Formula 1
San Marino GP: Minardi Friday practice notes
It took late nights, long hours and unremitting determination, but the pay-off for the Minardi F1 Team came at 1102hrs today, when the first of the Faenza squad's new Minardi Cosworth PS05 chassis, with Christijan Albers at the wheel, took to ...
Published: Apr 23, 2005, 4:58 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
It took late nights, long hours and unremitting determination, but the pay-off for the Minardi F1 Team came at 1102hrs today, when the first of the Faenza squad's new Minardi Cosworth PS05 chassis, with Christijan Albers at the wheel, took to Imola's Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari track for its initial Formula One practice session.
The car of Patrick Friesacher followed three minutes later, and both cars then ran without any major technical issues during the morning session. Unfortunately, Albers' car was sidelined in the afternoon after a wiring problem developed at the beginning of the session, but Friesacher continued at uninterrupted pace with his technical programme.
The team has much to learn about the behaviour of the latest Minardi, and many aspects of the car have yet to be optimised, but at the conclusion of today, both drivers had made quantifiable progress in terms of developing an appropriate chassis set-up to cope with the demands of the Imola circuit.
Patrick Friesacher:
"In general, I'm happy with the work we've done today. We need to find more grip, improve the braking and increase the gearbox shift speed, but overall, we've had a positive day. Now we just need to work on the areas we've identified."
"There's clearly a lot of potential in the PS05, and I particularly want to thank the guys, who worked all night to get my car ready for today. You can see they are a little bit tired, and I would like to be able to give something back to them this weekend for all their work."
Christijan Albers:
"It was a shame we couldn't get out in the second session, because we made quite a lot of changes to the car between the morning and afternoon sessions but weren't able to assess the effect they had. I'm particularly disappointed for the guys, who have just been working so hard."
"I think the source of this afternoon's problem will turn out to be relatively minor, though, and I have great confidence about the potential for the PS05. Now we just have to work on developing it, and fining a good set-up for this weekend."
Paul Stoddart, Team Principal, Minardi Cosworth:
"After a productive first session that saw both cars run virtually faultlessly, the second session proved there is no substitute for testing. A wiring problem put paid to Christijan's session, and while Patrick got all but one of his planned runs in, today was clearly all about beginning to understand the new car."
"Overall, the whole team is really impressed with the PS05, which appears to have enormous potential. I'm proud of the job done by the whole team, but particularly the relentless effort by the mechanics to get the cars on track today. Well done!"
PATRICK FRIESACHER
Chassis: PS05/02
Best lap: 1 min 26.620 secs
Position: 23rd
CHRISTIJAN ALBERS
Chassis: PS05/01
Best lap: 1 min 27.353 secs (first session)
-minardi-
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article San Marino GP: BAR Friday practice notes
Next article San Marino GP: Jordan Friday practice notes
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Christijan Albers
Post-race rumours rock Monza paddock
Formula 1
Formula 1
Post-race rumours rock Monza paddock
Fernandes happy to have sold Caterham
Formula 1
Formula 1
Fernandes happy to have sold Caterham
Merhi waiting on F1 license for Monza debut
Formula 1
Formula 1
Italian GP
Merhi waiting on F1 license for Monza debut
More from
Ferrari
The six drivers doing double duty in Portimao GTWCE and Barcelona WEC this weekend
WEC
WEC
Barcelona
12 h
The six drivers doing double duty in Portimao GTWCE and Barcelona WEC this weekend
Fred Vasseur "not sure" if Red Bull is currently F1's best team
Formula 1
Formula 1
Singapore GP
Fred Vasseur "not sure" if Red Bull is currently F1's best team
Latest news
Spire, Chris Gabehart reject Joe Gibbs Racing premise on deleted texts
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Charlotte II
1 h
Spire, Chris Gabehart reject Joe Gibbs Racing premise on deleted texts
Ricky Stenhouse explains his side of Michael McDowell conflict
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Charlotte II
5 h
Ricky Stenhouse explains his side of Michael McDowell conflict
Barnes: Why IndyCar’s updated licensing system fails its own integrity test
IndyCar
Indy IndyCar 6 h
Barnes: Why IndyCar’s updated licensing system fails its own integrity test
Why NASCAR is not penalizing Stenhouse, McDowell for post-race theatrics
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Charlotte II
7 h
Why NASCAR is not penalizing Stenhouse, McDowell for post-race theatrics
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe