2005 United States GP Practice Session 2

OSRN 1

The 2nd Friday Practice Session for Round 9 of the 2005 F1 season at Indianapolis.

Transcript

00:00:00Well, Formula One is the pinnacle of any road racing driver's career, and if you've been watching our coverage all

00:00:05morning, you no doubt saw Scott Speed testing for the Red Bull Racing Team.

00:00:09Scott's come a long way in a short time now, and with a little bit of luck, we'll see him

00:00:14on the Formula One grid next year, but let's first of all look back to see how Speed went on

00:00:19out here this morning.

00:00:22I've been dreaming about Formula One since I was 11 years old and driving go-karts. My father and I

00:00:28used to wake up every morning at 3 in the morning to watch the races since I was a little

00:00:33kid. It's always been the dream.

00:00:36It's easy to dream about driving in Formula One. The difficult part is actually making it happen. Scott Speed began

00:00:42his racing career, as most young drivers do, in go-karts.

00:00:46Even then, it was easy to spot his talent. After winning the Momo Grand Prix in 2000, then securing the

00:00:52kart Stars of Tomorrow championship in 2001, Speed raced in both the Barber Dodge and Star Mazda Series.

00:00:59Then in 2002, he received his big break, courtesy of a new driver's search program, headed up by former Indianapolis

00:01:07500 champion Danny Sullivan, and funded by Red Bull, the Austrian energy drink company.

00:01:13I first heard about the driver's search when I was karting and doing a bit of kart racing in America.

00:01:19I heard Danny Sullivan was running around the States, going to pick 16 drivers, and I was trying everything I

00:01:26could to make sure I got picked as the 16.

00:01:29Speed was selected in the first Red Bull driver's search, and he relocated to Europe in 2003, where he would

00:01:35participate in the British Formula Three series with backing from Red Bull.

00:01:40For 2004, Red Bull decided a change was needed, and that Speed would be driving in Formula Renault.

00:01:47It's a little bit different of a car, probably a little bit of a step down, but it's just as

00:01:51a competitive series, and I think proving yourself well here is the same as proving yourself well in that bridge.

00:01:59Speed showed his skill and maturity in Formula Renault almost immediately.

00:02:03Following seven pole positions and ten victories, he clinched the 2004 Euro Series Championship with two rounds remaining.

00:02:12In the process, he became the first American to win a Junior Formula Championship in Europe.

00:02:17He then followed up the Euro Series Championship by winning the German Formula Renault title as well.

00:02:23After his successful campaign in 2004, Speed was quickly signed up by iSport International to drive in the new GP2

00:02:31Series for 2005.

00:02:33This is my first year in a F1 Real Feeder Series that races with Formula One on the weekends, and

00:02:38so it feels good to be a part of a new championship with new technology.

00:02:42Speed was fast right out of the box and secured the number one by being the quickest driver in a

00:02:47free test session held at Paul Ricard in France.

00:02:49Then in March, the newest Formula One team, Red Bull Racing, gave Speed an opportunity to test their Formula One

00:02:55car in Barcelona at the Circuit de Catalunya.

00:02:59Yeah, obviously when I heard the news of Red Bull Racing getting in a Formula One team, it's great.

00:03:04It automatically creates a door for us and, you know, makes us feel like things are coming together.

00:03:09It was completely unreachable at one point in my life.

00:03:13It was a goal that I didn't think no way could come true.

00:03:16Since then, Speed has excelled in the GP2 Championship.

00:03:19Thus far, he has scored three podium finishes, one pole, and he currently lies second in the Drivers' Championship.

00:03:26Last week, Speed became the first American since Michael Andretti in 1993 to participate in a Formula One weekend

00:03:32when he served as Red Bull's Friday test driver in Montreal.

00:03:36Well, the Red Bull driver's search program worked out, I mean, almost to the full extent.

00:03:41The goal is to be a Formula One world champion, and below that's to drive a Formula One car.

00:03:45And we've accomplished quite a bit in the last three years, and I'm very happy to say now that I'm

00:03:51a driven Formula One car.

00:03:55And a very relaxed, Scott Speed, enjoying the moment here at India.

00:03:59Historic moment for you, Scott.

00:04:01Can you feel the enormity of it, or is it just another race day?

00:04:05Yeah, no, for sure it's just something special here.

00:04:07I mean, I'll never forget pulling out of the garage into the practice, and there's a big Scott Speed banner

00:04:13out on the grandstands.

00:04:15I mean, it's a great atmosphere here, and to be back in America and to be driving a Formula One

00:04:20car here is incredible.

00:04:21Scott, it seems like only yesterday that Maria Giannacci was phoning to say she'd finally found a sponsor for that

00:04:27young driver program

00:04:28she'd been working on for so long, and time has passed so quickly.

00:04:31And Formula Renault, tell us what it was like going to Europe as a young American,

00:04:35because that's what, of course, a lot of young Americans do not do.

00:04:38They race here for perhaps too long, but you took that plunge.

00:04:40Yeah, I was very lucky to have the opportunity to go to Europe.

00:04:44I think to reach Formula One, it's definitely something you've got to do.

00:04:47The competition over there is incredible, and it's really the school and the proving ground you have to go through.

00:04:54For me, the three years, when I look back on it, it's really gone by quite quickly,

00:04:58but I definitely remember at the beginning it was quite difficult to get used to Europe and the whole situation

00:05:03over there.

00:05:04And what's it like for you here now, today?

00:05:07Family here? Have you got mascots here? What's it like?

00:05:10I mean, do you feel incredibly tense about the thing?

00:05:13Yeah, no, it's not so bad.

00:05:15It's great to be given the opportunity to do the Friday drive,

00:05:17because obviously there's a lot less pressure than if you had to qualify a race.

00:05:21But it's great to have my dad and my brother here to experience it all with me, and yeah, it's

00:05:26fantastic.

00:05:26And Barbara, too.

00:05:28And Barbara, for sure.

00:05:29Barbara, what sort of animal has this got, actually?

00:05:32She's my lucky sheep.

00:05:33Okay, so we've got a sheep and a bull here now.

00:05:35Exactly.

00:05:37What actually is the program going to be this afternoon?

00:05:39You've been out this morning.

00:05:40You did a very good job.

00:05:41You're right out there with Christian and David.

00:05:43What are you going to be working on this afternoon?

00:05:44Yeah, right now we're trying to make a tire choice.

00:05:47And we've got a couple of long runs planned in the afternoon and try to make a good decision.

00:05:52What is the car like here at Indy?

00:05:54Talking to Christian, it's not the easiest Formula One car in the world to drive around Indianapolis.

00:05:58You're having to trim it a lot to get that straight line speed.

00:06:01Yeah, exactly.

00:06:02You really have to trim it out a lot to get the speed down the straightaway.

00:06:05So the car moves around quite a bit in the infield.

00:06:08It's fun to drive, though.

00:06:10And you've got one of your buddies here, Haki Kovalainen, also from the GP2 series out here at Indy.

00:06:14Tell us a little bit about that series.

00:06:16You're lying second in the championship.

00:06:17You've had some good podium finishes there now.

00:06:19Yeah, well, the competition in GP2 is second to none in Europe right now.

00:06:23Unfortunately, the championship's had quite a bit of a slow start with all the technical niggles and naggles.

00:06:29But we're lucky to be in second at this point.

00:06:31But there was a big test last week, of course, I think in the south of France.

00:06:35And how did your team go there?

00:06:38Yeah, it was a bit unfortunate.

00:06:39It rained quite a lot.

00:06:40We got a few laps in dry.

00:06:42And, okay, we fared quite well like we normally do at Paul Ricard.

00:06:46Got a little bit of work done.

00:06:47So it's good progress.

00:06:49Young Americans out there now, there are a whole lot of them.

00:06:51Advice for them on how to follow in the footsteps of Scott Speed?

00:06:55Hey, just don't give up.

00:06:58If it's something that you really want and you're willing to sacrifice everything for it, then it can be yours.

00:07:03Scott, thank you very much.

00:07:04And I know I speak on behalf of all American race fans when I say very best of luck this

00:07:08afternoon.

00:07:09We want to see you back here, and we want to see you racing next time.

00:07:11Thank you very much.

00:07:12Thank you very much.

00:07:13Scott Speed.

00:07:15And thank you, Peter.

00:07:16And we are proud to say if you'd like to follow Scott Speed and his quest to make that final

00:07:20step up to Formula One,

00:07:22and Speed Channel is proud to tell you we will initiate coverage of the FIA GP2 Championship.

00:07:27That will begin during the French Formula One Grand Prix weekend, Sunday, the 3rd of July at 6.30 a

00:07:33.m. Eastern,

00:07:34taking us right up to the French Grand Prix at Manicourt here on Speed Channel.

00:07:39Stick around.

00:07:40More from Indianapolis when we return.

00:07:47Beautiful look at downtown Indianapolis.

00:07:50A short drive from the famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway,

00:07:53site of this weekend's ninth round of the Formula One World Championship,

00:07:57the U.S. Formula One Grand Prix, live here on Speed Channel.

00:08:00I'm Bob Varsh along with David Hobbs.

00:08:02David, just a few minutes now from the second one-hour session

00:08:05and the end of Scott Speed's travels over the last week.

00:08:08Consider, a week ago, he was driving the Friday car for Red Bull in Canada.

00:08:12Then he flew to Nice, France to test with his GP2 team.

00:08:15He comes back here to drive a Formula One car on home soil in front of his family.

00:08:20First American to do that since Eddie Cheever back in 1989.

00:08:24Well, it certainly is a busy week,

00:08:25and it wasn't like that when I did my first Formula One race,

00:08:27although the pressure was still there, and I did have to qualify them when I went down there.

00:08:30Unlike, as he said today, the pressure's not quite the same

00:08:33as not having to actually practice and then qualify for the race.

00:08:36But still and all, we're hoping that Scott Speed really does have some success

00:08:38and will join us next year as a regular driver.

00:08:41Absolutely.

00:08:41Now let's take a look at the highlights of this morning's action.

00:08:44The first one-hour practice for the cars

00:08:46and their first look at the Speedway this year.

00:08:49There they are, rolling out for the first time.

00:08:53The track greets are people pretending to steer clear of going out too soon.

00:08:57This is Pedro De La Rosa in the McLaren Friday car.

00:09:00Looked a bit twitchy there on his opening lap,

00:09:02and then look at this.

00:09:03The throttle sensor broke out after only one lap,

00:09:06but he set a time of 1 minute 12.9 and change

00:09:08that would hang up for like 45 minutes.

00:09:11Here is Scott Speed also scrapping for traction in the Red Bull car

00:09:15as his left thumb goes to the radio.

00:09:16Well, what he said, you know, about feathering the car out for those long straights,

00:09:19twitching on the infield, which it was.

00:09:21Ricardo Zonta with another of the stories of the morning ride height.

00:09:24Look at that wooden plank under the car being mashed.

00:09:27Absolutely.

00:09:27He ended up second in the day.

00:09:28This is Noreen Karthikeyan, the Indian driver.

00:09:31And he had a few moments on the off,

00:09:33but he still ended up being the quickest of the Jordan drivers.

00:09:36This is turn six, goes into the gravel there,

00:09:38keeps his foot in it, doesn't let it bog down and comes out.

00:09:41As I say, he ends up quick Jordan driver.

00:09:43This is Christian Albers in the minority

00:09:45with Michael Schumacher following in the Ferrari.

00:09:48Who very judiciously hung back this a little bit.

00:09:51A little contretemps here between the Williams of Mark Webber

00:09:54and the man you ride with, David Coulthard.

00:09:56David Coulthard said he was going to be mentioning that later on in the drivers' meeting.

00:10:00And here is Jacques Villeneuve, former Indy 500 winner and Formula One world champion,

00:10:05also losing out in the battle for traction.

00:10:07Checking out the gravel trap.

00:10:09This is into turn one.

00:10:09Look at this Rubens Barrichello under pressure.

00:10:11It's Couto Nusato.

00:10:12Actually goes off the road and across the grass.

00:10:15Juan Pablo Montoya, however.

00:10:17And this is rare for one of the varsity, the race drivers,

00:10:20to wind up as the fastest man in the morning session on Friday.

00:10:24Usually the real legwork is left to the third drivers.

00:10:26Well, of course, that was Pedro de la Rosa's quest.

00:10:29Of course, his car broke down very early on.

00:10:31But Montoya did that in just two flying laps.

00:10:33So the McLarens are still looking very, very strong to me.

00:10:36Well, most of that sliding around was due to the teams coming up a little bit short

00:10:39on finding that delicate balance between aerodynamics and tire grip

00:10:43in order to get a good lap around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

00:10:47We'll see what they learned when they come back out for session two in a moment.

00:11:02We'll see you at the show.

00:11:10If you don't come, we'll never know.

00:11:13You stand off in the back.

00:11:16You still stand out while you're wearing black.

00:11:19We'll jump under the bus

00:11:23And ride around with all of us

00:11:26We'll go out on the town

00:11:29And light it up till we burn it down

00:11:33Burn it down

00:11:40Light it up till we burn it down

00:11:43No!

00:11:46No!

00:11:50No!

00:11:51No!

00:11:52Ohhhh!カ!

00:11:56No!

00:11:59No!

00:12:02No!

00:12:1417 July 2005, a beautiful early summer day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway

00:12:20as we prepare for the second of two one-hour free practice sessions

00:12:24to kick off round nine of the Formula One World Driving Championship for 2005,

00:12:29the United States Formula One Grand Prix at Indianapolis.

00:12:35Hello, everyone. I'm Bob Barsha.

00:12:37Still wondering what I did to offend the powers that be

00:12:40that have given me the voice that I have this weekend.

00:12:43But along to carry you through this next hour,

00:12:46Derek Daly and Peter Windsor will be in the pit lane

00:12:48and with me in our announced booth high above the world-famous Yard of Bricks

00:12:51that marks the start-finish line at Indy, David Hobbs and Steve Matchett.

00:12:56And there is young American Scott Speed from Manteca, California,

00:13:00preparing to take his Red Bull Cosworth back on track

00:13:03as the Friday test driver for the Red Bull team.

00:13:06And as he said, their big brief in this second hour of practice

00:13:09after the track's been cleaned up in that first hour,

00:13:11they've got to do some long runs to make a decision on tire

00:13:16for tomorrow's qualifying and the race on Sunday.

00:13:18The lights are green. The cars are on the track.

00:13:20Scott Speed has won the first on the track.

00:13:22Second behind Christian Albers.

00:13:24Now that was Patrick Friesacker, Albers' teammate.

00:13:29And there's Pedro De La Rosa out again after his glitz this morning

00:13:33with the throttle sensor that broke.

00:13:36That's De La Rosa just coming into view.

00:13:38Like most of the drivers, they leave the pit lane,

00:13:40cross under the flag stand, and then come to a full stop

00:13:44in order to check their traction control from a dead start down the pit lane.

00:13:51There's Nick Heidfeld.

00:13:53Picked up his first career Formula One pole two races ago,

00:13:57the European Grand Prix at the Nürburgring.

00:14:00And there is Jenson Button, who picked up his second career pole last week

00:14:06at the Canadian round of the World Championship.

00:14:09While the cars are coming up to speed,

00:14:11let's turn to our Porsche track map.

00:14:12David, tell us about this great racetrack.

00:14:14Well, it's just 2.6 miles long,

00:14:17which makes it the second shortest track after Monte Carlo.

00:14:20But, of course, what it does have,

00:14:22the features from turn 12 right back to turn 1,

00:14:25it's flat out the longest full throttle

00:14:28any course request in the championship.

00:14:31And, of course, turn 13 is the banked oval.

00:14:34Of course, it'll be turn 1 on the IndyCar,

00:14:36so they have to set these cars up somewhat differently

00:14:38to what they're not used to the banking.

00:14:40Great speed into turn 1, terrific overtaking opportunities.

00:14:432, 3, and 4 flow nicely.

00:14:456 is a tricky corner.

00:14:46We've already seen 3 or 4 people floundering around there today.

00:14:487 is important because it takes on to Holman Boulevard.

00:14:51More overtaking to turn 8.

00:14:52As you can see, 9 and 10 are really pretty Mickey Mouse corners.

00:14:56There's no doubt about it,

00:14:57but that's the way the golf course is.

00:14:58That's where it's got to be.

00:14:59And 11 is such an important corner

00:15:01because you've got to leg it out of there

00:15:03because you're going to be full throttle for 22 seconds.

00:15:06And here is Scott Speed.

00:15:08Now, Scott Speed's job,

00:15:10remembering that Red Bull car is the Ferrari driver,

00:15:12is to keep banging out those laps

00:15:14so that the team and the engineers

00:15:16can have a good idea this evening

00:15:18on which tyre compound they're going to choose for tomorrow.

00:15:21So, Scott Speed's performance,

00:15:23as far as the team is concerned,

00:15:25is not going to be on the fastest lap.

00:15:27The team aren't looking for that,

00:15:28and neither are the team managers

00:15:30up and down the pit lane

00:15:31who will be watching his performance.

00:15:32They want to see consistent laps being put down.

00:15:36He needs to use the tyre as well

00:15:38for the team's sake.

00:15:39He does not need to go out

00:15:40and set a blistering fast lap.

00:15:42Well, he doesn't have to do a bristling fast lap,

00:15:44but on the other hand,

00:15:45he has to keep the car going

00:15:46at a very respectable race speed,

00:15:49otherwise their tyre data will obviously be false.

00:15:52You know, he's going to move.

00:15:53Oh, and that's the suspension damage

00:15:54onto the left side of Zonta's car.

00:15:57Oh, there's their Friday driver.

00:15:59Well, you're exactly right, David.

00:16:01That's just what we're talking about.

00:16:02Yes, it's consistency of the drivers round here.

00:16:05Right there.

00:16:05And that's just what Toyota do not need

00:16:09from their Friday driver.

00:16:10Now, they're not going to get their tyre data from him,

00:16:12so now they're going to have to use their lead cars,

00:16:14Ralph Schumacher and Biano Trulli,

00:16:16to try and learn that data.

00:16:18Well, there's a lot of damage.

00:16:19We can't see it on that shock

00:16:21to the left rear, suspension damage.

00:16:23We haven't seen yet quite what caused that,

00:16:26whether he clouted something earlier on

00:16:28or if it was just a suspension collapse.

00:16:30I say just,

00:16:30that's, of course, a big mechanical malfunction,

00:16:33but I can't see any sign of damage.

00:16:34But let's see what it is.

00:16:35Here's the replay.

00:16:36Oh.

00:16:38Again, I didn't see it.

00:16:39He was coming at the top.

00:16:40Well, it was either a puncture

00:16:41or a suspension damage.

00:16:42The tyre is hanging off the rim.

00:16:46Right there.

00:16:46You can see it right there.

00:16:52Wow.

00:16:54Two.

00:16:55So,

00:16:57Toyota crew.

00:16:59Can't talk to him as he jumped out of the car,

00:17:00but that has not got there.

00:17:03After that, it's a good start.

00:17:04Not at all.

00:17:06Drops speed in front of Pedro de la Rosa,

00:17:08who is the Friday driver at four on the ground.

00:17:18Look at the way he's eating that Red Bull car up on the straight.

00:17:21Obviously, he's got the advantage of the draft,

00:17:23but even so, it looks significantly quicker.

00:17:26So, it's just three-tenths quicker than he was himself the last lap.

00:17:29He's down in the 14s, whereas this morning,

00:17:31his very first line lap was at 12.9.

00:17:34So, that would indicate he's got more fuel on board,

00:18:05maybe a different set of tyres.

00:18:07JR Honda is a good example of that with Anthony Davidson last year.

00:18:10Although he did a lot of the donkey work, as it were,

00:18:12right at the end of this session,

00:18:14they did allow him to go out with relatively light fuel,

00:18:16new set of tyres,

00:18:17and set what was perhaps the quickest lap time of the Grand Prix weekend.

00:18:21And that did Anthony a lot of good.

00:18:23A lot of people down the pit lane over a period of time

00:18:24started to realise that this guy was very quick.

00:18:27It was the same, for example, with Alexander Wurtz at Nürburgring.

00:18:30He was blisteringly quick right at the end of this session.

00:18:32And it'll be interesting to see, I think,

00:18:34whether Red Bull allow Scott to go out and do that,

00:18:38to have a time that might stand up as one of the quickest of the weekend,

00:18:41given the fact that he can do so much mileage now.

00:18:44Well, he's a Friday driver that's done a very quick time.

00:18:50And here's a driver that went out for one lap this morning,

00:18:53charged through the gravel,

00:18:54had to have his car redone.

00:18:55The winner last week in Montreal.

00:18:59Anthony Keeney-Reichel can keep it on the black shop for this afternoon.

00:19:03He's off from his teammate there, his Friday driver.

00:19:05But, of course, we don't know what team he's got in the way of fuel.

00:19:08He could have fully loadable fuel at the moment.

00:19:10Yeah, fuel loads, of course, will change it right, Dave.

00:19:13And, of course, as we're saying,

00:19:16seeing a lot of plank dust behind him, too.

00:19:17Well, you do get that there.

00:19:19It's very highly loaded, of course,

00:19:20because the banking will also help to push the car into the track.

00:19:22Good enough for P2 with a 14.082.

00:19:26That knocks Scott Speed's Red Bull time down to third.

00:19:30But that's okay.

00:19:31As we were saying, you know,

00:19:32you have to keep banging out the laps.

00:19:34Here's Zonta.

00:19:36Not the motor transport.

00:19:37He really wants to be driving as a passenger right now.

00:19:43One Pablo Montoya, who was fastest this morning in his McLaren Mercedes,

00:19:48sitting there, watching everybody else at the moment,

00:19:51looking at the times, just exactly the same as we are.

00:19:53Michael Schumacher's just driven out.

00:19:55So both Ferrari's are out.

00:19:58Of course, they don't have the advantage of a third driver.

00:20:00They've got to do all their tyre evaluation, fuel evaluation,

00:20:04and all their data collecting has to be done by the two drivers.

00:20:10We're having a close look at the MP420,

00:20:13the car we're looking at right now.

00:20:15It sat in the pit lane yesterday prior to going into the Weybridge

00:20:18for the mechanics to have their legality checked

00:20:21that they carry out themselves.

00:20:22We saw that little piece earlier on.

00:20:24All the teams are now not allowed to the sporting regulations

00:20:27to throw covers and shields over the cars.

00:20:31So there's a line of cars out in the pit lane there,

00:20:33the Ferrari, the McLaren, everything else.

00:20:35Raikkonen, look at that, very fast in the McLaren.

00:20:38But all the mechanics and engineers taking a great interest

00:20:41in the design of the MP420.

00:20:45This is De La Rosa locking up that left front there.

00:20:49Well, I should think they are taking a lot of interest in it.

00:20:5111-4 out of Raikkonen,

00:20:53now in only his second flying lap of the day.

00:20:57Good look at Pedro De La Rosa.

00:20:58Now you're on board with Rubens Botticello,

00:21:01who's had his share of ups and downs

00:21:03here at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

00:21:09Kimi Raikkonen has now become the first driver in the 11s,

00:21:13and not by teeny steps either.

00:21:16All the way down to an 11-4,

00:21:19which compares with last year's Friday fast time,

00:21:23111.3 by that man, Rubens Botticello in the Ferrari.

00:21:30I know you girls and guys that like to post on speedtv.com,

00:21:33the message boards on the technical board,

00:21:35you'll notice that those three mysterious little LEDs

00:21:38on the back face of the Ferrari steering wheel

00:21:40that we were debating some weeks ago on last year's car

00:21:43have made a return.

00:21:45When Ferrari launched the F2005 car,

00:21:47those LEDs, or whatever they are,

00:21:49were not on the car,

00:21:50they have made an appearance back in Canada.

00:21:55Rubens Botticello significantly slower than Kimi Raikkonen there.

00:22:00But of course, without having the third driver,

00:22:02these guys have to carry all the load.

00:22:04They might be testing Canada.

00:22:06Rubens Botticello spent the break from last weekend's race in Canada

00:22:09and the home of his Brazilian countryman,

00:22:11Tony Canaan of IRL IndyCar fame,

00:22:14down in the Miami area.

00:22:16Rubens and his wife, Silvana,

00:22:17are expecting in about two and a half months

00:22:19they're going to name their new boy, Fernando.

00:22:24Back live at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

00:22:26Looks like Felipe Massa has spun the Sauber.

00:22:31Ooh, as Mark Webber comes flying by.

00:22:34That's down in the turn one area.

00:22:35And there is the world champion, Michael Schumacher,

00:22:38a three-time winner here in Indianapolis for Ferrari.

00:22:41Quickly to the pit lane and Peter Windsor.

00:22:44Yes, I'm with Ricardo Zonta,

00:22:45who sadly his practice sessions come to a short end this afternoon.

00:22:49Ricardo, look like maybe a tire off the rim there,

00:22:52possibly some sort of failure.

00:22:53Yeah, it's possible.

00:22:54We don't know yet what's happening.

00:22:57We just know it's something from the back of the car.

00:23:00It was a flat spot.

00:23:02The tire was a big flat spot.

00:23:04We don't know if it was causing something in the circuit or not.

00:23:07We need to check.

00:23:09When you say there's a flat spot,

00:23:10you yourself didn't have to break hard or anything.

00:23:12You didn't cause the flat spot.

00:23:14Not really, but we need to check and see what's happening.

00:23:18How was it going until then?

00:23:20It was okay.

00:23:21The first session was very slippery.

00:23:23The track improving every run.

00:23:26Well, we have to go back because Ralph Schumacher has just had quite a big accident.

00:23:33Ralph Schumacher has stopped.

00:23:59So back to you guys.

00:23:59Well, it was very quick to get out of the car, but David, you're absolutely right.

00:24:03Very slow now to get over the pit wall.

00:24:06Steve, our fellows, I wonder, is there any relationship to this crash and what we saw happen to Ricardo?

00:24:12Absolutely.

00:24:12You would have to be wondering on those lines, wouldn't you?

00:24:16There you see the impact on the safer barriers, the collapsible walls.

00:24:23There's Dr. Gary Hartstein, an American trained in medicine in Europe.

00:24:27He has succeeded.

00:24:29Professor Sid Watkins as the Formula One chief medical officer.

00:24:35Ralph Schumacher certainly looks okay there, but I think Derek Daly brings up a very valid point.

00:24:40Is there something that's wrong with the Toyota here?

00:24:44Although this is not the sort of circuit that would normally bring out any sort of problems with suspension

00:24:48because there's a big load to do that banking.

00:24:51There's no doubt about it, but other than that, it's pretty smooth.

00:24:56Boy, it just snapped around on him.

00:24:58Did he bottom out there?

00:24:59Because there was a big cloud of yellow dust behind him first.

00:25:02I think, David, I did the go-karts.

00:25:05Well, when Derek was talking about that earlier on with the car bottoming out,

00:25:08we were seeing that earlier on.

00:25:10Remember how the Toyota in the first session was sitting very low under aerodynamic load?

00:25:14There was a cloud of smoke from the left rear.

00:25:16It looked like it locked up, but I'm wondering whether or not they are having problems with the car right

00:25:21there,

00:25:22just bottoming it out, being too low onto the track.

00:25:24Difficult to see from that shot, but certainly a left rear failure again as a result of some mechanical problem.

00:25:31And we're also faced with a problem here of a lot of shards of carbon fibre on the track now.

00:25:37The car is trailing bits and pieces.

00:25:38It goes down to the wall.

00:25:39That accident went on for a long way, and it's spread a lot of stuff on the track.

00:25:44So it's going to take some cleaning up.

00:25:45It's a half shaft.

00:25:46Boy, oh boy, yeah.

00:25:48Notice all the white at one end of it.

00:25:50I think that basically speared the track side wall.

00:25:54Well, either that, Bob, or the grease that they use is a very odd compound called Kluber grease.

00:26:00It's a very thick, jelly-like grease that they use on there that is very white in colour.

00:26:06So it may be the Kluber grease.

00:26:07As you say, it may well be the paint coming off the wall.

00:26:10I like your explanation better.

00:26:13Let's go to Derek Daly.

00:26:14I'm standing about four feet as they just back up the wrecker here, just having a look at how badly

00:26:21damaged this car is.

00:26:22Left side, as you can see, completely torn off.

00:26:24The monocoque is in remarkably good shape.

00:26:27The nose cone is broken.

00:26:30The wing on the underside of the nose cone has been ripped off also.

00:26:33But as I look down the side here, as they get the tow hook on to lift this thing up,

00:26:39the monocoque is largely intact, which, of course, is what the driver wants.

00:26:44Steve, you know from being around these for so many years, these monocoques are so strong when they're made of

00:26:49carbon fibre.

00:26:50They really become a survival cell.

00:26:52But most of all, they become reusable even after an incident like this.

00:26:57Yeah, they are designed, of course.

00:26:59Now, the cockpit is known by the FIA as the survival cell.

00:27:02They are impacted on the top.

00:27:04They have load tested on to the side.

00:27:06They have crushable structures.

00:27:08On the rear of the transmission is a crushable structure that the rear wing is mounted to in the event

00:27:12of a rear shunt, which, of course, is exactly what happened to Schumacher last year at that track.

00:27:18The nose cone itself, where the front wing is mounted to, is also a front crash structure.

00:27:23So all around the cockpit, there is a lot of protection built into these cars now.

00:27:27Now, each chassis, each chassis that the team built has to go a certain amount of load testing.

00:27:34It's difficult to say either the tyre or something broke on the car.

00:27:40I think we have quite a long break because there are plenty of debris on the track.

00:27:47Jack Villeneuve inquiring as to what happened to Ralf Schumacher.

00:27:52You know, when we take a closer look at that impact point on the wall, you'll see that the safer

00:27:57barrier was actually punctured.

00:27:59So I'll go back to my initial impression that I think the half shaft actually speared the wall.

00:28:05It may well be.

00:28:06Let's see if we can see it right here.

00:28:10All that stuff lying around, spreading across the track.

00:28:15Well, that initial impact, Bob, must have been the rim, whether or not the drive shaft came out there from

00:28:20the side.

00:28:23It's difficult to see from the front.

00:28:24It goes in with that left rear corner, doesn't it, is the major point of impact.

00:28:30But I wonder what, it does seem highly suspicious there, that plank, your plank does, the yellow plank does.

00:28:38That both Toyotas would have what looked like rear suspension failures within just a couple of laps of each other.

00:28:49Let's see whether or not we can see that quite a puff of smoke come off the car on the

00:28:54left rear suspension, right there.

00:28:57You just see it right there.

00:29:00There it is.

00:29:05I think the tyre's already down.

00:29:08I think we're seeing the same problem that we saw on the teammate's car.

00:29:13Is that because they start off with these very, very low pressures and let the heat be building up with

00:29:18the, as the laps unfold?

00:29:21Could well be, that's Zomtus' car.

00:29:25Good look at that legality plank along the bottom.

00:29:28There's the wreckage of Schumachers.

00:29:33Fellas, as you see them grab this car, notice that the wheels are still tied on.

00:29:39So the tethers that they used to stop these wheels flying off and potentially into the crowd, as we saw

00:29:46when Kimi Räikkönen's broke, it stayed attached to the McLaren.

00:29:50It's the only thing that still has these wheels attached to the left side of this Toyota.

00:29:55And the right side is remarkably clear and clean, so all the damage is down this left side.

00:30:03But whoever designed these tethers did a good job.

00:30:08Steve, Steve, sorry, can I just hold it for a second?

00:30:10I can just see the tyre, the left sidewall, Steve.

00:30:15The sidewall is actually cut out of the tyre.

00:30:18Yeah, it looks like there was a lot of damage onto that tyre.

00:30:20It's difficult to know what caused that.

00:30:22Now, we were talking earlier on about the crash structure on the back of the transmission.

00:30:28And this is what I'm talking about right here.

00:30:31This part of the transmission here, the very rear of the transmission, there would be a carbon cone bolted to

00:30:37that section right there.

00:30:38That sort of shape that the rear wing would be mounted on here.

00:30:42That's the carbon impact structure to prevent injury or help to prevent injury to the driver by absorbing the load,

00:30:49just as the front nose cone does as it backs into the pit, into the wall there.

00:30:54Wow.

00:30:55But a big, big impact again.

00:30:57And the mechanics quite right, and Villeneuve quite right, to be concerned what happened to the tyre.

00:31:02Because remember, guys, everybody using the same Michelin tyres within the Michelin family.

00:31:06And if they've had two Michelin failures, then there is great reason to be concerned.

00:31:11And Jano Thule, we saw, sitting in his car.

00:31:14He certainly must be wondering, am I sitting in the right place at this particular moment?

00:31:18So we are under the red flag.

00:31:21The clock is stopped.

00:31:22Your front runners in the second one-hour Friday practice, Kimi Räikkönen and Juan Pablo Montoya from McLaren.

00:31:31Welcome back.

00:31:32There is Ralph Schumacher on the right explaining to his Toyota team what happened moments ago to bring out the

00:31:37red flag

00:31:37when his Toyota snapped into a spin at one of the fastest and most difficult, stressful parts of the racetrack

00:31:48for the left rear corner of the car.

00:31:50Here's another look.

00:31:52You see him head into the corner, and then suddenly that burst as the wood panel at the bottom of

00:31:58the car

00:31:58rubs down on the racetrack and then smacks the trackside wall.

00:32:02To Derek Daly.

00:32:03I'm here with Richard Cregan, who's actually watching one of the replays here of Ralph Schumacher,

00:32:10trying to decide what happened here.

00:32:13Richard, I know you've seen this.

00:32:14You've seen some of the data.

00:32:15Do you know yet what might have happened, or do you know why it happened?

00:32:20No, at the moment, I mean, we're checking cross loads, tire pressures, things like that,

00:32:24because it doesn't look like it was a failure on the car itself.

00:32:28So we're trying to keep an open mind on it.

00:32:30We've also had Ricardo off as well, which looks like a similar issue.

00:32:35So we're just trying to tie up any loose ends at the moment and see exactly what happened before we

00:32:40comment.

00:32:40How easy, Richard, is it to go back, check the telemetry, and accurately pinpoint what might have happened?

00:32:47Well, it's pretty easy.

00:32:48I mean, we have the live telemetry all the time, so we're able to see exactly second by second.

00:32:54And, I mean, it's broken into milliseconds, so we can spread it out and see exactly what happened with all

00:33:00the loads on the car.

00:33:01Great.

00:33:01Richard, we'll be back to talk to you for that information.

00:33:04And, of course, these cars are on Michelin tires.

00:33:07Peter Windsor has more on that.

00:33:09Thank you, Derek.

00:33:10Yes, I'm with Pierre de Pasquier.

00:33:11He's head of Michelin's Formula One program.

00:33:14Pierre, too soon to draw conclusions.

00:33:17But it looks as if they're saying at Toyota that it wasn't actually a chassis problem there.

00:33:21Both of them were sudden failures of some sort.

00:33:23And there is some indication that the tires were losing air pressure very quickly.

00:33:28Well, if you do something to the tire, unfortunately, it loses the pressure very, very rapidly.

00:33:34We have no indication whatsoever for the time being.

00:33:36The only thing is that two tires on the left side are under pressure, at the constraint.

00:33:42We will need it sometimes.

00:33:44They need some time together with us to try to find out what happened.

00:33:49We know that there's a lot of tire evaluation taking place at the moment,

00:33:52but could you give us some idea of perhaps how many teams might be running the same sort of tires

00:33:57as Toyota at present?

00:33:59All of them.

00:34:01All of them running the same construction, the same compound?

00:34:04Except one.

00:34:05Which one?

00:34:07One of them don't use the same construction exactly, but there's no major difference anyway.

00:34:14So, in addition, those tires are almost new, so there's no fatigue, no nothing on them.

00:34:21So, after a half race or something like that, we could suspect something like that, but not at that stage.

00:34:27Okay.

00:34:28Well, no doubt we'll see a little bit further down the road.

00:34:29Thank you very much indeed, Pierre.

00:34:31Okay.

00:34:32And just to add a little bit of what they were talking about down in the Toyota garage with the

00:34:36telemetry

00:34:36and splitting the lap time down into milliseconds,

00:34:39it would be very easy for the engineers to pinpoint exactly what failed on the car,

00:34:43whether or not it was a suspension failure on the car,

00:34:46or whether or not it was a tire deflation on the car,

00:34:49because each corner of the car, the pushrods where the load is carried down into the axle corner,

00:34:53is fitted with a load sensor that will record exactly how much aerodynamic load

00:34:59and mechanical load is passing through that corner.

