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2005 Italian Formula 1 Grand Prix
What the teams and drivers said - Friday

Team and Driver Quotes following Friday Practice Sessions

(selected team quotes, for the full team and driver quotes click on the team name)

Toyota ( Ricardo Zonta - 1st, Jarno Trulli - 8th, Ralf Schumacher - 14th )

Dieter Gass - Chief Race Engineer
"That was quite a positive day, and it's always good to have a car on top of the timesheets in one of the sessions. We were obviously here testing for three days last week, so like many other teams we didn't do that much running today because we already had most of the information we needed. Today we were just confirming some of those results. But we were quite happy with what we learned today and we have plenty of data to make our tyre choice."

Full Team and Driver Practice Report  Back to Top

McLaren Mercedes ( Juan Pablo Montoya - 2nd, Kimi Raikkonen - 3rd, Pedro de la Rosa - 4th   )

RON DENNIS
"A successful Friday practice where we ran through our programme and achieved the results, in terms of speed and consistency, that we had expected going into this weekend. Unfortunately Pedro's problem finished his run prematurely, but this will not hamper our programme for the weekend."

Full Team and Driver Practice Report  Back to Top

Williams BMW ( Mark Webber - 5th, Nick Heidfeld - 6th )

Sam Michael (Technical Director, WilliamsF1):
It was a productive day for us. We got through our entire analysis programme. Obviously everybody is helped by last week's test here to check tyres, brakes and cooling. Nevertheless some final checks today were good and everything seems to be working well. Hopefully we can continue like this tomorrow. We have a couple of new aero parts here in addition to the usual Monza package and they are all working fine.

Full Team and Driver Practice Report  Back to Top

Red Bull ( Vitantonio Liuzzi - 7th, David Coulthard - 11th, Christian Klien - 19th )

Günther Steiner: “Tonio’s engine seemed to lose a bit of power during both practice sessions, we tried to rectify the problem, but didn’t want to change the engine. We’ll have to look into it and analyse the data before we can make a definite conclusion so we’ll be checking things, including a few mechanical parts.”

Full Team and Driver Practice Report  Back to Top

Renault ( Giancarlo Fisichella - 9th, Fernando Alonso - 10th )

Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering
"We ran a very limited programme today after an extensive test last week, which allows us to conserve engine potential for the rest of the weekend. The circuit conditions caught us out slightly, as the track temperatures were several degrees higher than at the test and this had an impact on the balance of the cars. Overall, though, the order seems fairly typical – and we are in our usual Friday positions, on the edge of the top ten. We have a clear idea on our tyre choice, and will work on fine-tuning the balance of both cars tomorrow morning."

Full Team and Driver Practice Report  Back to Top

Ferrari ( Michael Schumacher - 12th, Rubens Barrichello - 16th )

Jean Todt: “Today’s programme was slightly different to usual, in that we had already tested at this track last week. As usual, the priority was to compare the two types of tyre provided by Bridgestone. Times from free practice are not an accurate reflection of the relative strengths of the teams, as we do not know what fuel loads the others were running, so studying the data will give us the more worthwhile information. Having said that, we know that our package will have difficulty in fighting for victory in this Italian Grand Prix, which we have won for the last three years. We have to work along with Bridgestone to get out of this situation. I hope we will see some improvement in the final three races of the season.”

Full Team and Driver Practice Report  Back to Top

Sauber ( Felipe Massa - 13th, Jacques Villeneuve - 15th )

Wily Rampf (Technical Director): "We did all of our basic set-up work in the test here last week, so today was all about race preparation. We had to change the cooling configuration a little to cater for the warmer weather, but otherwise we achieved our programme and were able to assess both tyre options. Choosing the right one is not a completely clear decision, so we will be going through all the data carefully this afternoon."

Full Team and Driver Practice Report  Back to Top

BAR Honda ( Takuma Sato - 17th, Jenson Button - 18th )

GIL DE FERRAN, SPORTING DIRECTOR
"Today, as normal, we went through the tyre evaluation procedure and collected some good data. Although it is difficult to figure out how fast the other teams are on Fridays, the timesheets clearly indicate that our lap times need improving. Both drivers are quite unhappy with the handling of their cars' so we will collect our thoughts overnight and hopefully come up with a plan to improve tomorrow."

Full Team and Driver Practice Report  Back to Top

Jordan ( Tiago Monteiro - 20th, Narain Karthikeyan - 21st, Nicolas Kiesa - 25th )

ADRIAN BURGESS, SPORTING DIRECTOR
“Today went as planned apart from the failure we had this afternoon with Nicolas. It is a shame for him and this did not help with our tyre information. However, with the test here last week, I think we know which tyre we are going to choose tonight. We are reasonably happy with the performance of the B-car. We have added more mileage to it and it has proven to be reliable. For sure, there is more to come with the development of the car. Considering where we are with our strategy for tomorrow and Sunday we are in good shape.”

Full Team and Driver Practice Report  Back to Top

Minardi ( Robert Doornbos - 22nd, Christijan Albers - 23rd, Enrico Toccacello - 24th )

PAUL STODDART, Team Principal, Minardi Cosworth
“It has been a good start to the Monza weekend, and there is no doubt our two-day test here last week has helped the drivers and technical staff in terms of ‘homing in’ on a suitable chassis set-up for this very fast circuit. It was particularly satisfying that all three cars ran without any problems today, thus allowing the drivers to work through their technical programmes without interruption. It was also pleasing that Enrico ran for nearly 40 laps over the two sessions, and judging by his times, was definitely getting to grips with both the track and the Minardi Cosworth PS05. We now look forward to another productive day tomorrow.”

Full Team and Driver Practice Report  Back to Top

Bridgestone

Hisao Suganuma, Bridgestone Motorsport Technical Manager, said: “Track conditions were reasonable today. This is probably because of the amount of testing that took place here last week. As a result, we were able to obtain some useful feedback and data about our tyre performance here. All three Bridgestone teams were able to compare their two specifications of tyre although Michael Schumacher couldn’t complete his comparison as a result of his incident. Rubens Barrichello also struggled a little today with his car set-up but with the data we have from today combined with the data from last week, it shouldn’t be a problem. We shall now check all the tyres and this evening we should be able to assist our teams in making a good tyre choice for the remainder of the weekend.”

Full Bridgestone Practice Report  Back to Top

Michelin

Pierre Dupasquier, Michelin motorsport director
“We evaluated a number of ideas for the very particular circumstances at Monza and our various compounds have produced interesting – and very satisfying – results.
“While it is clear that our ‘option’ tyre is a little bit faster over a single lap, we need to pore over the data to see how it will fare over 53 on Sunday. We have plenty of information at our disposal because our partners have completed plenty of long runs during the two free practice sessions.
“Track conditions are not radically different from those we encountered during last week’s test session here. Some teams have reported a little more understeer, but generally we appear to be in very good shape. Things really couldn’t have gone any better today.”

Full Michelin Practice Report  Back to Top

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