Today's Selected Quotes - Spanish GP

Sunday May 30th, 1999

Mclaren

Mika Hakkinen: "It's great to be on the top of the podium again I really enjoyed it, the pitstops were excellent and all the guys did a great job. I was pleased with my start and once I was in front, as always, I had to maintain maximum concentration from start to finish. At one stage I slowed up but that was intentional. Now I am looking forward to Canada."

David Coulthard: "I got a good start to the race and the first part of the race went well apart from the fact I was suffering from a little oversteer. I radioed in and they adjusted the tyre pressures to counteract this, but in fact the adjustment gave me understeer as well as the previous characteristics. However, the third set were much better and I was able to push harder again and put some time in between Michael and myself."

Ron Dennis: "A satisfying end to a difficult weekend. We could have done better in practice but the race speaks for itself. The team did a great job and of course it is good to reduce the points differential between us and our competitors."

Norbert Haug: "This was a very special result for the whole team, because everything was done in the best possible way. The strategy was right, the speed and the discipline of both Mika and David was excellent. We managed to get both cars ahead of the Ferraris. A big thank you goes to all our crew members working day and night since testing began at the start of the season to make the defence of both World Championship titles possible."

Ferrari

Michael Schumacher: "The car felt better today in the race than it did in qualifying. I was stuck behind Villeneuve for a long time in the early part of the race. I might have been able to move up from third to second, if I had not been delayed by another car when I came in to the pits for my second stop. We knew this was going to be a difficult circuit for us, but all weekend we performed better than I had expected and a big part of that is down to the team. Thanks to them, I managed to pick up another four valuable points. It's good to know we are not far off the pace as we now head for circuits which should suit our car better than here."

Eddie Irvine: "I got off the line well, but then I had too much wheelspin. I was surprised at the lack of traction. Being on the dirty side of the track certainly did not help. Coulthard was very close and braked earlier than I expected, so I had to brake too, which allowed Villeneuve to come past. My only actual problem was when the fuel flap came open. I don't think we should have so much testing at the same track the week before a Grand Prix as it always seems to make for a dull race. I wish I had my stereo in the car to keep me amused!"

Jean Todt: "We knew this would be a tough event. The start was the key to the result, when Villeneuve managed to get into third place at the first corner, ahead of both Ferraris. The 24 laps spent behind him did not allow us to exploit our strategy in the way we would have wished. Before the second pit stop, Michael had caught up with Coulthard and Eddie was comfortably fourth. Despite a great job from the team, Michael just missed out by the tiniest of margins on getting ahead of the Scotsman. The cars were reliable and mow we must look ahead and work on improving our qualifying performance."

Williams

Ralf Schumacher: "After only qualifying in fifth place I'm very happy to finish fifth," said Schumacher, who slowed towards the finish with a suspected water system problem. "The performance of the car was good in the race and there is no reason why we can't score more points in the forthcoming races."

Alex Zanardi: "I was about to leave the garage after my first stop when I selected first gear, heard a strange noise and when I released the clutch nothing happened, we made some improvements to the car after the warm up and it behaved much better. I'm not giving up."

Jordan

Heinz Harald Frentzen: "Today was disappointing, it was a hard race this time and I could not pass Ralf Schumacher - the soft tyres which many of our competitors were on did not suffer as we thought, and our hard tyres gave us no advantage. This race was very much down to strategy, but in the end I had a mechanical failure."

Damon Hill: "The best part of the race for me was overtaking Rubens on the outside. I had been trying to catch up with him in the middle part of the race, but I just missed out on overtaing him on the pit stops. It was satisfying to overtake him. I could see all the blue flags at the end of the race, when the McLarens and Ferraris came up behind, and my race engineer was very good at telling me what was going on. The race itself was not too difficult, but there was no advantage to running on hard tyres."

Stewart

Rubens Barrichello: "I had one real chance for sixth place towards the end but overall the performance of the car during the whole weekend did not measure up to what we have achieved in the previous races. With the second set of tyres I was able to push and regain the time I lost with the backmarkers and the blue flags. But with the third set the car became very unstable. I was pushing hard and was able to catch Trulli but I lost downforce as often happens here and I wasn't able to overtake."

