MF1 RACING
2006 Bahrain GP Race Report
It was a disappointing end to a tough weekend for MF1 Racing,
as the team struggled to find both pace and reliability at
the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir. Christijan Albers
suffered a driveshaft failure at the start, while Tiago Monteiro's
car was diagnosed with a terminal transmission problem that
forced him into the T-Car.
On a positive note, Tiago Monteiro overcame a myriad of problems
to earn 19th finish of his 20-race Formula 1 career. Despite
a complete lack of familiarity with a car that was not optimised
for him and being forced to start the race from the pit lane,
the 2005 reliability leader once again demonstrated an uncanny
ability to get the job done, no matter the obstacles.
Colin Kolles, Managing Director: "Today
was a very difficult day for the team, but sometimes these
things happen, unfortunately. You can't control luck, so there's
no point dwelling on this. Now, we are looking forward to
working together with our technical partners to improve our
overall package and demonstrate the performance we know we
are capable of."
Adrian Burgess, Sporting Director: "We finished with
one car in our first race of the year, Tiago doing a good
job to bring the T-Car home, which he'd never driven before.
It was an unfortunate start of the year for Christijan, who
suffered a mechanical failure on the grid. We're not happy
with the result today, but we'll do our best to fix it and
get our season started properly at the next race."
Tiago Monteiro (POR), #18:
Chassis: M16-04 (T-Car)
Classification / Laps Completed: 17th / 55 (2 laps down)
Quote: "Obviously, it wasn't an easy weekend. The T-Car
wasn't really set up for me, so it was a compromise in terms
of seating position and other things, and fairly uncomfortable
to drive throughout the race. But I had to remain focused
on the race, pushing as hard as I could to bring the car home.
We had our share of trouble but, you know, that's racing.
Let's hope we got all our bad luck out of the way here so
that we can look forward to better results for the rest of
the season. The car is definitely faster and better than it
was last year. It's not quick enough at the moment, but I'm
sure we can find the speed."
Christijan Albers (NED), #19:
Chassis: M16-02
Classification / Laps Completed: RTD / 0
Quote: "It's a shame that I didn't get to drive at all,
because we were looking forward to gathering more data for
Malaysia. It's really unfortunate, because we've never had
that (driveshaft) problem before and it's just one of those
things that's impossible to predict. What makes it even more
frustrating is that I think our capabilities were much better
than what we showed in qualifying and had we not suffered
such bad luck, I think we might have run a reasonable race."
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