It was a case of 'good news/bad news' in Germany for MF1 Racing: the good news being that after a series of frustrating problems - including an engine failure that put Christijan Albers to the back of the grid - the team put in a strong race performance with both cars. Most impressively, Christijan set a 15th-fastest race lap that was less than a second off Fernando Alonso's best, and only about 1.9s off the best overall lap time of race winner Michael Schumacher.

Unfortunately, both cars were disqualified by the FIA following the race, as the rear wings were deemed to allow "excessive flexibility" in their lower elements. The flexing problem occurred not because they were designed to move - as demonstrated by the fact that there had not previously been a problem in scrutineering with the same wings - but because the parts concerned had probably stayed on the cars for too long. We asked Technical Director James Key for his thoughts on the wing issue, the rest the Hockenheim weekend in general, and the design of next year's car.

Firstly, what can you tell us about the disqualifications in Germany?
James Key: "It was a disappointing end to the weekend, really. We had a pretty open discussion with the stewards, and they weren't too happy with the stiffness of the lower rear wings. We went through it and I made it clear they are non-structural components, so they are designed to be very lightweight. They asked a few questions and I put our case forward. They came back to us and made some points that we've taken on board, and we'll address those for the next race, so we won't face the same issue again. Some of the points made by the stewards weren't correct, but it's a simple fix that's not going to affect performance anyway. I think it's best just to let it rest and carry on."

So what was the exact problem?
JK: "We've always been happy with the wing, but I think looking at the parts at the end of the race, I have to admit they were relatively old, and they weren't in particularly good condition - they had softened up quite a bit. They had done a lot of miles, and they tend to be subjected to a great deal of hot exhaust temperatures and that sort of thing. We are a small team, and we can't always make lots of new bits for all the cars. But, to be honest, with the benefit of hindsight, we should probably have made some new bits a while ago, as that's really what caused the problem. It's unfortunate, but we took on board what they said, and we'll have changes in place for the next race. It's not going to affect the performance of the car in any way; that wasn't part of it at all. We'll just go away and correct it, either by modifying the existing bits or by producing new parts in time for Hungary. Either way, we will have wings which will avoid any of these issues in the future."

On the plus side the race, the team's race performance in Germany was strong. How did the weekend go?
JK: "We went there with some new developments on the aero side, and they were actually worth quite a bit, even though they were simple parts. They helped close the gap a little bit more. We didn't seem to see that on Friday with either of the cars, which surprised us, frankly. Markus did a great job in the third car, but we didn't really set the world alight, which was a shame, because we've been up in the top 10 on Fridays recently, which has been good. Then on Saturday, not being clear on where we really were, qualifying just didn't go our way. We had a certain number of issues, and Christijan got knocked to the back of the grid by the engine change, anyway. There was a lot of analysis on Saturday night to find out why the pace wasn't there, and we came up with some reasons. Going into the race, suddenly the pace was there again, and we were less than two seconds off Michael's quickest lap, which is as good as it's ever been. The race pace was much better."

What did you think of Christijan's race?
JK: "It was very good. From the back of the grid, he got past Sato after a few laps, then he caught up with Speed pretty quickly and just took the race to him. At one point, he was catching Coulthard and Liuzzi, who were just ahead of him. It was a very encouraging performance, but he developed an issue with the engine at the end, which led to being overtaken by Speed again. But he put in some good lap times and was battling with the teams ahead, which was great to see."

At recent races, the drivers have been able to get through to the second round of qualifying. How encouraging is it that you've been able to make that sort of progress?
JK: "The intention was always to design a car that would be a platform upon which to continuously develop, which is what the M16 represents. We knew what we needed to do to close the enormous gap that we had at the end of last year. Nurburgring was when we first really began to improve things massively, and it's been getting closer and closer since. It was a shame not to get into Q2 this past weekend, because we're expecting to do that regularly now. But, again, the race pace in Germany was very encouraging."

Which circuits play to the car's strengths?
JK: "I think a lateral-force circuit like Silverstone or, to a certain extent, Magny-Cours, seems to suit the car. It would appear from analysis right now the sort of circuit where there's a little bit more straight line is where we've got to concentrate on now. That's perhaps why last weekend wasn't so good."