Still No Change For Ferrari


By DCX
May 22 2005

Ferrari continued its rather unimpressive season today with some quite poor results during Thursday Practice. Schumacher set the only time within the top five for the Scuderia but then he dropped back to 11th in FP2. Barrichello could not do any better than 10th in FP1 and then fell to 15th in FP2

Badoer Prepares Ferrari

Still No Change For Ferrari

DCX
Michael Schumacher
FP 1: 4th - 1'17.640
FP 2: 11th - 1'17.170

After a miserable race in Spain, where Michael suffered two tyre punctures within two laps, he had hoped to get back on track at Monaco. Unfortunately, if thursday's practice sessions are anything to go by, he won't be able to do that. Schumacher was able to manage a decent lap in the first session, and took 4th place. The German's second session was faster but he had a vibration in the car and was only able to manage an 11th place result. Here is what the 7-Time World Champion had to say about his first day In Monaco:

"This morning, we were very competitive and looked in pretty good shape and I was happy with the car. Unfortunately, the car did not run well this afternoon, as I picked up a vibration that got worse as the session went on, so we felt it was best to stop so that we could analyse what was going on. That’s the way it is at this circuit, in that if you have a small problem you lose a lot of track time and because of that it is hard for me to predict what will be the situation in qualifying on Saturday.”

Rubens Barrichello
FP 1:10th - 1'18.838
FP 2: 15th - 1'17.663

There was no suprises from Rubens' first day in Monaco as he had two more lackluster results. Barrichello has not done well at any Grand Prix during practice sessions this year, and today was no different as he was substantially slower than the front runners. Rubens claimed that the car was unbalanced, but there must be more to his problems. Here is what the Brazilian had to say after his disappointing first day:

“I was not very happy with the car today. In the morning, I was unhappy with the set-up on my brakes and this afternoon, it was a more general difficulty with the set-up and other elements of the package The car was actually better this afternoon in some respects, but the handling was difficult. But, I have every faith in the team and I am sure we can improve the situation. At this track, the driver can make a difference, which is a positive factor, as is the fact we have an extra day now to think about what to do. Qualifying will definitely be tough.”

Ross Brawn
Technical Director

Ferrari's Technical Director Ross Brawn is concerned with Ferrari's immediate pace, but he is certain the car will be faster come race day. Here is what Ross had to say:

“Michael felt a vibration on his car and it got worse during the session, so we felt it was prudent to bring him in as this is not the circuit to take risks. We are not yet sure what the problem is. On Rubens’ car, I think we still have some work to do on set-up, as he was not totally happy with it. We will try and make some improvements. But generally, we are happy with the cars which seemed to be well balanced, until we went the wrong way with Rubens’ set-up and Michael had that problem. The track gets quicker all the time and I am sure we will recover for Saturday and it is good that we have a spare day tomorrow.”

May 19, 2005

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