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2006 European GP
Team Quotes - Sunday 7 May
The Renault F1 Team scored a strong double-points finish this afternoon at the Nürburgring in the 2006 European Grand Prix.
Fernando Alonso took his third second-place finish of the season after starting from pole position. The Spaniard made a clean start to lead the opening two stints of the race, but Michael Schumacher shadowed him throughout, and was able to respond each time Fernando pushed to open a gap. Ultimately, the Ferrari ran a longer second stint and made the most of its performance advantage to emerge in the lead after the second pit-stops. Fernando then turned down his engine to preserve it for its second race weekend, and held his position.
Giancarlo Fisichella had an eventful race from eleventh position, and came out on top from a number of wheel-to-wheel battles with his rivals. The Italian found himself blocked behind rival cars for most of the race but, thanks to some aggressive driving, excellent pit-stops and a couple of retirements, climbed to sixth position at the finish.
After five rounds of the 2006 season, the Renault F1 Team leads the Constructors' Championship with a total of 62 points from five races. Fernando Alonso has scored 44 points from a possible fifty, and holds a thirteen-point advantage over Michael Schumacher. Giancarlo Fisichella has scored 18 points, and remains in fourth position in the championship.
Flavio Briatore, Managing Director: This was a good race for us overall, but a weekend where we were fighting against rivals who were just a bit faster. We took points from McLaren-Mercedes, only lost a few to Ferrari and Fernando limited the damage in the drivers' championship by finishing right behind Michael. Fernando didn't put a foot wrong today, and Fisico did a great job to gain places on this track. We have to admit, though, that the combination of Bridgestone and Ferrari was too strong for us today – and in those conditions, finishing second is like winning. Congratulations to Ferrari, but we hope to be fighting for the victory again in Barcelona.
Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering: As we had expected, it was a very tough race this afternoon but it unfolded much as we had predicted. We knew that by taking the fight to Michael, we would also have to be looking over our shoulders for Massa and Raikkonen, and that was exactly how it turned out for Fernando. The critical part of his race was before the second stop. We needed a gap of several seconds but however hard we pushed, Michael was able to respond and close up again. It was therefore well before the second stop that we were aware he would come out in front of us, barring problems. After that, we turned down Fernando's engine because we knew the threat from behind could be contained. Overall, his second place is not too disappointing when we take the long-term championship view. As for Giancarlo, he had a very busy afternoon. As is normal when starting eleventh, we left a very open strategy to try and make up ground. Although it allowed us to jump ahead of a few people – including Villeneuve who had put us there in the first place – a power steering problem on the car in the closing stages meant it was hard to achieve much more.
Team McLaren Mercedes driver Kimi Raikkonen finished today's 60-lap European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring in fourth place. Juan Pablo Montoya had to retire from the race on lap 54 following an engine failure. Both drivers were on two-stop strategies with Kimi coming in on laps 23 (7.9 seconds) and 44 (6.8 seconds) and Juan Pablo stopping on laps 27 (9.2 seconds) and 48 (8.3 seconds). Kimi is now third in the Drivers' Championship with 23 points whilst Juan Pablo is sixth with 15 points. Team McLaren Mercedes is third in the Constructors' standings with 38 points. The Team now moves directly to Barcelona for the Spanish Grand Prix next weekend.
Ron Dennis: "Not an ideal result today, but there is still a long way to go in the Championship. We are very close with Renault and Ferrari, which was demonstrated by Kimi setting the second fastest lap of the race, so there is every opportunity for us to win races. We didn't manage to close the gap enough, but we were not far off the pace which is encouraging. Juan Pablo had a bad start, significant trouble with traffic and ultimately suffered an engine failure. We will now look towards Barcelona which will be tough as it is back-to-back with this race, but we still intend to improve our competitiveness further."
