
Cristiano da Matta, Toyota (19th, 1m 36.907s):
"There is nothing much to say really. We again opted to run just a handful of laps in the first session, but shortly into the second session I went off after entering turn 14 a bit too fast. It was completely the wrong time to make a mistake like that because I lost the remainder of the hour. I now have to rely on the information and data that Olivier and Ricardo gathered today."
Nick Heidfeld, Jordan (20th, 1m 37.725s):>
Its positive that we had no technical problems today and did the planned amount of laps. However, the car is quite difficult to drive and we are struggling to find a good balance. We were hoping for some different tyres this weekend however Bridgestone are working hard to achieve this for us at the next race. We will look at the data now.
Gianmaria Bruni, Minardi (21st, 1m 37.818s):
"It has been a good day, and even though we had a small technical problem this morning, it was solved quickly. I'm happy with the work we did today, and also with my lap times, which were reasonably consistent. I made a few little mistakes on my quickest lap and I know for sure we can improve on that time tomorrow."
Zsolt Baumgartner, Minardi (22nd, 1m 38.588s):
"I was reasonably happy with my time at the end of that last session. I was also pleased that I didn't make any serious mistakes and there were no technical problems, which meant we were able to run through our full programme for today. I learned the circuit quickly, and in the course of the sessions, we were able to find a good tyre compound, although we still need to get just a little better balance between the front and rear of the car. We'll work on that for the race. The latest tyres from Bridgestone are very good, and I hope we will have a strong qualifying session tomorrow."
Timo Glock, Jordan (23rd, 1m 38.796s):
It is unbelievably hot! I had a productive test, finding good set-up variations for the different tyres. It was really good for me to drive in both sessions to the end, finding data for the race and qualifying. My engineer Olly (Oliver Knighton) did a good job and the car was quite positive in the programme we worked on.
Giorgio Pantano, Jordan (24th, 1m 39.324s):
I have to say Im not happy about today. We need to understand whats happening because I dont feel good with the car at the moment - whether its me or the car I dont know yet so we will look into everything and try and make sure we can be better tomorrow.
Bas Leinders, Minardi (25th, 1m 41.485s):
"My first day of testing with the team has been a very positive experience. I'm very satisfied with the way things went, especially since I had to learn everything today - the track, the car, the tyres. I started off gradually and just worked on picking up a bit more time each lap. It was also good to be able to get to work quickly and start assisting the team to develop the car. We tried some new parts, which seemed to provide an improvement, and these should eventually find their way on to the race cars. I'm happy to have been able to help with this work, and I want to thank the team for making me feel very welcome today and helping me to settle in quickly."