MF1 RACING
2006 Spanish GP - Free Practice
Tiago Monteiro (POR)
Chassis: M16-03, Car #18
First Timed Session Classification: N/A, 1 lap completed
Second Timed Session Classification: 27th, 1:20.311(+3.778),
19 laps completed
Quote: "It was short day for me. Obviously,
we didn't run in the morning because of the track conditions.
This afternoon, we restricted ourselves to running on the
same tyre to evaluate different electronic settings - traction
control, anti-lock braking, that kind of thing - and we realised
that we have an understeer issue, which I'm really struggling
with at the moment, so we need to work on that. To be fair,
all the work we've done on the electronic side has drastically
changed the handling characteristics of the car since last
week, which should be for the better. It's just that now we
need to understand how to set the car up for that. So I'm
going to work hard with the engineers tonight to get it sorted
for tomorrow. Overall, though, I think it's a positive point
that we discovered the extra potential to be gained from the
electronics."
Christijan Albers (NED)
Chassis: M16-04, Car #19
First Timed Session Classification: N/A, 1 lap completed
Second Timed Session Classification: 25th, 1:19.358 (+2.825),
15 laps completed
Quote: "It's going to be a long night,
because we are further off than we expected. So we need to
work really hard to get on the pace for tomorrow. We need
to find out why the speed is not there. Everyone here is doing
a good job, and I'm confident we'll get it solved, but that
doesn't mean we are happy, because we clearly need to improve.
The lap time is just not good enough right now, and we've
got to get that worked out for tomorrow."
Giorgio Mondini (SUI)
Chassis: M16-02, T-Car
First Timed Session Classification: 8th, 1:20.708 (+4.912),
21 laps completed
Second Timed Session Classification: 22nd, 1:18.910 (+2.377),
22 laps completed
Quote: "I'm very thankful to all my
mechanics and engineers - they are really good, and today
they demonstrated why they are at the top level of racing.
We had some problems with the car in the morning and we lost
some time trying to find out what it was, but more importantly,
they solved the problem and made the car much quicker in the
process. It's always a shame to miss out on track time, but
I'm happy to sacrifice it if it makes the car better. We only
used five sets of tyres out of the seven, and obviously we
could have gone quicker if we'd had the time to use them all.
We're moving in the right direction, and with a little bit
of work, I think Tiago and Christijan should be able to go
in the low one-seventeens in qualifying tomorrow."
James Key, Technical Director: "Not
the easiest of free practice days, to be honest. We had just
a general lack of grip, which we'll try and solve for tomorrow.
At least we're pretty set on which tyre we're going to use,
and to be fair, Giorgio, with his longer runs, showed that
the tyre is going to be a pretty good race tyre. It's just
a new tyre that we've got to get sorted out now. I think all
three drivers suffered from the same problem - it's pretty
clear what it is - and we've got to work tonight on solving
it for tomorrow."
Dominic Harlow, Chief Race and Test Engineer: "Tricky
conditions today, given the showers in the morning and having
to wait for the track to dry. In the morning, we had a slightly
condensed programme. In the afternoon, we were struggling
a bit with the track and the wind, which resulted in low grip
and a bit of understeering. But we'll start to sort it out
tonight, and we should be appreciably better in qualifying
tomorrow."
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