Ferraris 'worse than expected'
Ferrari continued to struggle at the new Istanbul circuit with Rubens Barrichello qualifying a lowly eleventh and Michael Schumacher suffering from a spin at turn nine to qualify seventeenth.
"We were ready for a difficult qualifying session, but the result was worse than we had expected," said team chief Jean Todt. "Michael spun in the second sector and did not complete his timed lap, while Rubens could do no better than eleventh. The main problem we have had this weekend is the one we have been carrying around since the start of the season, namely a considerable lack of grip, which makes itself most felt in qualifying. Given the situation, we will now change the engine in Michael's car. We can expect a tough race tomorrow and in many ways it will be a step into the unknown, from reliability to tyre wear. Honestly, I think the most we can hope for is to get our cars home in the points."
Rubens Barrichello commented, "Even though we adopted a conservative approach to qualifying, I was fighting with a lack of grip from the car. I am confident the tyres will be good for the race, however, in qualifying we had some graining issues, which cost me time in the final sector where I had too much understeer. My lap was on the limit of what I could do and for tomorrow I think eleventh place means I can have a good race especially as the car seems to perform better when the tyres are worn than when they are completely new. It's a shame for Michael that he went off."
Michael Schumacher added, "We have been uncompetitive all weekend so far, therefore I had not expected to qualify very well: maybe around seventh place, which would not have been too bad for tomorrow's race. Even though we should really be looking for race wins, we could at least have been fighting for points. But, I went off the track and this is the result. We had expected Turn 9 to be difficult as the wind had picked up and I thought I had taken this into account, but obviously not enough. In the race, all I can do is push hard and try and do my best. It is still important for us to do as well as possible here, to help our chances in qualifying at Monza. After our performance in Hockenheim and Budapest, this weekend is clearly a step backwards."
Technical chief Ross Brawn concluded, "After our performance this morning, we adopted a more conservative strategy. Even so, Rubens was unable to lap as quickly as we had expected. I think Michael might just have scraped into a top six position if he had not gone off, which with the fuel load he was carrying and an expected consistent performance in the race, could have been a good place to be. The track conditions did not change very much from the morning, but there was a lot of dust on the track from people going off all over the place."
