Formula One news

Ferrari has pace despite electrical problem

Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schuamcher were second and fifth fastest in the first practice session on Friday but Barrichello slipped to seventh in the second session and Schuamcher retired after just one lap due to electrical problems.

"As usual on a Friday, we concentrated on finding the best set-up for the cars and carrying out a comparison of the two types of tyre that Bridgestone has made available to us," team chief Jean Todt explained. "The day was marked by very high temperatures, but that is nothing new here at the Hungaroring. At the start of the second session, an electrical problem on Michael's car prevented him from running in the second hour of free practice. This meant all the work was centred on Rubens who completed the programme we gave him. Of course, it is hard to make predictions this early in the weekend, but what we can say is that we have seen encouraging signs, even though we were down to just one car this afternoon." 

Rubens Barrichello commented, "This has been a very useful day in terms of what we have learnt about the tyres and how the car behaves at this circuit. I think we are more competitive here than we expected to be. The fact that it is very hot makes this a tough weekend, but it's the same for everyone. I am looking forward to the rest of the weekend. As for my incident at the end of the session, I was trying a slightly different set-up which obviously did not work, as I ran a little bit wide over the kerb. This meant the car was airborne, so from then on I was just a passenger." 

Michael Schumacher added, "Our performance does not look too bad for a Friday. My problem was an electrical one, so the only real damage is the fact I was unable to run in the second session. Of course, that is not very helpful but fortunately, Rubens had a good day and thanks to the data he acquired I think we know what we want to do in terms of tyres. Because I did so few laps, I will also have to see what I can learn from Rubens' set-up, although of course I have done enough laps of this track to know what is required! It is hard to know what to expect in qualifying. As usual, strategy will be very important and I think ours will look more towards the race than to qualifying." 

Technical director Ross Brawn concluded, "Michael's car suffered from an alternator failure. We don't know why at the moment. From what we can see from the data, it just stopped working, which meant the car was stranded out on the track. It was a shame as he had just begun his proper tyre comparison over a longer run. Rubens had a good programme today, taking an initial look at both types of tyre in the morning session. He also did two long runs this afternoon and thanks to his excellent work, we have plenty of information on which to base our tyre choice for tomorrow and Sunday. At this point, it looks pretty clear which tyre we want to use."

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