French Grand Prix - Preview
MAGNY-FIQUE
Panasonic Toyota Racing returns to Europe this weekend following
its North American double-header, with the French Grand Prix
at Magny-Cours. After Jarno Trulli scored his best result
of the season with sixth place at Indianapolis last time out,
the team is in a confident mood. After the North American
races, Jarno and Ralf Schumacher spent time testing the TF107
at Silverstone last week and both drivers set fast laps during
a trouble-free three days. The Magny Cours circuit in central
France, which has hosted the French Grand Prix since 1991,
sees a return to more standard aerodynamic set-ups and the
team will benefit from several aero updates to the car. Last
year’s race saw strong performances from both Ralf and
Jarno, with Ralf recording fourth place while a brake problem
denied Jarno a podium finish. That gives the team encouragement
ahead of the 2007 French Grand Prix and it will push hard
to record more points as the first half of the season draws
to a close.
Ralf Schumacher (Car 11): “I have
a good record at Magny Cours – I have happy memories
of my first pole position there in 2001 and victory there
in 2003. But apart from that, I can’t say I am that
keen on Magny Cours from a driving perspective. To retire
from the race at the first corner in the last race at Indianapolis
was obviously very disappointing, especially after a pretty
good qualifying performance but I am determined to have a
better race in France. Jarno’s result demonstrated what
the team can achieve and I expect us to be fighting for points
again. I had the chance to test at Silverstone for a day last
week which was productive and I also recorded the fastest
lap time of the day. It went well and we had no problems at
all with the car. I am reasonably optimistic we can fight
for points again this weekend. Also, it is my 32nd birthday
on Saturday so I’m hoping for a strong qualifying to
celebrate and then some points would be a good present!”
Jarno Trulli (Car 12): “Personally,
I enjoy visiting France and I have had some good results at
Magny Cours. In the past I have spent time working for French
teams, and I also speak French, so I have a good relationship
with the French fans and I always feel very much at home there.
As a circuit, Magny Cours is an interesting place to drive
because the fast, sweeping corners and the quick chicanes
make it very technical. This means we need a stable car with
good handling which is comfortable in different types of corner.
We will be working hard on that from the start of practice
on Friday. I had a fantastic result in Indianapolis after
a really great job by myself and the team. At the start of
the weekend I did not expect to finish as high as sixth but
we made no mistakes and we had perfect reliability. This shows
we are capable of strong results and I am optimistic we can
fight at the front again in France.”
Pascal Vasselon – Senior General Manager Chassis:
“We have some updates on the car in terms of the aerodynamic
package because we are now returning to a track which requires
our baseline package. Ever since Monaco we have been using
special aero packages – Monaco because it is of course
high downforce but also Canada and Indianapolis, which are
closer to a low downforce package. In France we will return
to a package closer to that which we used in Barcelona, although
we have since developed it and there will be new aero parts
this weekend. At Indianapolis we were comparatively not as
strong in low downforce, low grip conditions as we had been
in Barcelona so we are looking forward with optimism to returning
to the package which we have focused most of our effort on.
Jarno drove a great race in Indianapolis to get sixth and
that clearly demonstrates that the car has the potential to
fight at the front. We expect to close the gap on the group
ahead of us and we are hopeful of another strong points-scoring
performance in France.”
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