Ferrari found good balance
Ferrari admit they have no chance of dominating in China as they did one year ago with Rubens Barrichello, but they ended the Friday practice sessions reasonably content with the balance and pace of the Bridgestone-shod F2005s. Barrichello was second fastest in the first session and sixth fastest in the second session while Michael Schumacher recorded the fifth and 14th best times today.
Rubens Barrichello “This was quite a good day with plenty of good laps completed on both types of tyre. I am reasonably happy with my set-up, so now we must wait and see how competitive we really are compared to the others. But I feel I can approach the rest of the weekend with optimism after a solid day’s work today.”
Michael Schumacher “Obviously with these last few races all coming in quick succession, there was no reason to expect a big change in our performance level. But I have to say that, after today, I think we look in slightly better shape than we did at the last race. Maybe we are at a similar level to the one we had in Brazil. We got through our work in a methodical fashion today and the time differences between the two sessions is mainly down to the difference in using new or used tyres.”
Ross Brawn “We seem to have found a good balance on the car and both drivers are reasonably happy with their cars. At the moment, Michael appears to be a bit slower than Rubens, so we need to understand why that is. The tyres are showing good consistency and I think tyre choice will come down to which type of tyre will give the best first lap performance and how the wear figures look. We are quite pleased with the way the tyres are behaving on this very smooth surface, because the last time we experienced this type of surface was in Turkey where we struggled. It seems better this time.”
Jean Todt “Here we are at the second running of this Grand Prix in China, a country that is growing up very fast. The resourcefulness of its people is there for all to see and it is impressive. Ferrari has a major development plan here which will see this country becoming one of our top five markets. As for the track, today we have gone through our usual Friday programme, trying to find the best set-up and comparing the two types of tyre available to us. We were able to do a greater number of laps than usual, because the engines fitted to both our cars only have to last for this event. First impressions would suggest that the Ferrari-Bridgestone package seems reasonably competitive. We are at the end of a particularly tough season which definitely did not come up to our usual standards and to those expected of us by our fans over the past few years. We will attempt to bring it to an end in the best way possible.”
