Jean Todt: The heat was an important factor today and as usual, the team worked on the comparison between the two types of tyre at our disposal. From what we can see, yet again, Bridgestone has done an excellent job, as has Shell, who have supplied us with a new fuel for this race, which ensures we can get more power out of the engine. Germany is Ferrari’s second biggest market after the United States and this morning, I had the opportunity to visit Ferrari Deutschland's headquarters in Wiesbaden.
Ross Brawn: Tyres are definitely going to be the key factor over the course of this weekend. The track temperature was very high today and we already have a strong indication of which type of tyre we want to race with here. Michael made good progress with his car while Rubens was not quite so happy, particularly on the braking side, so we have some work to do tonight. However, it is pleasing to see that we look competitive in these hot conditions.
On the first day of the German Grand Prix weekend, the BMW WilliamsF1 Team put in a good performance with drivers Juan Pablo Montoya and Antonio Pizzonia setting the 3rd and 5th fastest times respectively in today's Free Practice session. The twenty-three year old Brazilian is standing in for the convalescing Ralf Schumacher, and has replaced Marc Gené who raced in the French and British Grands Prix. Ralf will visit the team in Hockenheim tomorrow after five weeks of absence from the F1 paddock.
Sam Michael (Technical Director, WilliamsF1): We have had a productive first day with both drivers working through our normal race set- up and tyre evaluations, neither driver suffered mechanical problems. Normally it is difficult to change race drivers but Antonio has adapted quickly and did a good job on his first day. Once again, we have brought some new aerodynamic and suspension parts to this race and they are working well here.
Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director): We have had two good sessions today, with Juan and Antonio running through their set- up programme as scheduled. Antonio got along well with the car from his very first lap here. Friday's lap times do not mean much usually, but I have to say it looks like four to five teams are very close together here.
Team McLaren Mercedes drivers Kimi Raikkonen and David Coulthard finished
in second and 11th respectively in the second practice session for the
Mobil 1 German Grand Prix. Both Kimi and David completed a total of eight
laps in the first session and 18 in the second. Kimi's fastest time was
1:15.045 and David did 1:16.265.
Ron Dennis: "As our tyre choice has now been made, we will now concentrate on
optimising the set-up on both cars. Clearly we have pace but we will not
know how much until Sunday's race."
Norbert Haug: "A good start to our home grand prix weekend. Kimi was quick and
consistent, but on a Friday it's too early to evaluate where we actually
are compared to the competition. David is still looking to improve his
set-up, which is not what it should be. I'm sure he will be better equipped
tomorrow. "
The Mild Seven Renault F1 Team concluded the opening day of practice for the German Grand Prix with its two drivers in eighth and fourteenth positions, Fernando Alonso ahead of team-mate Jarno Trulli. With circuit temperatures exceeding 40°C, both drivers' days focused on tyre selection, with each running a substantial programme. Jarno Trulli worked to correct a nervous rear end on the R24 during much of the day, while Fernando Alonso felt the car balance was acceptable, but that the team still needs to find more grip and speed ahead of tomorrow's qualifying session.
Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering: "At a circuit such as Hockenheim, tyre selection demands our full concentration on Friday, and we completed a disciplined programme in order to compare our prime and option tyres. Fortunately, the weather stayed dry and this allowed us to collect a useful amount of information. We are still lacking some grip, and although both drivers' complained of understeer and overtseer at various points during the day, I think this can probably be attributed to the variations in tyre performance and condition. Overall, we are happy with our day, and Fernando's time in the second session puts us among our usual competitors."
Denis Chevrier, Head of Engine Operations: "We competed a full programme with each car today, studying a number of different parameters during the two sessions. We did not encounter any technical problems and concentrated on adapting the engine to this circuit. Our work has taught us a lot about optimising our use of the new specification engine, and we suffered no dramas with it. However, our development work has concentrated primarily on race performance, and times in Friday practice do not necessarily give a true indication of our potential."
Lucky Strike BAR Honda's German Grand Prix weekend got off to a disappointing start today for Jenson Button and third driver Anthony Davidson.
