Webber rues loss of Friday testing

Jaguar's Mark Webber thinks the regulation changes introduced at the beginning of this season improved the spectacle of Formula One, but is disappointed that next year there will be no Friday testing at race weekends. Next season will also see the departure of Friday qualifying and the day will revert to two hour-long practice sessions as in previous years.

"I do think the new regulations helped to spice things up," Said Webber in an interview with the Jaguar website. "Qualifying on race fuel on Saturday shuffled up the grid on occasion and made the tactical decisions interesting, as nobody knew what other teams were up to. All in all it served to simplify things as well as cutting costs."

Jaguar, Minardi, Renault and Jordan were the four teams that took part in the Friday private test sessions but for 2004 those sessions have been scrapped. "I agree with what Pitchy (David Pitchforth) said, that cutting out the two hour Friday testing session next season won't be good for us because we definitely learned from the Friday mileage," Webber commented. "But we've got to adjust our programme now as it's all on the Saturday."

"To be honest, the Friday qualifying session was a bit of a non-event in many ways because the guys who went out first got hammered by a dirty track and we were often flattered by running later."

Webber scored seventeen of Jaguar's eighteen points in 2003 and it was the Hungarian Grand Prix at the end of August that was the highlight of the season for the Australian.

"I was third in both qualifying sessions and we finished sixth in the race really off our own bat," Webber said about the race in Budapest. "Nobody retired in front of us and if they had we'd probably have had a shot at the podium but yes, Budapest was definitely a highlight."

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