04/08/2006
NEWS STORY
Jean Todt: Here we are in Budapest where both the layout and the characteristics of the track surface are very reminiscent of the Monaco street circuit. Today's two hours of free practice revolved mainly around evaluating the Bridgestone tyres and, secondly, on car set-up. As usual, this track should evolve bit by bit as rubber gets put down on the racing line. It is up to our engineers and those at Bridgestone to carefully analyse the data to make the best choices for qualifying and the race.
Felipe Massa: Today, as usual, we have worked on evaluating the tyres and on finding the best set-up car for the car. The track is very dirty and so it was very difficult to drive. We will have to look at all the information we have very carefully to make the right choices for qualifying and, even more importantly, for the race.
Michael Schumacher: It is always hard to judge the results on Friday. We need to take a close look at the data to get a clearer picture of the situation. We spent a long time on track in the second hour and I was not able to keep an eye on what the other drivers were doing. Overall, we can say that our car-engine-Bridgestone tyre package is good, but we don't know how competitive are the others. The low temperature is not a problem: the key is to choose the right tyre for qualifying and the race. Naturally, we hope to be at the front of the grid and I think we have a good chance of doing just that.
Ross Brawn: It was quite a difficult day as track conditions were still very green with not much rubber down and lower temperatures than usual for this time of year. This meant the tyres could not operate at their best and therefore, we have to make our tyre choice mainly based on how we predict the track could evolve. We did not work so much on the cars, concentrating on the tyre choice. What is clear is that there is a lot of work to be done to find the best way of improving the overall performance of the package we have, in terms of preparing for Sunday's race.
To check out our Hungary free practice gallery, click here