Malaysian GP: BAR race notes

2002 Malaysian Grand Prix, Kuala Lumpur 15-17 March

Jacques Villeneuve

"We finished the race, but that's the only positive thing we can take away from today. I had no grip at all and then I started having problems with the steering. Clearly, there are things that need to be addressed if we are going to improve. We're not expecting anything new until Imola now so we have to look forward to what those developments bring."

Olivier Panis

"I made a fantastic start and was behind Jacques after the first corner. I was on the same strategy as him and I think if I had finished the race we could have brought both cars home in the top 10. Unfortunately, I had the same clutch bearing problem as this morning and I had to stop. We have to keep our focus now and continue to work hard for Brazil. That is certainly my intention when we test next week in Barcelona."

David Richards, Team Principal

"Both drivers and all the team put in an enormous effort over the weekend, but our problems were there for everyone to see. Despite the fact that Jacques finished 8th, we very clearly have an enormous mountain to climb and we won't achieve our goals without some radical changes."

Malcolm Oastler, Engineering Director

"We had a few problems with Jacques' car and we had to compromise our performance a little to guard against the problem we experienced with Olivier's car. Then we encountered a problem with the steering as well. Jacques drove like a hero to keep the car going, and to keep pushing for the points, but 8th was the best we could do. Unfortunately for Olivier, we had a recurrence of the clutch bearing problem we suffered with this morning. We need to look at the data now and use next week's test to resolve the reliability issues and lift the performance of the car to an acceptable level."

Driver Chassis

Jacques Villeneuve Position: 8th
Best time: 1:42.373
Chassis: BAR004/03

Olivier Panis Position: DNF
Best time: 1:43.567
Chassis: BAR004/04

T-Car: BAR004/02

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