Team Rundown: Saturday 2003 European GP

By FIA
June 28 2003

	Team Rundown - Saturday Qualifying
	Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro: Michael Schumacher 2nd, Rubens Barrichello 5th. The Ferrari team was happy with second and fifth on the grid. "We have shown that we are competitive here," said Michael Schumacher. "Yesterday the Michelin runners benefited from a softer compound that they could not use today and so today gave the true picture. Second on the grid is not ideal because it is off the line and I am a bit worried by that." Rubens Barrichello said that he lost his time in the sector. "We are all so close together that little mistakes can make a big difference," he said, "but I have to say that with the fuel load I have, I was playing it safe." BMW WilliamsF1 Team: Ralf Schumacher 3rd, Juan Pablo Montoya 4th, "The first two sectors of the lap were OK," said Ralf Schumacher, "but I lost time in the third. But I am happy that we are so close to the Ferraris and McLarens and I think we have a very good strategy for the race." Juan Pablo Montoya was slightly slower. "I am a bit disappointed with P4 because I expected more but with the fuel load we have we should be looking good tomorrow. The balance of the car was not as good as in the morning but I am confident for the race. The positive trend is continuing." West McLaren Mercedes: Kimi Raikkonen 1st, David Coulthard 9th. "Kimi did a fantastic lap," said managing director Martin Whitmarsh. "He did a great job yesterday and it was important to maintain that today. He was under a lot of pressure and he did the job. Michelin did a great job. The tyres are good over one lap and they will hold up well in the race as well and we have a good race strategy. David frankly is going to be reflecting on his confidence level. He did a conservative lap yesterday and maybe that was the thing to do but you cannot be conservative and get to the front. It is too competitive for that." Mild Seven Renault F1 Team: Jarno Trulli 6th, Fernando Alonso 8th. "We have changed our settings a lot since yesterday," said Jarno Trulli, "and without a doubt we have taken a big step forward. Starting from here will let us fight for points tomorrow. I am delighted with my flying lap. I locked up a bit in Turn 1 but it did not really affect the time." Sauber Petronas: Heinz-Harald Frentzen 15th, Nick Heidfeld 20th. It was a fraught warm-up for Sauber with problems on both cars. Heinz-Harald Frentzen went to the spare car after an engine problem, but there was no time to make many changes. "I had lots of understeer and in the circumstances it was not a bad result," said Frentzen. Heidfeld's mechanics changed the engine in just 24 minutes, which allowed Nick to go out on schedule. "The team did a fantastic job," he said. "Unfortunately I had an hydraulic problem with the downshift and the throttle did not close fully going into the first corner. That is why I spun off." Jordan Ford: Giancarlo Fisichella 13th, Ralph Firman 14th. The Jordan team is still looking for more performance. "We are just not competitive enough," said Giancarlo Fisichella. "It is going to be tough to score points from where we are." Firman said that he had lost running time with his engine problem and that had an effect. "It worked out reasonably OK in qualifying," said Ralph. "I made a slight mistake but you never get these things absolutely perfect." Chief engineer Gary Anderson was pleased given the problems the team has encountered. "It is hard to know where we stand over strategy for the usual reasons. We have done what we think is right for the race. It is interesting to see our two drivers side by side because I think that shows the pace of the car. Certainly it shows that Ralph is improving race by race. I thought he did a really good job today." Jaguar Racing: Mark Webber 11th, Antonio Pizzonia 16th. "Well I am very happy with that," said Mark Webber. "It would have been nice to have beaten Cristiano da Matta for 10th but 11th is OK. We won't be 11th fastest in the race I can tell you that. Overtaking is difficult here so it will all depend on strategy." Pizzonia was not happy. "It was a lot worse than expected," he said. "I made a lot of changes before the warm up. It was a gamble and it did not pay off. The car was worse and we could not go back and change everything in the time available." Lucky Strike BAR Honda: Jenson Button 12th, Jacques Villeneuve 17th. It was not a very positive day for BAR. "I was planning to be a little bit more cautious at the chicane after losing the wing yesterday," said Button. "But in the end I decided just to go for it and I came awfully close to the cones. I am pretty happy with my lap considering the struggle we have had so far this weekend." Villeneuve was less happy. "We changed the set-up of the car before qualifying and it made a bigger difference to the handling than I expected. I didn't do a good lap, particularly after making a mistake going into Turn 1. That cost me about half a second. It ended up not making any difference to my grid position and if I had known that I would have put more fuel in the car." European Minardi Cosworth: Jos Verstappen 18th, Justin Wilson 19th. "It was not our best qualifying," said Giancarlo Minardi, "even considering the fuel choice we made. We put in a lot of fuel for the first stint. I feel we could have done better but it would probably not have changed our grid position. I think we will stick to a two-stop strategy in the race. Given what we know I think some of the teams may go for three stops." Panasonic Toyota Racing: Olivier Panis 7th, Cristiano da Matta 10th. "I am really delighted with seventh place," said Panis. "It is a good position for us to start the race tomorrow. Our target has always been to get two cars in the top 10 and I think I would have qualified even better if it had not been for the rain yesterday Now I want to focus on the race and doing the best job I possibly can." Da Matta was happy to be tenth. "We all kept the faith after the problems yesterday," he said. "We knew we were going in the right direction." Bridgestone: Hisao Suganuma: "I really don't have much to say except that having two Ferraris in the top five is a solid performance. Once again I have to say that I believe we have the right tyre for race conditions and for long distance stints." Michelin: Pierre Dupasquier: "We are satisfied to have taken pole even if we know that the performance in qualifying is a function o how much fuel there is in the cars. Nevertheless our products are working well and we are not at all worried about the race."