Japanese GP Ferrari Friday notes

Michael Schumacher
"I like this circuit very much as it has several really good corners. The modifications which have been made to some parts of the track seem good as we now have more run-off area in some sections. I cannot say much about the new chassis, as it is the only car I have driven today, so I have nothing to compare it with. But it seems fine. The two types of tyre on offer from Bridgestone are very similar, but I think we have an idea which way to go. The competition between Bridgestone and the other brand of tyre seems very close, so it will be interesting to see who is on top tomorrow afternoon."

Rubens Barrichello
"I am not concerned about my position or the time gap to the front runners, as it is easy to do a good time here, running with a light fuel load. Today's times don't matter and I am still confident for both tomorrow's qualifying and Sunday afternoon. I found the car a bit difficult to drive today and I had some problems with braking. Now we will try and find a solution to that in time for the rest of the weekend."

Jean Todt
"It's been another normal Friday, during which we worked on tyre choice for qualifying and the race and on finding the best set-up for Sunday afternoon. Both drivers used the three sets of tyres available to them today. I am sure the final qualifying result will look different to today's time sheet."

Ross Brawn
"We did enough laps to get a tyre comparison done and we have enough information to have a good idea what we need to run. Rubens had a couple of small problems this afternoon, which we managed to fix. This track is hyper-sensitive to fuel load, which is you see a big gap between cars running a low load and those running more. But I think we are in good shape for tomorrow and the cars are handling quite well."

Chassis
Schumacher: F2001-214
Barrichello: F2001-206