MF1 RACING
2006 Australian GP Race Report
In what proved to be the most unusual and incident-filled
race of the year thus far, Christijan Albers drove a smooth
and steady race to bring his M16 home in 11th place.
Tiago Monteiro's car suffered a disappointing mechanical
failure, marking only the second occasion in 22 races the
Portuguese driver has been forced to retire.
Colin Kolles, Managing Director: "This
was a bittersweet result for us. I think Tiago drove well
enough to potentially score a top ten finish had he not had
a malfunction. Christijan also drove a strong race and made
a very good move to get past Sato. We have to overcome some
reliability issues, for sure, but we are improving all the
time, so that's encouraging. We are still a young team, so
we just have to keep working hard and building on what we've
learned."
Adrian Burgess, Sporting Director: "Christijan
finished 11th in a fairly action-packed afternoon. We had
a mechanical problem with Tiago, which was unfortunate, as
both drivers were having a good race. We made a couple of
good calls and one not-so-good call with the safety car pit
strategies, which kept us on our toes. Looking ahead, we need
to work harder to improve the reliability so that we can come
back fighting in Europe."
Christijan Albers (NED), #19
Chassis: M16-02
Starting Position: 17th
Classification / Laps Completed: 11th / 56 (+1 lap)
Quote: "On the one hand, it's kind of
frustrating to not be battling where I think we should be
- in the middle of the pack. On the other hand, I think we're
improving and at least now I'm finishing races, which is something
I didn't always get to do last year. The first part of the
race, I got caught in the group behind Sato, with Barrichello
and Coulthard. We were stuck there for a long time, and that
was really a shame. After the first pit stop, I was still
behind Sato but then I overtook him on a straight, on the
outside. That felt good. There were four safety car periods,
so the race order got confusing at times, but in the end I
felt that I could run with the other cars. It's just a shame
that we couldn't score points today."
Tiago Monteiro (POR), #18
Chassis: M16-03
Starting Position: 20th
Classification / Laps Completed: RET / 39 (+18 laps)
Quote: "Overall, I saw it as being quite
a positive weekend. We had a great Friday, some problems on
Saturday, but then I was having a great race, with some very
good lap times compared to the others. There may have even
been the possibility of a top ten today, which would have
been a high point for us. Unfortunately, problems happen in
F1 - something many other teams also experienced - and we
had a technical issue that prevented me from finishing. It
is frustrating, but I understand that that's how racing goes
sometimes. I'm just happy that at least the car was performing
well in the race, and that's what motivates me for the next
one. Now we need to understand what happened, why it happened,
and how to prevent it from happening again."
|
