Japan 1999: Previews
[
Arrows |
Benetton |
BAR |
Ferrari |
Jordan |
McLaren |
Minardi |
Sauber |
Stewart |
Prost |
Williams |
Bridgestone
]
Arrows [start]
Not present at this time
Benetton [start]
Finding the balance of the cars was made difficult by the rapid degradation of the tyres. The day was dedicated to working on race set-up.
Giancarlo Fisichella
"It is too early to understand our true capability on this track. My set-up is quite good, but it is hard to judge as the tyres lose performance after the first lap. The key thing we must do is find grip."
Alexander Wurz
"We are struggling to find an optimal balance for the car and are lacking grip, so these are the areas we need to work on before tomorrow."
Pat Symonds : Technical Director
"It has been quite difficult today to find a good balance on the cars. The tyres are degrading rapidly and the set-up is having to change to follow that. Nevertheless we got through a lot of work today and found one or two quite significant improvements."
British American Racing [start]
Trouble-free afternoon runs in today's Free Practice for Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix for both British American Racing team drivers, left Jacques Villeneuve and Ricardo Zonta lying in ninth and 17th positions respectively, but separated by only seven-tenths of a second. Lack of grip was an issue in the morning and both drivers posted their best times on new tyres in the afternoon, Ricardo early on in the session, and Jacques towards the end.
Villeneuve gained more than a second and two positions in the afternoon, turning in a time of one minute, 44.179 seconds in the first session for 11th place, and improving to 1:43.047 after lunch. Conversely, Zonta came close to gaining two seconds, 1:45.364 to 1:43.776, but slipped two spots to 17th from 15th, after negotiating the 5.860 km/3.641 miles Suzuka circuit.
At the end of the day, the two McLarens led the pack with Mika Hakkinen on provisional pole (1:41.746), just ahead of team-mate David Coulthard (1:41.894). Ferrari's Michael Schumacher was in fourth and title contender Eddie Irvine, in the second Ferrari, was in tenth. The McLaren and Ferrari drivers all turned in their best times in the morning session. Coulthard crashed in the afternoon, delaying the second session for 13 minutes, but was uninjured.
Sunday's race, the season finale for the 1999 FIA season, gets under way at 1300 local time.
Jacques Villeneuve
"Although an oil leak this morning meant we didn't do enough work, we managed to do a full afternoon session to catch up. The grip here is very low and the tyres always seem too hard, but at the end of the session on new tyres, the car seemed pretty good. With some more work on the balance and if we manage to have a good day on Saturday, we can hope for a top-six qualifying result. I like Suzuka - it's a great track where you can have a lot of fun."
Ricardo Zonta
"It's my first time at Suzuka in F1 so I spent the morning on old tyres and didn't push at first because the car was very low and I didn't know its limit here. In the second session we put on new tyres, the car was a lot better and I found a lot of grip. Although the new tyres made a big difference I couldn't push too hard not knowing the limit of the car, so I maybe lost about half a second on my first flying lap."
Craig Pollock : Chairman & CEO, British American Racing
"After the initial problem this morning on Jacques' car, things went very well for him. Ricardo also did a good job once he had familiarised himself with the circuit."
Robert Synge : Team Manager, British American Racing
"We had no problems in the afternoon and are about where we expected to be after the first day. Ricardo did well although we maybe gave him new tyres a little too early, but he is quickly learning the circuit and should be higher up on Saturday."
Ferrari [start]
Jean Todt
"Today, our work centred on preparation for the race. Neither driver has yet found quite the right set up or balance on the cars. Tomorrow, in both practice and qualifying, we will use the 048C version of the engine."
Michael Schumacher
"As expected, this track does not suit our car as well as the one in Malaysia, as it has many fast corners, whereas our car tends to go better in the slower ones. The track was also very slippery today and offered less grip than at the last race. Towards the end of the afternoon session, we found quite a good set up, which is not reflected in the times, as the tyres were old by then. There is still room for improvement, so I am confident we can fight for pole tomorrow and a victory on Sunday."
Eddie Irvine
"I don't think things are as bad as they look from my lap time today. My main concern was a lack of grip. In this situation it is always difficult to balance the car and I suffered with mid-corner understeer, which switched to oversteer when I put the power down on the exit. Tomorrow with a different set up and fresh tyres, I am sure I can do better."
