French GP McLaren notes

Magny-Cours - 30th June - 2nd July 1995

Mika Hakkinen and Mark Blundell finished in 7th and 11th place respectively in the 1995 French Grand Prix. Both Marlboro McLaren Mercedes drivers, using the latest specification Mercedes engine, spent a significant part of the race fending off strong opposition: the Ligier-Honda of Olivier Panis for Mika and Gerhard Berger's Ferrari for Mark.

Mika Hakkinen: "I am happy with the progress Mercedes-Benz has made solving the problems which we encountered in Montreal. The characteristics of the circuit make it very tough for engine and car. As far as the performance of the chassis is concerned, the cornering has to be improved because it is still costing me valuable lap time. I had a tough fight with Alesi on the first lap and to avoid a collision with him had to cut across the gravel, which cost me some places."

Mark Brundell: "I am obviously disappointed by this result because I felt we had the potential to get into the points and unfortunately today's performance did not warrant any. I had a good battle with Gerhard Berger, which was enjoyable for me in the race, but battling for 11th place is not ideal and we have a lot hard work to do to be ready for Silverstone."

Norbert Haug: "This seventh place has more worth for us than the fourth in Brazil because there were almost no retirements ahead of us and our lap times were most of the time on Ferraris' level. Our engine team worked very hard to solve the engine problem which occurred in Canada in the shortest time. Both cars ran reliably without missing a beat, so congratulations to the whole team - this includes also the perfect second pit stops which I think were the best ones of the whole race. With this performance, we have found a sound basis on which to continue our development programme."

Ron Dennis: "In reality, there were two races today, the one in which Michael Schumacher competed and the other for the rest of the field. We quite clearly have a lot of work to do to improve the performance of the car. The positive aspect of today's race is our reliability which will give us important data for future improvement. Mika drove extremely well and deserved to be in the points. For sure we will give the drivers better cars for the next Grand Prix."