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2006 British GP
Team Quotes - Sunday 11 June
The Renault F1 Team this afternoon took victory in its 200th Grand Prix start, at the Silverstone circuit where the F1 team made its debut 29 years ago in 1977 and last won in 1983, thanks to a stunning drive from Fernando Alonso.
The reigning world champion took his third consecutive victory after starting from his fourth consecutive pole position, to make it six wins out of eight for the Renault F1 Team in the 2006 season. Team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella started fifth and finished fourth after a dynamic drive that saw him fall just short of the podium as he shadowed Kimi Raikkonen to the chequered flag. Today's performance sees the Renault F1 Team extend its championship lead to 31 points; Fernando Alonso has now scored 74 points from 80 and leads the drivers' title by 23 points, while Giancarlo Fisichella is fourth, one point behind Kimi Raikkonen.
Flavio Briatore, Managing Director: I am delighted for our team today to win in Silverstone. This was a special afternoon for all of us, but especially all the people who work just 50 km away in Enstone. Everything was perfect today – the R26 car, the strategy, Fernando and Giancarlo, who deserved a podium today. Congratulations to Michelin as well: they once again brought great tyres for this race.
Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering: This was a great end to what has been a wonderful weekend at Silverstone – Fernando's hat trick of pole, win and fastest lap showed a world champion at the top of his game. I am sure we had some doubters yesterday afternoon when we took pole position, but we showed today that we had done it on longer strategies, that played out well for us. Fisi put in another great drive as well, and had a good battle with Kimi at the end. The car seemed perfect in the hot conditions on a demanding circuit, and Michelin came up with the goods to provide consistent, competitive tyres. Three in a row is a great feeling; we will be working hard in the coming weeks to develop the car even further, and try to break our Canada jinx next time out in Montreal.
Team McLaren Mercedes drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya finished today's British Grand Prix at Silverstone in third and sixth positions respectively. Both were on two-stop strategies which saw Kimi coming in on laps 19 (8.6 seconds) and 42 (8.0 seconds) and Juan Pablo on laps 20 (10.2 seconds) and 45 (6.6 seconds). Kimi improves to third position in the Drivers' Championship with 33 points whilst Juan Pablo remains fifth with 26 points. Team McLaren Mercedes is third in the Constructors' rankings with 59 points.
Ron Dennis: "As we have shown both in Monaco and here at Silverstone we have closed some of the gap to our principal competitor Renault and our efforts to win will continue at the Paul Ricard test this coming week. Kimi and Juan Pablo's post race comments summarise our weekend well, and the entire team is looking forward to the next race in Canada."
Norbert Haug: "A solid achievement by Kimi, Juan Pablo and the team. The performance was better today than in Barcelona which shows that we are heading in the right direction. We will push further – that's promised."
Jean Todt: It was a hard fought race, as indeed we had expected. Strategy played a decisive role: in a positive way for Michael, who managed to gain a place compared to his starting position on the grid and in a negative way for Felipe, who lost one. We are up against very strong opponents, but obviously when you are going for the win, coming second is reason enough to be disappointed. However, it also acts as a further stimulus to try and close the gap that separates us in terms of overall performance. That would allow us to qualify at the front and then be able to run an attacking race. There are still ten races to go to the end of the season. We will fight as hard as we can to reach our objectives, along with our partners, especially Bridgestone.
Ross Brawn: Naturally, we hoped that with Michael we would make up at least two points, but we ended up losing them. However, things could have been worse and so we can be reasonably happy with the final result. We knew that Raikkonen would be a hard nut to crack. We tried to pass him at the first pit stop, but we did not manage it and so we had to wait for the second. We had a good car, the Bridgestone tyres delivered consistent performance, but we paid the price for how qualifying went and that made for a difficult race.
It was a hard Sunday's work for Panasonic Toyota Racing at the British Grand Prix. On another hot day at Silverstone, Ralf Schumacher was confident of a good afternoon from 7th place on the grid but his race was cut short within seconds of the start. On the exit of Copse the German was pushed into a spin by Scott Speed's Toro Rosso. As he veered across the track he was collected by Mark Webber's Williams, putting both drivers out of the race. Jarno Trulli had it all to do after yesterday's engine failure in qualifying left him at the back of the grid. He made a storming start to gain several places on the first lap. The team called him into the pits early to escape traffic and he made further gains but despite battling hard he finished outside the points in 11th. Toyota is scheduled to continue testing its new TF106B package at Monza this week in preparation for the Canadian Grand Prix in a fortnight's time.
