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2005 British GP
Team Quotes - Sunday 10 July
Jean Todt: I said yesterday that we could expect a difficult race and that getting both our cars home in the points was our only realistic target. Unfortunately, that is how things turned out. We are not capable of matching the pace of the leaders and the final result is a reasonably accurate reflection of the current pecking order here at Silverstone today. The only satisfying point to take away from here is the level of reliability we demonstrated this afternoon.
Ross Brawn: Obviously this was a disappointing race. We went through practice and qualifying hoping that it would all come together in the race, but once again today, it was difficult. Our drivers were reasonably happy with their cars, it's just that they simply lacked overall pace. There were no particular problems, although there were a couple of stages when we got held up, including the early part when Michael got delayed by Trulli, but I am not sure that we could have done better.
Jenson Button boosted Lucky Strike B·A·R Honda's scoresheet today with another four points in the team's home race at Silverstone. Having started from the front row of the grid, Jenson finished the 60-lap British Grand Prix in 5th position after a gritty performance to stay in touch with the front runners and ensure his team came home in the points in front of the predominantly British crowd.
Takuma Sato started the race two laps behind the rest of the field after he accidentally struck the wrong button on the steering wheel. This cut his engine on the approach to the grid and he had to be pushed to the pit box to restart his car. The team revised his strategy and fuelled him for a single pitstop but because of his problems at the start it was impossible to get him into a points-scoring position.
The team now heads to Jerez for a three-day test in preparation for round 11 of the World Championship in Hockenheim in two weeks' time.
Gil de Ferran: "Jenson drove very well today in front of his home crowd, getting the most out of the car and bringing us a few more points. Clearly we needed to find a little more pace today to finish higher up than we did. We will continue to develop the car during the Jerez test next week before the August break, in an attempt to close the gap to our competitors and we will continue to make every effort to do so until the end of the season. On Taku's car it seems that he made a mistake and hit the wrong button on his way to the grid which cut the engine. After that we switched his strategy to a one stop and he was able to lap consistently at a very good pace."
Shuhei Nakamoto: "Jenson produced a solid performance for his fifth place, which is an accurate reflection of how our package compares to the rest of the field at the moment. Taku put in some good lap times after we switched to a one-stop strategy following his problem at the start and must put today behind him and look forward to Hockenheim. We now have to keep up the pace of development to close the gap to the top two teams."
The Mild Seven Renault F1 Team leaves Silverstone with thirteen more championship points after second and fourth place finishes for Fernando Alonso and Giancarlo Fisichella respectively in this afternoon's British Grand Prix. The team now leads the Constructors' Championship by 15 points from McLaren, with a total of 102 points, while Fernando Alonso holds a 26 point lead over Kimi Raikkonen, with 77 points.
Starting from pole position, Fernando Alonso lost his lead to the McLaren of Juan Pablo Montoya on lap one, and after that chased the Colombian to the chequered flag. The Spaniard was severely delayed by traffic through the race, but especially at the end of his second stint when he was on a clear track, and had the opportunity to leapfrog Montoya for the lead. As he emerged from the pit-lane, though, it became clear he had come up just one second short.
Giancarlo Fisichella drove strongly from sixth position to run third for much of the middle portion of the race. The Italian was secure in this position until his engine stalled at the second pit-stop, costing him time and one position to Raikkonen's McLaren. He then chased the Finn to the flag. The team is currently investigating the origin of the stall.
Flavio Briatore, Managing Director: To leave Silverstone having seen Fernando extend his lead over Raikkonen by two points is a fantastic result for us. The team put in an excellent performance this weekend, and we never thought that the car would be so competitive here. In my opinion, Fernando missed the win because the blue flags were not being shown enough to the backmarkers, but this happens sometimes. McLaren were very competitive today, Renault was too, and I think we put on a good show.
Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering: Ever since we tested here a few weeks ago, we knew our fight at this circuit would be with McLaren and this weekend, we very much took the fight to them. Strategically, we had to cover Raikkonen with Fernando's stops, even though we knew that would leave us exposed to being beaten by Montoya. Even so, it was the right thing to do for the championship. Once again, Fernando put in a faultless drive, and Giancarlo also showed impressive pace in the race. Had it not been for his problem at the final pit-stop, he would have beaten Raikkonen by a healthy margin.
Despite not enjoying their usual competitive form, the BMW WilliamsF1 Team made the best of their competitiveness to hold off a sustained challenge from Red Bull & Sauber to finish the race just outside of the top ten in 11th and 12th place. The team expects to return to form at BMW's home race in Hockenheim in a fortnight following an intensive test of the new aerodynamic developments in Spain this week.
Sam Michael (Technical Director, WilliamsF1): Both drivers did get the most out of the cars today. We had no reliablility issues, both stops worked well as did the strategy. From here we will go back to the factory and investigate how we can make improvements to the package and our performance.
Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director): The lap times in the race were consistent with our qualifying performance. As there were few retirements today, the outcome was fixed and we finished approximately where we have started from. As a consequence, there was little opportunity to collect points today. We had no reliability problems on either car today. What now is important is to make best use of the three day test in Jerez in order to improve for the next GP in two weeks time.
Juan Pablo Montoya won today's British Grand Prix at Silverstone to claim his first victory for Team McLaren Mercedes and his fifth in Formula One. Team mate Kimi Raikkonen finished the 60-lap race in third position and set the fastest time of the race on the final lap. Both drivers were on two-stop strategies. Juan Pablo came in for fuel on laps 22 (8.8 seconds) and 44 (6.6 seconds), whilst Kimi pitted on laps 26 (8 seconds) and 45 (6 seconds). Kimi remains second in the Drivers' World Championship with 51 points whilst Juan Pablo is sixth with 26 points. Team McLaren Mercedes is second in the Constructors' rankings with 87 points.
Ron Dennis: "I think today's results speak for themselves. An outstanding performance from Juan Pablo who worked hard to generate sufficient gap to Alonso prior to his final stop to ensure his race victory, which of course he achieved. Kimi's third place reflects his poor starting position resulting from a penalty he suffered following an engine change on Saturday. Nevertheless he set fastest lap and with 80 points available mathematically both drivers still have the opportunity to challenge for the Championship."
Norbert Haug: "A fantastic race and a great day for all the team members which saw Juan Pablo's first victory for the team. His start was exceptional, and he did not put one foot wrong during the race. Our race strategy was good. Kimi's speed throughout the race was impressive, and he finally achieved the fastest lap of the race on his very last lap. Kimi lost two points to Alonso in the championship. Without the engine change yesterday he could certainly have achieved a better result, so again, sorry for that, we will try even harder. We are now looking forward to our home Grand Prix at Hockenheim."
Sauber drivers Felipe Massa and Jacques Villeneuve finished 10th and 14th respectively in today's British Grand Prix in Silverstone.
Peter Sauber (Team Principal): "We did not score any points today, but that was not really possible anyway given the performance of the top teams. Jacques might have been in contention but spoiled his first pit stop and fell some way back, while Felipe's strong performance enabled him to move up from 16th on the grid to 10th, overtaking both Williams cars and the Red Bulls."
It seemed as through Christian Klien really did have wings at the start of the British Grand Prix as he charged through the field to move up from 15th to 11th position overall. Although he dropped a place to Mark Webber, he became locked in a tense battle with the Australian. Pushing hard aboard his RB1, Christian made several attempts to overtake the more experienced driver, before a brief excursion off the track at Turn seven allowed Nick Heidfeld to sneak past and Klien dropped down to 13th. Starting from 13th position on the grid, two-time British GP winner David Coulthard struggled with the set-up of his car from the outset. Despite both David and Christian setting a string of reasonably competitive times, neither was able to make an impact on the top ten and they finished in 13th and 15th position respectively.
Christian Horner, Sporting Director: It was a tough afternoon. Both drivers took different strategies, but we struggled for consistent pace here and, despite the drivers’ best efforts, they were not able to progress through the field. The handicap of Christian running first in qualifying and of David missing half of the fourth practice with an electrical problem definitely compromised our qualifying positions. Here at Silverstone, track position is everything as overtaking is not very easy.
Günther Steiner, Technical Director: It seems we made the wrong tyre choice for this race. The whole weekend did not go well for us. There’s nothing else to say really except that we’ll look to do things better next time as this is not where we should be.