Anthony suffered a gearbox problem in first free practice which caused him to stop out on track towards the end of the session. He was however able to maintain his fastest lap of the morning, ahead of local hero Michael Schumacher.
This afternoon brought further frustrations with an engine problem for Jenson Button. He ended the day 4th but the necessary engine change this evening will now relegate him 10 places on the grid for Sunday's race. Anthony Davidson and Takuma Sato finished the session 6th and 7th on the timesheets.
David Richards, Team Principal: "We started the weekend on an extremely positive note with the announcement of the long-term extension to our partnership with Honda. This is excellent news for the team and it gives us the stability we need to pursue our common objective of winning the world championship. After such an encouraging start to today it is disappointing that we have encountered such frustrations on-track and Jenson will lose 10 places on the grid as a consequence of his engine problem."
Geoffrey Willis, Technical Director: "The car has been working well and we have been competitive throughout the sessions. Despite completing our full running plans today, Anthony had a gearbox problem at the end of the first session and Jenson suffered an engine problem at the end of the second session. Anthony stopped the car out on track as soon as he felt the problem and we will be making some changes tomorrow to avoid a repeat of this problem. Unfortunately we will have to change Jenson's engine which will clearly penalise his chances in Sunday's race. Judging by the closeness of many teams today, this weekend will be very challenging for us."
Shuhei Nakamoto, Engineering Director, Honda Racing Development: "Unfortunately we have identified a problem with Jenson's engine, which means that we will have to change it tonight. However, the pace of all three drivers has been quite good today and we have managed to complete over 70 laps, so I hope he will be able to fight for some points on Sunday."
Sauber drivers Felipe Massa and Giancarlo Fisichella finished 16th and 17th respectively after today's first practice sessions for the German Grand Prix.
Peter Sauber (Team Principal): "We concentrated on race set-up work today and I believe that we are now well prepared. We have a lot of data to analyse before we make our tyre selection this evening, and tomorrow morning we will focus on honing the car for qualifying."
All three Jaguar Racing drivers, Mark Webber, Christian Klien and Björn Wirdheim took to the Hockenheim-Ring in Germany today to compete in the morning and afternoon test sessions. With track temperatures as high as 52 degrees the teams enjoyed a dry if not hot session. Working on mostly balance and tyre work the morning session was cut short following a change in brake ducts for all three drivers. The second session was productive with the drivers clocking up a combined lap total of 85, well over one race distance. The team is now focusing on tyre and balance set-up in preparation for Saturday's qualifying.
Dr Mark Gillan Head of Vehicle Performance: We spent much of today working on balance and set-up but unfortunately our time on track was less than expected when both Christian and Bjorn suffered a problem with their brake ducts and we needed to change them. The team in the garage worked very quickly and efficiently, allowing all three drivers to be out on track for the second session. The balance on the car around here was reasonable given how green the track was. All three drivers, Mark, Christian and Bjorn did a good job today and we will now all be focusing on tomorrow and working specifically on tyre and balance set-up.
Mike Gascoyne - Technical Director Chassis: "With both race drivers, we opted to do our tyre comparison in the first session, which meant that we only ran on old tyres in the second practice. We should not read too much into the time differences between the TF104 and TF104B. We used the second hour effectively as a test session to improve the balance of the car and to improve the new aero package. We made good progress. Ricardo, meanwhile, carried out his normal programme of tyre evaluation in both sessions so we have concentrated on ensuring we are in as good shape as possible for tomorrow. That will be when we really see how competitive the updated car is."
James Robinson: We progressed through our usual free practice programme today working closely with Bridgestone who have worked very hard to bring a new tyre for us in Hockenheim. We were looking to get some distance on those tyres and get through important set-up work. We now need to see if the rain will come tomorrow and how we will deal with this for qualifying.
With track temperatures over 50 deg C and the air temperature hovering around 34 deg C at the Hockenheimring, preparations for this Sunday's German Grand Prix posed even more of a challenge today than normal. Nonetheless, Wilux Minardi Cosworth race drivers, Gianmaria Bruni and Zsolt Baumgartner, plus test driver, Bas Leinders, worked steadily through their assigned technical tasks for the opening day of the 12th round of the 2004 FIA Formula One World Championship. As usual, the primary focus was on achieving a satisfactory chassis balance around Hockenheim's twists and turns, and evaluating the tyre choices available from technical partner, Bridgestone, this weekend. Progress was made in all areas, and the team looks forward to another productive day tomorrow.
