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2006 Spanish GP
Team Quotes - Sunday 14 May
The Renault F1 Team scored its second double podium finish of the 2006 season this afternoon, as Fernando Alonso won the Spanish Grand Prix from pole position, while team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella finished third.
The result marks Fernando's first ever win at his home Grand Prix, and delighted the 130,000 strong crowd that packed the Circuit de Catalunya this afternoon.
The Spanish Grand Prix was always going to be a race about tyres. After proving their first lap performance in yesterday's qualifying session, the Michelin tyres in fact revealed their strongest suit to be consistency in race conditions, as Fernando Alonso made the most of the speed of the R26 to beat Ferrari on pure pace. Team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella struggled with inconsistent handling in the opening stint, and lost ground to his team-mate, but drove strongly after the stops to take the final podium position.
The Renault F1 Team's total of 16 points from this race extends the Constructors' Championship lead over Ferrari to 19 points. Fernando Alonso now leads the Drivers' Championship by 15 points on a total of 54 from six races, while Giancarlo Fisichella took his score to 24 points, and is now just 3 points behind Kimi Raikkonen in third place. This victory also marked Renault's 100th Grand Prix victory with Elf, a series begun back in 1979 at the French Grand Prix.
Flavio Briatore, Managing Director: Renault scored an incredible team result this afternoon. Fernando and Giancarlo were perfect, we made the right choices with the strategy and beat Ferrari fair and square. Apart from Renault and Ferrari, the other teams just didn't seem to have the pace to stay with us today. This is a fantastic day for all of Renault, to win in Spain with Fernando, and to have both our drivers on the podium: it is a real team win. We must thank Michelin as well. I had been a bit pessimistic coming here, but this race showed they are pushing hard to win the championship, which is what we need through the summer. Congratulations to Elf also on their hundredth victory with Renault. We know there are many more still to come.
Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering: To be perfectly honest, I was not too optimistic about our chances before this afternoon's race, as Ferrari had looked extremely competitive on their long runs in practice. This afternoon's double podium was all about the pace of our car and drivers, not strategy. Fernando drove faultlessly today. We knew the Michelin tyres had strong first lap performance, but we had only had one new set left to use with Fernando, and therefore the victory would be dictated by the consistency of the tyres. They held up fantastically, and allowed us to beat Ferrari on outright speed. Giancarlo also put in an excellent performance, and backed up Fernando perfectly during the race. He was driving on the limit throughout and apart from one excursion after his first pit-stop, he was faultless. This result is a great credit to our drivers, and to the whole team both here at the track, and back at Enstone and Viry.
Team McLaren Mercedes driver Kimi Raikkonen finished fifth in today's 66-laps Spanish Grand Prix. Juan Pablo Montoya retired from the race on lap 18 after spinning at turn two and getting stuck on the kerb. Kimi was on a two-stop- strategy and made his pit stops on laps 22 (7.9 seconds) and 46 (7.6 seconds). Kimi remains third in the Drivers' ranking with 27 points and Juan Pablo is seventh with 15 points. Team McLaren Mercedes holds third place in the Constructors' Championship with 42 points. The team will test this coming week at the Paul Ricard track in France with all four drivers sharing the work load.
Ron Dennis: "A difficult weekend for us where despite a good drive by Kimi, we were only able to achieve fifth place. The whole team is working hard to improve the package to increase our performance in the coming races."
Norbert Haug: "To be the third team behind Renault and Ferrari again and the gap to the leaders is a disappointment that we have to change. Kimi made a perfect start to improve from ninth to fifth but the overall pace of his car was not fast enough and he delivered what was possible today. Juan Pablo was on a one stop strategy but he spun out of a possible points result the cause of which we will investigate. Our attention is now on improving our technical package during the next races."
