Jean Todt: We are at what is the home track for our main rivals and they have shown themselves to be very competitive, which is what we had expected. As usual, we worked on tyre choice and on finding the best set-up. It is very difficult to assess the relative strengths of the other teams, not knowing what fuel loads and tyres they were running. For our part, we have picked up valuable data which we will now be studying. There is still work to do on the cars but we believe we can aspire to the top places in qualifying tomorrow, before moving on to concentrate on Sunday's race.
Ross Brawn: We were expecting rain for the second hour, so we reversed our usual Friday programme, especially with Michael who only ran on used tyres in the afternoon. Therefore it is harder than usual to make comparisons to the opposition. We gathered a lot of data which we will study carefully this afternoon. From what we could see, the Bridgestone tyres are working well and performing very consistently. We still have to find the best balance on Rubens' car when running new tyres, while the situation is looking pretty good on worn ones. I think we can be reasonably optimistic about the rest of the weekend.
Sam Michael (Technical Director, WilliamsF1): We have had a productive day with no mechanical problems, looking at tyre evaluation and race set up. The weather in Silverstone is different to normal as it is colder compared to other tracks. That affects the set up of the car and the tyre selection. We will look at the data tonight to make the right decisions. The weather looks like it is going to stay like this all weekend.
Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director): Compared with last Friday in Magny-Cours, we had today a good, trouble free day, with both the drivers completing their programme, which was important for us in order to get some more running with our new aero package. We had no problems on the engine side.
Team McLaren Mercedes drivers Kimi Raikkonen and David Coulthard finished
first and fourth respectively in today's second practice session at the
Silverstone circuit. Kimi set the fastest time with 1:18.655, whilst
David's lap time was 1:19.287. Kimi completed five laps in the first
practice and 16 in the second session. With six laps in the first and 17
laps in the second practice David completed a total of 23 laps.
Ron Dennis: "Today's times were encouraging but it's the rest of the weekend that
counts. We knew in France that the MP4-19B was an improvement on the
MP4-19A, but it's still too early to say how much. A troublefree day was
enjoyed by both drivers, and we are really looking forward to the rest of
the weekend, which hopefully we can continue in the same way."
Norbert Haug: "A good first practice day. However, we shouldn't read too much into the
times from our practice sessions so far as we want to see tomorrow and on
Sunday how competitive we will be in comparison to the opposition in
qualifying and the race."
The Mild Seven Renault F1 Team made a solid start to the British Grand Prix weekend at Silverstone. Underneath heavy skies and in cool conditions, the team conducted tyre evaluations and set-up work on the R24. Fernando Alonso experienced a throttle problem during the morning that saw his car stop out on circuit, but managed to make up the time lost during the afternoon.
Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering: "It will be quite difficult to decide on tyres this evening as we seemed to encounter a lot of traffic during our comparisons. Aside from this, though, it was a straightforward day. We improved the balance of both cars, but know in which areas we need to work this evening. Fernando's problem this morning did not penalise us significantly and we have given ourselves a solid base to work from tomorrow."
Denis Chevrier, Head of Engine Operations: "We suffered a throttle problem on Fernando's engine this morning, but were able to quickly identify and resolve its cause. Fortunately, he was able to make up for this with a slightly more substantial programme this afternoon. This incident aside, we completed our programme without any problems. The times are extremely close, but we also need to remember that the track conditions were evolving throughout the day. We remain hopeful of competing strongly tomorrow."
The Lucky Strike BAR Honda team made an encouraging start to its home event in today's first free practice sessions for Sunday's British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
With the additional motivation of grandstands packed with support from British fans, all three drivers set about their programme of tyre evaluation and set-up work to provide a solid foundation for the rest of the weekend. In Free Practice 1, Anthony completed the majority of the morning's running, focusing mainly on tyre selection. He was the fastest of the BAR drivers in the first timed session in 5th, with Jenson and Takuma running 10th and 13th respectively.
In Free Practice 2, Jenson finished 5th with Takuma ending the day 9th. Anthony encountered what appears to be a gear failure, which brought him to a halt out on track and relegated him to 16th in the timesheets.
Anthony Davidson: "This isn't the way I wanted to start the team's home race weekend. I had a good morning and was hoping to continue that progress into this afternoon but unfortunately we had a gearbox failure after just 14 laps. Our long-run performance seems to be very good but it's a shame that I was unable to complete our tyre evaluation. Jenson and Taku managed to pack some of my programme into the end of theirs, so all is not lost but it's not ideal. The tyres I ran felt good so we have good reason to feel positive. I hope today's problem has got all our bad luck out of the way for the rest of the weekend and the guys can go on to do a great job in front of our home crowd."
