French GP Friday Ferrari notes

Jean Todt:
"Today we continued the work on fine tuning the set-up and balance on the car which we started at last week's test. We have seen and not just on our own cars, a performance drop-off after a few laps. This will be an important factor for the race. Therefore we looked at this aspect with Michael, who did several runs each of the same number of laps. As usual, I think tomorrow's qualifying will be very tight and we will see another fight for places on the front two rows between ourselves and the usual opposition."

Michael Schumacher:
"We had a good session. We checked out some question marks we had left over from last week's test here. The surface is very slippery here when the track gets this hot and the tyres are getting worn, but there is nothing you can do about it and you just have to live with this. The new chimneys" on the sidepods seem to be working well, but we have not yet decided whether or not to use them in the race. It depends on the weather conditions. On Sunday there will be two battles: it will be very hard for Italy to beat France in the football and also very difficult for me to beat McLaren! In the football, I will be cheering for Italy."

Rubens Barrichello:
"Given the track conditions the right strategy for today was to save the tyres for the rest of the weekend, which is why I didn't think it was useful to go out much this morning. Then, when I went out for an installation lap, I had to come in to make an adjustment to the throttle. The track is actually different to last week. In the second hour, I made a few major changes which meant I was able to pick up useful data for both qualifying and the race."