British GP Tyrrell preview

TYRRELL'S COMING HOME!

Racing in England has always been special to Tyrrell Yamaha and this year's British Grand Prix will again be a seasonal highlight for the Surrey-based organisation. In preparation for its home Grand Prix, the team tested at Silverstone this week with two cars, race drivers Ukyo Katayama and Mika Salo and test driver Emmanuel Collard.

On Wednesday (July 3), in wet conditions, Mika drove 36 laps and set a best time of 1 min 52.0 sec. Emmanuel drove 32 laps with a best time of 1 min 51.5 sec. On Thursday (July 4), in changeable weather conditions, Ukyo drove 40 laps and set a best lap of 1 min 29.64 sec; Mika drove 30 laps with a best time of 1 min 31.1 sec.

Harvey Postlethwaite, Managing Director - Engineering, said: "In the past few weeks, our performance has been spoilt by reliability problems. We have been working hard at home and with Yamaha and I am confident that we will see an improvement.

"This week's test was the last one before the race weekend and we concentrated on set-up work. Despite difficult weather conditions, rain on Wednesday and high winds on Thursday, we made good progress. Mika tested a different front suspension geometry and Ukyo tried several small set-up changes and a new rear wing which improved the balance of the car. On Wednesday, Emmanuel drove well in the wet and it was nice to see that he was not put off by the rain. He set competitive times and it's a pity we could not run him in the dry."

After the test, Mika Salo said: "We had two good days of work and improved the balance of the car, especially in the wet. I'd like to perform well next weekend because it's the team's home Grand Prix and it would be a good reward for the boys. The lay-out of the circuit is better but it is not as good as it used to be when I was racing there in Formula 3. The British Grand Prix will be very hard for me because you have to wake up very early to avoid all the traffic jams, and I am not very good at that!"

Ukyo Katayama commented: "We had a good test on Thursday and made significant progress with the set-up. The British Grand Prix is better than any other race because we can test before the weekend so we should have an advantage over the teams based on the continent. We should perform well here and I would love to score points for the team's home Grand Prix..."

Mike Gascoyne, Deputy Technical Director commented: "Silverstone has been modified and improved over recent years and is now one of the safest circuits on the calendar with some very good facilities. It has a good mixture of challenging high speed corners and slower sections. The track is fairly bumpy. It's essential to get a good car balance which allows you to run less wing to ensure good straight line speed. We have done quite a lot of testing here so the cars should go well."

The British Grand Prix will be held on the 5.072 kms/3.152 miles Silverstone circuit near Northampton in the north of England. The 61 lap, 309.392 kms/192.288 miles race will start at 14:00 hours local time on Sunday 14 July and is expected to last around one hour thirty five minutes.

Chassis numbers: Car 18, Ukyo Katayama: 05 Car 19, Mika Salo: 04 Spare car, Salo: 02 Spare chassis: 03

-- The F1 FAQ on the Web http://www.ultranet.com/~mitchmcc