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2006 Turkey GP
Team Quotes - Saturday 26 August
The Renault F1 Team locked out the second row during qualifying for this afternoon's Turkish Grand Prix, with world champion Fernando Alonso lining up third – just ahead of team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella.
After suffering problems with tyre graining yesterday, the team switched overnight to the other available specification of Michelin tyre. Diligent work by the drivers and their engineers during this morning's practice session saw them find a good balance for the R26, and the car's intrinsic performance was demonstrated during the qualifying rounds when both drivers were consistently among the front runners.
Weather conditions today proved slightly cooler than expected, with scattered cloud keeping the track temperature slightly lower than forecast. This is expected to disappear tomorrow, meaning the drivers will be in for a long, demanding afternoon – and where the team hopes that the consistent performance of the Michelin tyres will pay dividends.
Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering: Things went pretty much to plan for us. We chose to switch to the other specification of tyre after our problems yesterday, and that has undoubtedly been confirmed as the correct decision. Making that change gave the car a good, driveable balance that we managed to fine tune during practice this morning, while our running on older tyres confirmed that the tyres will be consistent in tomorrow's race. Ferrari have been very quick all weekend, and certainly were in qualifying as well. I think they seem to have an advantage on the first lap, but we have seen the balance of power switch overnight already this season. Starting from the second row, we are in the right position to race them hard for the win.
Denis Chevrier, Head of Trackside Engine Operations: I think we can consider this to be a strong team performance, with ourselves and Ferrari standing out as the two teams who have managed to get their drivers performing equally at the front of the grid. We are clearly the challengers for tomorrow's race, but starting from the second row means we will be in a straight fight with the Ferraris from the opening laps. Both engines appeared to perform normally throughout qualifying. Giancarlo felt his unit might have been a little down on power, but we could not see anything on the telemetry during the session. Of course, we will be looking at the data closely this evening to make sure. Now, we need to wait and see how the different race strategies unfold…
Team McLaren Mercedes driver Kimi Raikkonen will start Sunday's Turkish Grand Prix from seventh on the grid. In the third part of qualifying Kimi set the eighth fastest time with 1:27.866, but he will move up one position as Ralf Schumacher will go back 10 places due to an engine change. In the first two parts of qualifying Kimi was ninth and sixth respectively with times of 1:28.236 and 1:27.202. Pedro ended up twelfth fastest in the second part of qualifying with 1:27.897 and subsequently did not make it to the final round. In the first session he was also twelfth setting a fastest lap time of 1:28.403. However due to Ralf's engine change Pedro will start the race from 11th.
Ron Dennis: "We have a good race strategy which should give both drivers every opportunity to achieve strong finishing positions in the race tomorrow. Kimi and Pedro are both pleased with the handling of their cars, so we look forward to a competitive Turkish Grand Prix."
Norbert Haug: "From the first Michelin runner Fernando Alonso in third to Kimi in eighth there is a little bit more than half a second. In the race tomorrow we will build on our strategy and our race speed. Starting from seventh and 11th is not ideal, but our aim is still to finish as the best Michelin team."
Fifth pole position of the season, after those in Sakhir, Imola, Indianapolis and Magny-Cours; the first for Felipe Massa who will thus start a grand prix from the very top of the grid for the first time in his career. For the fourth time this season two Ferraris will start from the front row. This is Ferrari's 184th pole, the first at this track.
Jean Todt: A great qualifying for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro who will occupy the whole front row of the grid tomorrow afternoon. I am very happy for Felipe for his first ever pole position. Our package, with the support of exceptional partners like Bridgestone and Shell once again showed itself to be very competitive today. Taking into account the consistency of the performance of the tyres in race trim, there is every indication we can do well tomorrow. As usual, to have a clear picture of the situation we need to clear up the usual unknowns of strategy and how the tyres will react as the track gets more and more rubber down, without forgetting crucial factors like reliability. The answers to these questions will have to wait until tomorrow afternoon.
