08/10/2004
NEWS STORY
Typhoon No.22 may well be on its way to the Japanese circuit of Suzuka, but it didn't stop Bridgestone's four teams assessing their cars and tyres in today's two, one-hour long practice sessions. Both sessions were run in torrential rain, necessitating the use of Bridgestone's extreme weather tyres. Bridgestone's eight drivers, however, made the most of the company's wet weather technology with six Bridgestone drivers in the top ten in the morning session and five in the second. Michael Schumacher, the widely acknowledged rain master, topped the time sheets in both sessions, despite only posting five laps in each. The Formula One paddock now awaits the imminent arrival of the typhoon and there is a strong possibility of limited, or no running tomorrow, Saturday.
Hisao Suganuma, Bridgestone Motorsport Technical Manager: The weather was really quite bad in today's sessions with a lot of rain which meant our teams all used extreme weather tyres. There was quite a lot of water on the track, both rivers and standing puddles, through which the cars had to run, but our tyres performed well. We did see a few instances of aquaplaning through the puddles but this was the same for everyone. We had six Bridgestone cars in the top ten in the first session and five in the second session, which says a great deal about the strength of Bridgestone's wet weather tyre technology. So if it is raining on Sunday, we will certainly be competitive. Obviously with a typhoon approaching it is possible tomorrow's sessions and qualifying may be cancelled. We do still need to make our dry tyre decision with our teams for Sunday but despite no dry running I think we do actually have enough data to make those decisions.
Ross Brawn, Technical Director of Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro: Obviously the conditions were very difficult but the drivers were happy with the cars which are well balanced. Apart from trying to cope with the partial flooding on track, the car and tyres are running well. Michael's times, considering how little running he has done, show just how strong the car and tyres are in these conditions. If it stays like this on Sunday then we certainly won't be unhappy. It's just a little unclear what's going to happen tomorrow if the typhoon does hit. We're in un-chartered territory. It would certainly make it very interesting if we were to be presented with a dry race having not run either of our dry tyres, making a guess on which to use and making a guess on set-up. But we're as strong in difficult conditions as anyone so it's an opportunity as well as a problem.