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2006 Japan GP
Team Quotes - Saturday 7 October
The Renault F1 Team qualified fifth and sixth for tomorrow's Japanese Grand Prix this afternoon in Suzuka, with World Champion Fernando Alonso ahead of his team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella. The two drivers qualified within three tenths of each other, a small margin that demonstrates both drivers got the maximum from the R26 package on this demanding circuit. However, the two Renaults will line up behind both Ferraris – their direct championship rivals – and the Toyota team on row two. While this position translates a substantial deficit in first lap performance, the team hopes that the consistency of the Michelin tyres will pay in tomorrow's race, and allow them to fight on equal terms as race strategies play out.
Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering: We often say that relative performance is what matters in Formula 1, and that has surprised us today. While we can draw some consolation from being the fastest Michelin runners, that thought does not help in the battle with our main rivals Ferrari. In yesterday's low temperatures we looked competitive, and things have become more difficult as track temperatures rose some ten degrees today. Certainly the grid suggests that these higher temperatures were not perfectly suited to our tyre over one lap, but it should be borne in mind that qualifying is just a means to an end. The key to success in tomorrow's race will be finding the right balance between aggression and damage limitation, and we are hopeful that our tyres will bring us the consistency we need in the race.
Denis Chevrier, Head of Trackside Engine Operations: The only real source of satisfaction after today's qualifying session is to see our drivers line up alongside each other, as the leading Michelin contenders. The performance of some of our usual rivals showed that this was not an easy qualifying session to come through unscathed, and we have certainly achieved our realistic maximum today in these conditions: we thought we would end up on the third row, and we have achieved just that. From a championship point of view, the Toyotas on row two make our life harder – and mean that the start will one of the key moments in tomorrow's race. Now, the important thing will be to not write off the Grand Prix before it has been run. This season has already shown us how quickly the balance of power can swing from one day to the next over a Grand Prix weekend, and we will have to hope that our deficit in first lap performance is transformed into an advantage in terms of consistency. On the engine side, both RS26 V8 engines have performed faultlessly, and they will provide our drivers with the usual blend of driveability and performance throughout the race.
Team McLaren Mercedes drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Pedro de la Rosa will line up 11th and 13th on the grid for tomorrow's Japanese Grand Prix. Kimi's time of 1:30.827 in the second qualifying session just missed the top ten, whilst Pedro's lap of 1:31.254 was also not quick enough to get into the final shootout.
Ron Dennis: "Very much a qualifying that was dominated by tyres. Clearly our choice, which we thought was right after this morning's session, was in fact wrong. This was compounded by a strong performance from Michelin's competition. The race will be very much influenced by the weather and maybe with an optimal fuel load and better race performance from our tyre selection we can still aim for a good result."
Norbert Haug: "We were half a second too slow, our target is to be the fastest Michelin team, once the tyre competitor has an advantage, and this we didn't achieve. For the first time this year we didn't manage to get into the top ten, which obviously is disappointing. Anyway we now will optimise our strategy and aim for a much better result tomorrow."
Sixth pole of the season for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, following on from those in Sakhir, Imola, Indianapolis, Magny-Cours and Istanbul, the second for Felipe Massa. For the fifth time this season, both Ferraris line up on the front row of the grid. This is pole number 185 in Ferrari's history, the ninth at this track.
Jean Todt: A great all-red front row, which comes at a crucial moment in the season. Felipe secured a really good pole position on a track which highlights driver talent. Bridgestone has brought excellent tyres here and it is not a fluke that the top four cars on the grid are all on the Japanese rubber. We know how important tyre performance will be in determining the final result and today it was clear that the overall package is in excellent shape. Now the biggest step of the weekend awaits and by that I mean the 53 race laps. The key factors will be the same as ever: apart from the aforementioned tyres, they are the work of the team and drivers, reliability and strategy. We will have to be perfect in every area to achieve our objectives.
Ross Brawn: We are very happy with this qualifying: the cars proved to be well balanced, the drivers performed impeccably and the Bridgestone tyres were excellent. Of course, we now have to tackle the most important part of the Grand Prix weekend, namely the race, but I can confidently say that we have all the necessary ingredients to do well. We had a clear idea as to which of the two types of tyre we wanted to use and the choice seems to have been the right one.
Panasonic Toyota Racing is celebrating its best qualifying performance of the season after Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli secured the second row of the grid for Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix. Following a difficult qualifying session last week in China, today was a much better day for Toyota. Both Ralf and Jarno showed quick pace in all three of the sessions and they easily made it into Q3 before setting the 3rd and 4th fastest times respectively. After yesterday's wet practice sessions, the weather improved around the Suzuka circuit today. The sun came out for the morning practice session and Q1 and Q2 took place in similar sunshine on a dry track. The conditions were still not ideal because there were strong gusting winds and there was a shower at one end of the circuit during Q3. The eventual grid positions now give Toyota the best possible chance for a strong result in tomorrow's race. Now the whole team will push as hard as possible to make sure that there is something for its employees and fans to remember.