00:35:02So, what the engineers need to do is look at the timing of the lap,

00:35:05and they will be able to see very easily if the tire deflated.

00:35:08Each tire and rim is fitted with a tire pressure sensor,

00:35:11so that will indicate a loss of pressure,

00:35:13and then they just cross-reference that to the load on the corner and see which failed first.

00:35:17If the corner load fails to zero, you know it was a corner problem on the suspension.

00:35:21If the pressure drops to zero first, there's your answer.

00:35:25It was a tire pressure deflation.

00:35:26So, there will be no mystery as soon as they start to analyze that telemetry.

00:35:29It's not unusual for two cars in a single team in Formula 1 to have a problem and to leave

00:35:34the race.

00:35:35Not that I'm suggesting that is what might happen here.

00:35:38Back at Spain in 2002, the Minardi team pulled out with a series of curious wing failures.

00:35:44Same thing for Sauber in Brazil back in 2000.

00:35:47But the key issue here is the tires,

00:35:51because these Michelin tires are used by seven teams up and down the pit lane.

00:35:57Yeah, there's Pierre de Pasquier there, the head of engineering from Michelin.

00:36:02There he is in the shock.

00:36:03We're saying all the teams bar one are using the same construction and the same compound.

00:36:08So, all the teams, of course, will be very concerned.

00:36:10They will wait to hear from Michelin.

00:36:12They need to have Michelin's agreement before they will start to run this afternoon.

00:36:17Well, it's something that Toyota obviously hoping to download their information ASAP,

00:36:23and that will obviously help Michelin in their quest.

00:36:26Maybe they're going to ask them to go out on higher pressures,

00:36:29because you do have this sort of odd situation here,

00:36:31where they have that long, long, fast banked turn,

00:36:34which they don't have anywhere else in Formula 1.

00:36:38The team comes out to collect the carcass of their race car.

00:36:41A moment ago, you saw Ferrari team manager, Jean Taug,

00:36:44with his fiancée, the actress, Michelle Yeoh.

00:36:48There's Flavio Briatore with the Renault team,

00:36:51and all the Michelin personnel.

00:36:54And DuPasquier is there, too, yeah.

00:36:55Yeah, DuPasquier, the grey-haired gentleman to the left.

00:36:59And this is a very significant discussion right now.

00:37:03Now, maybe we should have another look at both of these photos.

00:37:06This is Riccardo Zonta in the first instance we're watching.

00:37:10He's coming around the corner,

00:37:11and I think you'll see there's a puff of smoke.

00:37:13We'll try and put it on with a telestrator as soon as we see it right there.

00:37:17It's already gone there.

00:37:18The left rear has already suffered a failure.

00:37:22No strike of the Armco.

00:37:24Remember earlier, I was wondering whether or not he just tapped the Armco,

00:37:26which is sure, a sure thing is exactly what happened to Jenson Button at the last race.

00:37:32And again, right here.

00:37:33Do Michelin know anything already?

00:37:37I've asked a question here as well.

00:37:39There's a discussion going on here.

00:37:42We'll know something soon.

00:37:44It was on the outside shoulder.

00:37:45It seems to be on the outside shoulder.

00:37:48I'll let you know as soon as I know anything.

00:37:51No conclusion at the moment.

00:37:53Obviously, both times this happened on the Toyota,

00:37:56and we don't know the full story of the Toyota.

00:37:58So, out of precaution, Michelin has recommended it to increase the rear tyre pressure.

00:38:03I'm going to do the front a little bit as well

00:38:05to make sure we don't have to sit the balance too much.

00:38:09So, if I've got any more news, I'll let you know.

00:38:14There are Michelin, you can see the Michelin crew upping the tyre pressures on the car.

00:38:18It's not an unusual thing to do for the engineers to call and the drivers to call

00:38:23to drop the tyre pressures by a quarter of a PSI, half a PSI,

00:38:27just to give a little bit more compliancy within the sidewall of the tyre

00:38:31and increase the mechanical grip from the tyre.

00:38:33Remember, a couple of years ago, at this very circuit,

00:38:36Pierre de Pascal was very concerned about the teams adjusting tyre pressures

00:38:39out of spec of what the Michelin engineers said they should be running at.

00:38:43Of course, it does increase mechanical grip,

00:38:45but at the cost of potential tyre problems.

00:38:48And Michelin, I think, quite right to say,

00:38:49hang on, boys, let's just see where we all are on tyre pressures.

00:38:52We have had two big failures.

00:38:54We need to look at the data very carefully.

00:38:56And, of course, the pressure will increase dramatically

00:38:58as the tyre temperature goes up when they put some miles on them.

00:39:02But even so, this running very, very low pressures at the beginning

00:39:06certainly carries a lot of risk when you've got such a long, sustained straight.

00:39:13Well, Christian, a bit of movement up and down the pit lane here, of course,

00:39:17because it looks as if two tyre failures have occurred in the same team.

00:39:20Now, what's the reaction amongst other Michelin teams?

00:39:22And, obviously, you are on Michelin tyres as well.

00:39:25Obviously, we're relying on feedback from Michelin

00:39:28and we'll act on the advice that they've given us.

00:39:32Obviously, there's both suspected tyre failures,

00:39:34but we've seen no evidence so far in the running

00:39:37we've done of any sidewall damage or anything like that.

00:39:41So, you know, we'll take the precautions that they advise and go from there.

00:39:46Of course, the teams do play with tyre pressures a lot,

00:39:48particularly this year.

00:39:49There are not too many other variables

00:39:51and tyre pressures are critical in terms of what the tyre can do under load.

00:39:55Yeah, as you say, it's one of the big variables on the car

00:39:58and, you know, has one of the biggest influences.

00:40:00So, we obviously have no idea what pressures they're running,

00:40:06but, you know, as I say, we'll act on the advice of Michelin.

00:40:09Quick update on Scott Speed's progress.

00:40:12Yeah, Scott's out there doing a great job for us.

00:40:13He's, you know, working through a tyre programme, the Compound Compare,

00:40:18and, you know, he's doing some pretty decent times

00:40:20and I'm very pleased with the job that he's doing.

00:40:23He's got a performance run at the end of this session,

00:40:26so, you know, watch out for what time he sets.

00:40:29Well, indeed. Thank you very much indeed, Christian Horner.

00:40:34Performance run, and that can only mean low fuel,

00:40:37and away he will go to see how fast the young American can be.

00:40:41The session will restart in a moment.

00:40:43Stay with us.

00:40:46Back at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway,

00:40:48the track has gone green with 47 minutes remaining

00:40:51in this second Friday practice session live here on Speed Channel.

00:40:55Bob Varsha, David Hobbs, and Steve Matchett,

00:40:57along with Derek Daly and Peter Windsor with you.

00:40:59The Williams BMW of Mark Webber from Australia

00:41:02was the first car on track.

00:41:05Here's Ricardo Zonta out of the McLaren garage.

00:41:08Christian Albers and the Minardi ahead of him.

00:41:13His action resumes after a red flag

00:41:15brought about when Ralph Schumacher

00:41:17suffered what appears to be the second left rear failure

00:41:22of a Michelin race tyre.

00:41:24His teammate Ricardo Zonta spun to a stop without hitting anything.

00:41:28Ralph Schumacher speared the safer barrier

00:41:30at the outside of Turn 13, Turn 1 on the oval track.

00:41:34Schumacher was doing about 130 mile an hour more

00:41:36than Ricardo Zonta.

00:41:38Luckily for him, it let him down in that tight

00:41:40right-hander in the infield,

00:41:42and he just spun harmlessly to a halt.

00:41:43Poor old Ralphie had it go

00:41:45just as he came into that Turn 13 area

00:41:47where they're up to about 165, 170 miles an hour,

00:41:50still accelerating.

00:41:51And, of course, you've got the load of the banking there

00:41:54on those, especially on the outside tyres.

00:41:57And it was here a couple of years ago,

00:41:59you know, everybody was talking about this tyre pressure problem,

00:42:01weren't they?

00:42:01The Bridgestone people were talking about it,

00:42:02the Michelin people saying,

00:42:04we've really got to start off here

00:42:05much higher than we would normally do on pressure

00:42:07and then maybe come down from there,

00:42:09but we've definitely got to be a bit careful

00:42:11going too low on that banking.

00:42:12Maybe they're getting, you know,

00:42:14a bit complacent in here a few times now.

00:42:16They think they know it all

00:42:16and want to go back to their more normal pressures,

00:42:20but it looks like they probably have to go higher here

00:42:22because of that banking.

00:42:24There is Webber.

00:42:27Time on your right.

00:42:29That's set by Jimmy Räikköner

00:42:30to McLaren Mercedes earlier in the session.

00:42:33Mark Webber, the Australian,

00:42:35who his real claim to fame

00:42:37is fifth at Melbourne in the Minardi,

00:42:40jumped into the Jaguar for a couple of years,

00:42:44elevated to BMW as their number one driver

00:42:46and, of course, Nick Heidfeld has come along

00:42:50from Sauber out of Sauber

00:42:51and suddenly all the Webbers

00:42:53finally a bit of a fight on his hand

00:42:55in terms of out-qualifying Nick Heidfeld

00:42:58and or out-racing him.

00:43:00It's been 20 years since K.K. Rosberg

00:43:02brought Williams their most recent victory

00:43:05in the United States Grand Prix.

00:43:07That in Detroit.

00:43:09Good Lord, isn't that right?

00:43:12Seems hard to believe.

00:43:16Or that yellow dust.

00:43:18Black dust, yeah.

00:43:22Webber himself has never finished this race.

00:43:29Well, Renault, again, very fast in the straight line.

00:43:32The Ferrari was just at about 205.

00:43:35They've just done about 207.

00:43:38There's an interesting shot we've picked up a little bit earlier

00:43:40just as McLaren are getting ready to send their cars out onto the track.

00:43:45Have a look at this.

00:43:46Here's one of the McLarens going out.

00:43:49Look here.

00:43:50You see the McLaren mechanics on Kimi Räikkönen's car

00:43:53taking the wheel off the car.

00:43:56I'm wondering, guys, whether or not

00:43:57Kimi Räikkönen would have had those tyres on ready to go out.

00:44:00I'm wondering whether or not, on the word of Michelin,

00:44:03Michelin have recalled one of their constructions

00:44:05and asked McLaren not to run it.

00:44:07It seems very unusual at that stage

00:44:09with the tyres on the car

00:44:10for all of a sudden for them to be come

00:44:11to take them off before they send the car back to the track.

00:44:14It could be.

00:44:15Just a guess.

00:44:15Just speculation.

00:44:16I wonder whether or not Michelin have asked

00:44:20for some tyres not to be run.

00:44:24You've got eyes like the proverbial rat

00:44:29that lives in a large pipe underground.

00:44:33You do spot stuff.

00:44:41Just a chelot up to fifth.

00:44:42Just over a second off the pace.

00:44:43But that was his first flying lap.

00:44:44I suspect this one will be quite a bit quicker.

00:44:48Whoa!

00:44:49David Coulthard.

00:44:51A bit too much rear brake, I would say.

00:44:57Yeah.

00:44:58I mean, no sign of smoke from the front at all.

00:45:03Harmless spin has happened.

00:45:05Again, you've got to watch those Friday tyres

00:45:07because you might not believe it.

00:45:11Steve, that's an interesting point you make

00:45:13about that set of tyres coming off Kimi's car

00:45:15because just a few minutes before

00:45:17I'd noticed Ron Dennis walking over

00:45:19when I finished that interview with Pierre Depasquet.

00:45:21Ron Dennis walked over and took him to one side

00:45:24and presumably wanted to get chapter and verse from Pierre

00:45:26about what he thought was taking place.

00:45:29I didn't see too many other team owners doing that.

00:45:31But if, as a result, they've taken off that set of tyres in Kimi's car,

00:45:35very nice attention to detail there from Dennis, the team principal himself.

00:45:39Yeah, absolutely.

00:45:40Ron, of course, never missing a trick

00:45:42and always does pay attention to detail.

00:45:44But it was unusual.

00:45:45We saw Pedro de la Rosa pull out of the garage

00:45:47and take into the pit lane.

