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2006 French GP
Team Quotes - Sunday 16 July
The Renault F1 Team emerged from a demanding French Grand Prix with a strong second place finish for Fernando Alonso after a consistent, attacking drive and sixth position for team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella.
Conditions remained exceptionally hot throughout the afternoon, as they had been all weekend, and prior to the Grand Prix the team had hoped to exploit the consistent performance of the Michelin tyres to its advantage over the race stints. Going in to the Grand Prix, the team gave itself the option of running either a two or three-stop strategy according to the drivers' track position as the first stop approached. In the end, they opted for two stops to gain ground over three-stopping competitors and this strategy worked well for Fernando Alonso, who was able to move ahead of Felipe Massa to take second position. Unfortunately, Giancarlo Fisichella was hampered by graining in his second stint and was therefore unable to take advantage of the car's performance during this long middle part of the race. Fernando's second place finish means he concedes just two points to Michael Schumacher, and his championship lead now stands at 17 points. The Renault F1 Team maintained its strong scoring record with a haul of 11 points, and possesses a 21 point advantage in the Constructors' Championship.
Flavio Briatore, Managing Director: This turned out to be a difficult weekend for us, and Fernando got the best possible result from it. Giancarlo struggled in qualifying and in the race too, but he still scored valuable points. Of course, it is disappointing not to win the race in front of the 6000 Renault personnel who were at the race today, but we are staying calm about the championship and we still have a good advantage. The team is working hard to develop the car and engine at Enstone and Viry, and we know what is coming in the next few weeks. Michelin will be pushing even harder to regain the advantage in Hockenheim, and I am confident we can come out on top in Germany.
Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering: Fernando's race this afternoon was essentially determined by the time he had completed the opening lap. He fought hard to find a way past Massa, but wasn't able to do it and therefore lost any chance he might have had of challenging Schumacher. We had gone into the race with an open mind about doing two or three stops, but having lost time in the first stint, it was obvious that two stops was the way to go to ensure we at least finished second. Giancarlo's race was always going to be hard from seventh, and the graining he experienced in the second stint meant he was unable to exploit the strategy to make up ground. We are now looking forward to Germany, where we will have substantial revisions to the aerodynamics and engine. We lost two races to Ferrari earlier in the season, and bounced back strongly. That's what we intend to do again, beginning in Hockenheim.
Team McLaren Mercedes driver Kimi Raikkonen finished fifth in today's 70-lap French Grand Prix. In only his first race for over a year Pedro de la Rosa put in a steady performance to come seventh. Both drivers were on three-stop strategies with Kimi coming in on laps 17 (7.0 seconds), 32 (11.4 seconds) and 53 (7.0 seconds) and Pedro stopping on laps 18 (6.5 seconds), 35 (6.7 seconds) and 50 (7.4 seconds). Kimi remains fourth in the Drivers' Championship with 43 points and Pedro scored two points for the team on his 2006 race debut. Juan Pablo Montoya is sixth with 26 points. Team McLaren Mercedes is third in the Constructors' standings with 71 points. The Team returns to the test track in Jerez, Spain next week with Kimi, Pedro and Gary Paffett all taking to the track.
Ron Dennis: "We had a much more competitive pace today which indicates the continued improvement of the car. Unfortunately Bridgestone had an advantage and we will work hard with Michelin to reverse the situation at Hockenheim. We varied our race strategy in an attempt to improve the outcome of the race but to no avail. Both Kimi and Pedro drove well and as always we look forward to getting better results at the next grand prix."
Norbert Haug: "Our grid positions were decisive for the outcome of our race, the pace was better than in qualifying. So it was very difficult to improve on sixth and eighth despite the fact that our lap times were among the fastest of the Michelin runners. Kimi was the second placed Michelin car, but we want to do better. Pedro put in a good performance as well, however after the start he got stuck behind a slower car for the first third of the race. Once he could run free he was immediately one and a half seconds quicker than before. We are now looking forward to our home grand prix at Hockenheim in a fortnight and will work hard to further improve our performance."
Fourth win of the season for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro. This is the fifteenth French Grand Prix win for the Prancing Horse, number 187 from 734 races. For Michael Schumacher this is his eighty eighth win from 243 Grand Prix starts, the eighth at this circuit.
