British GP Benetton Friday notes

Giancarlo Fisichella
It has been a very bad day. We had an engine problem in the first session and in the second the car's balance wasn't great. We did a lot of work but we didn't find the level of improvement I was hoping for. The rain at the end did not help and I can only hope that things go better tomorrow.

Jenson Button
Things weren't too bad this morning. We didn't run any new tyres, but the chassis balance was quite good, even though overall grip levels were quite low. We put new tyres on after lunch and it made more of a difference than I had expected, but the balance was still good. The car feels absolutely fine in slow-speed corners but we could do with a little more grip in the faster stuff even on new tyres. The good thing is that we managed to get a number of laps on new tyres. I am fairly sure that a few of our rival teams did low-fuel runs, too, which we didn't. Our position might not look terribly good on paper, but realistically I think we are in better shape and that should show tomorrow. On another positive note, the practice starts I did felt pretty good, too especially as I was running on dry tyres in the wet.

Mike Gascoyne, Technical Director
Overall, this has been a productive day for Jenson, who improved his car throughout both sessions and was happy with his balance on today's fuel levels. Things were more difficult for Giancarlo, because he needed an engine change and ended up using one of our older-spec engines. Considering how much fuel we were running compared to other Michelin teams, I think we looked more competitive than normal. The track conditions today have been cooler than at recent races, and I don't think that suited the tyres we have available this weekend. Hopefully, the weather will pick up tomorrow.