Jean Todt: "We were expecting a very close race and that's what we got, although obviously we were hoping it would work out in our favour. Nevertheless, this weekend confirmed we are competitive, even if today, we have to admit our closest rivals were stronger. We had opted for a strategy that meant carrying a bit more fuel at the start than those ahead of us on the grid, but it did not work out for us. All the same, Michael and Felipe picked up thirteen points which are very valuable and consolidate our positions in both championships. Now we have to put a great deal of effort, along with our technical partners, first and foremost Bridgestone, to be even more competitive in the next few races."
Ross Brawn: "The car and the Bridgestone tyres performed well, but we need to find a bit more performance. There were moments when we got very close to our rivals, but I think Fernando had a slight edge today. In the first part of the race, when Giancarlo was ahead of our cars we knew we would be unable to stay in touch with Fernando and so we waited for the pit stop to try and get past Giancarlo, which Michael managed to do. However, in the next stint, we realised we were not quick enough to aim for victory. Now we have to work on improving the package for the forthcoming races."
Panasonic Toyota Racing suffered a difficult afternoon's work in today's Spanish Grand Prix. Both Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli qualified on the front four rows but both were relatively slow off the line and during the first stint Ralf was directly behind Jarno. On lap 16 he attempted a manoeuvre into the first corner and the pair touched, with Jarno's right rear tyre knocking off Ralf's front wing. After pitting for a replacement, Ralf suffered a suspected electronics problem that led to his retirement. Jarno battled hard for the rest of the race and brought the car home in an eventual 10th place. Toyota will spend this week testing at France's Paul Ricard circuit with its new TF106B car, which is scheduled to make its race debut at the Monaco Grand Prix in a fortnight's time.
Tsutomu Tomita - Team Principal: "It looks like we will have to spend a lot of time analysing what went wrong today. On Friday and Saturday the car, the engine and the tyres were all working well and things were looking good. But today's race pace ended up very similar to what we had last week at the Nürburgring and we have to understand why we could not race at the speed of the top teams. First we have to learn why our starts were so poor because that was one of the causes of the issues we had in the race. We also have to analyse Jarno's car performance to find out why he struggled for the second race in a row. We will need to investigate the causes when we arrive back in Cologne. Finally we have to understand why our two drivers had a collision. At Toyota our philosophy is very much based around racing. We are a race team and that means our drivers have to be free to race - but with one limit. Based on the results of our investigations into everything that happened today we will seek to improve for the next race. We will have a busy evening and a busy week ahead."
Sam Michael, Technical Director, WilliamsF1: "It's obviously a pretty disappointing result to finish outside of the points. Both cars finished which is good, but we will go away from here and make sure we have significantly better performance in Monaco. Mark and Nico had good starts but we lost out on the first lap and from that point on spent most of the race in slower traffic, which is pretty difficult to recover from at Barcelona."
Sean O'Mahony, Principal Engineer - F1 Race Engineering, Cosworth Ltd: "It was a frustrating day for us as both cars were obviously quick when not held up. On the other hand, it was good to see both Series 4 engines get to the end of their second race. We had no real concerns about the engines during the race apart from some high oil temperatures at the start due to the hotter than predicated ambient temperature."
The Honda Racing F1 Team secured a two car points finish in today's Spanish Grand Prix after Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello finished the race in 6th and 7th positions.
After making up a place off the grid, Jenson posed a strong challenge to Raikkonen, edging closer and closer through the 66-lap race. Rubens lost a place off the start and unfortunately lost time in the first and final stints of the race. The team's combined result today sees them take another step closer to McLaren in the Constructors standings but the Monaco Grand Prix in two weeks time is the main focus now and the team will be testing a number of new ideas in Vallelunga next week in preparation.
Gil de Ferran, Sporting Director: "We scored some more points, this time with both cars, which is very positive. While we are not as fast as we would like to be, we had a good battle with Raikkonen right through to the end and made the most of what we had. The day went relatively smoothly without any major dramas and both drivers pushed extremely hard. As well as the next race in Monaco potentially suiting our cars better, we go to Vallelunga next week to evaluate some improvements. Our focus is on closing the gap."
Shuhei Nakamoto, Management Board Member - Honda Racing F1 Team, Engineering Director - Honda Racing Development: "Both drivers gave it everything they had today and the result is an accurate reflection of our level at the moment. Every member of the team knows we need to keep pushing hard to close the gap to the front runners."
Christian Horner: It's the first time since Bahrain that we've got two cars to the finish. Christian's pace in the first sector of the race was respectable, but with no new tyres available for his second and third stint, he dropped away from Rosberg who he'd been closing in on at the start. Starting from the back of the grid, David was always in for a long afternoon, although he had a good first lap to clear both the Midlands and Super Aguris. As a team, we now need to build on today's race finishes and work on the general pace of the car to start moving forward from here.
Nick Heidfeld finished 8th in the Spanish Grand Prix and this result means the new BMW Sauber F1 Team has now collected world championship points from four of the six races to date. Jacques Villeneuve started at the very back of the grid in 22nd but managed to work his way up to 12th.
Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director): As usual in Barcelona it was a race with not a lot of overtaking and this time with not a lot of incidents either. Our drivers with their different strategies had problem free and mistake free races. Nick managed to go from tenth to eighth and collected one important point. Jacques made up ten positions and came in 12th with his one stop strategy. During this season we have collected points in four out of six races and we are satisfied with this.
Willy Rampf (Technical Director Chassis): This was a good race for us with both cars finishing trouble free. Jacques started 22nd but got stuck behind slower cars for quite a while. After he was by them he made up many positions despite a heavy car. He drove a good race and expecting better than 12th was not realistic. Nick started from tenth and had a very consistent race pace, thus enabling us to gain one position thanks to our strategy on a circuit where overtaking is difficult.
A broken front wing brought Christijan Albers' race to an end on the 48th lap of the Spanish Grand Prix. Christijan attempted to nurse the car home, but was thwarted by uncontrollable handling and retired to the garage with 18 laps remaining.
On a more positive note, Tiago Monteiro took the chequered flag in 16th position for his 23rd finish in 25 Grand Prix starts, extending his reliability percentage to an impressive 92%.
MF1 Racing returns to its headquarters in Silverstone to continue development of the M16 in preparation for the Monaco Grand Prix in two weeks.
James Key, Technical Director: "We had hoped for a more competitive performance, but to be fair, this is a circuit that has traditionally been difficult for us. The mix of straights and low-speed corners work against each other in the way you have to set up a car. But some teams manage to do it and this weekend we haven't really done as much as we'd hoped. So, yes, that's a bit frustrating. Being caught behind slower cars meant that we got lapped earlier than we would have normally, and that took a lot of our race time away - roughly two seconds per lap. Once we got caught in that situation, the blue flags killed the lap times further, because our drivers had to slow down and move off the line to let the leaders by. Tiago did a good job to make it to the finish and he was generally pretty consistent. We had a strategy for Christijan which we felt was the right direction to go, given his position on the grid, but the issues he encountered during the race put paid to those ideas. He either hit a kerb or got hit by someone else's flying bodywork; we'll have to analyse the damage to see what it was."
Dominic Harlow, Chief Race and Test Engineer: "Another solid finish for Tiago - 23 out of 25 so far, and counting. We've not quite got the pace yet to challenge our closest competitors, but it's getting there. For Christijan, obviously, the retirement was disappointing. We brought him in because we weren't going to be classified under the 90% rule, so it was pointless to continue at that stage. We'll be looking into what caused his problem, which was related to the front wing. In any event, the damage to the car made it too difficult for him to drive, so rather than risk his safety, we decided to bring him in."
Gerhard Berger: It's the first time we did not get a single car across the finish line. That's racing. Scott had an engine failure and Tonio had a hydraulic problem. In terms of race pace, once again we are in what seems to be our usual position.
Super Aguri driver Takuma Sato brought home his SA05 to finish today's Spanish Grand Prix in 17th position. It was a disappointing end to Franck Montagny's weekend as a drive shaft failure ended his race prematurely on lap 10.