Norbert Haug: "It is unfortunate to miss the podium with fourth place. However, Kimi's gap throughout the race showed that we were closer to our competitors than at the last race and were doing comparable lap times. Kimi gave his best, but over the course of the race he couldn't get close enough to Fellipe Massa to overtake him after either of his two pit-stops. Juan Pablo suffered an engine failure six laps from the end of a two-race engine cycle. We took the risk of higher stress in the final phase of the race as we wanted Juan Pablo to finish in the points. The cause of the engine problem will be investigated tonight as the engine will be immediately flown back."
Second win of the season for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, again with Michael Schumacher. This is the Scuderia's fifth victory in the European Grand Prix, the 185th from 728 Grand Prix starts. Michael Schumacher took his eighty sixth career win, the fifth at the Nurburgring. A first ever podium for Felipe Massa.
Jean Todt: A great result after a very close fight. The sixteen points we got today are no miracle, but come from a perfect combination of many elements: two drivers of the calibre of Michael and Felipe, the team, the chassis, the engine, the high-performing Bridgestone tyres and the fundamental support from Shell, in terms of fuel and lubricants. This success, following on from the win in Imola, is further encouragement to give our all, already starting next weekend in Barcelona, as we try and reach the goals we set ourselves at the start of the season. There is still a very long way to go, but we intend doing all we can to be in the running right to the end of the Championship.
Ross Brawn: We are very very happy. It was a challenging race, although we knew we had the pace to win if we made the correct decisions at some keys stages of the race. The team and the drivers did a perfect job. The Bridgestone tyres were very strong throughout the race and we got good performance from the whole package. Shell has done a great job with all the fluids in the car and that all came together and helped our performance today. It's clear we are going to face a tough challenge for the rest of the season, but this is a great way to start it.
Panasonic Toyota Racing had bittersweet results at the European Grand Prix. During the race, Jarno struggled with his race pace, while Ralf had a hard day's work battling through from midfield. While Jarno Trulli achieved 9th place in the race, Ralf Schumacher disappointingly retired early after having engine problems. Toyota will now journey to the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona as it bids to make steps forward for the coming races. Directly after the race, the team will head to Circuit Paul Ricard to continue testing the B-car specification, which is expected to make its debut at the Monaco Grand Prix.
Tsutomu Tomita - Team Principal: "This weekend, we enjoyed a great atmosphere, with many fans and employees supporting our team. After having a good race and a good strategy, we unfortunately did not do as well as we had hoped. Obviously for Ralf, it is quite disappointing that he retired so close to the end of the race, but now we will have to analyze the situation and find the root cause for this. With Jarno, we had tyre control difficulties, but I think if we could have maintained a similar pace to Ralf, we would have had a good race. We really need to evaluate today's issues, going into detail to avoid any problems at the coming race next weekend in Barcelona. Both drivers showed that they can push hard and now we will concentrate on giving them a reliable car to drive."
Sam Michael, Technical Director, WilliamsF1: "It was good for Nico to get a couple of points by finishing 7th after starting 22nd due to the engine penalties. He drove solidly all day, putting in the lap times when it mattered and might have done even better if he hadn't encountered traffic. On Mark's car, we had a loss of hydraulic fluid although the exact cause is unknown at this time. Up until then, he'd done a fantastic job as well, with a really good first lap. As he was on the same pit strategy as Nico, so there is no doubt he would have finished in the top four or five."
Simon Corbyn, Head of F1 Race Engineering, Cosworth Ltd: "Cosworth had no concerns with either of the CA2006 Series 4 engines in today's European Grand Prix. Nico drove a strong race to collect two points and Mark was unfortunate not to be able to capitalise on his great start to the race."
It was a race of mixed fortunes for the Honda Racing F1 Team in today's European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring in Germany. Rubens Barrichello crossed the line in 5th place to take four Championship points, but Jenson's race was brought to a premature conclusion after he suffered an engine failure on lap 29.
Jenson got a good start off the line, moving up from his 6th place grid slot to 4th by turn four. Rubens lost places off the grid and was running 7th until a perfectly executed pitstop put him back out on track in 5th position which, despite some pressure, he maintained until the end of the race.