Tsutomu Tomita - Team Principal: "On Friday the team atmosphere was very good due to the performance of the car and the tyres here. But things started to go wrong with Jarno's engine failure in qualifying and when Ralf was hit on the opening lap today it meant both of our cars were effectively out of contention. We had been working hard on our starts in the last few days so it was a surprise that Ralf's car was so slow to get away and we will definitely have to investigate what happened. It was a pity because considering the strategy we had he was clearly heavier than the cars in front of him so he was very competitive in qualifying. We knew we had to be aggressive with Jarno and everything worked as expected. He had a very good start and first lap and our strategy was to pit him early to take advantage of the good lap times we were expecting on new tyres. At the first stop it worked fine and took him past Coulthard. We tried the same thing at the second stop with Barrichello and it would have worked until he hit traffic. Jarno was happy with his car, he pushed hard and it was almost impossible for him to have done any better. His lap times were very encouraging, particularly in the second stint. So the pace of our cars is getting closer to the top teams. Now we just need to keep pushing our development and reliability in order to catch up with them."
Sam Michael, Technical Director, WilliamsF1: It was disappointing not to get any points out of the race today. Nico finished in p9 by moving through the field. He was battling pretty hard with Villeneuve and was up on him for most of the race, but unfortunately some traffic and a slower stop on Nico's second refuel lost him the place. On Mark's car it was unfortunate to get caught up in someone else's accident at the start which ended his race early. We obviously have some work to do on high speed tracks in terms of pace, but reliability was good and we had no problems.
Simon Corbyn, Head of F1 Race Engineering, Cosworth: Cosworth worked with WilliamsF1 to extract everything we had from Nico's engine but unfortunately it wasn't quite enough to pick up a point. Mark's race was obviously all over following the first lap incident. Cosworth had no issues with either of the Series 4 race engines throughout their second race weekend.
A frustrating British Grand Prix weekend for the Honda Racing F1 Team came to a disappointing conclusion today after Jenson Button retired in front of his home crowd and team-mate Rubens Barrichello finished outside of the points.
After starting from 19th on the grid, Jenson was putting on a great show for the fans as he carved his way through the field. He had moved up to 12th place within just 9 laps before his RA106 racecar suffered an engine oil leak. Rubens also endured a tough race, struggling with the balance from the start and eventually finishing in 10th place.
The team now heads to Monza next week for a 3-day test in preparation for the Canadian Grand Prix in two weeks' time.
Gil de Ferran: Sporting Director: "Overall this was a difficult day for the whole team. Jenson had a very strong start to his race, making up several places until his eventual retirement early in the race with an oil leak. Rubens also had a hard afternoon, struggling with the car balance throughout the race. Clearly not the result we were hoping for and we have some homework to do."
Shuhei Nakamoto, Management Board Member - Honda Racing F1 Team, Engineering Director - Honda Racing Development: "I am obviously really disappointed by the way we have raced this weekend. We are not yet sure about the problem that ended Jenson's race but the engine itself is fine. It looks like there has been an oil leak somewhere so we have to analyse things deeply and find out the specific issue. We must work harder."
Christian Horner: It was a long afternoon in a race with little attrition. The top three teams dominated the top six places and BMW did a good job to take the last few points. We obviously need to find some more pace and we'll be working on that at the next few tests. David was very consistent during the race and Christian needed to find about another second to clear Tonio in his middle stint, which unfortunately he just missed.
For the second time in its first season, the BMW Sauber F1 Team has both its cars in the points. At Silverstone Nick Heidfeld was seventh and Jacques Villeneuve eighth.
Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director): We are very happy because it was a completely trouble free weekend for us. This is the first time since Australia both drivers have scored points and the fourth consecutive race we have been in the points. Nick made an excellent start which catapulted him by three drivers. Unfortunately there was a problem during his first pit stop which cost him a place. Jacques’ pit crew did an excellent job at his second stop, which gained him a position. Now we are travelling with a lot of confidence to North America and are full of motivation for the remainder of the season.
Willy Rampf (Technical Director Chassis): This was a sunny day in every way. We had both cars in the points after a race which all the top teams finished. Nick made a very good start and kept sixth for a long time, but during his first pit stop lost time and one place to Juan Pablo Montoya due to a gear shift problem, which we need to analyse. At the start Jacques thought he had damaged his car, which caused some anxiety in the garage. He drove a strong race fighting Rosberg, and thanks to a very good team effort at his second pit stop managed to get in front of him.
MF1 Racing claimed another reliable finish in its home race, with Christijan Albers and Tiago Monteiro bringing home their M16s in 15th and 16th positions, respectively.
The team will remain at Silverstone Circuit for three more days of testing next week before crossing the Atlantic for the Canadian Grand Prix at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal.
Colin Kolles, Managing Director: "Both our drivers did a very good job today to bring the cars home. We are getting quicker, but we must keep working hard to improve. We know which areas we have to focus on, and we will do the necessary things to become stronger."
James Key, Technical Director: "It was good to get both cars to the finish. Both drivers drove a very solid race with no problems. Christijan did a good job to recover from all the bad luck he encountered yesterday, although we did have a little bit of an issue with one of his pit stops. It was good to see us posting some competitive lap times and we were actually gaining on the people ahead of us at the end of the race - we were only 13 seconds behind the nearest Red Bull at the finish. So we were on the same lap as our competitors and lapping as quick, if not quicker, than they were toward the end of the race. If we can improve our starts - because that let us down a little bit - then we can race them competitively. We actually had a race on our hands today; we weren't alone, and that was good."
