MF1 RACING
2006 British Grand Prix - Race Report
MF1 Racing claimed another reliable finish in its home race,
with Christijan Albers and Tiago Monteiro bringing home their
M16s in 15th and 16th positions, respectively.
The team will remain at Silverstone Circuit for three more
days of testing next week before crossing the Atlantic for
the Canadian Grand Prix at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal.
Tiago Monteiro (POR), Car #18 (Chassis: M16-03)
Starting Position: 16th
Classification: 16th, 58 laps completed (+2 laps)
Fastest Lap: 1:24.636 at 12:41:39, 16th overall (+3.037 from
fastest lap of the race)
Quote: "Another finish, but a difficult
one. The advantage we gained by making it to the second qualifying
session actually hindered us a little bit during the race,
because we had to use all the tyres we had available to achieve
that. We didn't have any new tyres for the race, so that accounted
for the major difference between my times and my teammate's.
When we planned our race strategy, we didn't think it would
mak e such a huge difference because of fuel loads and such,
but in the end, it was a massive disadvantage. I think we
had an amazing car for qualifying, but obviously the balance
wasn't that great over a race distance and the tyres never
really came to me. It was more of a struggle throughout the
race, but we learned from it. We gambled and it didn't pay
off, so we'll use that knowledge next time. Overall, though,
it was a positive weekend. We had amazing pace throughout
and the team made good progress, so I'm satisfied. If we were
slow all weekend, perhaps I wouldn't feel that way, but having
seen what we've done, I'm pretty confident for the future."
Christijan Albers (NED), Car #19 (Chassis: M16-02)
Starting Position: 18th
Classification: 15th, 59 laps completed (+1 lap)
Fastest Lap: 1:23.977 at 12:44:26, 13th overall (+2.378 from
fastest lap of the race)
Quote: "From my point of view, we had
decent pace. We had a reasonably good car and we're closer
to the field - about 13 seconds behind the mid-pack at the
end, I believe. So I think we did a good job, especially considering
what a bad day we had yesterday. It's easy to forget that,
but if you take those setbacks into account, our performance
today seems even better. We had a chance to fight with the
Red Bulls and other cars. Our start was terrible: everybody
passed me when I let out the clutch and I had to overtake
two Super Aguris on the first lap, before Corner 8. Fortunately,
it worked out, but there are some tracks where that's not
possible. So we have to work much harder on that. Tiago held
me up a little bit, because it's really difficult to drive
behind other cars, especially on a track like this. But when
he made his pit stop, I was able to push ahead and stay out
front. I think everyone on the team did a good job today,
and if we can do that for an entire weekend - not just on
Sunday - then we have a chance to be competitive in Montreal."
Colin Kolles, Managing Director: "Both our drivers did
a very good job today to bring the cars home. We are getting
quicker, but we must keep working hard to improve. We know
which areas we have to focus on, and we will do the necessary
things to become stronger."
James Key, Technical Director: "It
was good to get both cars to the finish. Both drivers drove
a very solid race with no problems. Christijan did a good
job to recover from all the bad luck he encountered yesterday,
although we did have a little bit of an issue with one of
his pit stops. It was good to see us posting some competitive
lap times and we were actually gaining on the people ahead
of us at the end of the race - we were only 13 seconds behind
the nearest Red Bull at the finish. So we were on the same
lap as our competitors and lapping as quick, if not quicker,
than they were toward the end of the race. If we can improve
our starts - because that let us down a little bit - then
we can race them competitively. We actually had a race on
our hands today; we weren't alone, and that was good."
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