French GP - 30 June 1996
Red Bull Sauber Ford Press Release

It is difficult to know where to begin after all that happened to me and the Red Bull Sauber Ford team at the French Grand Prix. I did not know I had done anything to make Magny-Cours give me so much bad luck! From start to finish the whole weekend was riddled with problems, things never seemed to be getting any better and, in the end, I suppose, I should not be at all surprised to find out that my car had been scrutineered after the race and found to infringe the regulations by 15 centimetres.... It was that kind of Grand Prix for me.

When we arrived, I had a feeling that we would have a few more problems at Magny-Cours than we would at Silverstone, but I never expected it turn out the way it did. I quite like the circuit, it is okay, but nothing really special. The two chicanes are pretty quick and the fast corner, but unfortunately any efforts there were always upset by understeer, and that is about it. Nice enough, but nothing to make a fuss about. It is in quite a pleasant part of France, very much in the country, but again not the kind of place you would deliberately go to for a holiday. A bit different, for example, from the Paul Ricard circuit at Le Castellet in the south.

I was reasonably optimistic at the start of the weekend, but we started with a set-up which I didn't think was as good as it could have been. I felt we needed to make some substantial changes and so we tried a number of things, particularly in the second half of Friday's practice sessions. Unfortunately, the car just seemed to get worse with each change we tried. I kept recalling that I had worried that we might struggle a bit - but I never thought it would be as bad as that. And no-one told me it was going to get worse!

I blistered every set of tyres I went out on and I had tremendous problems with the brakes.There was no temperature at all in the rear brakes and the balance was all wrong. I was effectively running with only front brakes. There had been a mechanical system failure and that meant the bias was broken and it was 80-20 towards the front. It was pretty serious and it pretty much ruined everything on the first two days.

We tried some set-up changes for Saturday and they did help improve the car, but the braking wrecked our hopes pretty much for qualifying. There was nothing I could do about it, except hope it would be fixed for Sunday when I had to start from 17th on the grid. I tried to be optimistic on Sunday morning, but during the warm-up I realised the car was even worse than before. I was way off the pace and was just about the slowest car out there. I just could not work it out.

We tried a few more changes, but obviously we were not sure about anything so in the opening stages of the race I had to work very hard just to say in touch with the other cars in front of me. It was pretty difficult and the car was sliding around a fair bit, which did nothing for the tyres. I had no option, really, but to concentrate on simply staying on the road and getting to the finish and that is how I approached it. At least I did get to the finish - even if it was in vain.

The strange thing was that the car unexpectedly ran much better quite suddenly for three laps on the second set of tyres. It was quicker and everything, but then it just reverted back and I knew there was something odd going on. I could not explain it, but it means we have got some work to do in testing at Monza if we are to get sorted out for Silverstone.

I really think we can be much better at Silverstone. Obviously, it is my true home race although I do live in Monaco nowadays and I want to do well. I will have a buzz, I am sure, and the fans are always great so I am looking forward to getting there. I just hope my luck changes quite a bit because until the last couple of races I felt we were going in the right direction.

The Ford engine, for example, is now really improving. We haven't had any serious reliability, problems recently and we are now working on its power and driveability like everyone in Formula One with their engines! If this works out and we can solve the car problems from France, I am sure things will soon be much more encouraging for everyone.

With thanks to Johnny, Red Bull Sauber Ford and Bob Herbert
This page prepared 4 July 1996. All rights reserved.