Pascal Vasselon – Senior General Manager Chassis: "This is our best qualifying result of the season and a very different story compared to China. But we knew what went wrong in Shanghai so we were always confident that we were able to put in a performance like this. We saw early in the weekend that our car was well balanced and fast around one lap in all types of conditions. So this is confirmation of the potential of our car because you need a good car to be fast around Suzuka. You also need good drivers as both Ralf and Jarno are. They did well so it has been a fine day for us. We were very strong in Q1 and Q2 and we preserved a set of tyres so we could have two outings on new tyres in Q3, which is definitely the best tactic. The wind was not a problem for the drivers, which is another good indication of the car's quality. We must also give a big thank you to Bridgestone because the tyres are working very well, both in terms of the first lap and consistency. As for the race, we are on the optimal strategy according to our calculations, so we are in good shape and looking forward to tomorrow."
Sam Michael, Technical Director, WilliamsF1: "It's good to get one car in the top ten. It's pretty clear that Bridgestone have the advantage here and there are no problems on the car, so now we'll work on strategy tonight to see how we can get some points tomorrow. Nico made it easily into Q3, Mark has flexibility on his fuel strategy and all the systems on the cars are working correctly, so we're hoping for a good race."
Simon Corbyn, Head of F1 Race Engineering, Cosworth: "There are some big bumps here and, combined with the winds today, Cosworth saw significant time running right into our 20,000RPM soft limiter during qualifying. Strong engine performance always helps, but it is more significant around here than at many Formula One circuits. Nico made good use of his fresh Series 6 engine to see final qualifying on his first visit to the track and Mark was unfortunate not to join him. My thanks to everyone representing Cosworth in Suzuka for doing a sterling job."
The Honda Racing F1 Team's home crowd will see Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello line up on the 4th row of the grid at Suzuka tomorrow after they qualified 7th and 8th for the Japanese Grand Prix.
After yesterday's downpour, today's weather conditions were fine and dry, although a gusty wind was making car handling inconsistent. In this morning's free practice, Jenson posted the 3rd fastest lap and was the quickest Michelin runner on track. Rubens was less happy with the balance of his car and switched to the T-car chassis for the start of the qualifying hour.
Both drivers eased their way through session one but the second shoot-out was a much more tense affair as there were several surprise casualties in the dying seconds. Jenson moved up to 4th and Rubens' lap was good for 10th position, securing his place in the final session.
The final 15 minutes highlighted the differences between cars and strategies at this circuit and Jenson and Rubens qualified in 7th and 8th places, the second fastest pairing on Michelin tyres.
Gil de Ferran, Sporting Director: "Our results in this session were satisfactory. In the end we were the second fastest team on Michelins so far this weekend and we are in a good place for the start of the race. Given the issues that Rubens was having this morning, we elected to change him to the spare chassis. As a result he was much happier and fought hard to secure his place in the top ten. Jenson was very fast throughout qualifying and got everything out of the car this afternoon. We shall see how the different strategies play out tomorrow but hopefully we can put on a good show in front of Honda's many fans!"
Christian Horner: Both drivers struggled today with performance on new tyres. The longer runs this morning were reasonable, but the car lacked pace on new tyres and it's obviously frustrating to qualify 17th and 18th. The circuit seems to favour Bridgestone at the moment, however hopefully some variable conditions in the race tomorrow will allow us to progress through the field and we'll be working hard on our strategy this evening.
It was mixed fortunes for the BMW Sauber F1 Team in qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix. Nick Heidfeld has qualified in the top ten for the ninth time this season, but an off track excursion meant that at the Suzuka track for the first time Robert Kubica missed taking part in the final session of qualifying. Nick qualified ninth while Robert was 12th.
Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director): Robert missed the third part of qualifying by a small margin, as on his decisive lap he went off the track so was 12th. Nick, as in his recent races, made it into the top ten. In the third part of qualifying the weather played a part as, due to the light rain, we stopped our long run to fit new tyres for our fast lap. Finally Nick qualified 9th, and from our starting positions I think we can do well.
Willy Rampf (Technical Director): All in all we are satisfied with Nick's starting position, and confident for the race. We hoped to make up one or two positions at the end, but we don't know what fuel loads our competitors are carrying. Maybe we will see a few surprises tomorrow. For the first time Robert didn't make it into the top ten, as he had to stop his second run in the second part of qualifying after going off. For him it is the first time in Suzuka and on Friday he didn't have the chance to drive very much. Free practice today is not much of a preparation for such a challenging track.
Qualifying at Suzuka turned out to be a bitter sweet day for the Spyker MF1 Team as problems encountered by Tiago Monteiro within the opening minutes of the first session were counteracted by another entry into the second knockout session by Christijan Albers.
Issues relating to the front end of Tiago Monteiro's car ended his session very quickly causing him to not be able to improve on his single timed lap. He provisionally lines up 21st on the grid.
Christijan Albers drove an excellent lap in the first session to post faster times than both Red Bulls and one of the Toro Rosso cars for the second time this season. Relying on used tyres Christijan finished the session in 16th having survived the first knockout for the fifth time this season.