Gil de Ferran, Sporting Director: "More points, however not as many as we were hoping for going into this afternoon. Rubens drove a good race, battling hard all day and especially at the end, to score his best finish for our team yet. Unfortunately we had an engine failure with Jenson and he was unable to capitalise on a good start and first half of the race. Generally speaking we lacked pace with both cars. With just one week before the next race in Spain we will not have the benefit of testing, however we will be analysing our performance this weekend in great detail with a view to finding some improvement going into the next round."
Shuhei Nakamoto, Management Board Member - Honda Racing F1 Team, Engineering Director - Honda Racing Development: "Clearly a bit of a mixed day. It was good to see Rubens racing so hard and collecting some good points for the team. We will have to get to the bottom of the engine failure on Jenson's car as soon as we can - definitely in time for Barcelona."
Christian Horner: David's race came to an early finish, when a first corner incident caused damage that we were unable to repair. Christian showed genuine pace and was easily running in the group that included Fisichella and Webber. After his first pit stop when he was trying to pass Heidfeld, a suspected gear-box problem led to his retirement. It's disappointing that we haven't been able to take anything out of the weekend other than the fact we can see a step forward in the pace of the car.
After excellent starts and a promising first part of the race, at the end of the day the race pace of the BMW Sauber F1.06 was not good enough. Jacques Villeneuve came eighth in the European Grand Prix at the Nürburigng and scored one point for the BMW Sauber F1 Team. Nick Heidfeld finished tenth.
Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director): From our point of view the race reflected the rest of the weekend. We were simply not fast enough. At least Jacques had the speed to stay in the points for two thirds of the race, but during and after the second pit stop he could not keep up the same pace as some of his competitors. Nick was able to make up some positions in the first corners, but later in the race he also came under pressure. However, after a relatively poor performance on Friday, we can be satisfied with this one championship point. There were no technical problems at all in the race. Congratulations to Michael Schumacher and Ferrari for a very convincing victory.
Willy Rampf (Technical Director Chassis): Both our drivers made excellent starts and made up places in the early stages. For our team it was a very exciting race because we were involved in battles for position the whole time. Both cars ran without even the smallest problem over the entire weekend, so the championship point is a well deserved reward.
MF1 Racing overcame some bad luck earlier in the weekend to claim a reliable two-car finish in the European Grand Prix at Germany's Nürburgring.
The team now heads to the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona for next weekend's Spanish Grand Prix where it will be joined by Giorgio Mondini, who will undertake Friday testing and reserve driving duties.
Johnny Herbert, Sporting Relations Manager: "I think today's race was a step forward for us. We were only lapped the one time, but we closed the gap during the race, which was good. We had a much better weekend with a more competitive qualifying, red flag issue notwithstanding. But I think overall, it was much more positive for everybody. The team is encouraged and I'm happy about that. Hopefully, we can keep pushing forward."
Dominic Harlow, Chief Race and Test Engineer: "We had a reliable, textbook race today. We just need to get some more performance out of the car and that's what we're going to go away to find, I hope. In terms of our overall race time, we're looking more competitive than we were at the start of the season, and it's heading in the right direction."
Gerhard Berger: Scott drove a good race. We never really got a chance to get past Heidfeld as he had no problems in his pit stop, but to finish a second behind him and a couple of seconds behind the quick guys is not bad at all.
It was a disappointing end to the European Grand Prix for the Super Aguri team as both SAF1 Team drivers failed to finish the race due to separate hydraulic issues. Takuma made an impressive start, however, when he jumped up nine places from his 21st grid position. Franck kept out of trouble during the usual first corner excitement and drove a solid race until his stop out on track on lap 32.
Aguri Suzuki, Team Principal: This weekend has not been a successful one for Super Aguri team. Both cars retired with a mechanical problem so we will find out what was wrong and correct it for the next race. The performance of our car is lower than the others and we will struggle until we have the SA06, so we will have to keep working on the current car and continue to do our best.
