US GP Bar Friday notes

FREE PRACTICE - Friday 28 September

Driver                  Chassis

Jacques Villeneuve     003/08

Olivier Panis          003/04

T-Car                  003/05

Olivier Panis Position: 15th Best time: 1:14.368 (52 laps)
"Today was the first time I have driven here at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and it was a lot of fun. I learned the track quite quickly and because of that I have been able to make steady progress with the engineers throughout today's sessions. I feel quite comfortable at this stage but we haven't found the perfect set-up yet. We will continue to work hard to find further improvement in tomorrow's practice session."

Jacques Villeneuve Position: 18th Best time: 1:14.999 (33 laps)
"A difficult day today. This morning, we struggled with low grip. Then this afternoon we had some problems with the power steering which prevented me from being able to drive the car. Olivier seems to be happier with his set-up so he is more competitive. We did make some progress towards the end but I wasn't able to do enough laps to improve significantly. Having said that, things didn't look too promising at the start in Monza and we were able to get a point in the race. Now we have to work hard to qualify well then keep our nose clean in the race."

David Lloyd, Race Engineer to Olivier Panis
"Obviously Olivier hasn't driven here before so much of the first session was dedicated to him learning the circuit. Fortunately, he got to grips with it quite quickly which is good. The circuit is normally quite dirty early on so the times were quite slow. Olivier reported that there wasn't very much grip at first - for that reason. This afternoon, we were able to focus more on tyre evaluation and I think we have made quite a lot of progress there. Tomorrow, we will be looking to fine-tune the set-up to get the most from our tyre choice."

Jock Clear, Race Engineer to Jacques Villeneuve
"We struggled in this morning's session having played with various set-up and tyre options. We changed a few things during the break but then we had a problem with the power steering so we lost 30 minutes of the session. In the remaining time we were able to improve the set-up and find the faster tyre option so things are starting to move in the right direction."

More News from British American Racing Honda
British American Racing Honda are delighted to welcome the world's biggest games developer EA Sports to the team this weekend in an exclusive partnership for the 2001 United States Grand Prix. The one-race sponsorship was born in the USA today when the BAR003s rolled out of the garage sporting a bespoke new livery. EA Sports is currently promoting its latest Formula One game for PCCD and PlayStation (2), F1 2001, which is officially licensed by Formula One Administration.

-BAR Honda-