Dave Prigg, Cosworth: This was another race that proved the reliability of the Cosworth TJ2005 engine, particularly pleasing since the introduction of the 12 series. Development of the engine will continue, to ensure we provide further improvements in race performance over the coming events.
Panasonic Toyota Racing has secured yet another points finish at today's British Grand Prix after Ralf Schumacher took a solitary point for 8th place. On an unusually hot Sunday at Silverstone, Jarno Trulli followed Ralf home in 9th place after a hard day's work for both drivers. The pair were on different strategies and battling it out during a hard middle stint to see who would exit the second pit stop first, a race won by Ralf this time. The result still keeps Toyota in 4th place in the constructors' championship with a total of 54 points. The sell-out audience for the British Grand Prix also included Arsenal FC's head coach Arsène Wenger, a guest of Toyota for the day.
Ralf Schumacher secured his sixth points finish of the season after a hard day's work around Silverstone. The German's 8th place finish leaves him 9th in the championship on 23 points.
After a scorching day at Silverstone, Jarno Trulli narrowly missed out on the points, finishing in 9th place just 1.6 seconds behind Ralf. Jarno nonetheless goes away in equal 4th place in the world championship with 31 points.
Panasonic Toyota Racing had a frustrating day around Silverstone after a promising start to the weekend. But Ralf Schumacher's solitary point was enough to keep hold of 4th place in the constructors' championship.
Tsutomu Tomita – Team Principal: "That was a tough race for just one point for the team. We did well to get two cars home to the finish, but the race was spoiled by our pace in the early stages when we struggled and just lost too much time. That is a similar problem to the one we faced in last week's French Grand Prix. So we have to analyse why that is happening and try to understand it, because certainly in the second half of the race we were much more competitive. The cars were on slightly different strategies in the second stint with Ralf stopping later so they were both pushing very hard to gain the position. That was the time that Jarno had to back off for blue flags for the leaders and that unfortunately decided the battle in favour of Ralf. Now we must move on to the next race and hope for an improvement."
Although Tiago Monteiro had to begin the British Grand Prix from the back of the grid due to an unscheduled engine change on Friday morning, he had a great start and managed to overtake the two Minardis. He then had a rather uneventful race, stopping for fuel twice and crossing the finish line in 17th position, further improving an incredible record of 11th consecutive finishes for a rookie. Teammate, Narain Karthikeyan, who started in 17th position, also had an excellent start. Unfortunately, he retired on lap 11 due to an electrical failure, which the team is still investigating.
Adrian Burgess: Poor Narain, again he did not have any luck in the race. As always, he was doing a fantastic job keeping up with Massa, until we had an electrical failure, which shut the engine off and forced him to retire the car. Tiago was on a different strategy as a result of an engine change earlier in the weekend. He had a great race and was able to bring the car home, for the 11th race in succession. We are now looking forward to the next race and will try to work harder and give the boys better equipment.
In a race marked by an exceptional level of reliability on the part of virtually all competitors, Minardi F1 Team drivers Christijan Albers and Patrick Friesacher experienced an incident-free afternoon as they took the chequered flag in today's British Grand Prix in 18th and 19th places respectively. Both drivers stopped twice for fuel in a race that ran almost totally to plan, the only slight concern being a higher than normal gearbox temperature in Friesacher's car. Minardi engineers kept a close eye on the telemetry as the race progressed, and fortunately, the transmission didn't suffer any ill effects, allowing the Faenza squad to record a satisfying two-car finish in one of the most demanding Grands Prix of the year.
Paul Stoddart, Team Principal, Minardi Cosworth: I don't remember the last time 19 cars completed a Grand Prix, and while a two-car finish is always pleasing, it's clear more development is required on the car.
Bridgestone runners Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello finished sixth and seventh respectively in this afternoon's 60-lap British Grand Prix, adding three and two points each to their respective points tallies. Earlier in the weekend, the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro pair had showed signs of being able to capitalise on a strong race performance but while they ran strongly, the pair will be disappointed to not have been pushing for podium positions today. Nevertheless, Schumacher maintains his third place in the standings while Barrichello moves up a place from fifth to fourth equal. The Ferrari team still lies third in the constructors' championship with 74 points while McLaren and Renault have 87 and 102 points respectively. Meanwhile, Jordan Grand Prix driver Tiago Monteiro finished another grand prix. The Portuguese driver has finished every race so far this year, a remarkable record for a driver in his debut year. Indian teammate Narain Karthikeyan unfortunately was not so lucky, completing only ten laps of his team's home race due to an electrical failure. The Minardi team, however, will be pleased to have got both their cars home this weekend.