Michael Schumacher took a thrilling European Grand Prix win in front of his crowds to give Bridgestone its 97th win since entering Formula One in 1997. For Schumacher it is his 86th win of his career. Teammate Felipe Massa made it a double podium celebration for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro and Bridgestone as he crossed the line in third, giving him his first ever F1 podium. Schumacher and Ferrari continue to lie in second place in the respective Drivers' and Constructors' Championship standings. Next across the finishing line for Bridgestone was WilliamsF1's Nico Rosberg who drove a very impressive race from the back of the grid to seventh place. Unfortunately his teammate Mark Webber, who was running up with the front runners, stopped on track with a hydraulics problem. Panasonic Toyota Racing's Jarno Trulli finished ninth while his teammate, Ralf Schumacher, also failed to finish. Meanwhile, MF1 Racing's Tiago Monteiro and Christijan Albers both acquitted themselves well to take the flag in 12th and 13th places respectively. It was a disappointing weekend, however, for Super Aguri F1's drivers Takuma Sato and Franck Montagny, neither of whom finished the race. The Formula One circus now moves on to Spain where the competition is expected to really hot up.
Hisao Suganuma, Technical Manager of Bridgestone Motorsport: We're delighted to see Michael win here at his home grand prix as the tyres have been performing well this weekend. Massa was also able to use the tyres to his best advantage and take third place. What was particularly pleasing, however, was that it was not only the two Ferraris but also WilliamsF1's Nico Rosberg and Toyota's Ralf Schumacher who also had strong races. Nico's climb from the back of the grid to seventh place showed very solid driving. It's just a shame that Mark Webber didn't finish as he could well have finished in the top six. From a tyre performance point of view we are pleased. This was the same range of tyres which ran in Imola two weeks ago and we didn't encounter any problems during the race. We shall now continue to develop the tyres in this direction. We have had warm temperatures this weekend so I'm pleased the tyres performed as expected. We now move almost immediately to Barcelona which is a tougher track compared to here but have done some good tyre testing this year and are confident our tyres will be competitive again next weekend.
Ross Brawn, Technical Director – Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro: We're obviously very, very happy. It was a challenging race but we could see that with good pace and if we played the raced correctly we could win. There were some vital stages of the race when the team and the drivers did a perfect job. The Bridgestone tyres were excellent and very strong throughout the race. We have also found performance in the car: in the aerodynamics, in the chassis, in the engine. When all those elements come together it enables us to get the performance we had today. It will be a big challenge for the rest of the year but this is a great way to start.
Sam Michael, Technical Director – WilliamsF1: It was good for Nico to get a couple of points by finishing seventh after starting 22nd due to the engine penalties. He drove solidly all day, putting in the lap times when it mattered and might have done even better if he hadn't encountered traffic. On Mark's car, we had a loss of hydraulic fluid although the exact cause is unknown at this time. Up until then, he'd done a fantastic job as well, with a really good first lap. As he was on the same pit stop strategy as Nico, there is no doubt he would have finished in the top four or five.
Fernando Alonso maintained his Formula One world championship lead after a terrific duel with arch-rival Michael Schumacher in the Grand Prix of Europe, at the Nürburgring. The Spaniard led away from pole position and kept Schumacher at bay for the first two-thirds of the race, but their positions were reversed during their second and final pit stops. Alonso consolidated thereafter to finish as runner-up. He leads Schumacher by 44 points to 31 after five of this year's 18 world championship races.
Only 13 cars completed a race of attrition. Kimi Räikkönen, Rubens Barrichello, Giancarlo Fisichella and Jacques Villeneuve also scored points for Michelin.
Nick Shorrock, Michelin Formula One director: "It looks as though t he track offered less grip this afternoon than it did yesterday. It looks as though the compounds we selected were probably too hard for the prevailing conditions.
"The San Marino grand prix had already been fiercely competitive, but we have learned a lot from it and have already developed some new products that will make their debut in Spain next weekend. We expect another close race in Barcelona – but I am confident we are poised to take another step forward."
Pat Symonds, executive engineering director, Renault F1 Team: "We had no tyre problems in the race » “We anticipated a very tough race– and that's exactly what we got. We had no tyre problems in the race and I don't believe there was a great deal to choose between Ferrari and ourselves, but they just had a slightly more effective package than us today."
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