Ross Brawn: Naturally I am very happy with this result. The 248 F1 ran very well, thanks also to the support of our partners, first and foremost Bridgestone and Shell. The tyres have proved very consistent over a long run and that will be an important factor tomorrow. Felipe did a fantastic job: first he managed to do a great time on his first run and then he managed to improve on his second one. As for Michael, he made a mistake on his first lap with new tyres in Q3 and then tackled the second attempt with a bit of caution, but still managed to take second place. There are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the race, but we know we still have a very difficult task ahead of us.
Panasonic Toyota Racing will have a lot of work to do in tomorrow's Turkish Grand Prix after a mixed afternoon's work during qualifying at the Istanbul Park circuit. There were more clouds in the sky than for yesterday's practice sessions, but track temperatures nonetheless continued to approach 50 degrees Celsius. Ralf Schumacher had a good hour of qualifying and comfortably made it through Q1 and Q2 before recording the 5th fastest time of an exciting final shoot-out. Unfortunately Ralf suffered a ten-place penalty because the team changed his engine as a precaution last night so he will line up in 15th place tomorrow. Jarno battled understeer and failed to make it through Q2, setting the 13th fastest time. Nonetheless he is confident of making ground from his 12th place on the grid. Despite the difficult start to the weekend, Toyota will now push hard as it bids to score a strong result in Sunday's race.
Pascal Vasselon - Senior General Manager Chassis: "In terms of our grid position for tomorrow that is obviously one of our lowest results of the season but we understand the reasons for that. We changed Ralf's engine as a precaution yesterday evening, preferring to accept the ten-place penalty rather than risk a failure this weekend. So that meant we had to adapt his strategy accordingly. He did well to go fifth quickest in Q3 but he will start 15th tomorrow. We have a different strategy for Jarno, who had a different day. He struggled for grip, and that is why he missed out on the top ten. Still, this is a circuit where we can hope to make up ground in the race. We knew that this would be a hard track for tyres but it is clear that the Bridgestone tyres we have are well suited to its demands. We will be starting lower down the grid than we expected but we remain confident that our strategy can bring both cars home in the points tomorrow."
Sam Michael, Technical Director, WilliamsF1: "In relation to qualifying, Mark did a good job to get the car into the top ten and Nico made it into Q2. Tyres tomorrow will play a big part in the race, so we will work hard on the remaining parts of our strategy tonight and look to score some points. We had no problems today in terms of the car, all the systems functioned well."
Chris Jilbert, Principal Engineer, F1 Race Engineering, Cosworth: "An uneventful day for Cosworth with no engine related problems during the course of the practice and qualifying sessions in Turkey. It'll be interesting to see if the evolving track conditions work in our favour tomorrow."
Jenson Button will lead the Honda Racing F1 Team's Turkish Grand Prix challenge tomorrow, lining up on the third row of the grid after ending today's qualifying session in sixth place.
Team-mate Rubens Barrichello will start from 14th after struggling to find a good balance with his RA106 race car this afternoon.
This afternoon's qualifying result comes on the back of a positive start to the weekend for the team, with a strong performance in all three practice sessions and on long runs in particular, indicating that both cars should benefit from a stronger race pace.
Gil de Ferran, Sporting Director: "We certainly would have preferred to be a bit further up. In the case of Rubens we just couldn't get the balance to his liking on new tyres. Jenson did a great job in Q2, but we haven't been particularly fast in the last sector all weekend and unfortunately that cost Jenson a few places on the grid. However, both cars have been very competitive and consistent on long runs and used tyres, which bodes well for the race."
Christian Horner: It was unfortunate for David to be delayed by Sato who went off in front of him at Turn eight. He was looking as if he would have comfortably made the cut to the second session. Christian optimised his car's set up and did a good job. He was unfortunate to narrowly miss out on getting through to the final session. We are now in a position to pick our strategy for tomorrow and will be pushing hard for points finishes.