Paul Stoddart, Team Principal: Today saw all three Minardi drivers compete their full technical programme in preparation for Sunday's German GP. The times were very respectable and it's always pleasing to see us in among the Jordans.
Bridgestone equipped Michael Schumacher has started his home grand prix in strong form setting the fastest time of the day in the second of the two, one-hour long practice sessions. Rubens Barrichello who currently lies second behind his teammate in the drivers’ championship standings, also had a productive day working through his tyre and set-up options. Sauber Petronas drivers Giancarlo Fisichella and Felipe Massa have been looking strong, with Fisichella posting the fifth fastest time in this morning’s session. Today’s conditions at Hockenheim have been scorching and the track relatively “green” but improving as running progressed.
Hisao Suganuma, Bridgestone Motorsport Technical Manager: The track was very green this morning which meant we saw some graining on the front tyres. This in turn produced some understeer but in the second session, track conditions improved steadily and so the amount of graining reduced. Judging by today’s results, the “soft” and “hard” specifications look competitive so now it is a matter of checking the tyre wear so that we can make our best recommendations to the teams regarding their final tyre choice for the qualifying session tomorrow and the race.
Ross Brawn, Technical Director of Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro: It’s going to be a weekend for tyres. The track temperatures were very hot today but we’ve got a picture of which Bridgestone tyre we want to race. It’s a question of whether we choose the fastest tyre or the more consistent tyre so we have to look at all the data and check it through. Michael made good progress with his car while Rubens was a little unhappy with his braking so we’ve got some work to do with him tonight. Pleasingly, we are competitive in the hot conditions and it shouldn’t get any hotter than this all weekend.
Kimi Räikkönen (Team McLaren Mercedes) was second fastest - and best placed Michelin driver - on the opening day of the German Grand Prix meeting. The Finn lapped in 1m 15.045s - fractionally faster than last season's pole position time and just 0.044s shy of world championship leader Michael Schumacher. The leading teams and drivers proved to be closely matched and less than three quarters of a second separated the top nine. Last year's winner Juan Pablo Montoya (BMW WilliamsF1 Team/Michelin) was third, ahead of Jenson Button (BAR-Honda/Michelin, fourth), Antonio Pizzonia (BMW WilliamsF1 Team/Michelin, fifth), Anthony Davidson (BAR-Honda/Michelin, sixth), Takuma Sato (BAR-Honda/Michelin, seventh) and Fernando Alonso (Renault/Michelin, eighth).
This morning's first free practice session had to be red-flagged for safety reasons. Jordan driver Timo Glock lost his front wing, which subsequently broke up and deposited jagged carbon shards all over the track.
Standing in for injured BMW WilliamsF1 Team driver Ralf Schumacher, Antonio Pizzonia is preparing for his maiden grand prix with the BMW WilliamsF1 Team - and his first since he drove for Jaguar in the 2003 British GP at Silverstone.
Anthony Davidson (BAR-Honda/Michelin) set fastest time in this morning's first practice - despite being forced to stop before the end of the session when fourth gear stripped.
Pierre Dupasquier, Michelin motorsport director: "This is a difficult race to call. The track was very abrasive first thing this morning and that might be the case again tomorrow, because the prospects of rain are rated at more than 90 per cent and the surface is consequently likely to be given a thorough cleansing overnight. It is much harder to predict how a track might evolve when the weather is unstable, so our six partner teams will need to bear the forecast in mind when analysing their data. So far, however, things have gone very smoothly for us: Times are very close at the front of the field and several of our partner teams look set to have a good weekend - including McLaren, which has maintained the upturn in form it showed at Silverstone.
"All three of Michelin's dry-weather compounds have worked well in the hot, punishing conditions. As usual, they have been fast and consistent in equal measure and we have no concerns about durability."
