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For Michelin the Hungarian
Grand Prix would see BMW WilliamsF1 driver Ralf Schumacher been the best
driver on the day. He held third from the start and now shares third place
in the overall standings with team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya, who slipped
back to finish eleventh after an incident-packed race.
Juan-Pablo lost several places on the opening lap and was running seventh
when he careered of the circuit on lap 21 and damaged his front wing. This
caused him to run off again next time around and he then had to pit
earlier than scheduled to have his car repaired.
"We didn't expect to be third here. We can be satisfied as we were the
only team to keep a reasonable distance behind the Ferraris. Also our tyre
seemed to get better and better throughout the race which helped." said
Ralf.
Michelin-shod McLaren-Mercedes drivers Kimi Raikkonen and David Coulthard
came home fourth and fifth.
Pierre Dupasquier, Michelin Motorsport Director, responded to various
questions.
What did you make of today's race?
"There's not a great deal to say, really. We have seen many weekends of
this kind this year and the only real new development was the increased
pace of the Jordan-Hondas, which look as though they might be more of a
threat in future races. From Michelin's standpoint Ralf Schumacher drove a
very solid race for Williams-BMW. He made a cracking start and came close
to passing his brother at the first turn. It wasn't to be, but he paced
himself beautifully and our tyres lasted very well. People have been
asking me why the McLaren's struggled in qualifying but were very
competitive in the race. We need to analyse the reasons for that. If they
had started at the front, today's result might have been very different."
With the benefit of hindsight, were you too conservative with your tyre
compounds this weekend?
"We could have been more aggressive, but I think we would only have gained
a couple of tenths per lap, certainly not half a second. And I don't think
that would have been enough to affect the overall outcome of the race."
Sometimes we see Williams running strongly throughout a weekend, at other
times McLaren does likewise. We have yet to see both of them being
consistently competitive at the same time. How can you solve that?
"With a lot of hard work, but I think we are working in the right
direction."
Have you thought much about the forthcoming race in Spa?
"Not yet. We need to catch our breath after this weekend and reflect on
the lessons we have learned in Hungary."
A number of racing incidents eliminated several of your cars, but you
don't seem too disappointed by today's result?
"I'm not. As I said, we could have been a little bit faster, but perhaps
not sufficiently so to have challenged for victory. In addition, if you
look at how we performed at this track last year and compare it to today's
result, you will see that we have made a great deal of progress this
weekend." |