Johnny Herbert: "It's frustrating to notch up my fifth straight non-finish. As I was coming in for my first pit stop I felt the gear shifting was a little strange. Just before my second pit stop I felt something break and attempted to crawl back to the pits but I just couldn't make it. We decided to change our pit strategy from three stops to two because I found myself mixing it with the pack early in the race and it was the only way I was going to be able to stay in touch. It's been another tough weekend - even my change of helmet design didn't bring me much luck!"

Paul Stewart: "We expected a better result today but a points finish looked unlikely after Rubens got a poor start. Even when the chance arose towards the end of the race it was always going to be difficult to get by Trulli. What we have to do now is get together at the post race debrief, regroup and identify the areas in which we can improve the car to regain our early season performance."

Bar

Jacques Villeneuve: "I made a great start which surprised me as all my practice starts this weekend hadn't been so good, but that was a lucky one. The car was really good and I was running strongly, easily able to hold off Michael until the first pit stop. In spite of a great effort from my crew, he only managed to pass me in the pit lane. After I rejoined one of the rear wing flaps collapsed, slowing me down and I was forced to come in for an unscheduled pit stop. I lost first gear when I tried to leave the pits, and that was unfortunately that. It was an encouraging race for the team, however, because we've made real progress, but now I need to get to the end."

Mika Salo: "I had quite a lot of understeer but otherwise the car was running fine. My second set of tyres seemed to make the handling problem worse, but then when I changed again things improved, and I was able to go much quicker during the last part of the race."

Craig Pollock: "Mika's ninth place finish proves that the reliability is starting to come, and with Jacques' unbelievable start we can see that the performance is there, too. He was able to withstand the enormous pressure which Michael put him under, especially considering the speed the Ferraris showed when they got past him after the first pit stop. I think it was one of Jacques' best drives for some time. All the team did a great job, and I would like to thank Mika especially on behalf of the whole team, for his great drive and commitment in the three races in which he has replaced Ricardo Zonta. We wish him all the best."

Benetton

Giancarlo Fisichella: "I am frustrated with this result and with the car's performance altogether. I find the car extremely hard to drive because of the lack of grip and we are also low on power. We have to look hard at where we can make some improvements before Canada."

Alexander Wurz: "It was a very difficult race as we have low grip and the car was sliding about a lot. The tyres were also inconsistent. I lost a lot of time when I was held up behind Salo, but I was unlikely to have scored any points anyway today."

Rocco Benetton: "This is the end of a very hard week. The testing we did here didn't help us at all for this race and we have had many difficulties since Friday. We took some risks on the strategy to try and be competitive in the race after the unsatisfying results in qualifying. It didn't work as we expected but this is all part of the game. We keep working very hard and are focussing on the future, so the results must come soon."

Arrows

Pedro de la Rosa: " It was our goal to finish the race on a good level. I was on a three stop strategy and it worked well for me. Reliability was on our side at the beginning of the season and I think we are back on form again."

Toranosuke Takagi: " My first set of tyres at the beginning of the race were good and I managed to keep up with the field with a fair amount of speed. After the first pitstop however, the balance of the car deteriorated, which made it difficult to drive. After an eventful weekend I am pleased with the result and would also like to thank the Team for their great work."

Tom Walkinshaw: "It was our wish for both cars to cross the finishing line. Thanks to a valiant effort from the Team after a challenging weekend, we did just that."

Minardi

Luca Badoer: "It was a hard race. I was keeping the pace as fast as I could to catch Takagi but I experienced brakes and gearbox concerns. When I arrived at the corner no. 10 I did a mistake and when I braked I spun off and my engine switched off."

Marc Gene: "It is really a shame not even to start the race. I didn't expect such a mishap here on my home circuit. At the start, I felt the first gear was not perfectly in and when I released the clutch paddle my car didn't start up. I am so disappointed because the car was really good today during the warm up and I was looking forward to beginning the race. For me it was important not only for a sentimental reason but above all because I need to cover more kilometres and to run as many laps as I can do to increase my experience. But it is not over. The championship goes on and the Spanish people can be sure that we'll see eachother on this same circuit next year."

Gian Carlo Minardi: "There's a lot of work still to be done to sort out the innumerable problems we are encountering. We must all examine our consciences and work more and better."


Previous  |  News Index  |  Next   ]