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Team
and Driver race preview (selected
team quotes, for a full team and driver preview click on the team name) Renault (
Fernando Alonso, Giancarlo Fisichella ) Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering
I expect us to be
fighting for the win. There is no doubt that Ferrari were the class of the field in Imola but paradoxically, the size of their
performance advantage was too great to be purely down to an improvement from the car. I think they had a combination of car and
tyres that was better suited to that track, in those conditions, on that day. But that only means their package was better at that
circuit; it does not automatically follow they will have the same advantage in Spain. Our car has been extremely competitive at each
test in Barcelona, and we have to go to the race confident of fighting for victory. Full
Team and Driver Preview Back to Top Toyota (
Jarno Trulli, Ralf Schumacher ) Dieter Gass - Chief Race Engineer: "The Circuit de
Catalunya is an extremely well-rounded track which demands ultimate performance from each and every aspect of the car. The car
simply has to be quick over the entire lap with more attention on high speed corners than we have needed at the last few races. We
need to ensure that the TF105 has good traction, but also good top speed to produce competitive lap times. Because we can assess the
overall package at Barcelona, it is used a lot for testing purposes. It is a circuit that teams know extremely well and that can in
turn lead to a highly competitive field. However, the track was resurfaced over the winter, which will offer a new challenge to
everyone, but the basic characteristics of the circuit remain unchanged. The resurfacing has had less of an effect on the car's
behaviour than it has on tyre performance. Historically, Barcelona has been very demanding on the tyres with a high level of
degradation, but now it does not seem to be anywhere near as bad." Full
Team and Driver Preview Back to Top McLaren (
Kimi Raikkonen, Alex Wurz ) Martin Whitmarsh,
CEO Formula One, Team McLaren Mercedes
"We are pleased to have Juan Pablo back and look forward to a competitive weekend. His
injury has healed well and he has been able to train the muscles in his shoulder over the past weeks and I know he just can't wait
to drive. The Circuit de Cataluyna is traditionally very demanding on Formula One cars, from both an attrition perspective and also
with changeable weather conditions. The wind is a particular issue, as this can lead to a compromise with the aerodynamic
efficiency. We had a very productive and successful test in Jerez last week where we undertook tyre testing with Michelin and
durability runs as well as working on aerodynamic developments which will all make their Grand Prix debut this weekend in Spain. The
test and our overall speed at the last race mean that we enter the Spanish Grand Prix in an optimistic frame of mind." Full
Team and Driver Preview Back to Top Ferrari (
Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello ) Not yet available Full Team and Driver Preview Back
to Top Williams
BMW ( Mark Webber, Nick Heidfeld ) Sam Michael (Technical Director, WilliamsF1):
We spent this week testing at
Silverstone circuit and made progress on set-up and tyres in wet and dry conditions. We also spent a lot of the time working on our
starts. It's often hard to find a good balance on the car in Barcelona and, with the changeable conditions, the set-up continually
evolves. Due to re-surfacing in January, the track has changed causing the circuit to be less demanding on tyres. Not as much
testing is done at Barcelona as it used to be, but it is still more than the normal race tracks where you don't test at all. We
will have some further aerodynamic improvements on the cars since the last GP, mainly around the front of the car, and Michelin have
two good compounds that we have tested. All of these steps should help us to move the FW27 further up the grid. Qualifying and the
start are the most important things to get right. Strategy will be interesting as well because overtaking is so difficult on this
track. Full
Team and Driver Preview Back to Top Red Bull (
David Coulthard, Christian Klein ) Christian
Horner, Sporting Director:
"Following a promising test in Jerez last week, where both David and Tonio conducted valuable
development work, our target for this race will be to achieve points again. Inevitably the margins between the teams will be very
close due to the fact that this is a circuit where all teams test extensively. Both David and Tonio have performed well here
previously and we look forward to the weekend." Full