Jean Todt: This is a great result, picking up first and third places with Michael and Felipe respectively. We knew this would be a very tough race in which tyre performance would be critical and that prediction turned out to be true. The team did an excellent job, the drivers drove very well, the cars proved reliable and the Bridgestone tyres were up to the task in hand. The combination of all these elements means that both championships are still up for grabs. There are seven races remaining this season and as we have always said, we will do all we can to meet our targets. This victory is particularly significant for me: even if I am a European, living in Italy, I am happy to celebrate my thirteen years with this brilliant Ferrari team with a win here in France. In Maranello, we have managed to put together a group of people with great qualities, supported by exceptional technical and commercial partners and it is nice to be here together with them to celebrate this success.
Ross Brawn: It's a really great result at the end of a weekend when the whole team did a great job. Right from the start of the weekend, we had opted for a rather aggressive tyre choice, which paid off from yesterday's qualifying. Then today we prepared and managed the tyres during the race. Actually, they were very good and on Michael's car, fantastic. We lost a bit of performance with Felipe from around half distance and we need to understand why. It was a shame, as his pace early on was very strong. Now we have to keep on moving forward, trying to improve race by race.
Panasonic Toyota Racing has recorded its second consecutive fourth-place finish after Ralf Schumacher took five points at today's French Grand Prix. Running on a two-stop strategy Ralf battled strongly throughout. He narrowly missed out on the podium despite losing time with a problem with his left rear wheel nut at his first pit stop on lap 22. It was another day of mixed emotions for the team as Jarno Trulli was forced to retire at half distance due to a problem with his brakes. Jarno had been running strongly throughout the first stint and was confident he could have battled for the podium. Indeed, for three laps during the first round of pit stops the car in front really was a Toyota, as first Jarno and then Ralf led a grand prix for the first time in 2006. The eventual haul of five points takes the team up to 5th place in the constructors' championship with a total of 21. Toyota will now move to Spain's Jerez circuit next week as it tests in preparation for the German Grand Prix at the end of July.
Tsutomu Tomita - Team Principal: "It is difficult not to be disappointed today because even if that was one of our better finishes of the year, both of our cars had the pace to be on the podium today. We made a very good tyre choice and because of the consistency of our Bridgestone tyres we were able to opt for a two-stop strategy today, which was the correct move. That, combined with the progress we have made on the car, led to a very competitive race weekend from us. Everything ran smoothly from Friday practice right through qualifying yesterday but in the end we failed to make the podium because we are still having some reliability issues. Today we had a problem with the left rear wheel nut at Ralf's pit stop which cost us more than ten seconds while Jarno had to retire with a leak on the braking system. So we have to say sorry to Jarno and well done to Ralf who did a very good drive. We are going in the right direction and we will push to develop further. Our pace is improving with every race and we are still chasing our first win this season."
Sam Michael, Technical Director, WilliamsF1: "We had problems with our tyres running over temperature. We didn't see any sign of it in practice so it caught us out in the race. We then had a wheel rim failure on Mark's car so we retired him early as he had too much damage. We will need to look into both of these issues to ensure they don't occur again. It was going to be hard for Nico to get in the points from the back of the grid and we then needed to bring him in for an unscheduled stop as a precautionary measure following the problems with Mark. Both cars had great starts and Mark defended well against Pedro de la Rosa."
Simon Corbyn, Head of F1 Race Engineering, Cosworth Ltd: "No Cosworth problems today for either Mark or Nico. Both CA2006 Series 6 engines will be good second event engines for Hockenheim."
A double retirement in the French Grand Prix this afternoon completed a disappointing weekend for the Honda Racing F1 Team in Magny Cours. After a reasonable start to the race with both Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button making up a position off the start, the afternoon ultimately ended in retirement for both drivers.
A suspected engine problem brought Rubens' race to an early conclusion on lap 18. Team-mate Jenson moved up through the field to 11th, running well in free air and gaining two positions in his second and third stints, before a sudden loss of power led to his retirement on lap 61.
Gil de Ferran, Sporting Director: "This was a difficult weekend for us. Rubens had a failure early in the race, as did Jenson in the later stages, something we obviously will investigate and address. Jenson fought hard all day from his low grid position, maintaining an impressive rhythm throughout, with good strategy calls and clean fast stops gaining a couple of positions. Despite these positives, we come out of France disappointed on one hand, but on the other, we are even more determined to turn things around."
Christian Horner: Having qualified ninth, to finish ninth, just outside of the points, is the worst possible result because ultimately we take nothing away from the event. But, we got two more cars to the finish and we ran competitively with the BMWs and the Williams again. Once again three teams dominated the top eight and we were genuinely contenders for points. Christian lost some ground at the start and I think the place that David lost to Heidfeld on the first lap was a decisive moment between scoring a point or not. We'll keep pushing and trying to build on the last few races as we move to the next European events.
Nick Heidfeld secured another World Championship point for the BMW Sauber F1 Team in the French Grand Prix, after moving up from 11th on the grid to eighth. Jacques Villeneuve started from 16th and finished 11th in the hot Magny Cours race.
Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director): It was a typical Magny Cours race with not a lot of overtaking and few incidents. In view of this our hopes of climbing from midfield to the front were limited. Despite this Nick scored a point from 11th on the grid and Jacques made up five positions. Taking into account the starting positions, this is an acceptable result. This track also demonstrated there is a significant gap to the top of the field. Before Hockenheim we will work hard on the development of the car.
Willy Rampf (Technical Director): As it is difficult to overtake here and considering our cars' grid positions, the only sure way to improve our positions was during pit stops. The championship point was well earned. Being realistic about Jacques' chances, there was no hope of him getting points from 16th on the grid, although his overtaking manoeuvre was very good. Both Jacques and Nick drove consistently in a race during which we had no technical problems. We are working hard to improve the car's performance for Hockenheim.
Christijan Albers delivered his and MF1 Racing's most competitive performance of the season at the French Grand Prix today. Despite encountering transmission problems on his first pit stop, Albers maintained strong pace to bring home his M16 in 15th position.
Tiago Monteiro was not as fortunate. The Portuguese driver was forced to retire 11 laps into the race with undetermined mechanical issues. It was only the first time in his F1 career that Monteiro failed to finish in consecutive races.
The team now heads to Jerez, Spain, for three days of testing between July 19-21 before returning to competition in two weeks' time at Hockenheim for the German Grand Prix.
Colin Kolles, Managing Director: "Unfortunately, Tiago had a problem with his car that prevented him from finishing, which is a shame, because both our cars had strong pace all weekend. Christijan drove a good race and even though he had a gearbox problem, he was still only 4.48 seconds behind Rosberg at the finish. The rest of our rivals were not too far ahead, either. We are making progress, but we have to keep pushing to gain positions."
James Key, Technical Director: "It wasn't a bad afternoon in terms of lap times, etc., but not good for our final result, really. Christijan was racing with a competitive pack of cars - I think there were seven cars all challenging for 12th place, at one point - but sadly, we had an issue during our pit stop that lost him a fair amount of time and dropped him behind that group. But he did a good job to catch up to them toward the end and run competitively for the duration, even with the problems he had. That's somewhat satisfying, but as I said yesterday, we need to stay with them to be in a position to race. Tiago had a problem during the race that led to his retirement, which we're investigating now. Hopefully, we'll figure out what the problem is and be in good shape heading into our test in Jerez where we'll have a lot of test items in the programme. We can take heart from the performance we've shown this weekend, but we need to improve our track position, which is our main problem right now."
Johnny Herbert, Sporting Relations Manager: "Considering the circumstances, we did a pretty good job this weekend. We had genuine race pace, which I think could have ended up being better had we not run into the problems that cropped up. The final result isn't really an indication of where we are, because in terms of performance, it was one of our best efforts of the season. I think it's another step forward, one that we can take that into the next round in Hockenheim and hopefully build on."
Franz Tost: Both drivers had a difficult day: overnight, Scott developed serious back pain and trouble breathing as a result of his Friday crash. He was seen by a doctor, had an X-ray and our physio team worked on him. He decided to start the race and I think he drove his best race of the season. Tonio had to start from the back and did the best he could under the circumstances. He did a good job too and so we hope to have a better weekend in Hockenheim.
Super Aguri driver Franck Montagny took the chequered flag in 16th position for his home race, the 2006 French Grand Prix, today. It was a disappointing end to the weekend for Takuma Sato who, after suffering a clutch related problem at the start of the race, had to retire on the very first lap.
Aguri Suzuki, Team Principal: Unfortunately for the team Taku had to retire due to a clutch problem, but I am very happy that Franck finished the race not only because the French Grand Prix is very important to him, but we also needed to cross the finish line again. Franck’s lap times were very consistent and he made no mistakes and I think that the team did an extremely good job all weekend. We must remember that this is still the SA05 which is not a competitive car, but with our new car making its debut in Germany, we can hope for an improvement in our results.
Japanese tyres help Italian team romp to victory on French soil Michael Schumacher's Italian Ferrari romped away on French soil this afternoon to claim a dominant lights-to-flag French Grand Prix victory on his Bridgestone Potenza Formula One tyres. For the seven time world champion it was his 88th victory and for Bridgestone, the company's 99th since entering Formula One in 1997. Schumacher's teammate, Felipe Massa, had a very strong race too today, claiming the third place podium position. Schumacher and Ferrari deservedly took a large points haul this afternoon but with championship leader, Fernando Alonso, taking eight points for second place there is still everything to fight for in the remaining seven races of the season. Meanwhile it was another bittersweet day for the Panasonic Toyota Racing team who have finished fourth two grands prix in a row. This time it was Ralf Schumacher who benefited after Jarno Trulli was unluckily sidelined by car issues when running in fourth place. Like Indianapolis two weeks ago, Toyota again chose to capitalize on the consistency and durability of their Bridgestone tyres with Ralf Schumacher stopping twice on a day which saw track temperatures of up to 50 degrees Celsius. Ralf Schumacher's five points have boosted his team up a place to fifth in the Constructors' championship. It was a disappointing day for the WilliamsF1 team - Mark Webber retired while Nico Rosberg finished fourteenth. Christijan Albers and Franck Montagny will be pleased to have finished for their respective MF1 Racing and Super Aguri F1 teams.
Hisao Suganuma, Technical Manager of Bridgestone Motorsport: It was a very tough race out there today! Track temperatures reached 50 degrees Celsius but our tyres performed consistently throughout the race giving Bridgestone our 99th win and Michael (Schumacher) his 88th. We had three Bridgestone shod cars finish in the top four which was another good result following on from our strong performance in Indianapolis recently. However, I am disappointed for Jarno (Trulli) as he was looking good today. Had he finished the race he would have been a podium contender. Nevertheless, his teammate, Ralf (Schumacher), finished well so it was another good weekend for Toyota. Williams however had a tough day and we shall work closely with them to find the cause of their problems. Overall though, this weekend the Bridgestone tyres performed very strongly in both qualifying and the race. We have worked for this for a long time and it is nice to start seeing the results of our efforts. We shall do our best to keep up the momentum for the rest of the season.
Ross Brawn, Technical Director – Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro: We made quite an aggressive tyre choice this weekend to get the benefit in qualifying and then had to know how to manage the Bridgestones in the race. Actually they were very good and in Michael's case - excellent. Felipe lost a bit of performance during the race but certainly his pace early on was very strong. The cars and strategy were very good so we're happy!
Pascal Vasselon, Senior General Manager Chassis – Panasonic Toyota Racing: This weekend was the first time we have used these Bridgestone tyres and we're very happy with our choice. As expected they were very consistent today and that is what allowed us to choose a two-stop strategy. We had the pace to battle for the podium with both cars today.
Fernando Alonso finished second in today's French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours to maintain his comfortable lead in this year's Formula One title race – and keep his team well ahead in the championship for constructors.
The Spaniard ran third in the early stages, but his two-stop strategy enabled him to split the Ferraris and record his 10th top-two finish in this season's 11 races. Kimi Raikkonen, Giancarlo Fisichella), Pedro de la Rosa and Nick Heidfeld also scored points on Michelin tyres.
Nick Shorrock, Michelin Formula One director: "It is obviously disappointing that we weren't able to convert our consistency into another race victory, but results like this simply inspire us to do better next time.
"We accept that we need to increase our performance and will be evaluating a number of ideas this week. We brought 10 different products to this race and used six of them today. We tried some very aggressive ‘option' tyres earlier in the weekend, but by general consensus they might have suffered over a full race distance because of the extremely high track temperatures. That would clearly have been a faster tyre over one lap and it gives us a baseline on which to work for the forthcoming races.
"Our partners are still leading both world championships– and there will be no let-up as we strive to give all of them a tyre capable of winning the German Grand Prix later this month."
Pat Symonds, executive engineering director, Renault F1 Team: "Today's track temperatures of more than 50 degrees were a severe test for the tyres. We had high hopes that Michelin's consistency would give us an edge over Ferrari, but unfortunately that wasn't the case.
"We have accepted all along that the tyre battle is going to swing back and forth throughout the year and we know that Michelin's engineers are always absolutely committed. They'll be working flat out to make sure things swing back in its partners' favour at Hockenheim."
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