09/07/2004
NEWS STORY
Jaguar Racing was on home territory today as drivers, Mark Webber, Christian Klien and Björn Wirdheim took to the Silverstone circuit (UK) to practice ahead of this weekend's Foster's British Grand Prix. Although threatening to rain during the afternoon session, the weather remained dry throughout the day allowing the team to fulfil their test programme without delay. All three drivers worked on balance and set-up as well as tyre comparisons for the two hours with them completing over 130-laps between them. The final positions of 17th, 18th and 19th for Mark, Christian and Björn respectively reflected the changing on-track conditions throughout the two sessions and in particular the wind's impact through high-speed corners.”
Mark Webber: It was an interesting day for us today as we were definitely finding the track conditions slightly more frustrating than normal. The weather conditions were ok but the wind here can really pick up and this was affecting my balance on track. The team has done a good job to prepare the car ahead of this weekend since we only left France four days ago!. I worked on set-up today, balance and tyres, but I need to do more tomorrow ahead of qualifying. We will be looking at our tyre choice this evening and looking at how we can extract more from the R5 this weekend. We had such a strong weekend in Magny-Cours and I would like to continue with that theme this weekend.
Christian Klien: I managed to complete a good number of laps today and I feel quite comfortable in the car around here. My engineers and I had quite a long list of test items to work through and I am pleased that we managed to get it all completed before it rained. This track can be quite slippery but today the grip was ok for me and this helped. I am going to be working on my tyre choice tonight and also looking ahead to qualifying and our strategy for race day.
Björn Wirdheim: Testing today was good for me and I managed to work on a number of different areas of the car. Balance is very important here and we are currently working very hard to make this better as we were struggling a little this morning. The car generally is looking good and we are hoping for another strong weekend on track like the one we had last weekend.
Dr Mark Gillan Head of Vehicle Performance: We successfully completed our programme for all three drivers today and I was pleased to see the R5 total over 130 laps during the two sessions. The fact that it remained dry was crucial for us in obtaining the tyre information that we need in order for us to make a decision tonight. The wind however picked up during the course of the day and this did not help our balance, especially through the high-speed corners, so we will be looking at this tomorrow and discussing tonight how we can counteract this. Tomorrow will be spent preparing for both our qualifying session and of course the race. With most of the teams looking reasonable on track we will be focusing on delivering a reliable and strong car to chase for those points.