Nürburgring; Friday free practice sessions

Lease

4.3 seconds off THE pace. The team must be stoked with this car.

Minardus

So, why was Pat almost 2 sec behind Albers ?????

MinardiSquad

Its 1 second..
But Albers was also 0.8 seconds faster in Spain,San Marino,Bahrain, Friesacher did great in Monaco but it seems that Albers is back on track like he did before Monaco.
Let's see if Patrick can be closer in Quali and maybe faster.
It don't suprise me that Albers is much quicker.

Ger

Bit dissapointing in qualifing. Hopefully Albers has a heavy fuel load.

MinardiSquad

Good laptimes both drivers;)
Albers is full loaded 1 stop( i think kartikeyan too)
, Patrick and Monteiro 2 stop.

Petroltorque

There's no way Albers is fueled for only one stop the tyres won't take it. The reaction on the Minardi pit wall was not great regarding Albers' lap . Tiley was shaking his head.
Whatabout that lap of Heidfeld's. Monster or what? Webber looked ragged in contrast to the smoothness of Heidfeld.
Webber's a good driver. No doubting it. But the enemy of good is Better. Thats what he's encountering now in Heidfeld!

Minardus

Quick Nick!!!!!!!!
He's the next best thing to a Minardi driver: he drove dogs from Prost and Jordan. He got the "wildcard" for the Williams seat this year and people are finally noticing him!!

Good to see we are mixing it a bit with the Jordans.
17.Monteiro
18.Friesacher
19.KKeyan
20.Albers
It could have been worse.
Let's hope for a good race with both our cars finishing!

Petroltorque

PS, I think we stick a fork in Alonso now. He's just about done!

Minardus

I suspect Alonso to be heavy on fuel and M$ as well!!!!

Btw, From TOMS:

Europe G.P. - Qualifying

ON THE RIGHT TRACK

NURBURGRING, GERMANY, May 28, 2005

The opening day of the European Grand Prix weekend at the Nurburgring did not run as smoothly as Minardi F1 Team personnel might have hoped, but a significant overnight effort by technicians and mechanics most definitely put the situation back on track today. Christijan Albers and Patrick Friesacher both enjoyed trouble-free practice sessions on Saturday, before consolidating the progress made with solid performances in the afternoon qualifying session. Both drivers were at something of a disadvantage in qualifying, as their cars were carrying heavy fuel loads, but nonetheless, a smooth lap from Friesacher saw him “splitting” the two Jordan entries on the timing screens, while Albers completed his run less than three-tenths of a second off the pace of his team mate.

PATRICK FRIESACHER
Position: 18
Time: 1 min 35.954 secs Chassis: PS05/02
“Generally, I was quite happy with my lap. We were struggling a little bit this morning with one or two small problems on the car, but we made some changes, which enabled me to find a good balance. I think we’re in a good position for tomorrow’s race”.

CHRISTIJAN ALBERS
Position: 20
Time: 1 min 36.239 secs Chassis: PS05/01
“The fuel load we were carrying this afternoon meant the car had a little bit more understeer than I would have liked for the qualifying run. As a result, I ran wide in one spot and lost a little bit of time there. Even so, it was not a bad run, and I think we have a good strategy for tomorrow. We should have a good pace in the race”.

siriwan

Webber's a good driver. No doubting it. But the enemy of good is Better. Thats what he's encountering now in Heidfeld!

I'm not sure about that. In Monaco Webber finished behind Heidfeld just because the team's pit strategy, and i need more than a few races to judge a pilot's quality. Heidfeld has been surpassed by almost all of the teammates he has had, and i guess he's in Williams because he's German; there are pilots out there who deserve the place. Heidfeld was a Mercedes pilot and one of the brightest young stars in F3000 but since then he hasn't shown true quality.

IMO Williams wanted to impress in Nurburgring; BMW has power and wanted to cause a good impression in Germany, so they must be low of fuel. I think Webber is a better driver, but only time will tell.

Minardus

Don't forget that when Sauber had Nick and Kimi, that the only driver that reached the podium was Nick.

Petroltorque

Heidfeld surpassed by all the team mates he's had? I can think of only one. Alesi, who'd spent a decade in the sport. In Heidfeld's rookie year he was handed a shitbox.
Its clear to a blind mans dog that Heidfeld is a talent.

siriwan

Don't forget that when Sauber had Nick and Kimi, that the only driver that reached the podium was Nick.

For me Kimi had a better season overall counting on that it was his rookie season and he only had spent half a season racing after his karting days, he was too raw but demonstrated he had talent, that's the reason why McLaren picked him and not Heidfeld despite Heidfeld was a Mercedes driver.

siriwan

Webber has won Heidfeld in qualifying 5 times, Heidfeld 2. In the races each one has finished ahead of the other 3 times. That's why saying that Webber is good but Heidfeld is better surprised me.

