Australian GP: MF1 race notes

In what proved to be the most unusual and incident-filled race of the year thus far, Christijan Albers drove a smooth and steady race to bring his M16 home in 11th place.

Tiago Monteiro's car suffered a disappointing mechanical failure, marking only the second occasion in 22 races the Portuguese driver has been forced to retire.

Colin Kolles, Managing Director:

"This was a bittersweet result for us. I think Tiago drove well enough to potentially score a top ten finish had he not had a malfunction. Christijan also drove a strong race and made a very good move to get past Sato."

"We have to overcome some reliability issues, for sure, but we are improving all the time, so that's encouraging. We are still a young team, so we just have to keep working hard and building on what we've learned."

Adrian Burgess, Sporting Director:

"Christijan finished 11th in a fairly action-packed afternoon. We had a mechanical problem with Tiago, which was unfortunate, as both drivers were having a good race. We made a couple of good calls and one not-so-good call with the safety car pit strategies, which kept us on our toes. Looking ahead, we need to work harder to improve the reliability so that we can come back fighting in Europe."

Christijan Albers:

"On the one hand, it's kind of frustrating to not be battling where I think we should be - in the middle of the pack. On the other hand, I think we're improving and at least now I'm finishing races, which is something I didn't always get to do last year."

"The first part of the race, I got caught in the group behind Sato, with Barrichello and Coulthard. We were stuck there for a long time, and that was really a shame. After the first pit stop, I was still behind Sato but then I overtook him on a straight, on the outside. That felt good."

"There were four safety car periods, so the race order got confusing at times, but in the end I felt that I could run with the other cars. It's just a shame that we couldn't score points today."

Tiago Monteiro:

"Overall, I saw it as being quite a positive weekend. We had a great Friday, some problems on Saturday, but then I was having a great race, with some very good lap times compared to the others. There may have even been the possibility of a top ten today, which would have been a high point for us."

"Unfortunately, problems happen in F1 - something many other teams also experienced - and we had a technical issue that prevented me from finishing. It is frustrating, but I understand that that's how racing goes sometimes."

"I'm just happy that at least the car was performing well in the race, and that's what motivates me for the next one. Now we need to understand what happened, why it happened, and how to prevent it from happening again."

Christijan Albers
Chassis: M16-02
Starting Position: 17th
Classification / Laps Completed: 11th / 56 (+1 lap)

Tiago Monteiro
Chassis: M16-03
Starting Position: 20th
Classification / Laps Completed: RET / 39 (+18 laps)

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