Team and Driver Preview Back to Top BAR Honda ( Jenson Button, Takuma Sato ) Gil
de Ferran, Sporting Director
"Besides the issues we are currently dealing with off the race track, we are very
optimistic going into the Spanish Grand Prix. It was clear that we had a good race with both cars in Imola and since then we have
been able to make further progress during our two-day test in Mugello, where we ran over 2500kms and extensively tested further
aerodynamic developments. If you also bear in mind the very successful test we had in Barcelona prior to the San Marino GP, where
Jenson broke Taku's lap record, it all seems to be conspiring towards another strong showing, where hopefully we will again be
challenging for victory." Full
Team and Driver Preview Back to Top Sauber ( Jacques Villeneuve, Felipe Massa ) Willy
Rampf (Technical Director):
"The Circuit de Catalunya has a wide range of corners, from slow through medium to very
fast, so that makes it a very popular test venue and means that everybody knows it well. It exposes the character of a car and the
tyres. Aerodynamic efficiency is paramount, together with tyre performance. The track has been resurfaced, so it will be interesting
to see what effect that has; in the past it has been very abrasive. Of course this year tyre degradation is a key factor as we can
only use one set of tyres from Saturday qualifying on, so it will be interesting to see whether the situation has become better or
worse. "We run high downforce at Barcelona, and I am confident that we will be in even better shape than we were in our recent
test there as we have since introduced the revised rear-end aerodynamic package that gave us such a performance increase in Imola.
We have also since worked on our traction control and mechanical set-ups, so I think we can be in effective shape this weekend.
"One of the characteristics of Barcelona is that the track is very sensitive to temperature change, and as it rises the grip
level goes down. You thus find that what works well in a morning session does not necessarily work so well in the afternoon, and
continually have to make changes to compensate. This will make tyre evaluation challenging on Friday, and will surely keep the
engineers on their toes!" Full Team
and Driver Preview Back to Top Jordan ( Tiago Monteiro, Narain Karthikeyan ) Trevor Carlin, Sporting Director
“We are looking forward to the second European race of the
season. We had a very productive test last week at Silverstone, where we did some really good work with Bridgestone. We are hoping
to have another strong race performance like we did in Imola two weeks ago. We have a few small aerodynamic developments and
hopefully this will go closer to the pace.” Full
Team and Driver Preview Back to Top Minardi
( Christijan Albers, Patrick Freisacher ) Not yet available Back to Top Bridgestone Hiroshi Yasukawa,
Director of Motorsport: “This week’s Spanish Grand Prix has all the hallmarks of being another classic race. We clearly
saw in Imola that following an intensive period of working closely with our teams, we have been able to provide them with
increasingly competitive tyres. To see Michael Schumacher running up to two seconds a lap faster than his rivals was hugely
satisfying and we intend to keep up the momentum. The race in Spain will undoubtedly produce another big showdown between the
leading runners and we expect the Ferrari drivers to be right up there, showing what they can do in front of the expected capacity
crowd. I can’t wait!” Full Bridgestone Preview Back to Top Michelin Pierre
Dupasquier, Michelin motorsport director
“We will be dealing with some new characteristics at the Circuit de Catalunya this
year, because it has been totally resurfaced. We completed lots of test laps here during the winter and found the asphalt much less
abrasive than it used to be. We also evaluated a number of new ideas on this circuit and have developed a softer range of compounds
than we were accustomed to using in the past.”
“Although the surface has been modified, the track configuration means there
is no change to the mechanically-induced loads the rubber must endure – and these are considerable. There are several long, fast
corners that put a significant strain on tyres.”
“In addition, engineers run cars with a relatively high degree of downforce.
Although this helps the tyres to generate more grip, it increases the demands imposed on the sidewalls through the higher-speed
corners.”
“Last but not least, fuel loads are more influential here than at many other circuits – every 10kg equates to
about 0.4s per lap.” Full Michelin Preview Back to Top
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