Hisao Suganuma – Technical Manager – Bridgestone Motorsport: After promising signs earlier in the weekend of a strong race performance I am disappointed with today's results. The Ferrari cars were running near the front of the field but not really able to challenge the leaders. Monteiro has now completed his eleventh consecutive race and both Minardi cars crossed the finishing line which was good to see but we do need to go away with the data and information from all our teams today and see how we can improve things. We need to keep pushing our development forward. Track temperatures were a little higher today than earlier in the weekend but that was not unexpected.
Ross Brawn – Technical Director – Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro: A disappointing race today. We came through practice and qualifying hoping it would all come together in the race but it was difficult. The drivers were reasonably happy with the cars but obviously we lacked pace. There were no particular problems. Michael got held up at the beginning of the race although I'm not sure if we would have been able to finish any further up. The whole package just wasn't quick enough.
Juan Pablo Montoya scored his first victory of the campaign – and the fifth of his Formula One career – in today’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone. The Colombian screamed away from third place on the grid to claim the lead before Becketts corner on the opening lap. Thereafter, the Colombian fought tooth and nail with world championship leader Fernando Alonso and emerged fractionally ahead after each of their scheduled refuelling stops.
He eventually finished 2.7s clear. "My move on the first lap was a bit of a risk," he said, "because I knew we might go off if neither of us gave way. But he’s fighting for the championship and I was only interested in winning the race, so I figured he’d concede. I was right."
Alonso’s arch-rival Kimi Räikkönen recovered from 12th on the grid – after a 10-position grid penalty for an unscheduled engine change – to finish third, but he was grateful for a pit lane slip by Alonso’s team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella. The Italian had set a searing pace and appeared to be on course for a sure top-three finish, but he stalled after his second refuelling stop and allowed Räikkönen to take his place on the third step of the podium. The Finn now trails Alonso by 26 points in the title chase.
Fisichella (Renault) and local favourite Jenson Button – who received the day’s loudest cheer as he crossed the line – completed a Michelin clean sweep of the top five. Button started from the front row of the grid, but wasn’t able to contain the McLarens and Renaults in the race.
Ralf Schumacher shadowed Ferrari drivers Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello across the line to take eighth place and claim the final point.
All 14 Michelin drivers completed the distance in hot, testing conditions. Jarno Trulli ran sixth in the early stages, but was unable to stay with the leaders and eventually came home ninth, ahead of Felipe Massa, Mark Webber, Nick Heidfeld, David Coulthard, Jacques Villeneuve, Christian Klien and Takuma Sato. Sato’s car cut out as he approached the grid and he joined the race a lap in arrears. The safety car had to be scrambled within seconds of Montoya taking the lead on the opening lap, so that the Japanese driver’s car could safely be wheeled to the pits.
Pierre Dupasquier, Michelin motorsport director: "This has been another perfect weekend for us, just like Magny-Cours. There were no real surprises this afternoon and our partners' race pace underlined the performance advantage the Michelin teams have enjoyed all weekend. Silverstone is a challenging track at the best of times and today's high track temperatures made it even more gruelling, yet Kimi Räikkönen was able to set the fastest lap of the race right at the very end. There could be no finer testament to our tyres' durability and performance."
Nick Shorrock, director of Michelin F1 activities: "I'd like to compliment Juan Pablo Montoya on his first victory for McLaren - and Fernando Alonso for making such a close race of it. Three Michelin teams monopolised the top five positions on two different types of tyre - and four of our partners scored points. Once again, we were able to capitalise on the full breadth and versatility of our F1 tyre range."
Martin Whitmarsh, CEO Formula One, Team McLaren Mercedes: "This was a fantastic result for Juan Pablo Montoya and reflects a great effort by the team and all its partners. Juan Pablo did what he had to do to secure victory and Kimi Räikkönen got the most he could from the afternoon, given his starting position. We have had absolutely no tyre problems throughout the weekend. This has been a fantastic grand prix for McLaren and we look forward to building on this result at the next race."
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