Today's Selected Quotes - Hungarian GP

Friday August 13th, 1999

Ferrari

Salo and Irvine, todayEddie Irvine: "The car was good right from the start and we made at least two major steps forward during the session and a smaller one towards the end. I am confident we have developed the car in the right direction. As usual, Friday's times do not mean too much, but it is a positive position to be ahead of our main rivals. I think it allows us to look forward to the rest of the weekend with optimism. I like this circuit as you are always busy with the steering wheel and I usually go well here."

Mika Salo: "I took it easy in the afternoon part of the session, because I needed to do as many laps as possible and did not want to go off the track. The rain made life very difficult as did the gravel thrown onto the track by other cars. We have made a lot of changes to the car during the day, as I was unhappy with its handling at first. The changes have improved it a great deal, but that was not reflected in my lap times because of the damp track. The car is well balanced and tomorrow morning I will be concentrating on finding a good qualifying set up as the grid position is so important here."

Jean Todt: "As usual, Friday's times are not that significant. In any case, our cars performed pretty well. As we all know, qualifying will be very important on this track. For tomorrow, I predict a battle with our usual opponents.

McLaren

David Coulthard, todayMika Hakkinen: "I had a positive day's practice until I spun off during the second session. But I am not worried about missing the second half of the session as I am confident that we will make good progress tomorrow before qualifying."

David Coulthard: "It is Friday the thirteenth and surprisingly everything is going to plan. We worked through our usual set up programme preparing the car for the race and I believe that we will be strong in qualifying trim."

Ron Dennis: "The Hungarian circuit as always got faster towards the end of the session and weather conditions made practice a little tricky at times catching out several drivers including Mika. David and Mika both made good progress with the cars on what was a normal Friday free practice session in racing configuration."

Norbert Haug: "As expected the times are very close here at the Hungaroring. Mika lost half of the second session following a spin. We feel comfortable for tomorrow's qualifying session."

Stewart

Rubens Barrichello, todayRubens Barrichello: "I was able to identify the direction to go on set-up early on and follow it as the day went on. The car is working well. The aerodynamic balance is good. I can still find time by improving the mechanical grip so I'm optimistic for tomorrow. Parts of the circuit are quite bumpy, particularly the last two turns. The bumps unsettle the cars a little so you have to work on suspension settings to enable the car to ride the bumps without too much interference to the overall handling. The rain that fell made the track a little damp and the white lines became slippery. I think that's what caught a lot of people out."

Johnny Herbert: "I lost the chance to do more running towards the end due to a suspension problem. It was a shame that I also lost a set of tyres this morning because of a puncture. Despite that I'm confident we have reached a good base to improve the set-up for qualifying. We definitely have a car which is suited to this circuit. What you need most of all here is a good balance because it helps in reducing tyre wear. A good balance also helps driveability of the car particularly on such a twisty circuit as this."

Paul Stewart, Chief Operating Officer: "We have had a very productive start to the weekend. Both drivers made significant progress with set-up during both sessions today in preparation for qualifying and the race. Having a trouble-free day enabled us to get through a lot of work."

Martin Whitaker, Director, Ford Racing, Europe: "We experienced no problems today and there is no doubt that the work we did at the Silverstone test last week to increase the engine's driveability has proved beneficial with the engines responding well to the traction requirements of the circuit. We will be using Series 4 engines in both cars tomorrow."

Jordan

Frentzen, todayHeinz-Harald Frentzen: "We did some good work today and ran troublefree during both sessions. The car feels good and there is only some fine tuning to do. With the drizzling rain this afternoon, you had to be careful not to go off the driving line because the track was quite wet. I am quite confident about tomorrow."

Williams

Alex Zanardi: "Today's session wasn't completely problem-free. The track is tricky and with the rain it was even more difficult. Anyway, I am fairly satisfied because in spite of some problems, we have done a few changes to the car that has allowed us to improve. I would say that I am carefully optimistic."

Ralf Schumacher: "As usual, the race track here in Hungary is very slippery and very dirty, especially away from the ideal line. Today, in the second session, unfortunately - as many other drivers - I spun when it started to rain. The Winfield-WilliamsF1 car is quite good, so far, although we have some problems that we have to sort out especially with regards to understeer. Anyway I am quite confident that we will find a good solution for tomorrow's qualifying and for the race itself."

James Robinson, Senior Operations Engineer: "It was a positive start of the weekend for the Winfield WilliamsF1 Team, obviously given the difficult conditions and the number of people that we saw having excursions off the track. We are hoping for better weather conditions tomorrow to allow us to assess the overall tyre situation."


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