Colin Kolles, Team Principal: "I was very happy with our performance today even though Tiago encountered some problems. I am happy to say that I think he also would have qualified in the second session had these not occurred. Perhaps a bit of luck is coming back to us now and Christijan did a fantastic job to put the car ahead of a number of our rivals. I am looking forward to the race tomorrow.
Dominic Harlow, Head of Race and Test Engineering: "A mixed qualifying session today with terrible luck for Tiago incurring a car problem early in Q1 meaning he could not complete a competitive time on new tyres. Christijan faired better finding his way into Q2 with another excellent lap. We took a more tactical approach to Q2 and expect a strong race tomorrow. The car has been well balanced in the dry and both drivers are confident that our Bridgestone tyres will offer us good race performance tomorrow."
Warm temperatures and dry conditions were welcomed by fans all around the Suzuka Circuit today. However, on track, the Super Aguri team had a difficult day. Sakon Yamamoto experienced a power steering issue which limited his running during the morning's Free Practice session and then a spin just before the Hairpin ended his Qualifying prematurely. Takuma Sato had a more promising morning, however his SA06 was lacking in pace compared to the rest of the field who showed impressive form around this unique circuit during Qualifying.
Aguri Suzuki, Team Principal: We pushed hard to develop our car for this race and have brought many new aero developments to Suzuka. I want to thank everyone in the team for all of their hard work, but we need to improve greatly on our car performance because it is still not enough. Taku and the boys did a great job today and it is unfortunate that Sakon stalled during Qualifying. Looking forward to tomorrow, we will give it 110% and hope that we have a good race here at Suzuka.
In dry but windy conditions it was the Bridgestone shod cars who dominated this afternoon's Japanese Grand Prix qualifying session as Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro and Panasonic Toyota Racing locked out the front two rows of tomorrow's grid. Taking top honours for pole position, and stealing his teammate's thunder in front of a packed out crowd of enthusiastic fans, was Felipe Massa, who stormed to a fantastic time of 1m 29.599s in the closing stages of the session. Michael Schumacher was fractions behind with a time of 1m29.711s although he did set the fastest lap overall with a 1m28.954s. Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli were third and fourth fastest respectively, giving Toyota their best qualifying finish of the season. Also making it into the top ten shoot-out was WilliamsF1's Nico Rosberg. Title challenger Fernando Alonso was fifth fastest. Mark Webber and MF1 Racing's Christijan Albers made it through to the second part of qualifying, positioning themselves for a strong race tomorrow.
Hisao Suganuma, Technical Manager - Bridgestone Motorsport: Congratulations to both Ferrari and Toyota! It was great to see Bridgestone shod cars in the top four spots in this afternoon's qualifying and it is a clear indication that our tyres for this circuit are extremely competitive. After this morning's practice session, during which our tyres started to show their performance and suitability for the Suzuka track, our teams knew they could be in a good position this afternoon. The track was still improving with running and any graining was within acceptable limits. It was great to see our teams capitalize on their car/tyre packages today and put them to good use. Well done to Nico Rosberg for making it into the top ten and although Mark Webber didn't make it through but he should be strong tomorrow. Overall, we are very pleased with today's result but we must remain focused and concentrate on the race tomorrow as that is what really counts.
Ross Brawn, Technical Director – Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro: The drivers and cars are performing very well this weekend and the Bridgestone tyres have been extremely good. It wasn't too difficult to make the tyre decision. Of course, we've got to finish the job in the race but I'm pleased with the way it's shaping up and obviously very pleased with the performance we've got.
Pascal Vasselon, General Manager Chassis – Panasonic Toyota Racing: It's obvious that the Bridgestone tyres are working very well in the dry conditions we saw today. The first lap performance is outstanding and the consistency is there as well. So we are very pleased with the tyres we have here and delighted that they helped us to our best qualifying position of the season.
Fernando Alonso was the fastest Michelin runner during a challenging qualifying session ahead of tomorrow's Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka. In dry, blustery conditions, the Spaniard posted a 1m 30.371s lap to secure fifth place on the grid. His team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella will join him on row three.
Three other Michelin drivers will start in the top 10. Honda team-mates Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello were seventh and eighth while Nick Heidfeldwas ninth.
Nick Shorrock, Michelin F1 director: "Clearly this hasn't been our best qualifying performance of the year – far from it. We went to Silverstone to develop tyres for this race, because its characteristics are traditionally very similar to those at Suzuka. The excellent speed we showed during testing simply hasn't translated into strong qualifying pace here, however. Track conditions have changed since this morning's final free practice, but it hasn't really rubbered in as much as would have liked.
"Our partners will be using a mixture of prime and option tyres tomorrow and we expect to be consistent in race trim. Today might have been frustrating, but we'll be transferring all our efforts into getting as much as we can from the grand prix."
Pat Symonds, executive engineering director, Renault F1 Team: "The qualifying positions indicate that today's higher temperatures did not completely suit our tyre. Qualifying is just a means to an end, though, and we remain very hopeful of a strong race result."
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