23/06/2006
NEWS STORY
Sam Michael, Technical Director, WilliamsF1: "After a difficult morning working on the set-up to generate improved tyre warm up, we made some big changes over lunch, which worked well. The track temperature also came up around 100C, which was significant. We have collected a lot of data on both tyres to work out which compound to take for the race. All the cooling and brakes are fine, but we still have some work to do on the set-up. On Nico's car we had a problem during the systems check during the fire-up for the second session. This delayed him from going out and cost him some track time, but he will make up for that tomorrow."
Alex Wurz: "The morning was tough going and quite difficult because the track was slippery. This afternoon, however, when it was a bit warmer and there was more rubber on the track, our car suddenly came together and behaved more as we had expected. Now I think we are going in the right direction in terms of set-up, so in the end I am actually quite pleased in contrast to this morning when I was very grumpy! I can now feel everything coming together and we've got some quite good ideas for this circuit. Furthermore, our new aero package which worked at the Monza test is also performing well here too."
Mark Webber: "So far this weekend looks like it's going to be interesting on the tyre front. The grip level is very low on the circuit and of course both tyre companies made their choices a couple of weeks ago. It went a lot better for us in the second session and it's good to get a bit of temperature in the track, this will certainly benefit us. We've got a lot of information to go through tonight from Alex's car and my two runs. All in all it's been an interesting day which threw up a lot of things we didn't expect, but we will cope with that tomorrow."
Nico Rosberg: "It was a difficult day for me because I came out of the pits very late in the second session due to a gearbox problem. I did just ten laps which is not quite enough for me as it was my first experience of this track. Luckily however this circuit doesn't seem too difficult and the car felt alright. It will be better tomorrow, after some more running."
Sean O'Mahony, Principal Engineer - F1 Race Engineering, Cosworth Ltd: "Montreal is a pretty tough circuit for the engine with a high percentage of full throttle, certainly it rates as one of the five hardest circuits of the year. We had a pretty full programme of engine related tests to cover today, with Alex Wurz bearing the brunt of the workload. We didn't encounter any engine problems and we managed to complete the programme. We will review the data gathered this evening to optimise settings for qualifying and the race."
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