Ferrari Dreadfully Slow In Practice

By Dale Calkins
September 3 2005

Ferrari was looking to get back up to pace during the Italian Grand Prix, but practice was clearly not an improvement. Both drivers suffered from a poorly balanced car, with Schumacher sliding off the track but still managing to out-pace Barrichello.

Badoer Prepares Ferrari

Ferrari Dreadfully Slow In Practice	Dale Calkins
Michael Schumacher FP 1: 8th - 1'23.739 FP 2: 12th - 1'22.749 Michael Schumacher had mixed thoughts about this weekend's Italian Grand Prix. Schumacher knew Ferrari would struggle but that it would be better than in Turkey. This does not seem to be true as Michael was mid-field all day, taking 8th in FP1 and 12th in FP2. Schumacher also slid off the racetrack in the second session but was not injured and the car was not damaged. It is clear that the F2005 does not a have a good balance yet again. Here is what the 7-Time World Champion had to say about his sessions: "When you are not as competitive as you want to be, you try everything you can to improve and my spin was partly the result of that. I made some changes to the set-up but it made the car a bit unstable which made me slide off the track. It was not a heavy impact, as I was already at the corner exit. We have lost some track time, but it is not too important as we have tested enough here. The important thing is that the tyres are not damaged so I can use them again. A thank you to the marshals at the corner as they were all very nice, asking me if I was thirsty and wanted a drink." Rubens Barrichello FP 1: 11th - 1'24.196 FP 2: 16th - 1'23.213 Rubens Barrichello was even further down the order today as he could not seem to find a proper balance at all. Barrichello is prooving that he is truely not as good as his teammate as even though the car does not seem to be competitive, Michael can actually do something with it, Rubens however can not. Here is what the Brazilian had to say after his first day: "We have a lot of work to do. The balance of the car was not good and we will have to find out why by analysing the data acquired over the two hours of free practice. At last week’s test, the situation seemed much better than it has done today. We knew it would be a difficult weekend, but we will give it our all to try and please our fans." Ross Brawn Technical Director Ferrari's Technical Director Ross Brawn was worried about Ferrari's immediate pace, but is certain that they will improve over the weekend. Here is what Ross had to say: "It was not an ideal start to the Monza race weekend, as we lost Michael’s car out on track in the middle of the second session. There were still a couple of things we wanted to check out after last week’s test at this circuit. We have some more improvements to make to the set-up, but generally we are not looking too bad. With Rubens, we have no balance on the car and we must now try and understand why that is. He only drove on the first day of the test, when the balance of the car was much better so we will have to look at every detail to understand why we have lost that balance."
September 3, 2005
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