French GP: Friday team comment

By MF1 media
July 14 2006

Midland F1 Racing enjoyed a productive day of practice at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours in France today, completing its scheduled tyre programme and addressing the set-up challenges presented by the M16's updated front suspension geometry.

Test driver Adrian Sutil demontrated impressive pace during his second Friday with the team, recording the 5th fastest time in the first session and the 7th fastest time in the second session, while closing his gap to the front to just over 1 second.

Christijan Albers and Tiago Monteiro both recorded times in the 1.19s, quick enough for 16th and 21st, respectively, out of 29 drivers. The team remains hopeful that further gains can be found in practice tomorrow morning and that it will once again be able to get both cars into the top 16 during the afternoon qualifying session.

Tiago Monteiro (POR)
Chassis: M16-03, Car #18
First Timed Session Classification: 13th, 1:20.335 (+3.541) 7 laps completed
Second Timed Session Classification: 21st, 1:19.701 (+2.799) 19 laps completed
Quote: "It was a very hot day, which made it very tough on the tyres. We had two very different compounds and we really needed to give them a thorough evaluation, plus we have a new front suspension geometry that we needed to balance, so it was a much more technical day than usual. We were focused on running through a fixed programme, so unfortunately, I couldn't put in a proper lap time. The important thing, though, is that we were able to do a solid day's work and now have a good idea of which way to go with the tyres and the set up. I'm pretty sure the speed will sort itself out by tomorrow."

Christijan Albers (NED)
Chassis: M16-02, Car #19
First Timed Session Classification: 11th, 1:19.465 (+2.671) 7 laps completed
Second Timed Session Classification: 16th, 1:19.183 (+2.281) 21 laps completed
Quote: "It was a reasonable day's work, with no real problems to speak of. But if we look at the performance potential of the car, I think we can be even quicker tomorrow. I expect us to find a lot more time between now and tomorrow's qualifying session, and I'm optimistic that we should be able to qualify as well as we did in Indianapolis - maybe even better."

Adrian Sutil (GER)
Chassis: M16-04, T-Car
First Timed Session Classification: 5th, 1:18.777 (+1.983) 32 laps completed
Second Timed Session Classification: 7th, 1:18.049 (+1.147) 31 laps completed
Quote: "The temperatures were quite high in the cockpit this afternoon, which made it physically demanding to drive so many laps, but I'm happy with the work we did today. I think we've found the right tyres, but we still have to see which one will be best over a race distance. But overall, it was a good day for me. I was able to push the car closer and closer to the limit - even harder than I drove it at Nurburgring. I expected the car to be quicker than the last time, given the improvements the team has made, and it was definitely much better to drive. It's always nice to be classified in the top 10, so I'm very satisfied with my P5 and P7 today. Now, I'm really looking forward to my next opportunity to drive for the team again."

Colin Kolles, Managing Director: "All of our drivers did a good job today, but Adrian was especially impressive, considering it was only his second Friday drive. As we've seen previously at Nurburgring, he is an exceptional talent. Our times were quite good, but then again, everyone was running a different programme and testing different strategies, so we won't know where we really are until tomorrow. But I think we should be OK."

James Key, Technical Director: "All the cars proved good and reliable today, and the drivers did an excellent job. We had to do our homework with the tyres, because the track changed over the course of the afternoon and the temperatures rose quite a bit. So the grip was rather difficult to predict, and quite difficult to deal with. Bridgestone brought a couple of tyres here that are a genuine compromise between race and qualifying, so we have to think carefully about which way to go. Adrian did an extremely good job today to provide us with some useful data, while Christijan and Tiago worked very hard to set up the cars with the new suspension, which made the balance of the car quite different. We're still working it out, but it seems to be heading in the right direction at the moment."

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