Formula 1 news
Ferrari leaves France disappointed with third
03 July 2005 / Results / PhotosFerrari leaves the French Grand Prix disappointed that all they could manage was third place for Michael Schumacher, after the team had hoped it could win. Rubens Barrichello fell down the order and eventually finished ninth.
"This was a very disappointing race," said team chief Jean Todt. "This weekend we were among the best in qualifying, but we were unable to match that in the race. Michael finished third and clearly could not have done better. The cars ahead of him were simply quicker. After just a few laps, Rubens found he had a problem with the brakes, which made his race very difficult. As the laps went by, he kept dropping down the order, ending up outside the points. We are disappointed because we hoped to be much more competitive. Now we must analyse the race, along with our technical partners, to try and understand why things did not go the way we had expected."
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Michael Schumacher commented, "I think third was the best I could have done today. It is true that I lost a lot of time stuck behind Trulli for eighteen laps and that meant that Montoya got past me. So, I had some problems with traffic. Without that early delay, our strategy might have put me ahead of Kimi. In fact this race was all about different drivers on different strategies, but today we did not quite match the pace of the leaders. I had one moment when I ran wide at Turn 3 and then I also came under a bit of pressure from Fisichella, when he was running lighter than me, but he never got too close."
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Rubens Barrichello added, "It was a terrible race for me. After four or five laps, I began to have a problem with the brakes which meant the car was hard to drive. Then, in the first run of pit stops, I was unable to get ahead of Trulli and so I always found myself behind cars that were potentially slower than me. The brake problem got progressively worse and I kept slipping back so that I wasn't even able to pick up a single point. I am very disappointed."
Technical director Ross Brawn concluded, "The first part of our race was spoilt being stuck behind Trulli. We were not competitive enough to win the race today, but Michael might have finished one place higher without that early delay. We then tried to make the best of our situation for the rest of the race. So, as always in these situations we will have to go away and see what we can do to be stronger next time. We struggled for most of the race and every time the drivers tried to push harder things became difficult. Rubens lost a lot of grip over the course of the race, whereas Michael's car was probably a bit better balanced and he was able to do better. All in all, we have to say we were not strong enough with either car. We have not given away too many points and we will keep trying to fight back."
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