David Richards, Team Principal: "It's all too easy to set ourselves unrealistic goals on a weekend like this, as everyone wants to deliver something special in front of the home crowd. A challenging podium position should however remain our objective and, who knows, putting ourselves in the right place at the right time could give us the result our home crowd is looking for."
Geoffrey Willis, Technical Director: "Despite threats of rain during both sessions, it remained dry so we were able to complete our full programmes for both race cars without problem. Although our lap times are reasonably competitive, the car is not performing as well as it has done at the recent tests here, so we have more work to do this evening to improve the set-up for tomorrow. We unfortunately lost some of Anthony's running this afternoon when he was forced to pull off the track in the complex and it appears, on initial inspection, to be a gear tooth failure. The tyre choice is less straightforward than at the last two races so we will need to spend some more time today analysing the data."
Shuhei Nakamoto, Engineering Director, Honda Racing Development: "Not too bad day today. Although Anthony's problem stopped us completing the programme in full I don't think it will hurt us too much for the rest of the weekend. I am glad the rain stayed away!"
Sauber Petronas drivers Giancarlo Fisichella and Felipe Massa finished 2nd and 10th respectively after today's first practice sessions for the British Grand Prix.
Peter Sauber (Team Principal): "All our efforts of the past few weeks have paid off and we have taken a clear step forward with the new rear bodywork. Giancarlo's excellent time is a thank-you to everybody in the team, particularly all the people working back in the factory at Hinwil who have contributed so much to this result."
Jaguar Racing was on home territory today as drivers, Mark Webber, Christian Klien and Björn Wirdheim took to the Silverstone circuit (UK) to practice ahead of this weekend's Foster's British Grand Prix. Although threatening to rain during the afternoon session, the weather remained dry throughout the day allowing the team to fulfil their test programme without delay. All three drivers worked on balance and set-up as well as tyre comparisons for the two hours with them completing over 130-laps between them. The final positions of 17th, 18th and 19th for Mark, Christian and Björn respectively reflected the changing on-track conditions throughout the two sessions and in particular the wind's impact through high-speed corners.
Björn Wirdheim: Testing today was good for me and I managed to work on a number of different areas of the car. Balance is very important here and we are currently working very hard to make this better as we were struggling a little this morning. The car generally is looking good and we are hoping for another strong weekend on track like the one we had last weekend.
Dr Mark Gillan Head of Vehicle Performance: We successfully completed our programme for all three drivers today and I was pleased to see the R5 total over 130 laps during the two sessions. The fact that it remained dry was crucial for us in obtaining the tyre information that we need in order for us to make a decision tonight. The wind however picked up during the course of the day and this did not help our balance, especially through the high-speed corners, so we will be looking at this tomorrow and discussing tonight how we can counteract this. Tomorrow will be spent preparing for both our qualifying session and of course the race. With most of the teams looking reasonable on track we will be focusing on delivering a reliable and strong car to chase for those points.
Ricardo Zonta: "Today's practice sessions were both quite productive, even though there is still plenty of room for improvement. The tyre choice appears to be rather complicated at this track. On each of the two types of tyre we evaluated, we gain time in one way, but we lose out in the other, so we have to find the best compromise before making our final selection. I think we did a good job in the end. Silverstone is a very nice track from a driving perspective, but it is extremely bumpy, which disrupts the car a lot."
Mike Gascoyne – Technical Director Chassis: "It has been quite a difficult opening day with low track temperatures and low grip. Unlike other teams, we have only had one three-day test here at Silverstone this year, so it is perhaps harder for us to find the best set-up on our cars. It is clear that we have a lot of work still to do. The tyre choice is also quite difficult, as we have experienced different balances on the two compounds we have at our disposal. Overall though, we completed many laps and acquired a lot of data, but we certainly need to work hard to improve the cars for tomorrow."
Jordan Ford worked through its free practice plan of race set-up and tyre evaluation with all three drivers contributing to the programme. Timo Glock crashed towards the end of the second session after experiencing a wheel related problem which the team is currently investigating.
Timo Glock: The first practice session was quite good and I worked on a tyre and engine programme. It was difficult to find a good set-up for the car, but I think we are starting to understand which tyre is right for the race. The crash was quite heavy and I think there's a bit of damage for the mechanics to repair but I'm okay.
James Robinson: Our primary concern is what happened to Timo's car this afternoon. We will investigate it further this evening though we are confident that the problem was understood and relates to the increased fatigue loads we are now seeing in 2004. The two race cars completed their normal Friday programme of assessing tyre choice for these cooler conditions and we will have to study the data very hard this evening to know which tyre to pick for Sunday.
