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2005 Italy GP
Team Quotes - Saturday 3 September
Jean Todt: Today's result is a pretty faithful assessment of the situation, even allowing for the unknown factor of the various fuel loads carried by the other cars. We are well aware that we continue to suffer from the problem which has been with us all season, namely poor grip. We are working intensively with our partner Bridgestone to try and resolve it. Of course we would have preferred to be higher up the grid, particularly for the benefit of all the Ferrari employees who, today and tomorrow, have their own grandstand here, and for all our fans. We can assure them we will, as always, give it our best shot. The key factors will be strategy, reliability and the behaviour of the tyres throughout the course of the race. We hope that the excessive wear we encountered in the past few races will not happen again tomorrow.
Ross Brawn: Considering our limited expectations for this weekend, I think that our qualifying performance was not too bad. Yesterday, we were not so happy with the balance of the car and the engineers and drivers have done a good job to improve that situation. Another reason for optimism is that this morning the tyres seemed to perform consistently. Therefore, we can be hopeful of having a good race. But in order to do that, it will be important to overtake the cars directly ahead of us on the grid.
BAR Honda's Jenson Button and Takuma Sato will start tomorrow's 53-lap Italian Grand Prix from the second row of the grid after a superb performance in this afternoon's decisive qualifying session. They will line up in 3rd and 4th positions respectively.
After a difficult Friday the team's engineers and drivers made a number of changes to the cars' set-up which resulted in a significant improvement through the morning and for qualifying. Jenson and Takuma moved steadily up the timesheets in this morning's free practice sessions, with Takuma ending the morning as the 3rd fastest driver - a clear measure of the progress made overnight.
Jenson's lap was just 0.050 secs shy of Alonso's Renault, who will line up ahead of him in P2 tomorrow. However, that narrow margin does in fact play to Jenson's advantage as he will be starting from the cleaner side of the track affording him better traction off the grid. Both drivers now look forward to a strong race tomorrow at the legendary Autodromo Nationale Monza where they finished in 3rd and 4th positions last year.
Gil de Ferran: "Today was a much better day for us than yesterday and most of the credit for this great improvement should go to our engineers and drivers, who came up with a revised set-up which worked much better. Both Jenson and Taku did a great job in qualifying, producing two really good laps. Starting on the second row should bode well for us in the race."
Shuhei Nakamoto: "A good solid job. Both of the guys did really well on their qualy laps today - when it mattered most. I always enjoy the race here and I am looking forward to tomorrow."
Fernando Alonso will start from the front row of tomorrow's Italian Grand Prix at Monza. After qualifying third, the Spaniard will benefit from a penalty to be served by Kimi Raikkonen for an engine change to move into second position on the grid. Giancarlo Fisichella will start from eighth after a mistake early in his qualifying lap cost him time. As ever though, differing fuel strategies will only begin to be seen as the first cars make their pit-stops tomorrow afternoon, and the Italian is optimistic of climbing up the order as the race progresses.
Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering: After a good test last week and a strong performance in practice, it was disappointing for Giancarlo to lose out so much in qualifying. Fernando put in a good, clean lap and his position on the front row tomorrow is well deserved. Of course, that position comes as a result of Kimi's penalty, which will put him in dangerous territory tomorrow in the opening laps. The drivers around him will know that they can afford to be very forceful with him on the way to the first chicane.
Denis Chevrier, Head of Engine Operations: This afternoon's qualifying session confirmed that McLaren are the team to beat this weekend. From our point of view, it was disappointing that we were not able to put both cars where they should be, on the front two rows, in order to capitalise fully on Raikkonen's problems. Both RS25 engines have run reliably so far, after our preparation in testing last week, and the cars have been very competitive in terms of their straight line performance.
The drivers of the BMW WilliamsF1 Teams were the first two cars out on the track in today’s qualifying session. The official reserve and test driver Antonio Pizzonia, who took over from Nick Heidfeld only this morning, started first and achieved the 16th grid position, whereas Mark Webber will start tomorrow’s race from 14th position. After running yesterday in Free Practice, Nick Heidfeld decided together with the team that he would withdraw from the GP weekend because he was not feeling 100% after crashing in last week’s Monza test.
Sam Michael (Technical Director, WilliamsF1): This is more or less what we were expecting from today due to running first in qualifying. After last week’s testing and the four free-practice sessions held this weekend, I believe that we are much stronger than the qualifying positions would suggest. We have a good strategy for the race tomorrow and our target is to get the cars into the points. We did not have any mechanical issues today. Under the circumstances Antonio did the best he could at such short notice and with little practice.
Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director): The result of the qualifying this time does not reflect the potential of our cars. Our drivers had to start first for qualifying and therefore provided the vacuum cleaner to the track. For Antonio this came on top of the fact that he was told only this morning that he was driving here and he had to jump in at the deep end. The task for this race is to gain some positions and considering that overtaking is possible here in Monza and that we have shown good performance in practice, this should be feasible. Technically, both cars ran trouble-free.