Jordan [start]
Mika Hakkinen made a good start to the weekend in Japan by finishing the Friday free practice session in first place. His team mate David Coulthard was behind him, with Michael Schumacher in third place. Irvine, who hopes to hold onto his four point lead and take the Championship, was only a lowly 10th.
Benson and Hedges Jordan drivers Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Damon Hill finished the Friday free practice session in 9th and 16th places respectively, Frentzen complaining of lack of grip, Hill of lack of balance. Hill missed the first session after spinning off the track. Frentzen's last lap time, which had placed him 3rd, was disallowed because he had driven over the chicane in the last section.
Heinz-Harald Frentzen
"The track was very slippery today and it was hard work to get a good lap," said Frentzen. "The grip level is a lot lower than last year. But it is the same for everyone and I think we will be competitive tomorrow."
Damon Hill
Hill commented, "It was difficult this afternoon because I was playing catch up after missing the morning session. You can't really afford to give away 20 laps of preparation. I was not happy at the start of the second session, but then I made some changes which I was pleased with and in the end I was happy with my lap time. I still could not find the right balance though - I just could not get the car to be consistent and found it hard to drive as a result."
McLaren [start]
The West McLaren Mercedes Team worked consistently through practice preparing the cars for the race on Sunday. Mika Hakkinen put in the fastest time of the day on a a 1:41.746 with David Coulthard just behind him on a 1:41.894. This was prior to an accident which saw David spinning of the track and damaging the car, putting him out for the remainder of the second session.
Mika Hakkinen
"Both sessions went well today, we worked through our race programme to find a good set up and seem to have found a reasonable balance. That said, you can always go quicker and we will be looking to do that tomorrow in qualifying."
David Coulthard
"A productive morning until the point of impact! As you would expect I was pushing very hard on one corner, I went a bit wide and put one wheel on the curb which saw the car spin quicker than I could catch it. There is a fair amount of damage to the car, but I know that the team will work hard, as always, to fix it before tomorrow so, I am looking forward to a competitive qualifying session."
Ron Dennis
"Apart from David's accident it was an uneventful day. The cars are working quite well and everyone is concentrating on the job in hand."
Norbert Haug
"A good start to the weekend as the team found a good baseline to improve on. David was very competitive before he lost his car but he will be alright tomorrow."
Minardi [start]
Not present at this time
Sauber [start]
Jean Alesi
"This is a difficult circuit for our car, but the balance isn't far off. It's tricky to make the right tyre choise, too, and the slippery state of the track has made it harder still."
Pedro Diniz
"I had a problem with excessive oversteer all day, and we are looking closely to try and determine whether anything is actually wrong. As Jean says, it's hard to make the tyre choise here, and my problem didn't make that any easier."
Peter Sauber
"There is a gap between our performance today and the car's optimum, and we hope that we can close this tomorrow. In Pedro's case he had a serious problem with his car, which was reflected in his times. We will conduct a detalled examination to rectify it."
Stewart [start]
Rubens Barrichello
What did you concentrate on today?
"Suzuka is such a complicated layout and you need to find a balance to make it work well through the Esses, the high speed corners and the chicane. You have to have the car working in harmony in all three areas so you tend to do a bit of juggling on the set-up. We made a big step forward on set-up towards the end of the second session. There is still some work to do and I'm confident that we are heading in the right direction."
Johnny Herbert
Why were you only able to set the 20th fastest time today?
"I expected to make an improvement when I went out on new tyres at the end but the engine cut out and a sensor warning light came on. The car is very nervous at the rear and we tried several setup changes to try and calm it down. We improved it towards the end of the session. The track is quite dirty particularly at 130R. However, looking at Rubens' time today I'm optimistic for qualifying."
Paul Stewart : Stewart-Ford Chief Operating Officer
"We made a lot of changes to set-up on both cars although we still haven't got it quite right yet. We are not too perturbed about Johnny's time because of the problem he had with his car on the new tyres. It was a typically busy Friday."
Tyrone Johnson : Technical Manager Ford Racing Research and Vehicle Technology
"Both cars were running Series 3 engines and we will continue using this specification tomorrow. A sensor on Johnny's car showed a fault causing the engine to cut out towards the end of the second session and even though he managed to restart and make it back to the garage it was too late for him to put in a quick time."
