Honda returns to Europe in good spirits

Magny-Cours is gearing up for Sunday’s French Grand Prix, round eleven of the 2006 FIA Formula One World Championship. The first of an intensive period of activity which sees three races in four weeks as the F1 teams return to Europe following the two races in North America.

“We return to Europe encouraged by our performance at Indianapolis and optimistic that we can carry that through into the French Grand Prix,” says Sporting Director Gil de Ferran. “Magny-Cours represents quite a different challenge to the last two circuits since it is very smooth and contains a mixture of high and slow speed turns, however it is similarly hard on rear tyres. Weather-wise, in the past we have seen very hot conditions and we expect to encounter more of the same next weekend, which our car and set-up seem to cope quite well with. We are hopeful that the developments tested in Jerez this week will bring us some improvement and we can again be in a position to score some good points, this time with both drivers.”

After finishing in the points at Indy, Rubens Barrichello is looking forward to getting back out on track at this weekend’s race in France. “The circuit is a very good track for the drivers as it’s a lot of fun to drive and also very fast,” enthuses Rubens Barrichello. “The high speed changes of direction between turns four and five, and also turns seven and eight, are quite challenging. The race is usually an exciting one and if the weather follows the usual pattern, it will probably be a very hot race. We had an intensive test at Jerez this week in very hot conditions looking at the tyres and aero for this week so we should be well prepared. We collected a lot of data in Jerez and now we have to work hard and see how we can make that work for us at Magny-Cours.”