Chinese GP: Ferrari Friday practice notes

A day spent learning the track

Jean Todt:

"This has been an historic day for Formula 1, making its first appearance in China, the most heavily populated country in the world, which, for the past few years has been experiencing a period of amazing economic growth. As we were able to ascertain back in June, at its official opening, the Shanghai International Circuit is a grandiose facility, with some amazing avant-garde buildings."

"As for the track, the day was spent learning it, paying particular attention to finding the best set-up and evaluating the two types of Bridgestone tyre. Obviously, there is still much work to be done. However, I am confident that, after analysing the data we acquired, we will know how to find the right solutions in order to be competitive for the rest of the weekend.'

Rubens Barrichello:

"We had a pretty good day. I like the track very much and think it's amazing. The number of corners and different lines into the corners make it interesting. It will be tough physically and I think there should be some good overtaking opportunities. This place is superb, but I don't understand why there are not yet any Chinese F1 drivers, because on the roads it is mad. They say Brazilians make good racing drivers because of our traffic, but here they should have much better ones than us!"

Michael Schumacher:

"This has been an interesting Friday for us, mainly because it is a new circuit. We only saw it for the first time yesterday and today we tackled it for the first time in the car, when I got a slightly different impression. Several corners have a blind apex and, generally, it is a very challenging circuit. We still have to adapt our car to the demands of the track and it is not yet perfect. So there is still some work to be done. This morning, I had a small problem with software at the end of the session, but I am confident we can have a good weekend."

Rubens Barrichello
Chassis: 240
Practice session 1: 7th, 1:36.660, 14 laps
Practice session 2: 5th, 1:34.448, 21 laps

Michael Schumacher
Chassis: 239
Practice session 1: 15th, 1:37.300, 11 laps
Practice session 2: 8th, 1:34.776, 25 laps

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