00:45:49And for some reason, McLaren made the decision

00:45:51not to run that set of tyres.

00:45:55Of course, all the team managers and engineers

00:45:57from up and down the pit lane

00:45:58will all be conversing with each other now

00:46:00to try and find out exactly what happened on Toyota

00:46:04and try and get the word from Pierre Depasquet what to do.

00:46:19Ooh, Webber locking up there, going across the grass, big time.

00:46:24Coming at the end of that straight.

00:46:26Going through turn two, got it all collected up.

00:46:28But again, got to be careful.

00:46:30Wow, a big flat spot.

00:46:32That's on David Kooltow's car.

00:46:35David, what's the possibility, do you think,

00:46:37that because Michelin have asked for these tyre pressures

00:46:40to be adjusted and put back up a couple of pounds at the most,

00:46:43probably half a pound to a pound,

00:46:44are they losing some mechanical grip?

00:46:46That would be my guess.

00:46:47Probably all of a sudden the drivers are being caught off guard.

00:46:49They've been dropping the tyre pressure slightly

00:46:51to gain that mechanical grip.

00:46:53On the word of Michelin,

00:46:54they probably had to put that pressure back up

00:46:56and now they're being caught off guard.

00:46:57Yeah, you put your brakes on

00:46:59and instead of the tyre flattening out onto the roads

00:47:01and taking the pressure off from the car,

00:47:05just that little bit higher tyre pressure.

00:47:07Yeah, obviously he's catching a couple of these guys off guard.

00:47:11Renault said yesterday

00:47:13they would be doing two short runs in the morning session

00:47:16and two longer runs in the afternoon session.

00:47:20And again, it's all important this afternoon

00:47:22to try and gauge that tyre.

00:47:24The soft car can't have a hard.

00:47:25One of these sets will be handed back to the FIA

00:47:27and will not be allowed to be used.

00:47:29Of course, that may change

00:47:30on what's been happening now with Toyota

00:47:32and those two tyre failures we've seen from Michelin.

00:47:37And tomorrow, the teams will be issued

00:47:39two other sets of the compound they decide to use.

00:47:42So all in all, throughout the weekend,

00:47:43they will be issued three sets of tyres.

00:47:45One, of course, they want to keep

00:47:46for the qualifying session in the race itself.

00:47:48That leaves them the used set from today

00:47:50and one more brand new set that will be issued tomorrow

00:47:53to use in the two 45-minute practice sessions of tomorrow.

00:47:57And one, they will keep one of those sets

00:47:59to be used as the emergency spare

00:48:01should they need to change tyres in the race.

00:48:04But remember, they are not allowed really

00:48:05to the sporting regulations

00:48:07to change tyres.

00:48:08If they do, they must submit that tyre to the FIA

00:48:11to Charlie Whiting to get consent

00:48:13that there's been no performance advantage.

00:48:16On board with Michael Schumacher.

00:48:17Very quick in the first sector.

00:48:22Which is so far in that sector.

00:48:24But he lost out this morning in this last sector.

00:48:26So what's going to happen now?

00:48:32Jumps to third from way down.

00:48:36Picks Montoya there, 1.11.

00:48:38Of course, Ferrari using Bridgestone tyres.

00:48:42A different company, obviously,

00:48:45a different construction, a different compound.

00:48:46But they will be equally concerned

00:48:48about Michelin's problems.

00:48:50They will want to know what's happened

00:48:51because the tyres are constructed

00:48:53in pretty much similar ways.

00:48:54Very stiff sidewalls

00:48:56as we watch Kimi Raikkonen

00:48:57off down in two and one.

00:49:02Again, locks up.

00:49:05Decides to go around,

00:49:06not cut across the grass,

00:49:07go down the escape road,

00:49:08which is just down here

00:49:09to keep the tyres clean.

00:49:10But, of course,

00:49:11you do pick up a lot of dust

00:49:12and stuff even off that escape road there.

00:49:18Kimi Raikkonen, I don't know,

00:49:20he's sort of showing signs of pressure today.

00:49:22He made two or three mistakes

00:49:23and he only done a few laps, really.

00:49:26Of course, he may be just

00:49:27short-cutting everything,

00:49:28just getting all the mistakes out of the way

00:49:30and driving very hard on a few laps.

00:49:32Michael Schumacher obviously

00:49:34looks like he's coming in

00:49:35or was he giving himself track space?

00:49:37I think he's coming in.

00:49:41Mark Webber

00:49:42on a turn eight.

00:49:45Is that tight?

00:49:46Very tight.

00:49:46Nine.

00:49:48And ten.

00:49:49Also extremely tight.

00:49:51You've got to get yourself

00:49:52really well positioned

00:49:53for this turn coming up eleven

00:49:54because from this point on

00:49:55where you just open her up there,

00:49:57it's flat out right back to turn one

00:50:00to eleven, twelve and thirteen.

00:50:02Michael Schumacher

00:50:03back into the pits,

00:50:04into that practice pit stop stall

00:50:06and they'll do that all weekend.

00:50:09So he's just three tenths of a second slow

00:50:11than Kimi Raikkonen.

00:50:12Raikkonen with a one,

00:50:13eleven, four, fifty-nine.

00:50:16Barrichello.

00:50:17Oh!

00:50:18A little piece of body work,

00:50:19I think, with a...

00:50:21Something flew off the car there.

00:50:23Oh, that front barge ball.

00:50:25Does it fly off first

00:50:26or did it hit something?

00:50:29I'll tell you one thing

00:50:30we're seeing here, guys,

00:50:31is a big jump in straight line speeds.

00:50:34We have several cars now

00:50:35that have topped

00:50:36three hundred and forty kilometers an hour.

00:50:38That's two hundred and ten.

00:50:40Topped off by Kimi Raikkonen's McLaren

00:50:42who has reached

00:50:43two hundred and fifteen miles an hour

00:50:45on the front straight.

00:50:47David, I can answer your question.

00:50:49Michael went off the road first.

00:50:51There is grass all over the underside

00:50:53of the Ferrari.

00:50:54That obviously took

00:50:55the barge board piece off.

00:50:57But interestingly enough,

00:50:59we've mentioned it before,

00:51:01the teams send one of their representatives

00:51:04down to the other teams

00:51:06and they take notes

00:51:07on the tires they are using.

00:51:09In other words,

00:51:10a Renault mechanic

00:51:12in a shirt,

00:51:13in a Renault shirt,

00:51:14may stand outside the Ferrari pit

00:51:16or the McLaren pit

00:51:17and take notes literally

00:51:18on when they run,

00:51:19the time they run,

00:51:20and what tires they may have on.

00:51:22Believe it or not,

00:51:23I'm now down outside

00:51:24the Ferrari pit

00:51:25with Michael Schumacher.

00:51:26I've never seen this before,

00:51:28but two Michelin engineers

00:51:30have walked down

00:51:32and made notes,

00:51:33literally took out pads

00:51:35and made notes

00:51:36as Michael Schumacher

00:51:37came in

00:51:38for that last stop.

00:51:40So the,

00:51:41uh,

00:51:42is that espionage?

00:51:44Industrial espionage,

00:51:46but of course it's an open circuit

00:51:47and like Steve was saying,

00:51:48you know,

00:51:48with the regulator there,

00:51:49you can't cover the cars up.

00:51:51Yesterday afternoon

00:51:51we spent hours

00:51:52looking at these cars

00:51:53and what an incredible

00:51:54piece of machinery they are.

00:51:55But do you look

00:51:56at all those barge boards

00:51:57on these cars,

00:51:58the gap between

00:51:59the barge board

00:52:00and the floor

00:52:01and the barge board

00:52:02and the suspension

00:52:03above it

00:52:04are absolutely minuscule.

00:52:06You,

00:52:06you just can't imagine

00:52:07how you can make

00:52:07the slightest mistake

00:52:09and it doesn't rip everything off.

00:52:10And Derek,

00:52:11it's interesting

00:52:11you should say that

00:52:12because there was a rumour

00:52:13in Canada

00:52:14that the said

00:52:15Michelin engineers

00:52:16about which you just spoke

00:52:17saw the Bridgestone

00:52:19engineers

00:52:19shaving the tyres

00:52:21of the two Ferrari drivers

00:52:22before they went out

00:52:23for qualifying.

00:52:24Now you may not think

00:52:25there's too much wrong

00:52:26with that

00:52:26except that this year,

00:52:272005,

00:52:28with this new tyre regulation,

00:52:29you have to run

00:52:30new tyres in qualifying.

00:52:33And the rumour was,

00:52:34and it was never proved,

00:52:36so we have to say

00:52:36it was just a rumour,

00:52:38that maybe the Bridgestones

00:52:39were going out

00:52:40in strut form

00:52:40in Canada.

00:52:41so the tyre company

00:52:43is certainly watching

00:52:44one another

00:52:45very,

00:52:45very closely

00:52:46at present.

00:52:51Christian Clean

00:52:52there in the Red Bull

00:52:53goes to seventh.

00:52:54Now a little earlier on

00:52:55we saw Michael Schumacher

00:52:56run wide

00:52:57and something

00:52:57come off the car.

00:52:58Well let's see

00:52:59whether or not

00:52:59we can peak it up

00:53:00in slow motion.

00:53:02Car going over the kerb.

00:53:03Keep your eye

00:53:04right on the area

00:53:06between the tyres

00:53:07right here

00:53:07you're about to see

00:53:08something jump off

00:53:09right there.

00:53:10Yeah,

00:53:10the front bargeboard.

00:53:11Yeah.

00:53:12And as you said

00:53:13earlier on David

00:53:13when you're looking

00:53:14round the cars

00:53:15yesterday in pit lane

00:53:16there are so many

00:53:17little aerodynamic

00:53:17profiles and flips

00:53:19around the car.

00:53:20A lot that really

00:53:20the camera misses

00:53:21because they're hidden

00:53:22behind the inside face

00:53:23of the tyre.

00:53:24And the top of that

00:53:25bargeboard

00:53:26and the bottom

00:53:26of the front

00:53:27were about

00:53:28a quarter of an inch

00:53:29apart.

00:53:29So obviously

00:53:30these cars

00:53:30don't have a lot

00:53:31of suspension movement

00:53:32but obviously

00:53:32when you go

00:53:32barge it up the road

00:53:34and over the kerb

00:53:34and into the grass

00:53:35it's likely to

00:53:36make it move more

00:53:37but it obviously

00:53:38just ripped that

00:53:39bargeboard right off.

00:53:43We're watching

00:53:44Christian Clean

00:53:45and there's an

00:53:45interesting little graphic

00:53:46youngest on the grid

00:53:47look at only 22.

