Italian GP Friday BAR notes

There was very much an "end-of-term" feel about the Monza paddock today as the Formula One teams assembled for the final European round of the 2000 World Championship season. After a very productive pre-race test at the Monza circuit last week, Lucky Strike Reynard BAR Honda adopted a conservative approach to the first day of practise for this Sunday's Italian Grand Prix. Drivers Jacques Villeneuve and Ricardo Zonta spent Friday's two one-hour sessions methodically carrying out chassis set-up work that will hopefully pay dividends later in the weekend. This race is a very significant one for British American Racing's technical partner and engine supplier, Honda, which will take its 200th Grand Prix start on Sunday. In recognition of that milestone, BAR Managing Director, Craig Pollock, this afternoon presented Honda Racing Development President, Shoichi Tanaka, with a superbly detailed model of this year's BAR Honda 002. Jacques Villeneuve:
"We were quick here in testing, but it doesn't look too good today. There have been other races, though, where we didn't look so good on Friday and then we were okay for the rest of the weekend, so we'll wait until tomorrow before we draw any conclusions. I have no idea where we'll qualify. Every race where there has been testing prior to a Grand Prix, people seem to have been running low fuel loads on Friday, so it's very difficult to know exactly where we are right now." Ricardo Zonta:
"Initially, I had heavy understeer in the middle of corners and the first issue was to try to sort that out. We tried many things, but didn't really find a good solution. Now I hope my engineer, Dave Lloyd, and I can sort out a solution overnight and we can make good progress tomorrow." David Lloyd (Race engineer):
"We're not as quick as we would have liked to be today, and we have got a bit of work to do overnight. We improved the car generally today, and also picked up some useful information about the tyres. We have carried out a considerable amount of simulation work at Brackley since the Monza test last week, and hopefully, that will assist us to improve the car. Today's times, though, don't really mean a great deal. We'll have a much better idea of where we are by the end of practise tomorrow."