Formula One: Stewart-Ford Racing News, Italian Grand Prix Free Practice
11 September 1999
Rubens Barrichello finished today's Free Practice for Sunday's Italian Grand Prix in 11th place. Team mate Johnny Herbert was 12th.
RUBENS BARRICHELLO Car No.16 (SF3-04)
Time: 1:25.499 Position:11th 37 laps
Are you pleased with 11th place?
'Although I'm down the time sheets a bit, I'm happy with the way the car feels at the moment. I think there are lot of people playing with fuel loads. I would take Hakkinen's time (1:25.103) as the real measure of my position relative to everyone else. Assuming he is on a similar fuel load, and I believe he is, I am only three tenths behind his time.'
What was your programme for today?
'We went through the normal Friday set-up routine, a few tweaks here and there to improve the aerodynamic efficiency and the ride of the car over the kerbs. The overall balance of the car is a lot better than it was at the test last week. I'm sure there is more to come tomorrow.'
JOHNNY HERBERT Car No.17 (SF3-05)
Time: 1:25.511 Position: 12th 37 laps
Are you satisfied with the session?
'To be honest I thought I could be higher up. We proved last week in the test that the car can work well at Monza. I was reasonably happy with the morning session but I lost the balance of the car towards the end. I can't put it down to any set-up change I made, it was more due to the track conditions which is a little mystifying.'
Where can you improve the car?
'We are losing time with a little instability under braking, particularly on initial entry to the corners, so that's an area we can work on. Being able to brake deeper going in is very important at Monza but you have to strike the right brake balance with the car.'
PAUL STEWART, Stewart-Ford Chief Operating Officer
'We probably didn't make as much impression as we expected today. A lot of our work centred on improving the groundwork we laid at last week's test. We had a trouble-free day so from that perspective it was an encouraging start to the race weekend. Obviously we still need to find some improvement in the performance of the car before qualifying'
MARTIN WHITAKER, Director, Ford Racing, Europe
'We covered a lot of kilometres today and experienced no problems while we were working on optimising the package for the race. Both cars were running Series 3 engines and fresh Series 4 engines will be fitted for tomorrow.'
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