00:53:51Best start

00:53:52best finish

00:53:53in Australia

00:53:53and Belgium

00:53:54in 0-4

00:53:55best finish

00:53:57but Christian Clean

00:53:58meant very well

00:53:59at the beginning

00:53:59of the year

00:54:00then they yanked him

00:54:00out and put

00:54:02Liuzzi in

00:54:02for a few races

00:54:03and I think

00:54:04it was very upsetting

00:54:05for the drivers

00:54:05to lose their

00:54:07the momentum

00:54:07you know

00:54:07you need a lot

00:54:08of practice

00:54:09and Christian Clean

00:54:10has now got

00:54:11he's had one race

00:54:12I think he's got

00:54:13three more

00:54:13at least to go

00:54:14he's just a

00:54:15hair quicker

00:54:17than

00:54:18a hair slower

00:54:19than his teammate

00:54:20David Coulthard

00:54:42I would say

00:54:43I would say there's a major issue

00:54:44without a massive

00:54:45massive high-speed spin

00:54:46it's something that the engineers

00:54:47should be looking into

00:54:51let's have another look at it

00:54:52and see what David Coulthard

00:54:53is talking about

00:54:54wow

00:54:55he just locked up

00:54:56his left rear

00:54:57flicked him around

00:54:58of course

00:54:59at some stage

00:55:00every one of those tyres

00:55:01is getting

00:55:02pretty sad

00:55:03and gets dragged

00:55:03across the asphalt

00:55:04like that

00:55:08Rubens Barrichello

00:55:09is currently

00:55:09second fastest

00:55:10with a 1.11746

00:55:13Michael Schumacher

00:55:1411.758

00:55:16Ferrari's

00:55:17oh I should say

00:55:18Bridgestone's weak link

00:55:19all year long

00:55:20has been their lack

00:55:21of ability

00:55:21to get a good

00:55:22fast qualifying lap

00:55:24out of their tyres

00:55:25Michelin's really

00:55:26had the upper hand

00:55:26all year long

00:55:28although Ferrari

00:55:29had a good result

00:55:30in last week's race

00:55:31up in Montreal

00:55:32in the Canadian Grand Prix

00:55:33Bridgestone say

00:55:35they have been

00:55:35working on this idea

00:55:36to get a good

00:55:37qualifying lap

00:55:38out of that new tyre

00:55:39and see what happens

00:55:40with that tomorrow

00:55:44well let's ride along

00:55:45with Jenson Button

00:55:46in Button's

00:55:47BAR 007

00:55:49the 2005

00:55:51BAR Honda chassis

00:56:11you can see on the car

00:56:12right here

00:56:13a little red spot

00:56:15right above the neutral

00:56:16there's the neutral

00:56:16there's the little red button

00:56:18above it

00:56:18the little red button

00:56:19above it

00:56:20is an electronic solenoid

00:56:22that will operate

00:56:23a little nitrogen tank

00:56:24inside the transmission

00:56:25to select neutral

00:56:26in the event

00:56:27that the marshals

00:56:28need to get the car

00:56:29out of gear

00:56:35during our lunch break

00:56:36we had about

00:56:37two hours down

00:56:38as you know

00:56:38so we go back

00:56:39into the hospitality area

00:56:41and just roam around

00:56:42and talk to whoever

00:56:43you see

00:56:44and usually drivers

00:56:45always say

00:56:45yeah sure

00:56:46I'll talk to you

00:56:47Jenson Button

00:56:48as we watch him here

00:56:49from on board again

00:56:50and now from outside

00:56:51the car

00:56:52asked him

00:56:52when he talked to

00:56:53he said

00:56:53no

00:56:55I'm only allowed

00:56:56to speak to the media

00:56:57during my specific

00:56:58interview times

00:57:01I said

00:57:01thank you very much

00:57:02I walked away

00:57:03right

00:57:03quite right

00:57:05well yes

00:57:06they seemed

00:57:06pleasantness itself

00:57:08on the stage

00:57:09when he came

00:57:10back in 2003

00:57:11Jenson Button

00:57:11led his

00:57:12and B.A.R.'s

00:57:14first ever laps

00:57:15in Formula 1

00:57:15before Michael Schumacher

00:57:17finally passed him again

00:57:18Derek

00:57:19Derek

00:57:19if you thought

00:57:19that was bad enough

00:57:20Nelson Piquet Jr

00:57:22the son of the

00:57:23former twice world champion

00:57:24at the Macau Grand Prix

00:57:26two years ago

00:57:27put out a press release

00:57:29a week before the race

00:57:30telling the press

00:57:31when he would be available

00:57:32for interviews

00:57:33and he would not

00:57:33carry out any interviews

00:57:35outside those windows

00:57:36so of course

00:57:37we sent a

00:57:38communique back

00:57:39saying that we would be

00:57:40available to do the interviews

00:57:41at these times

00:57:42and made sure the times

00:57:42didn't actually coincide

00:57:43with Nelson's availability

00:57:46and this guy's in Formula 3

00:57:48doing that

00:57:49do we have our production

00:57:51assistant

00:57:52send Jenson Button

00:57:53a similar note

00:57:54for tomorrow please

00:57:55Matt Varsha

00:57:56had some very good advice

00:57:57for Marco Andretti

00:57:58yesterday

00:57:59Marco Andretti

00:57:59was doing the walking

00:58:00along signing autographs

00:58:02and keeping on walking

00:58:03that way you get away

00:58:03and Matt Varsha

00:58:04look Marco

00:58:05until he's won about

00:58:06three championships

00:58:07and a whole bunch of races

00:58:08maybe you should

00:58:09stand still

00:58:10and sign some autographs

00:58:13Kimi Räikkönen

00:58:14is quick here

00:58:15look

00:58:15in intermediate

00:58:16sector 2

00:58:17being the 10s

00:58:18nearly 0.2

00:58:19underneath

00:58:20go on son

00:58:21push it

00:58:30there it is

00:58:30look at that

00:58:31that's not bad

00:58:3211.228

00:58:35and of course

00:58:35at this stage

00:58:36he's still looking

00:58:37for data

00:58:37so still not giving

00:58:39all the welly

00:58:40it probably can take

00:58:42so is that

00:58:43Kimi Räikkönen's

00:58:44performance run

00:58:45or is there something

00:58:46more to come

00:58:47from the McLaren

00:58:48stand by

00:58:50more live practice

00:58:51from Indy

00:58:52coming up

00:58:52welcome back

00:58:53welcome back

00:58:55to the Indianapolis

00:58:56Motor Speedway

00:58:58I'm Bob Varsha

00:58:59and you are on board

00:59:01with Juan Pablo Montoya

00:59:02as McLaren

00:59:04dominates the second

00:59:05Friday free practice

00:59:06session

00:59:07for the Formula 1

00:59:08United States Grand Prix

00:59:09Räikkönen has the pole

00:59:10then Rubens

00:59:11Botticello

00:59:12followed by Michael

00:59:13Schumacher

00:59:14and the two Ferraris

00:59:15so don't count out

00:59:16the Scuderia

00:59:17Juan Pablo Montoya

00:59:19is currently fourth

00:59:20but going quickly

00:59:22but going very quickly

00:59:24now

00:59:24looks like he's going to

00:59:25supersede his teammates

00:59:26time

00:59:26of course Juan Pablo Montoya

00:59:29becoming

00:59:29now looking to be

00:59:30the first ever driver

00:59:31to win the US Grand Prix

00:59:32and the Indy 500

00:59:33at the same racetrack

00:59:39with your eye on the times

00:59:41will this be the first

00:59:42one minute

00:59:42ten second lap

00:59:44oh no

00:59:45but we're getting close

00:59:46we're getting very close

00:59:49so that puts the two

00:59:51McLaren's at the top of the list

00:59:53Montoya

00:59:53Räikkönen

00:59:54then the two Ferraris

00:59:55at Barrichello

00:59:56and Schumacher

00:59:59this is of course

01:00:01a big pressure weekend

01:00:02for Juan Pablo Montoya

01:00:03horrendous race

01:00:04for him in Canada

01:00:05victory in the bag there

01:00:06and now he has to go out

01:00:08pretty near to last

01:00:09in qualifying

01:00:10having been disqualified

01:00:11from Canada

01:00:11you can be sure

01:00:12that there's a lot of

01:00:14Latino blood

01:00:15rising in the

01:00:16Montoya frame there

01:00:17in order to

01:00:18go out and reestablish

01:00:20himself

01:00:20as a guy that

01:00:21for the first time this year

01:00:22looked as if he could

01:00:22put one over

01:00:23Kimi Räikkönen

01:00:24I think the most

01:00:25interesting thing about that

01:00:26is exactly what

01:00:27did happen in Canada

01:00:28he was leading the race

01:00:29but it was Kimi Räikkönen

01:00:30who came in first

01:00:31when the safety car

01:00:32came out

01:00:33and chatting to Juan Pablo

01:00:34this morning

01:00:35he said that

01:00:36he was actually scheduled

01:00:37to stop

01:00:38before Kimi

01:00:39had the safety car

01:00:40not come out

01:00:41he would have come out first

01:00:42ok I think I've got a problem

01:00:43maybe with the clutch

01:00:44the engine was messing through

01:00:47yep I'm going to stop

01:00:48into the team radio

01:00:50and then I lost a bit of

01:00:52typical filming drive

01:00:54so I've lifted over

01:00:55before the timing line

01:00:56coming in this off

01:01:00but Juan Pablo Montoya

01:01:01was in fact scheduled

01:01:02to come in first

01:01:02so he says

01:01:03and that's of course

01:01:04not what McLaren says

01:01:06so we'll have to

01:01:06investigate that story

01:01:07as this weekend develops

01:01:12David

01:01:12we talked earlier about the barge boards

01:01:15on the Ferrari

01:01:16and we talked about wind tunnels

01:01:18and how aerodynamically sophisticated

01:01:20these racing cars are

01:01:21I have to tell you

01:01:23from watching all the cars down here

01:01:25there is no doubt

01:01:26that this McLaren

01:01:27is aerodynamically

01:01:29the most sophisticated

01:01:31racing car

01:01:32I have ever seen

01:01:33unlike Barrichella

01:01:34who's going across the grass

01:01:35like a lawnmower

01:01:36but the McLaren

01:01:37when you just look at their front wings

01:01:39I doubt there is a straight edge

01:01:41anywhere on that racing car

01:01:43it is so sophisticated

01:01:45just to move the air

01:01:46around the racing car

01:01:48to develop downforce

01:01:49and as little drag as possible

01:01:51so Adrian Newey

01:01:52who is the technical director

01:01:54of McLaren

01:01:54again his stocks go way up

01:01:57because he had designed

01:01:58so many world championship winning carries

01:02:00in the past

01:02:00and now

01:02:01he may just

01:02:02have done it again

01:02:03it is a beautiful looking car

01:02:04as we look at Carter Cayenne

01:02:06going off

01:02:06at the end of Holman Boulevard

01:02:08I think locks it up again there

01:02:10decides again

01:02:11to go down the escape road

01:02:12rather than

01:02:13charge across the grass

01:02:14because obviously

01:02:15there is less chance

01:02:16of ripping bits and

01:02:17pieces of barge board off

01:02:18does an equal spin there

01:02:24Cartha Cayenne

01:02:25that is about

01:02:25Cartha Cayenne's

01:02:26third spin

01:02:26I think

01:02:27isn't it

01:02:27indeed

01:02:27he is currently standing

01:02:29in 19th spot

01:02:30although he is ahead

01:02:30of his team mate

01:02:31Montero

01:02:32Diego Montero

01:02:34and Scott Speed

01:02:35is down in

01:02:3621st position

01:02:37at the moment

01:02:37so are we going to see

01:02:38this performance run

01:02:39from Scott Speed

01:02:40before this session

01:02:41ends in just

01:02:4123 minutes

01:02:46this poor old

01:02:47Jordan Chassis

01:02:48really has been

01:02:50struggling

01:02:50hasn't it

01:02:50remember this is

01:02:51last year's

01:02:52Jordan Chassis

01:02:53that has been

01:02:54bodged up to

01:02:552005

01:02:55aerodynamic regulations

01:02:57lifting the front wing

01:02:58and moving the rear wing

01:02:59forward

01:03:01as we said

01:03:01the other week

01:03:02the Toyota engine

01:03:03mounted into the back

01:03:04of that car

01:03:05and it was never made

01:03:06for that

01:03:06so

01:03:06there is no wonder

01:03:08really that the thing

01:03:09is so unstable

01:03:10and Steve

01:03:11in addition to that

01:03:12more than

01:03:1345

01:03:13team members

01:03:15from Jordan

01:03:15have left

01:03:17since the buyout

01:03:18since the new management

01:03:19there is some turmoil

01:03:21there

01:03:21Trevor Carlin

01:03:22who was the team manager

01:03:24just left

01:03:25in the last two weeks

01:03:27so that team

01:03:27is slowly

01:03:28being decimated

01:03:30of its talent

01:03:32so it's no wonder

01:03:33that the cars

01:03:34begin to fall

01:03:34further and further

01:03:35off the pace

01:03:36yeah you're right

01:03:37you're absolutely right

01:03:38Derek

01:03:38and also as well

01:03:39of course

01:03:39Gary Anderson

01:03:40who used to be

01:03:41the technical director

01:03:42at Jordan

01:03:43left the team

01:03:44and then was employed

01:03:45by the Midland Group

01:03:47to become the technical advisor

01:03:49to work with Dallara

01:03:50to make their new chassis

01:03:51we understand now

01:03:52Gary Anderson