Team McLaren Mercedes driver Juan Pablo will start tomorrow's Italian Grand Prix at Monza from pole position setting a lap time of 1:21.054. On the last lap of the fourth practice session Kimi Raikkonen suffered an engine failure and subsequently it had to be changed before the qualifying session. As a result Kimi will have to take a ten place penalty on the starting grid and will start from 11th position, having set the fastest time (1:20.878) during qualifying.
Ron Dennis: "Today's qualifying session has shown how strong our team is. Juan Pablo had a great, clean, well driven lap doing exactly what was necessary to put him on pole. Both drivers' strategies give them every opportunity to win but of course it is going to be somewhat easier for Juan Pablo. Kimi's lap was sensational, but due to the penalty after the fourth free practice session we had to change our strategy, making Kimi's performance more impressive. He is still in with a chance of winning if he can keep out of trouble in the run to the first chicane. With Juan Pablo on pole position we have a solid basis for fighting for the victory tomorrow."
Norbert Haug: "Kimi's and Juan Pablo's qualifying laps were first class and starting with both cars from the front row would have been the best reward for all the efforts the team has put in. Following Kimi's engine change due to an inlet valve failure, the team altered their strategy. Taking this into account Kimi's lap time is even more special. With the speed and performance of his car Kimi can still achieve a top result if there will not be any problems at the first or second chicane after the start. Everybody in the team will remain positive and give it their all for top results tomorrow. In the meantime it is very clear that we have to improve our reliability. This is clearly being addressed within Mercedes-Benz in Brixworth and I am sure that everybody will do a thorough job to achieve total reliability in the same way as we have achieved the speed of our package."
Sauber drivers Jacques Villeneuve and Felipe Massa will start tomorrow's Italian Grand Prix from 12th and 15th positions respectively after this afternoon's qualifying session.
Willy Rampf (Technical Director): "Overall today was good. We improved the balance of the cars after this morning. And taking into consideration the fact that Felipe had to start the session so early when track conditions were not optimal, and the race strategy that we have chosen for each car, we have achieved a reasonable qualifying result."
In this afternoon's qualifying session, David Coulthard and team-mate Christian Klien set the eleventh and thirteenth fastest time respectively. However, following Kimi Raikkonen's ten-place grid penalty, which was applied when his engine was changed between the fourth practice and qualifying session, the Finn dropped to eleventh position overall, which promoted David Coulthard to tenth. As a result, the Red Bull Racing duo will line up tenth and thirteenth on tomorrow's grid, for the Italian Grand Prix.
Christian Horner, Sporting Director: Tenth and thirteenth is a respectable performance. Both drivers felt there was more time to be extracted from the qualifying session, but the absolute optimum would have been ninth for us today. Looking to tomorrow, we've got a good strategy and, as we tend to race better than we qualify, I think we can look forward to an interesting afternoon.
Panasonic Toyota Racing will line up for tomorrow's Italian Grand Prix with two cars in the top ten of the grid after a strong performance in this afternoon's qualifying. On a sunny day at Monza, Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher recorded the 6th and 10th fastest laps of a competitive session. Both drivers will move up a place on the grid – to 5th and 9th respectively – because of the penalty for Raikkonen's engine change. With both cars on the clean side of the grid, Toyota will now head into Sunday's race aiming for another points finish from both drivers. The team currently stands in 4th place in the constructors' championship with 71 points and it is confident of increasing that total tomorrow.
Jarno Trulli put in yet another scintillating qualifying lap to take 5th on the grid for his home race tomorrow, keeping up his impressive haul of top five grid slots in 2005.
Ralf Schumacher made it into the top ten in qualifying for tomorrow's Italian Grand Prix at Monza despite a relatively early qualifying run. The performance sets him up for a chance of his 10th points finish of the season.
After a strong qualifying session, Panasonic Toyota Racing is aiming for a double points finish in tomorrow's Italian Grand Prix at Monza, situated just outside the city of Milan.
Mike Gascoyne – Technical Director Chassis: "It's always nice to have both cars in the top ten so that was quite a pleasing qualifying result. Jarno was reasonably happy with his car all weekend and he managed to put together a good lap in qualifying. Ralf was less happy with his car after this morning's free practice, but he made some changes which improved the car slightly for qualifying. We've aimed our strategy firmly at having a good race tomorrow, so given our starting positions and the pace we've shown all weekend we can be fairly confident for a strong points finish tomorrow or maybe even a podium."
After making smooth progress yesterday in their preparations for the Italian Grand Prix, Narain Karthikeyan and Tiago Monteiro continued to work on developing a suitable chassis balance for the high-speed, low-downforce requirements of the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza in the last two free practice sessions.
Karthikeyan had a spin at the end of the morning, which caused a fair amount of damage to his car. His mechanics did a fantastic job to repair his race car on time for qualifying, in which Monteiro and Karthikeyan had clean laps and will start from the 17th and 19th positions respectively for tomorrow's Grand Prix.
Adrian Burgess: It was not the best qualifying session after the work we have done beforehand. Both drivers struggled a bit to get heat into their tyres for their qualifying runs. Narain's case was made worse by having a small off this morning. We had to rebuild the car quite significantly in the gap so it made his job a bit more difficult. We know we have a good strategy for tomorrow and if we keep our heads down, we should be in a good position for a competitive race.
Qualifying for Sunday's Italian Grand Prix, which took place this afternoon at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza in near-perfect racing conditions, yielded 18th and 20th places on the grid for Minardi F1 Team drivers, Robert Doornbos and Christijan Albers. While Doornbos had a smooth, trouble-free qualifying lap, Albers lost out on setting a competitive time when he ran wide into the gravel at the second Lesmo bend while pushing hard. Miraculously, he managed to wrestle his car back onto the circuit, but lost over two seconds in the process. Earlier, during Saturday morning's two practice sessions, Doornbos and Albers continued to work on fine-tuning the handling of their chassis, and carried out final preparations for their qualifying runs.
Paul Stoddart, Team Principal, Minardi Cosworth: Both drivers did very solid jobs today. It was a shame about Christijan's mistake in the second sector of his qualifying lap, because clearly, both Minardis are again on the pace of the team's nearest rivals. As ever, we look forward to an interesting race tomorrow.
After two busy morning practice sessions and steadily improving track conditions as more rubber is laid, the Bridgestone shod Ferrari cars of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello set the seventh and eighth fastest times in today's Italian Grand Prix qualifying session. Schumacher's time was set early on in the qualifying session. After struggling with balance and a lack of running time in Friday's practices, the pair worked on their car set-ups this morning ahead of qualifying and tomorrow's race. Although Schumacher set the seventh fastest time, he will start from the third row of the grid as pole man Kimi Raikkonen will be penalised ten places for an engine change. The Jordan and Minardi drivers, meanwhile, are again locked in alternating positions on the grid after their qualifying so they too are expected to have a good fight tomorrow afternoon.
Hisao Suganuma, Technical Manager of Bridgestone Motorsport: Both Michael and Rubens were setting competitive and consistent lap times this morning which was good to see. From that point of view the car-tyre package is showing good performance in race trim and given that this is the fastest circuit on the calendar I am pleased that we have not experienced any problems with our tyres so far this weekend. Combined with their grid positions set this afternoon, I think they could have a good race. I'm also looking forward to seeing the Jordan and Minardi drivers race tomorrow as we are quite pleased with their runs in the practices and qualifying.
Ross Brawn, Technical Director of Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro: Considering our expectations, our grid positions don't look too bad. We were unhappy with the car balance at the start of the weekend but the engineers and drivers did a good job of getting the balance back. The Bridgestone tyres are also nice and consistent here. If we can pass the runners ahead of us on the grid I think we can have a good race tomorrow.
Juan Pablo Montoya will start tomorrow's Italian Grand Prix from pole position. The Colombian lapped the historic Monza circuit in 1m 21.054s, 0.176s adrift of team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, but the Finn will line up only 11th after being handed a 10- position grid penalty for an unscheduled engine change.
Michelin drivers dominated the session. World championship leader Fernando Alonso will join Montoya at the front after posting the third fastest lap, while BAR-Honda team-mates Jenson Button and Takuma Sato will share row two. Michelin drivers Jarno Trulli, Giancarlo Fisichella, Ralf Schumacher and David Coulthard will also start in the top 10.
Williams-BMW reserve Antonio Pizzonia has replaced regular driver Nick Heidfeld for the balance of the Italian GP weekend. The German crashed heavily during testing at Monza last weekend and was advised not to drive after yesterday's stint in the cockpit left him with a bad headache.
Michelin drivers set the pace in the final free practice sessions. Raikkonen topped the times, on 1m 20.916s. His team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya and Takuma Sato completed the top three.
Pierre Dupasquier, Michelin motorsport director: "Both our compounds have worked very well here, but in the end most of our partner teams have chosen to run with the same type of tyre tomorrow. Despite the heat and extreme straight-line speeds, which have a habit of increasing rear tyre temperatures, we have had no signs of undue wear or blistering."
"There have been no real shocks today, with a clutch of Michelin runners at the front. There is always the chance of the race throwing up a few surprises, of course, but come what may I know that our tyres will be in good shape for what will be the fastest race of the year."
Martin Whitmarsh, CEO Formula One, Team McLaren Mercedes: "We had a good test before this event and worked very well with Michelin's engineers to choose suitable ‘prime' and ‘option' tyres. Both proved to be really good and in the end it was quite difficult to make a choice, but the one we picked was quick over a qualifying lap and we are sure it will work very well for a full race distance."
"We are comfortable with our pace and think we have a good race strategy. Michelin has been a very strong partner here – I'd like to thank them for helping us to set the two fastest times. It's a shame our cars won't line up like that, but we have tyres that are capable of winning – even if circumstances have made it difficult for one of our drivers."
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