Gerhard Berger: Tonio drove a good race. At the risk of repeating myself, this is about the best we can expect at the moment. It took too long to fix Scott's car so it seemed pointless to send him out again. Of course there are some areas where we can improve, but we had a good pit-stop and it was the right decision to switch Tonio from a two to a one stop strategy. It worked reasonably well, as we got ahead of Klien.
The British Grand Prix brought the long awaited return of a two-car finish for the Super Aguri team. Both Takuma Sato and Franck Montagny drove a faultless race to finish in 17th and 18th positions respectively.
Aguri Suzuki, Team Principal: I am glad that both SA05 cars crossed the line at the chequered flag today. It is our first two-car finish since the Australian Grand Prix. The performance of our cars is low, so we have to concentrate on finishing the races until we introduce our new car during the next European rounds. I want to thank the whole Super Aguri team for working so hard this weekend. As our team is based in the UK it is great to have both cars finish at the British Grand Prix, so I am happy with this result.
Michael Schumacher ran a flawless race in this afternoon's 60-lap British Grand Prix but despite leap-frogging Kimi Raikkonen after some handy pitstop work from his Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro team, the seven-time world champion had to settle for the second step of the podium behind Renault's Fernando Alonso. With his Bridgestone Potenza tyres Schumacher was the second fastest man on track today but his eight points will do little to dent the championship leader's points advantage. Schumacher's teammate, Felipe Massa, ran a solid race to take four points for his fifth place finish. WilliamsF1's Nico Rosberg was the next man up for Bridgestone in ninth place while Panasonic Toyota Racing's Jarno Trulli, who had started the race from the back of the grid, finished 11th. Yet again, Bridgestone's hopes for its other front runners were dashed when Toyota's Ralf Schumacher and WilliamsF1's Mark Webber came together on the first lap, ending their race. MF1 Racing and the Super Aguri F1 Team will be pleased meanwhile to have got all their drivers across the finishing line in what turned out to be a grueling race run in track temperatures of almost forty degrees Celsius. The Formula One paddock now turns its sights towards the Canadian and US Grands Prix which will run back-to-back in a fortnight's time.
Hisao Suganuma, Technical Manager of Bridgestone Motorsport: "We saw some strong performances today from the Bridgestone cars but it wasn't quite enough and we shall need to look at how we can help our teams become even stronger for the remainder of the season. However, second and fifth place finishes for Ferrari was excellent and we were pleased with the strong, consistent performance of the Bridgestone tyres in such tough conditions. Some of our teams could perhaps have gone softer even on their tyre choice this weekend. However, Silverstone is a high speed circuit and today's track temperature reached an unusual 39 degrees Celsius so we were pleased to see that the tyres looked in good shape still after the race. We will now focus our efforts on the Canadian and US races where we expect the Bridgestone shod teams have a good chance of building up their point scores."
Ross Brawn, Technical Director – Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro: "Obviously two points in the wrong direction but it could have been a lot worse. We were pleased with the way the race went. We knew that Raikkonen would be difficult to get. We tried to get him at the first stop and finished the job in the second stop. The car was good today and the tyres very consistent but we paid the price for qualifying and the race was difficult from there on in."
Fernando Alonso drove a perfectly controlled race to win today's British Grand Prix at Silverstone. The Spaniard took the lead from pole position and was never seriously challenged throughout the 60 laps. It was his fifth victory of the season – and the 99th of Michelin's illustrious Formula One history.
Six Michelin drivers from three partner teams scored points today. Kimi Raikkonen was third ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella, Juan Pablo Montoya, Nick Heidfeld and Jacques Villeneuve.
Nick Shorrock, Michelin F1 director: "We are delighted with our tyres' performance." "This was Michelin's sixth win of the year and we are, once again, delighted with our tyres' performance. Our partners used four different types of product in this race and all of them fulfilled our expectations in very demanding conditions.
"The track seemed to offer much more grip today and it only took Fernando Alonso nine laps to dip into the 1m 22s bracket – a level of performance we hadn't hitherto seen this weekend during long runs.
"The circuit seemed to evolve further during the second stint, when drivers began to complain about understeer rather than the oversteer that had previously been the principal characteristic. We witnessed a little bit of graining in the race, but we had anticipated that would be the case and it didn't cause us any problems.
"Our recent run of success will not make us complacent. We appreciate that the competition is incredibly tight and there will be no let-up as we chase a century of grand prix victories."
Pat Symonds, executive engineering director, Renault F1 Team: "Michelin have come up with the goods again!" "Silverstone is a very tough track as we know and it was made even tougher this weekend by the unusually high track temperatures. Even under these conditions, Michelin once again came up with the goods this afternoon."
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