Austrian GP Benetton race notes

The Mild Seven Benetton Renault Sport team had a disappointing afternoon at the A1-Ring for the 2001 Austrian Grand Prix, after both their cars retired from the race.

Giancarlo Fisichella:
"My race engineer called me over the radio on Lap four, because they could see on the pit monitors that there was a problem with my engine.

"There was nothing we could do about it there and then, so I had no option but to pull in and retire," he added.

"It was particularly disappointing, for me and the whole team, because I had made a pretty good start and had gained several places."

Jenson Button:
"With so many cars having dropped out, I was sure we were on course to notch up a decent result at the end of a difficult weekend," he explained.

"My goal was to finish and it is always very frustrating to retire so close to the end, but as far as the longer term is concerned, at least we picked up some useful data."

The Mild Seven Benetton Renault Sport team now moves to Danielson in France for aerodynamics testing, so that they can evaluate both the existing configuration and future develpments. Oliver Gavin will be at the wheel for the two-day test.

Pat Symonds:
"It was a very disappointing day for the whole team and two separate problems affected our cars.

"We could see from the pit wall that there was a problem with Giancarlo's engine as soon as it was fired up on the grid and to carry on would have been fruitless and could have led to us spoiling someone else's race - so we decided to retire the car immediately.

"Meanwhile Jenson was making steady progress and seemed to be going well on his first set of tyres, despite being held up behind some other cars.

"After the pit stop it became apparent that we were using quite a lot of oil and, at the same time we had a lost a little of our performance. Ultimately, it appears that he retired because he spun on his own oil. "