San Marino GP: Jaguar Friday notes

Jaguar Racing had cause to be frustrated with the weather conditions in the Friday Free Practice sessions before qualifying for the San Marino Grand Prix. The team completed a programme of set-up and tyre evaluations as a very rainy start in session one turned into slightly dryer conditions for session two - thereby allowing some drivers to try intermediate tyres. Eddie Irvine rode the unforgiving kerbing of the Imola chicanes to put his Jaguar R3 in 13th position while team mate Pedro de la Rosa was only three tenths behind him in 16th place. There seems to be no let up in the wet weather conditions and the team is preparing for what could be a wet San Marino Grand Prix.

Niki Lauda, Team Principal

"We ran our normal Friday programme of working on set-up and tyre choice. The problem, however, is that we are only allowed seven sets of wet tyres over the whole weekend and this includes intermediates. Should the whole weekend prove to be wet, one must consider very carefully the amount of wet tyres used in Free Practice and Warm-up sessions so that you don't run out. Today, for example, we managed to achieve some work, but we are mindful of the fact that we must preserve some tyres for the remainder of what looks like a wet weekend. We still have work to get through before qualifying and let's at least hope that tomorrow's morning sessions are not blessed with yet more rain."

Eddie Irvine

"We tried different set-ups and concentrated on evaluating the wet compounds at our disposal. We are, however, in a difficult position because of the tyre regulations that prevent us from using more than seven wet sets over the course of the whole weekend. Nonetheless, we'll do the best we can with what we have. We have nothing new on the car for this weekend and I think we'll probably struggle in this race if the weather stays like this. We have some ideas to assess at next week's Silverstone test but, in the meantime, we'll have to get the most out of what we have."

Pedro de la Rosa

"In horrendous weather conditions like this, it highlights the need to re-address the regulations on the numbers of tyre sets we are permitted to use. If the whole weekend proves to be wet, we will not have enough wet tyres to get through our job list before race day. The grooved tyre regulation of having three sets available on a Friday should also be applied to the wets. Today, for example, we have been hanging around for fear of not wanting to waste a set of tyres. A total of seven wet sets also includes the intermediates and this isn't enough. If we had used three sets today, for example, that would leave us with a total of four to cover tomorrow's warm-up, qualifying and the race. The fans deserve to see more cars on the track and this regulation isn't conducive to achieving maximum mileage in wet conditions."

Eddie Irvine
Position: 13th Laps: 23
Best Time: 1:40:551
Chassis:R3.03

Pedro de la Rosa
Position: 16th Laps: 30
Best Time: 1:40:809
Chassis: R3-02

T-car: R3.01

-jaguar-