MinardiP1

Ignore Petrol, siriwan. He's got some kind of vendetta against Webber for some reason so it would take Webber winning about 6 races in succession to gain any real kudos from him. :rolleyes:

Great lap from both Williams drivers - they are really pushing each other along. :)

As for our boys: hard to judge. grandprix.com has given us a bit of a boost with this comment.

The two Minardis are now faster than the Jordans and the gap between Minardi and Sauber is smaller than it has been for years.

Thanks Joe. ;)

Fox_Mulder

What I really like about Heidfeld is his attitude - he just shuts up and drives. Let's see if Webber can finally understand that's the way to go and get his priorities straight after being overshadowed by his team-mate once again.

MinardiP1

Unlike TDW, or course. :rolleyes:

I love robots like Kimi and Nick too. Perish the thought that someone would have a personality and be good with the media. ;)

Clown

The two Minardis are now faster than the Jordans and the gap between Minardi and Sauber is smaller than it has been for years.

:woot:

But we must remember the Jacks factor :hehe:

Fox_Mulder

The difference with Jos is that most of the time he was able to back his big mouth up on track. Webber has only made a clown out of himself with that "Nick just sits there" comment.
Oh and Heidfeld does have a great personality and sense of humour. I especially loved his response to Webber's accusations :hehe:

MinardiP1

That 'Nick just sits there' thing wasn't exactly reported widely - the only 'big' F1 site to cover it was Pitpass. ITV and grandprix.com didn't even report it, so you don't think that maybe it could have been a misquote?

btw, what was Heidfeld's response, if you are not referring to the pole postion as being the response?

Jos couldn't back his big mouth up if he had an 'electrified back-it-up machine'. :rolleyes:

For all the Webber-haters, I say this: look at the points come the end of the season, and then we'll talk. Webber will be ahead by a comfortable margin.

Fox_Mulder

I don't think it was a misquote, even Atlas and some Australian media were reporting it.
As for Heidfeld's response I thought it was mentioned on this site. He was interviewed in a German radio before Monaco I think, and when asked about what challenges there are and what the race strategy was going to be in the race he laughed and said he was just "going to sit there" :hehe:
Of course I think Heidfeld will be the better of the two after Shanghai but we'll see. If Webber has more points I will be the first to say I was wrong.

TheDriver

Jos is that most of the time he was able to back his big mouth up on track.

!

Webber has only made a clown out of himself with that "Nick just sits there" comment.

Well, if you look at Monaco for example, Webber was well ahead of Nick till both of them got stuck behind Alonso. While Nick is obviously a talented driver, I expect Webber to prove himself as the superior of the two.

Williams should be happy though, their lineup is among the best in the series. If the car is OK, they deliver.

Fox_Mulder

Actually it was Heidfeld who gave Webber some lessons on how to overtake properly at both Imola and Monaco!
Of course there is no doubt they're a great line-up together. What I mean is that I just hope another Ralf full of excuses is not bestowed upon us.

theweatherman

MinardiSquad how can you be dissapointed with Patrick?
He is out qualifying Albers 5-2. So in what way is he slower??

salvo

I'm glad for Heidfeld, he's getting what he deserves.
I'm sure Webber wasn't happy when he knew Nick was getting williams' seat. Unfortunately the german will leave his place to button soon, I hope he'll find another good place.

Minardi, not too bad.
Glad to know that Albers is full to have only one stop, MinardiSquad told us all this interesting detail about his idol:hehe: We'll see tomorrow, but actually today it looked like Albers was not that brilliant.

Anyway, we're there struggling with jordan, that's what we were hoping. And we're not that far from Sauber and RBR.

MinardiP1

I'm sure Webber wasn't happy when he knew Nick was getting williams' seat.

Oh come on now salvo - you must know your recent F1 better than that. :rolleyes:

Webber publicly lobbied for Heidfeld to get the seat, much to FW's chagrin. Mark got sick of having underdone teammates and I tell you he would absolutley relish having someone as strong as Nick in the other seat - it would make him work harder and ultimately make him a better driver.

If he wanted a lackey, why wouldn't he have been pushing for Pizzonia?

Petroltorque

P1 get with the program. I was the one touting webber against Young, Pizzonia and Wilson. Fact is now Heidfeld is the better allround driver both interms of Race craft and technical input. Just because someone disagrees with you does not mean they have some vendetta.

MCSF

I'm backing P torque - and my memory is good.

TasM

This is a Minardi forum right???

I got your back P1. Webber always wanted a strong team mate and he did push for Nick. They have both done well this year, but saying Nick is a better or beating his teammate is premature to say the least!

TasM

Oh, almost forgot! I am gald to see that we split the Jordans and we are running 'heavy'. We may actually get coverage during the race when we scrap for postions!