17/09/2004
NEWS STORY
Olivier Panis: "The main aim of this week's Silverstone test was to test tyres for the next races and we have prepared quite well. The weather has been very changeable, though, so that always makes it difficult to compare parts. The strong winds on Tuesday disturbed the car a lot - and when the track goes from damp to wet to dry it becomes difficult to learn anything. But we had a very positive day on Wednesday, putting in lots of laps and finding some good tyres for Suzuka. Our tyre choice for next week's inaugural Chinese Grand Prix has already been made in conjunction with our suppliers, Michelin. The track itself looks like a mix of some of the other new circuits - the set-up should be similar to what we use in Malaysia but there are also some long straights like Bahrain. It looks like a good circuit and I'm looking forward to racing there."
Ricardo Zonta: "We had a successful test, working mainly on tyres for the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka next month. On Tuesday the conditions were changing a lot. We had some heavy rain early in the day and that meant there was a lot of aquaplaning at certain points on the circuit. But by the time it had dried out later on we had quite a good balance in the car, even if we managed less laps than we hoped. On Wednesday the conditions changed a lot and we had to change the balance of the car again, but we still put in 129 laps of work on the tyres, while Olivier also managed over 100 laps. The specifications we have worked on for Suzuka look positive."
Jarno Trulli: "I've arrived at Panasonic Toyota Racing a bit earlier than I expected, but in Formula One you have to be ready for anything, and this is what sometimes happens. The Toyota team has given me a splendid welcome and we've already started to work well together in our first day of testing. It's also nice to be working again with Mike Gascoyne, who is an excellent engineer. It's still too early to judge the car. I've found some very good, positive aspects to the package, while there are parts which can still be improved. But I think everyone in the team knows the problems which require work. All the team's drivers will work well together with the rest of the team to work on improving the car's speed for the future. There's a good atmosphere and a nice bunch of people and it's good to get started early in preparation for 2005."
Ryan Briscoe: "We put in quite a standard programme of development work, looking at a number of different parts - including electronics, tyre constructions and ballast for the car. It's been nice to have Jarno here for the first time, but obviously on test days like this we are always testing different items, so I've just been concentrating on my own job. From here, I'm heading off to the Chinese Grand Prix to carry out my third driver duties. I've only been to China once before, when I raced at the Macau international F3 race last year."