Aguri Suzuki, Team Principal: It was a busy race for us and Taku did a great job, so I am pleased that he passed the chequered flag. Franck did very well at the start and showed a good performance until he had to retire due to a drive shaft problem. I hope that we will be able to provide a better car for him as soon as possible. We wanted both cars to finish the race today so it is little disappointing, but we have learned a lot from this race and are confident that we are continuing to improve this car for the coming races. All in all, I am glad that our car finished the race today and we look forward to heading to Monaco.
Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa spearheaded Bridgestone's Spanish Grand Prix charge today but despite their best efforts couldn't quite catch local hero, Fernando Alonso, at the Spaniard's home grand prix. Felipe Massa was actually the quickest man on track today after posting a 1m16.648 on lap 42 but the Ferraris first had to battle to get past Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella before even attempting a move on the race leader. In the end, it wasn't quite enough and the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro pair took the chequered flag in second and fourth places respectively. Ferrari maintain their second place standing in the constructors' points and Schumacher and Massa take enough points to keep them second and fifth in the drivers' championship points standings. Of the remaining Bridgestone runners, WilliamsF1's Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg finished ninth and eleventh after getting caught up in the mid-field traffic and Toyota Racing's Jarno Trulli finished tenth. MF1 Racing's Tiago Monteiro and Super Aguri F1 Team's Takuma Sato will be pleased to have completed the race today, giving them confidence ahead of the next round in Monaco.
Hisao Suganuma, Technical Manager of Bridgestone Motorsport: "We had quite hot weather today with track temperatures coming up to 37 degrees which is about the same as yesterday. We saw our tyres perform consistently in these conditions but we could probably do with a little more grip. Nevertheless every race result gives us valuable data and we will learn from today and improve for the coming races. Tyre appearance was quite good, there were no specific problems and we'll take second and fourth – they are not at all bad results. Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg got caught up in traffic and although they did their best they couldn't make it into the points. It was a little disappointing that the Toyota drivers didn't capitalise on their grid positions. Tiago Monteiro and Takuma Sato both finished today's tough race which was good to see and now we shall go away, analyse the situation and see how we can help our teams even more from a tyre point of view."
Ross Brawn, Technical Director – Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro: "Obviously we had the worst case scenario today and while Giancarlo Fisichella was in front of us we couldn't even attempt to get Fernando Alonso. So we sat there until the first opportunity. Michael managed to get past [Fisichella] but really we weren't quite quick enough. I think Alonso had the edge on speed today. The car and Bridgestone tyres performed well but we just need to find that little extra performance."
Fernando Alonso became the first Spanish driver to win his home round of the world championship with a dominant performance at the Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona. He led from pole position and finished comfortably clear of his closest rival after 66 laps.
Alonso's victory was his third of the season and Michelin's fourth – it was also the 97th in Bibendum's illustrious F1 history. Six Michelin drivers finished in the points today.
With one third of the season gone, Michelin's six partner teams have scored 158 of the 234 available world championship points – a 67.5 per cent strike rate.
Nick Shorrock, Michelin Formula One director: "We ran all -new tyre specifications this weekend because we knew, in the wake of recent results, that we needed to take an evolutionary step forward. If anything I think we have exceeded our own expectations.
"All weekend, our tyres have provided a good blend of first -lap speed and consistency over a race stint – whether drivers stayed out for about 20 laps or, in one instance, more than 40.
"The result speaks for itself and I would like to thank our partners and engineers for their contribution to this immensely satisfying result – proof positive of Michelin's ability to respond effectively to a fierce challenge."
Pat Symonds, executive engineering director, Renault F1 Team: "We simply could not have asked for anything more.
"Michelin and its partner teams came to this race with an aggressive range of tyre compounds that delivered excellent opening-lap performance and proved less susceptible to degradation than rival products. We simply could not have asked for anything more."
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