MF1 RACING
2006 BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX PREVIEW
What a difference a year makes.
Heading into the 2005 World Championship, Jordan Grand Prix
arrived in Australia with a new owner, rookie drivers, and
an unfamiliar engine bolted into an ageing chassis.
A year later, the freshly rebranded Midland Formula 1 team
touches down in the desert kingdom of Bahrain with a striking
new look befitting a team driven by the desire to build on
lessons learned over the course of last season.
Fresh off 14 complete days and thousands of kilometres of
winter testing in Spain and England, MF1 Racing is confident
it possesses a package capable of running reliably and competitively.
Its Toyota RVX-06 V8 engines have run faultlessly over the
course of several race distances, the Bridgestone tires continue
to show marked improvement, and the brand-new M16 chassis
is a significant leap forward in every respect when compared
to its predecessor. With two fast young drivers in Christijan
Albers and Tiago Monteiro behind the wheel, the team is optimistic
and ready to meet the challenges that lie ahead.
Colin Kolles, Managing Director:
"We have worked very hard to get to where we are today,
and we're continuing to work hard every day. A lot of effort
and investment has gone into re-building this team, from the
infrastructure at the factory, to new race equipment and a
new car. We don't expect things to change overnight, but we
now have the right ingredients on this team to push forward
and that's a good first step. Bahrain represents a fresh start
for us, and we're determined to make the most of it."
Tiago Monteiro (POR), Race Driver, Car #18:
"After a long winter of testing, it's very exciting
to be back in action. The first race is always very interesting;
there are so many unknowns. Everyone on the team is very keen
and motivated. I think we did an excellent job of getting
ready this winter. We did way more testing than last year,
and that can only help us down the road. We have to stay realistic
and focused on working on moving in the right direction, but
everything is looking positive at the moment. We're ready
to go racing."
Christijan Albers (NED) Race Driver, Car #19:
"I think we're doing quite reasonable, but it's never
enough in Formula 1. We need to push every day, every minute,
every second, to get the results we're looking for. But the
most important thing is that everybody is really motivated
and everybody is pushing really hard to achieve our goals,
which is to crack the top 8 and score points whenever we can.
Based on what I've seen so far, it's a reasonable goal but
we have to keep working really hard for that. We've seen constant
improvements in testing: the car is still quite new, but we
keep finding performance improvements and it keeps getting
faster all the time."
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