As was the case at the French Grand Prix last weekend, Wilux Minardi Cosworth had a very productive initial day of preparations for Sunday's British Grand Prix at Silverstone. The Faenza squad's regular race drivers, Gianmaria Bruni and Zsolt Baumgartner, plus official test driver, Bas Leinders, were all out on track early, and progressed steadily through the normal Friday technical programme. Leinders chose to go in a slightly different “direction” with chassis set-up from his team mates, and it obviously paid off, as his best lap clearly demonstrated. Even though Minardi team members were fully focussed on their work today, there was no doubt that their private thoughts were very much with Minardi Sporting Director, John Walton.
Bas Leinders: I'm very pleased with the work we've done today, as we were able to improve the car so it was to my liking. We suffered a little with understeer throughout the day, but improved the balance as the sessions went on. I had a potentially good lap under way this afternoon, but Glock went off and I slowed, losing a good three-tenths of a second. If that hadn't happened, I would have been 21st behind Heidfeld. We're definitely going in the right direction.
Paul Stoddart, Team Principal, Wilux Minardi Cosworth: As many people are aware, Minardi has had a tough week with the news that its much-loved Sporting Director, John Walton, suffered a serious heart attack in the early hours of last Tuesday morning. It goes without saying that all the team's thoughts throughout this weekend are with John's family and friends. The team has pulled together and is determined to put up a strong showing at Silverstone, and today's efforts by all three drivers showed we are doing exactly that.
Hisao Suganuma, Bridgestone Motorsport Technical Manager: We had two dry sessions today and all our teams have tried both their tyre specifications. The Bridgestone runners have been setting competitive and consistent times although the track was still green. The Saubers in particular look strong this weekend. So now we will evaluate all the tyres and the data from today's running before advising our teams which of their two specifications we recommend for qualifying and the race on Sunday. But so far, we look in good shape.
Ross Brawn, Technical Director of Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro: We're a little back to front because we ran on fresh tyres this morning and stayed on the used tyres this afternoon because the forecast was for bad weather – which doesn't seem to have come. So we're a bit out of line with the other cars but the car's handling reasonably well and as always, we've got plenty of data on the tyres so we'll look through that this evening. The Bridgestone tyres seem nice and consistent so I think we're going to have a good race on Sunday.
Kimi Räikkönen (McLaren Mercedes/Michelin) set the fastest time on the opening day of the British Grand Prix meeting at Silverstone. He lapped the fledgling MP4-19B chassis in 1m 18.655s - 2.5s quicker than last season's pole position time - to pip Giancarlo Fisichella (Sauber-Petronas) by 0.005s. As is customary, Michelin drivers packed the top half of the timesheets. After two free practice sessions, Räikkönen's team-mate David Coulthard was fourth on aggregate ahead of Jenson Button (BAR-Honda/Michelin, fifth), Juan Pablo Montoya (BMW WilliamsF1 Team/Michelin, sixth), Marc Gené (BMW WilliamsF1 Team/Michelin, seventh), Jarno Trulli (Renault/Michelin, ninth), Takuma Sato (BAR-Honda/Michelin, 10th) and Anthony Davidson (BAR-Honda/Michelin, 12th).
Renault star Fernando Alonso missed part of this morning's opening free practice session after technical trouble forced him to pull off the track. He was 12th fastest in the afternoon.
Sauber driver Giancarlo Fisichella will be given a 10-place penalty on the grid for Sunday's race. The Italian had a replacement engine fitted in the wake of a failure during the first free practice.
Test driver Anthony Davidson (BAR-Honda/Michelin) was fifth fastest this morning but only managed 20 minutes in the afternoon before stopping on the track with a technical problem.
Jordan reserve Timo Glock had a scare when his car lost a wheel at the 270km/h (167mph) Bridge Corner during the second session. The German's out-of-control car almost overturned as it careered through the gravel, but he suffered no serious injury.
Pierre Dupasquier, Michelin motorsport director: "Track conditions were very difficult this morning - the surface had been cleaned up thoroughly by yesterday's storms and was very abrasive. Things stabilised during the day, however. We have gathered plenty of valuable data and I was pleased to see McLaren returning to its customary position of eminence.
"Friday sessions sometimes have limited relevance, but it was clear that our tyres were both fast and consistent. It is likely that both our 'prime' compound and our 'option' will be used in the race because both are well suited to the conditions - always assuming it remains dry, of course."
