Monza, 10 September
Italian GP Thursday press conference
Q: Ricardo, the last time Mika and Michael were sitting on each side of you, we were at Spa and all three of you
were travelling at over 300 km/h. We have heard quite a lot from them about that, but what about you?
Ricardo: I saw a Ferrari coming from behind, so I just slowed down a little bit and left room for him to pass.
When I saw another car was coming through on the right side I thought it was a dangerous move - but it worked very well.
Q: You did a fantastic job because you kept cool ...
Ricardo: Yes, but I had only seen Michael until the moment when I was in the middle of the straight. I didn't move
all the way over to the right because the track was still a little bit damp there. One moment later, though,
I felt something coming through there - and it was Mika.
Q: What was your reaction to that?
Ricardo: I got on to the radio and [my crew] said the two other guys were crazy!
Q: What can you see in terms of your future, because that's a little bit up in the air? Are you willing to be a
test driver or do you hope to race?
Ricardo: This is quite a difficult moment for me now. I have been speaking with some teams [about racing for them].
McLaren has also given me the opportunity to test the car [if I wish to do that], which would increase my experience
in F1. But maybe I will [be able to] have another season of racing in F1.
Q: It's pretty much your decision, though, isn't it?
Ricardo: There are a lot of negotiations, of course, and no we need to find whichever is best for my future.
Italian GP
Ricardo spent Friday practice working on the chassis set-up.
"Initially, I had heavy understeer in the middle of corners and the first issue was to try to sort that out. We tried many things, but didn't really find a good solution. Now I hope my engineer, Dave Lloyd, and I can sort out a solution overnight and we can make good progress tomorrow."
Friday 1st practice:
13th, 1:27.228
Friday combined practice:
17th, 1:27.070, 37 laps
The team thought they had a good setup and it was proved when Villeneuve achieved BAR's best-ever qualifying performance taking 4th position. Ricardo, who had been faster than his teammate during Saturday morning practice, started the qualifying with a 1:25.413 (3). Unfortunately, he then encountered gear selection problems on his second attempt and stopped on the circuit. He had to take over the spare car that was set up for Villeneuve. He managed to improve his time to 1:25.337 but it was only good enough for 17th position. Interestingly Ricardo headed the main straight speed trap table with 352.3 km/h.
"We made good progress this morning and were confident we could qualify in the top six. After my first run this afternoon, we made some changes that should have improved the car, but then I had a problem with the gear change and was forced to stop on the circuit. I took over the spare car, which was set up for Jacques, but couldn't move my feet properly on the pedals. The chassis also had a lot of oversteer, but I attacked as much as I could on my last run and managed to improve my time, but not by enough. I am very disappointed because I know we could have done so much better."
Saturday practice:
8th, 1:24.672, 33 laps
Qualifying:
17th, 1:25.337, 11 laps
Having a proper setup Ricardo was really flying and he dominated most of the warm-up. His 3rd lap was a 1:29.448 (1) his 5th a 1:28.291 (1) his 7th lap 1:26.900 (1). Then Coulthard (McLaren) held the fastest lap for a while until Ricardo retook it with a 1:26.448 to finish the warm-up at the top of the table.
Ricardo started on light fuel load and a two stop strategy. He kept himself out of harms way in the first corner even if he had to take avoiding action over the tarmac and was almost hit by Verstappen (Arrows).
Then at the Variante della Roggia a horrible crash occurred that took the life of fire marshal Paolo Ghislimberti and the safety car went out for 10 laps. Ricardo was hit by de la Rosa and pitted at the end of lap 1 with a puncture, returning in 13th position at the rear end of the queue.
As safety car left the track Button was caught out by the field slowing down and crashed, giving Ricardo 12th position. Now followed one of Ricardo's greatest drives ever. On lap 12 he passed both Diniz (Sauber) and Massacane (Minardi). On lap 13 he outbraked Heidfeld in Variante della Roggia and on the next lap he passed Gené (Minardi) and then he caught Wurz (Benetton) after the Ascari chicane and slip streamed by before the Parabolica. On the next lap
Villeneuve retired leaving Ricardo in 6th position as the sole Honda driver in the 200th GP for the manufacturer. That became a 4th position on the next lap as Ricardo passed both Fisichella (Benetton) and Ralf Schumacher (Williams) and closed in on Verstappen (Arrows). The Arrows proved to be extremely fast on the straights and Ricardo had to do three attempts before finally making the pass before the chicane. Verstappen did not give up and the two cars went side by side through the chicane and into the straight until Ricardo finally gained the upper hand before going into Curva Grande.
Two laps later Ricardo made the first of his planned stops falling down from 3rd to 11th so he had to start all over. On lap 27 he passed Diniz, on lap 28 Massacane and on lap 29 Gené. He gained positions on laps 29 and 32 as Salo and Verstappen made their stops and then on lap 36 Ricardo was back in the pit for his last stop falling from 6th to 8th. Immediately gaining a position as Diniz also made a stop Ricardo stayed 7th until lap 43 when Fisichella struck trouble during his pit stop. So Ricardo finished 6th to take his second championship point.
"I started the race with a light fuel load in the hope that I would be able to overtake a number of cars in the opening laps of the race, but then when the Safety Car came out, we lost the opportunity. I was on a two-stop strategy today, but when de la Rosa's car hit me on the first lap and punctured a tyre, I had no choice but to come in for an extra stop. If it hadn't been for that, I would have finished right in front of Verstappen (4th) in the race."
Craig Pollock:
"Ricardo had an absolutely brilliant race today. The strategy was correct and the car was good. (...) We have to say that what we saw from Ricardo demonstrates just what he is capable of.
Warm up:
1st, 1:26.448, 15 laps
Race:
6th, 1:28:40.931 (+1:09.293) 1 point
FL: 1:26.433 on lap 22 (+0.838, 3rd) - Three pit stops (Lap 1: 25.0, lap 23: 22.1,lap 36: 21.5)
Winner: Michael Schumacher (Ferrari)