Prost [start]
Olivier Panis
"My practice session was divided truly into two parts. This morning, I had a lot of difficulty in finding the grip I needed and I did not have a good feeling on my first set of tyres. We studied some points between the two sessions and I went out again, always with a fuel load, having made some major changes to the front suspension. On my next set of tyres, it was satisfactory. We have still to refine some details before qualifying tomorrow, but we are going the right way and I am confident."
Jarno Trulli
"As the team asked, I did all my work professionally with a clear goal - to find the best set-up for my car using the same tyres in order to save one set for the weekend. In the same conditions as the other drivers, I was well-placed and this has given me confidence for tomorrow. At the end of the session, I did not improve my times contrary to those who went on to new tyres."
Alain Prost
"Today we accomplished a good day's work. The drivers both worked well in different directions, to give us the chance to gather a lot of information for the qualifying session. We still need to improve the driveability of the cars and to optimise the engines for low revs, this is the programme for tomorrow morning's free session. I think we should be able to have a competitive car to take a good grid position."
Williams [start]
The Winfield WilliamsF1 drivers Alex Zanardi and Ralf Schumacher were fifth and 11th quickest respectively in the first free practice session for the Japanese Grand Prix. Both drivers struggled with significant oversteer, partly due to the dirty track. Zanardi set a good fifth fastest time at the end of the second session going out on new tyres.
Alex Zanardi
"I was a bit surprised about the time I could set at the end of the session, because I feel that today's car is not handling well. At the same time, I think that everybody must have the same problems here because of a very dirty and slippery track. In reality we have got to work very hard to set up the car for tomorrow's qualifying, because I don't believe we will be able to maintain the same position if we don't make changes."
Ralf Schumacher
"First of all I must say that I am happy to be back here in Suzuka because it's one of my favourite racetracks. To be honest, being Friday, I was expecting to do something better than this. Certainly I can't say that I am completely happy with my performance today as I felt the car was quite unstable, inconsistent and nervous on the rear. Anyway, I am pretty confident that we can sort this all out for tomorrow in order to do a good qualifying and in the end a good race."
James Robinson : Senior Operations Engineer
"Today we did the usual Friday homework, with quite a difference in the teams who ran new and used tyres. A lot of homework is required this evening to be able to maintain a good balance throughout the race, while still keeping a close eye on qualifying."
Bridgestone [start]
McLaren drivers lead the way in first practice
Yoshihiko Ichikawa : Bridgestone Motorsport Technical Manager
"Much as we had expected, the abrasive surface of the Suzuka track saw a high rate of tyre wear on several cars today. The teams are also concerned about the lack of grip, with complaints of both oversteer and understeer, but the reason for this is likely to be the dirty state of the track. – and by tomorrow it should have cleaned up. Although most drivers concentrated on the Soft compound, others were also evaluating our Hard tyre. The final decision will probably depend on the level of degradation as the tyres wear down."
Mike Gascoyne : Technical Director, Jordan Grand Prix
"We ran the same two sets of Soft tyres all day today. Tyre wear here is quite high and I expect most teams to be running a two-stop strategy on Sunday. In fact the track was very ‘green’ today and by Sunday I don’t expect wear to be as big a problem. This should make quite an exciting race because the drop-off in tyre performance will be quite pronounced and it will be crucial to get the timing of the pit stops correct. Today we had a problem with the rear tyres going off, but that is to be expected when you are running on a fresh track. By Sunday the surface should have a lot more grip, which will greatly reduce any problems in the performance and wear of the tyres. I will be interested to see how the new wet tyres perform, but with a forecast of good weather for the whole weekend it looks unlikely that we will need to bring out the wets."
Robin Gearing : Race Engineer on Rubens Barrichello’s Stewart-Ford
"Because we only get the opportunity to visit Suzuka once a year, today has been spent finding a balance and establishing good stability in the car. Although we lost the first 15 minutes of the first session today with a throttle problem, this wasn’t too serious because the track was still very ‘green’ at that time and there wasn’t much happening in terms of lap times. We struggled a little at this track last year because of lack of experience here, and we are still trying to find a good setup right now. We haven’t yet made our final choice of tyre and we won’t decide until we have seen how much the track has changed tomorrow."
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