01:03:53well clear of that operation

01:03:54and also Dallara said

01:03:56we will not be building

01:03:57the 2006 chassis

01:03:58and Dallara pulling out of it

01:04:00so as you rightly say

01:04:01Derek

01:04:02things going from

01:04:02really bad to worse

01:04:04they really need to pull

01:04:05their act together

01:04:05down there

01:04:06and Steve

01:04:07guess where

01:04:08Gary Anderson is

01:04:09at this particular moment

01:04:11and it's not fishing

01:04:12where is he

01:04:13tell me what's he doing

01:04:13he's actually in the middle

01:04:15of the pit lane here

01:04:15as a pit reporter

01:04:17for Satanta Television

01:04:20which is a new sports channel

01:04:21in Ireland

01:04:23all the great fellas

01:04:24get a TV job

01:04:25that's right

01:04:26they do

01:04:28piano truly

01:04:29and the one remaining

01:04:30Toyota

01:04:30the other two

01:04:31having been banged up

01:04:32badly

01:04:32with their tyres

01:04:33are good

01:04:34first sec

01:04:34there

01:04:35four tenths off

01:04:36that would be good enough

01:04:37to put him in the top

01:04:38four or five

01:04:41currently down

01:04:42in eleventh spot

01:04:44no

01:04:44thirteenth spot

01:04:50Scott Speed's gone out

01:04:51again

01:04:52Scott Speed hasn't done

01:04:53as many laps

01:04:53as I thought he'd done

01:04:54but he's done 24

01:04:55but

01:04:57he might have cranked

01:04:58out a few more

01:04:58but now they're going

01:04:59to let him out

01:04:59and see what he can do

01:05:00well he's out on scrub tyres

01:05:02but as we were saying

01:05:03earlier on David

01:05:04you know 24 laps

01:05:05that's really what

01:05:06that's what the team's after

01:05:08and as Peter rightly

01:05:09says

01:05:10well it might be not

01:05:10such a bad thing

01:05:11to try and get a

01:05:12competitive time

01:05:14towards the end

01:05:15of the session

01:05:15but what Red Bull

01:05:16are looking for

01:05:17is that tyre data

01:05:19and he's doing well

01:05:21I mean just the

01:05:22consistency of the guy

01:05:23impresses me

01:05:25he jumps up to nine

01:05:28with a 1.12.7

01:05:31I thought they might

01:05:32be pretty quick

01:05:32here those tyres

01:05:33because they like

01:05:33smooth surfaces

01:05:34there's no curbs

01:05:35here to upset them

01:05:35which they don't

01:05:36particularly like

01:05:37and aerodynamically

01:05:38they're good

01:05:38and of course

01:05:39they've got a very

01:05:39strong engine

01:05:41now for those of you

01:05:42tuning in

01:05:43to catch final practice

01:05:44at Michigan

01:05:44International Speedway

01:05:46for NASCAR's

01:05:46next Hell Cup series

01:05:47you're watching

01:05:48final practice

01:05:49for the Formula One

01:05:50weekend here in

01:05:51Indianapolis

01:05:51we were delayed

01:05:52for about 20 minutes

01:05:53by a red flag

01:05:54so we will get

01:05:56to that NASCAR practice

01:05:58live in progress

01:05:59in about 20 minutes time

01:06:00and the entire program

01:06:02will air in its entirety

01:06:03at 8pm eastern time

01:06:05tonight

01:06:05so in the meantime

01:06:07enjoy the final minutes

01:06:08of Formula One

01:06:09qualifying with us

01:06:09here live from the

01:06:10Indianapolis Motor Speedway

01:06:12Mike Joy

01:06:12Larry McReynolds

01:06:13and Darrell Waltrip

01:06:14will be with you

01:06:15shortly

01:06:19Alonso has done

01:06:2016 laps

01:06:22well I'm down

01:06:23at the Toyota garage

01:06:24and guess who's

01:06:25about to go back

01:06:25out onto the circuit

01:06:26again none other

01:06:27than Ricardo Zonta

01:06:28in the third Toyota

01:06:29great job there

01:06:30by Humphrey Corbett

01:06:31the race engineer

01:06:32for Ricardo

01:06:33and indeed

01:06:34for all the boys

01:06:35and just taking off

01:06:36or getting ready

01:06:37to lower the car

01:06:38from the stands

01:06:38and he'll be out

01:06:39with a few minutes

01:06:40to go

01:06:40fantastic job there

01:06:41and let's hope

01:06:43on this occasion

01:06:43that it has no

01:06:44further drama

01:06:46Peter I'm wondering

01:06:47you know

01:06:47with Zonta

01:06:48being released

01:06:49back out of the pit lane

01:06:50in that car

01:06:51it gives me

01:06:52kind of

01:06:53more speculation

01:06:54to say

01:06:55more thought

01:06:56to say

01:06:56that it would be

01:06:57a tie-up failure

01:06:58that happened

01:06:58on Zonta's car

01:06:59because it was

01:07:00a pushrod failure

01:07:00or a suspension failure

01:07:01they would not

01:07:02release those cars

01:07:03until they had

01:07:04had a look

01:07:04at the rest

01:07:05of the suspension

01:07:05and beefed it up

01:07:07or had new parts

01:07:08flown over

01:07:08well that's obviously

01:07:09really difficult

01:07:10when the headquarters

01:07:11are in Cologne

01:07:12Germany

01:07:12and we're racing

01:07:13here in Indianapolis

01:07:14the United States

01:07:14but there would be

01:07:15no possibility

01:07:16at all

01:07:17I'm sure

01:07:17of a professional

01:07:18operation like

01:07:18Toyota

01:07:19sending that car

01:07:20back out

01:07:21into the pit lane

01:07:21with suspension

01:07:22if it had failed

01:07:24without a thorough

01:07:24investigation

01:07:25it just makes me

01:07:26think that's

01:07:26that's going to be

01:07:27a tyre problem

01:07:27for Michelin

01:07:28yeah I think

01:07:29you're absolutely

01:07:29right there Steve

01:07:30indeed I don't think

01:07:31they would have

01:07:32let Jano truly

01:07:33continue to run

01:07:34this afternoon

01:07:35had it been

01:07:36any question mark

01:07:36about suspension failure

01:07:39full of two

01:07:40Renaults

01:07:40Alonso and Fischkeller

01:07:42now sit in

01:07:42seventh and eighth

01:07:43spot

01:07:43Alonso just

01:07:45just turned

01:07:45to 112.265

01:07:47Fischkeller

01:07:48at 112.384

01:07:50so he's only

01:07:51just a tick

01:07:52of the watch

01:07:52behind his teammate

01:07:53Felipe Massa

01:07:54stays up there

01:07:55in the top ten

01:07:56he's got ninth

01:07:57spot in Sauber

01:07:58so he hasn't

01:07:59done that many

01:07:59laps either

01:08:00so he's

01:08:00having a pretty

01:08:01good run

01:08:08I saw these

01:08:08guys yesterday

01:08:09Renault when

01:08:10they were going

01:08:11up to the

01:08:11Weybridge to

01:08:12have their

01:08:12legality checks

01:08:13that the teams

01:08:13themselves carry

01:08:14out and to

01:08:15check the

01:08:15measurements on

01:08:16the car

01:08:16they had a

01:08:17new front wing

01:08:18up there as

01:08:18well a spare

01:08:19wing that they

01:08:20built and they

01:08:20would also check

01:08:21the legality of

01:08:21that and they

01:08:22would do that

01:08:23that standard

01:08:23procedure too

01:08:24just in case

01:08:25one of the

01:08:25wings gets

01:08:26knocked off by

01:08:26a car

01:08:27at the start

01:08:28of the race

01:08:28and they have

01:08:29to fit a new

01:08:30wing onto the

01:08:31car they want

01:08:31also of course

01:08:32to make sure

01:08:33that new wing

01:08:33is also legal

01:08:34to the templates

01:08:36around the car

01:08:46Scott Speed

01:08:47has gone from

01:08:4921st to 18th

01:08:50on his first

01:08:52flying lap

01:08:53in what we

01:08:53assume is a

01:08:54performance mode

01:08:55but there you

01:08:55see the top

01:08:56runners Montoya

01:08:57and Raikkonen

01:08:58and the McLaren

01:08:59the two

01:09:00Ferraris

01:09:00baby Coulthard

01:09:02having a pretty

01:09:02good run

01:09:02there

01:09:04and Pedro

01:09:05De La Rosa

01:09:06has now

01:09:07dropped down

01:09:07to

01:09:106th

01:09:21this is

01:09:22Ricardo

01:09:22Santa

01:09:23back on track

01:09:23in the Toyota

01:09:49and again look

01:09:54an infrared gun put straight onto the rotor so they can keep an idea an accurate an accurate idea

01:10:00of the temperature on the car and then they will cross reference that to the telemetry sensors on

01:10:04the car so they can make sure that everybody's working to the right scope that none of the

01:10:08sensors have gone out of specification of course you've got to get on with those jobs pretty

01:10:11quickly while everything's got the right heat in it because they lose heat very very quickly

01:10:15you're right and that's and that's why of course David you bring up a good point you'll always see

01:10:20the top drivers the good teams working saying push on your in-lap push on your in-lap even in

01:10:24practice because you want the tyre pressures and the temperature around the car to be an accurate

01:10:28representation of how the cars were in on track and if you tootle around on that in-lap and take

01:10:33your time and come down the pit lane like it's a Sunday drive you'll miss out of course in the

01:10:37old

01:10:37days pre any onboard data carrying at all uh you know you had to push like heck on your in

01:10:43-lap all

01:10:43the time because that's the only time the only way they could ever get any tyre temperatures at all

01:10:47was when you stopped so you had to push like hell but of course the downside of that was you

01:10:52you

01:10:53wanted to sort of nurse your brakes because always the heat soak was too much so anyway we didn't have

01:10:57all those fans and things they have today just saw a good example of the tyre wall flexing on

01:11:03Jenson Button's BAR Honda over the go Tiago Montero spun his Jordan less than 15 minutes to go in

01:11:11Formula One practice here at Indy. Speed Channel's coverage of the United States Grand Prix is brought

01:11:18to you by new Mobile One extended performance the oil that's changing oil and by Michelin a better way

01:11:24forward. Back at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway this is Pedro de la Rosa in the McLaren Mercedes I'm Bob

01:11:33Marsha with David Hobbs Steve Matchett Peter Windsor and Derek Daly are in the pit lane for tuning in for

01:11:39the final NASCAR Nextel Cup practice from Michigan International Speedway it's coming up shortly

01:11:44as soon as we finish this final practice session for the U.S. Formula One Grand Prix at Indianapolis

01:11:50Mike Joy, Larry McReynolds and Darrell Waltrip are standing by and that final NASCAR practice will

01:11:55re-air in its entirety at 8 p.m. Eastern time tonight as Giancarlo Fitzichella brings the Renault back on

01:12:02let's go down to Peter Windsor

01:12:11engagement of six gear so I'm sorry if we could just start again yeah David finishing practice

01:12:16early what is the what seems to be the problem well it appears that we have a problem with selecting

01:12:19six

01:12:20gears so I was able to finish my time lap but the car was starting to judder through the banking

01:12:24which

01:12:25is never a good feeling when when you're not sure what it is so they're checking out the gearbox now

01:12:30massive spin we saw you have there at the end of the straight was that in any way connected to

01:12:34some

01:12:34sort of transmission problem no it was an electronic issue basically the software had had a fault which

01:12:39meant then I had no uh no of the normal electronic assistance on the entry to the corners so basically

01:12:45what you saw there was a pure mechanical car relying on old school technology so that's what uh you know

01:12:53what they used to have in the 70s and formula one nowadays we have all sorts of exotic toys electronic

01:12:57diffs and what have you which you give us assistance when you switch them off that's the result

01:13:03david we also two looks like tire failures on the toyota tire perhaps related problems what was the

01:13:10word for michelin from from your point of view well they as a precaution instructed all the michelin

01:13:16runners to increase their minimum pressure because for us that's always an issue uh on the banking it

01:13:21puts a different sort of load on the uh the carcass when you run softer pressures we're pulling a

01:13:25constant 4g all the way around that corner so as of a caution we've gone up uh everyone's had to

01:13:32to

01:13:32take their rear pressures up okay thank you very much indeed david peter it's interesting when bridgestone

01:13:41put tires for champ cars from road racing onto oval track racing the tire pressure for road racing is

01:13:49around the low 20 pounds when they go on to oval track racing which is corners like the last corner

01:13:56here on this formula one circuit the pressure increases to the low 40s they double the pressure

01:14:04for the oval track so it's very interesting here that they're trying to mix oval track with road race

