30/07/2006
NEWS STORY
MF1 Racing overcame the reliability and handling problems it encountered throughout the weekend to claim a respectable two-car finish at the German Grand Prix in Hockenheim.
Despite starting from the back of the grid and persevering with throttle issues that developed toward the closing stages, Christijan Albers battled with his rivals throughout the race and crossed the finish line in 13th position. Tiago Monteiro brought home his M16 in 14th position.
The team now hopes to build on this momentum as it heads to the Hungaroring for Round 13 of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship, the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Tiago Monteiro: "This has been another tough weekend for me. Christijan and I were on different tyres, which we knew could be a risk, and it ended up being the wrong choice, unfortunately. That was the main issue for me in the race. I'd get two or three good laps out of each new set, and then the performance would just fall away. The balance was quite decent, actually; it was just a general lack of grip. But that's the way it goes some weekends - you gamble and take your chances. But the boys did a good job to give me a well-balanced car that brought me to the finish, so they deserve credit for that. This was definitely not a great track for us, because it requires hard braking and acceleration, which is a weak point for us at this time. Tracks like Hungary should be a lot better for our car, so I'm looking forward to that."
Christijan Albers: "I think we had a reasonably good race result. We were competitive against Toro Rosso, and it was nice to fight with Speed. Sometimes he would close the door on me and I had to lift to avoid an accident, but when I passed him I was quite happy because it's nice to see that we've gained some ground against them - it's nice to be in competition. It's just a shame that about nine or ten laps from the end I began to lose power. So we have to analyse this problem and make sure it doesn't happen again, because it cost us a position."
Colin Kolles, Managing Director: "This was a reasonable result, considering all the problems we had this weekend. Our race pace was quite good and we were able to fight with the teams ahead. But we have to keep pushing as hard as we can to take the next step."
James Key, Technical Director: "It was obviously good to get both cars home. Tiago and Christijan did well to complete the race. But we had mixed fortunes in many ways: Tiago had a few problems during the race and got stuck behind one of the Aguris, which cost him a lot time as a result. Christijan, on the other hand, drove a very aggressive race and was up with the cars around him, and we had similar pace to both Red Bull teams. Obviously, starting from the back of the grid meant that we weren't with them from the start and had to catch up to them, but we were able to do that. And then we had an issue at the end of the race where we lost some power. It's a throttle problem, but we're investigating why that occurred. We're not sure whether it's an engine issue or a chassis issue at the moment. In any event, that's why he lost his place back to Speed toward the end, which was unfortunate, because he had it in the bag. But the race performance was a lot better than our qualifying performance; it's where we thought we should be. We need to understand why our qualifying performance was not quite so good on Saturday, but it's positive that we had the pace we thought we should have and we can take that to the next race."
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