British GP BAR Friday notes

Jacques Villeneuve "Today was a normal day at the office really. The car is working quite well; I did have a little ^Ñoff' but it was nothing major. We were able to put in plenty of laps and finish up halfway through the field so we're reasonably happy with how things have gone so far. The weather changed quite dramatically so we should realistically expect the same but we have no idea how our traction control works in the wet. The only real wet driving we've done is in Brazil but we were quick there. It's always a gamble in the wet and the kind of gamble that isn't fun when you work so hard all weekend to find what you think is the best set-up. We're not quick enough yet but we have a good basis to build on throughout the weekend now."

"I enjoy racing at Silverstone and I like most of the track. There's a good rhythm, some high-speed corners and the circuit is generally quite demanding. I'm not as keen on Vale and Abbey - the two tight chicanes - but the rest of the track is beautiful."

Olivier Panis
"I feel quite positive about how we ran today. The car felt good straight away this morning so we were able to concentrate on trying to find the best set-up and maximising grip. We also played around with the tyre options to find the best overall package. It was a bit windy in the first session so that affected how the car was handling a little. The rain came quite late thankfully but it gave us enough time to see how things might go in those conditions. For me there were no major problems. I like to drive in the wet so the weather isn't normally a problem for me. I'm looking forward to the race and hope we can do well at the team's home Grand Prix."

Malcolm Oastler, Technical Director
"We haven't had too bad a day today. We put in a good day's work with both drivers to find the best set-up and the tyre choice. We had a little problem with Jacques' car in this afternoon's session but that didn't cost us too dearly. Given the changing weather conditions here today I can't make any predictions because you never know how things may turn out on the day. At this stage in the weekend though, we're all reasonably comfortable. We can now focus on making the cars quicker and hopefully finding the improvement in our qualifying performance that we've been looking for of late."