01:14:11yeah that's a very good point derek and i think david koulthard was really highlighting that and the

01:14:15difficulty the compromise between that section of road where he says they're pulling around 4g and

01:14:21the rest of that fairly standard looking f1 type infield circuit

01:14:29on board with kimmy raikkonen now just a moment ago we were on board with felipe masa when he had

01:14:33a

01:14:34run-in with one of the jordans and made his uh feelings known it was dawn boss their friday driver

01:14:39in the

01:14:40door in the jordan in the jordan

01:14:43kimmy raikkonen um off the pace for montoya but no doubt at this stage of the game doing quite a

01:14:49lot

01:14:49of data collecting of all sorts we don't know what and what fuel load he's got on board

01:14:57111 111 for montoya montoya's time not yet down into the 110s i suspect it's going to come tomorrow

01:15:07this is some heavy cloud generator the weather forecast is really good for the weekend but

01:15:12looking out the window which is the best weather forecast of all it certainly doesn't look like

01:15:16it's going to last through the weekend but let's hope it does some interesting comments from david

01:15:20koulthard there when he was talking about the electronics on the car when they have an electronic

01:15:24fault and all of a sudden you lose the electronic diff you lose the traction control and all that sort

01:15:28of

01:15:28stuff how all of a sudden you're dealing with a purely mechanical car and just an absolute handful of

01:15:34course all these cars are always used to be yeah i mean the cars are built around electronics i

01:15:39remember ross braun talking about traction control on the ferrari engine and saying you know we can't

01:15:44take it off if you have traction control it's not simple it's not a simple process of just switching

01:15:48it off okay physically you can do that but running traction control allows us to play with different

01:15:54engine design it affects the uh the induction system onto the car the design of the throttle mechanism on

01:16:00the car it's not just a simple matter these days just on and off with the electronics and if you

01:16:04do

01:16:04switch it up well there's a result as david koulthard found out you can't drive it that's a it's

01:16:09incredible and how this stuff is built in to the infrastructure and maybe this rule change is uh

01:16:14muted by max moseley for 2007 2008 maybe that is the best thing i don't know we don't want it

01:16:20to be

01:16:20you don't want it to go back to a sort of spec formula there's no way you want to do

01:16:24that but

01:16:25maybe they can take some of the stuff away no one thing we don't want to do is end up

01:16:34with it end

01:16:34up with a spec 3000 type formula because the the big thing really for a lot of people fans of

01:16:40formula

01:16:41one is the fact that the constructors are exactly that they are constructors all them all the teams

01:16:46up and down the pit lane manufacture their own cars which is why we see these terrific different designs

01:16:51from everybody and if the sport is to be changed that we end up with all clone chassis there'll be

01:16:55a

01:16:55lot of people very very annoyed i know nick heidfeld jumping the fifth there from well down he was uh

01:17:02around about the 15th spot his teammate mark webber is in 17th at the moment he's done 21 laps as

01:17:09webber nick heidfeld has done 24. again this team doesn't have a friday car so they've got to do all

01:17:16the

01:17:17work between them

01:17:22heidfeld certainly looking very good this season and looking better as it goes on had a great race

01:17:27actually in malaysia early on in the season uh the pole and european race two weeks two races ago

01:17:34running well last week in canada had an engine expire and mark webber's teammate looking on

01:17:39anxiously you having a long conversation that i've budded into yesterday david and you and frank

01:17:45durney the the williams uh engineer the old very old school williams engineer that's been around

01:17:51there for a thousand years right and i think he was saying that uh heidfeld very very impressed

01:17:55durney very impressed with him great technical feedback well frank durney was saying that frank

01:18:00williams had said to him would you go down to the test when we're testing nick heidfeld against

01:18:04antonio pizonia and he thought why are we why are we even bothering with the test he said pizonia's fine

01:18:09he's been testing for us for a couple of years he's a good driver he's a good lad he's he's

01:18:13good in the

01:18:13traffic good feedback so he said i went there i thought well i don't know what i'm bothering with

01:18:16this for he said by lunch time he said i was mildly impressed he said by the evening i was

01:18:22hugely

01:18:22impressed with the feedback the technical knowledge that heidfeld had his work ethic and the way he

01:18:27drove he said on the next day i was really impressed because it rained and he was the second the

01:18:33lap quicker

01:18:33than mark webber with the same seller so i guess nick heidfeld's got himself a niche now at bmw williams

01:18:41as long as they are bmw williams of course it makes such a difference for the engineers to be

01:18:46able to communicate with a driver on the same wavelength i mean if you happen to explain and

01:18:50sort of force information out of a driver it's so difficult to make forward progress that's what

01:18:54that's what sort of annoys the team that you can't move forward if you've got a driver that can

01:18:59communicate the feelings and the reactions of the car into technical data and technical ethics

01:19:03within the team they're bound to make progress and guys get this just before they launched the new car

01:19:09for this season right up until the night before they were actually going to announce the driver the

01:19:14second driver live and the drivers were going to find out at that moment it was going to be the

01:19:18ultimate

01:19:19reality formula one tv show with cameras on both guys one of whom of course was going to burst into

01:19:24tears

01:19:24the other room was going to jump for joy but at the last minute they decided it was probably unfair

01:19:29and they briefed uh both heidfeld and bitsonia an hour before the announcement but uh it would have

01:19:35been some impressive television going on there it would have been horrible for the guy that was i can't

01:19:39even begin to imagine anything as bad as that feudal system

01:19:48yeah right and doing some serious race speed lapping here have to assume the ryken and now on race fuel

01:19:55and have a look at those long runs

01:19:59we're watching scott speed of course there's the graphic in the red ball

01:20:05he'd like to get past villner but i know that at this stage what he just doesn't need that

01:20:11very good time there on those first two sectors it's just not he does not want this blocking him

01:20:16no that's his personal best in those first two sectors so scott speed trying but

01:20:23getting the draft now so that'll help him enormously

01:20:29jumps to eight jack villeneuve jack villeneuve obviously not going to make life easy for him

01:20:37no he's not is he no

01:20:43we switch on board with michael schumacher on the f 2005 but i think we saw scott speed there backing

01:20:49off and trying to create some distance between himself and villeneuve for attempt for a last fast

01:20:54lap in the closing two three minutes of this second session so scott speed jumps to eight villeneuve is

01:21:00still down in 16th once again at the end of this practice we'll go live to join final nascar next

01:21:07health cup practice from michigan international speedway in progress and that show will re-air here

01:21:12on speed channel in its entirety at 8 p.m eastern tonight in the meantime you nascar fans tuning in

01:21:18enjoy the final moments of formula one practice here at indy that's felipe masa in the sauber

01:21:24who has gotten the end swapped and here's his teammate about to go by villeneuve

01:21:30keep your eye out for scott speed who hung back there to try and get himself a another run poor

01:21:36old

01:21:36scott speed bought badly by villeneuve in the third sector of that last flying lap when we were watching

01:21:41speed he lost like half a second in that third sector that would have been a good lap for him

01:21:45it

01:21:45wasn't bad as it was he finished eight from the end of that lap no he would have been top

01:21:49five he would

01:21:50have trumped both of his teammates david coultard and of course christian clean he's down in 13th which

01:21:56is a long way down for him

01:22:10now that's massa's spin i think we're seeing there a replay of massa's spin

01:22:16nice 360

01:22:20turn seven just trying a little bit too hard to make the most that corner which is an important

01:22:26corner to to exit well and the problem is i think for these guys for sauber is well and a

01:22:31lot of the

01:22:31a lot of the runners around the mid pack they're taking wing off the car i mean a lot of

01:22:36the

01:22:36engineers were talking about this earlier on they're taking wing off the car to try and get

01:22:40the best possible straight line speed they can down that straight which is helping the lap times

01:22:44but then you really are relying on the driver's skill pure skill to control the car on that

01:22:49infield section where you need the downforce on the car it's a compromise isn't it well of course

01:22:55nearly a third of this lap is flat out 22 seconds and the average lap time is about

01:23:00um 75 77 seconds so you know 22 seconds is a little as a big part of the last it

01:23:08is yeah you

01:23:08can put wing on the car there's no problem you can you can crank more wing on the car to

01:23:12the regulations

01:23:13they're not running anywhere near the maximum downforce here so they could run more wing and

01:23:16they'd be very stable and very swift and nimble through this infield section you put them on the

01:23:21straight line down the front straight here and they'd lose so much time it just would not be

01:23:25the competitive way to build the car the challenge of formula one engineering challenge

01:23:40and the chequered flag falls for the end of the session

01:23:46so scott speed who we were hoping so much for i think he probably would have finished in the top

01:23:50five he hadn't been vaulted by villeneuve on that last lap of his uh ends up eight which is still

01:23:55a

01:23:55very respectable time into the 1 12 1. david kultad did a 1 12 0 so he's only he's less

01:24:02than a tenth of a

01:24:03second slower than kultad and obviously quite a bit quicker than christian clean did a 1 12 6.

01:24:16and on a day and on the same racetrack in which he came to prominence as winner of the indianapolis

01:24:23500

01:24:24but pablo montoya is the man in practice for the u.s formula one grand prix at indianapolis

01:24:36the work is just beginning now for these mechanics and engineers

01:24:41mark weaver's tires looking a bit ratty there that is right front tire there's a bit of build up on

01:24:45the

01:24:46shoulder of his left front time for some final thoughts let's go to derek dhilly

01:24:52well by my calculation scott speed has barely done a hundred laps in a formula one car believe it or

01:24:59not

01:24:59a little bit in europe a little bit in canada and now he comes here and i think he has

01:25:04done a

01:25:04spectacular job if he did lose any time behind jack villeneuve uh it would have been even more

01:25:10spectacular but i'm so pleased to see that scott speed is well capable of running at the front

01:25:16yeah i agree with you derek i think that was a great performance from scott no mistakes and he did

01:25:21show the potential pace there mclaren though what a session for them what what two sessions for them

01:25:26montoya and kimmy raikkonen very quick they're going to be very very hard to beat this weekend

01:25:33there is montoya being pushed back in in case you're new to formula one

01:25:38and they always do those little blip start practice things as they pull into their bits

01:25:44there you see the lineup as it is at the end of the two practice sessions today montoya mclaren

01:25:49raikkonen and mclaren in the 111 and less than a tenth slow to raikkonen two ferrari's with barichello and

01:25:55schumacher then old nick heidfeld going well again and the williams bmw david coultard

01:26:01de la rosa in the third mclaren we won't be seeing him again and there's scott speed there in eighth

01:26:05spot as the boys down the pit lane said he did a very very fine job today i think he

01:26:09could have been in

01:26:09the top five or six with a bit of luck fizzy keller there in the second of the renos in

01:26:1411th spot and

01:26:15then massa in the sound of patronus there on the mission we have to go a long way down again

01:26:20down

01:26:20the time sheets there until we come across any bridgestone tires but of course it's only three

01:26:25teams using the bridgestone tires this season and uh really the only team in the bridge zone

01:26:29are concerned about is ferrari and button and sato not having quite the day i thought they might have

01:26:33here after the fact that button put it on the pole last week in montreal poor old ralph schumacher down

01:26:38there with no time in the toyota because of that accident he had with what we suspected to be

01:26:43tire failure there is the man juan pablo montoya whose fans have come from the native columbia here

01:26:52to indianapolis to watch him shine and he has that'll do it for our friday coverage from indianapolis

01:27:00but be sure to join us again tomorrow when we start the day off at one in the afternoon eastern

01:27:04time

01:27:04with coverage of the second saturday practice session that will take us straight up to qualifying

01:27:09coverage of qualifying for the us grand prix will begin live at 2 p.m eastern time and finally on

01:27:15sunday at 1 30 p.m eastern speed channel is proud to bring you live coverage of the sixth united

01:27:21states

01:27:22formula one grand prix right here at the indianapolis motor speedway as always we'll kick things off with

01:27:28the accurate free ratio featuring peter windsor and derrick daly's famous grid walk for david hobbs

01:27:34steve matchup derrick daly and peter windsor i'm bob barsha if you could find my voice please dial

01:27:391-800-HELP-BOB we'll see you tomorrow for more practice and qualifying for the united states grand prix

01:27:45we'll send you now to the final nextel cup practice from michigan international speedway

01:27:50where mike joy larry mcrenynolds and daryl walter are standing by

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