For the fourth time the BMW Sauber F1 Team has seen both its cars in the top ten for qualifying and here in Istanbul achieved its best performance in these sessions. Nick Heidfeld was sixth and Robert Kubica ninth, but both drivers will gain one grid position due to another driver having an engine change.
Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director): That was the best qualifying result our young team has achieved so far. Tomorrow we presume we will start from fifth and eighth, which is an excellent position to be in for the race. In all three sections of qualifying Nick's performance was very strong, and Robert, in only his second qualifying, did an impressive job.
Willy Rampf (Technical Director): It was a very good and exciting qualifying. The result is confirmation of the ability of both drivers and the quality of the car set up. Istanbul Park is a very challenging track on which we have to find the best compromise for our set-up, and the good work Sebastian Vettel did on his debut as a Friday driver contributed to this. We are ready for high temperatures during the race so we should be well prepeared. We are very much looking forward to starting from these promising positions.
Midland F1 Racing experimented with two very different strategies on Saturday in preparation for tomorrow's Turkish Grand Prix.
Christijan Albers adopted a very aggressive set-up to set the team's fastest lap time of the weekend by more than one second on his way to entering the second qualifying session. Had he not been assessed a ten-position engine-change penalty, his time would have enabled him to start tomorrow's race from 16th position, instead of from the back of the grid.
Tiago Monteiro elected to take a more conservative approach, one that emphasises equipment conservation and reliability over outright qualifying pace. He will start from 20th position, but is confident his strategy will pay dividends over the course of the race.
Colin Kolles, Managing Director: "We still have a lot of work to do, but it must be said that both drivers did a very good job today. The difference between Christijan's time and Rosberg's Williams is minuscule, and better than one of the Red Bulls and both Toro Rossos. So clearly we have made some progress. Tiago is on a strategy that plays to his strength of finishing races, which is a sensible way for him to go. I think it was one of our best qualifying results so far."
Dominic Harlow, Chief Race and Test Engineer: "At the start of the qualifying session, we found that the increased track and ambient temperatures had caused the circuit to drop off a little bit, with a little bit more oversteer on the early runs. I don't think the starting grid will necessarily reflect the true pace of our cars. We just kept looking more and more competitive as the day progressed, particularly Christijan in the second session. Our programme this morning indicates that we've got good tyres for the race, and we think it's going to bode well for a strong performance tomorrow. We're looking forward to it."
Johnny Herbert, Sporting Relations Manager: "It was a very good result for us today. Tiago had a few handling problems, which may have prevented him from putting together the best possible lap, but that's the way it goes sometimes. I think he's happy with the set-up he's got for the race, so we'll see how that plays out. Christijan did a cracking job to get through to the second round again, ahead of our immediate competition. I think he wrung every bit of speed he could out of the car, so well done to him. Tomorrow is going to be a hard-fought race, I think, among a very tight field. So I think it will be down to strategy and maintaining a consistently strong pace over 58 laps, and I think we've got a car that can do that. Hopefully, it will allow us to be in with a chance for points at the finish."
Super Aguri drivers Takuma Sato and Sakon Yamamoto will line up on the starting grid for tomorrow's race in 22nd and 21st position respectively. Varying track conditions due to the searing heat and lack of test running in the new SA06 made it difficult for both drivers to find the set-up they were looking for. A major chassis problem during Qualifying rendered Takuma unable to improve on his fastest lap time set during the Free Practice session, whilst Sakon was also unable to improve on his best lap time set in the morning due to the varying track conditions and brevity of preparation time.
Aguri Suzuki, Team Principal: The complete version of the SA06 is showing potential but we have not had enough time to set-up the car and you can see this from our Qualifying times today. Takuma was progressing well in the car this morning, but unfortunately experienced a significant chassis problem during the Qualifying session. Sakon has done a consistently good job and made no mistakes so far this weekend. He has been improving with every session and I hope that he will be able to finish the race tomorrow.
Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro's Felipe Massa flew to his first ever F1 pole position this afternoon at the Istanbul Park circuit where track temperatures hit 46°Celsius. Meanwhile his teammate Michael Schumacher made it a Ferrari 1-2 and front row lock-out, setting up a thrilling start for tomorrow's race as championship leader, Fernando Alonso, qualified just one place behind in third. Panasonic Toyota Racing's Ralf Schumacher was also on good form, giving Bridgestone three runners in the top five. Unfortunately the Toyota driver will start ten places back on the grid following an earlier engine change but his performance suggests he will be a strong contender in tomorrow's 58-lap race. WilliamsF1's Mark Webber was the fourth Bridgestone runner to make it through to the top ten shoot-out this afternoon.
Hisao Suganuma, Technical Manager - Bridgestone Motorsport: First of all, congratulations to Felipe on his first F1 pole position! It was a great performance and with Michael in second, Ferrari has dominated the front row which puts them in an excellent position for the race. They have certainly been consistently strong through the practice sessions and qualifying so we are expecting this momentum to continue tomorrow. Ralf Schumacher also qualified well in fifth and it is just a shame he will be penalized ten places for his engine change. Mark Webber was tenth and was running very consistently which is also a good sign for the race where consistency of the tyre performance will be important. Looking across the Bridgestone runners we can still see a little tyre graining on some cars but it is reducing as the track develops and we are expecting our tyres to perform well tomorrow. According to the weather forecasts it will be another hot day which will generate tough conditions for the tyres but we are confident our tyre specifications for this race will cope well and give our teams the competitiveness they want. It is important not to forget however that only part of the job has been done and we will be checking the tyres ahead of the race and advising our teams overnight on how to get the best out of them.
Ross Brawn, Technical Director – Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro: We are very pleased with the car and Bridgestone tyre performance here - it seems to be just right and the tyres were very good in the long runs too. Michael made a mistake on his first qualifying run which meant that the second run had to be slightly conservative. Felipe on the other hand did the opposite. He put in a great time on his first run and was therefore able to go for it again on the second run. He did a fantastic job! We have good reason to be optimistic: the tyres are excellent, the car is pretty good, we have a good team and good drivers.
World championship leader Fernando Alonso was the fastest Michelin driver during qualifying for tomorrow's Turkish Grand Prix at Istanbul Park. The Spaniard's 1m 27.321s lap put him third on the grid at the end of a closely fought session.
Alonso's team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella joins him on the second row. They head a clutch of Michelin cars in the top 10. Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber) was sixth today, but will start fifth because rival Ralf Schumacher will be docked 10 grid positions in the wake of an unscheduled engine change. Hungarian GP winner Jenson Button will line up sixth, ahead of fellow Michelin runners Kimi Raikkonen, Robert Kubica and Christian Klien.
Nick Shorrock, Michelin Formula One director: "On the evidence of today we obviously need to work a little bit on our one -lap pace – something we will be addressing during the forthcoming Monza test – but we are very pleased with our excellent speed and consistency over a race stint. The track temperature increased significantly between this morning's final free practice and the qualifying session, a factor that helped tyre performance, and if conditions remain similar tomorrow I believe we'll be in good shape.
"Between them, our six partner teams have chosen five different products for the race and I'm sure the foremost among them will play a key role in what is likely to be another compelling grand prix."
Pat Symonds, executive engineering director, Renault F1 Team: "Michelin tyres gave us a very nice balance and good consistency" "We chose to be very aggressive with our tyre strategy yesterday– slightly too much so, as it transpired. We changed to a different specification tyre this morning and that gave us a very nice balance and good consistency.
"We have done enough running to know that our cars will be suited to racing conditions. It's clear that we face a tough fight tomorrow, but we're looking forward to it."
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