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The 2004 FIA Formula One World Championship gets underway next Friday, 5 March, at the Albert Park street circuit in Melbourne, Australia. After an intensive winter testing programme, incorporating nearly 21,000km of chassis and engine performance and reliability work, as well as getting to grips with new tyre supplier Michelin, Lucky Strike BAR Honda is eagerly anticipating the first race of what has the potential to be its best season yet.

With the demise of Friday testing and the introduction of a single engine per weekend limit, BAR will be putting third driver, Anthony Davidson, to work during the two Friday practice sessions in order to gather vital set-up and tyre data for race drivers Jenson Button and Takuma Sato, who will be limiting their mileage.

Albert Park is a high downforce circuit, and one that is very popular with the drivers. The 5.303km track features a mixture of short straights and slow to medium speed corners, and requires the car set- up to have a balance of good traction and stability under braking, as well as being aerodynamically efficient. Teams face the problem of a green and dusty track on Friday, which takes time to clean. One unusual problem is ensuring leaves from the overhanging trees do not affect the running of the car. As Melbourne is much warmer than the venues visited in winter testing, it is also important for teams to ensure they have efficient cooling systems to cope with the high ambient temperatures.

Jenson Button on the Australian Grand Prix
"I can't wait for the season to start. We want to be strong from the off and if we can be quick in the first race it's only going to help our confidence and make us push on even more. The car has been very strong during winter testing and I'm expecting us to be reliable and to be fighting for podiums. I've never got a point at the Australian GP, so it would be really nice to start the season with points.

"I love Melbourne and I think it's the perfect place to start the season. It's a fantastic city and has some great restaurants. The track has a lot of straights and chicanes. There aren't many quick corners, but the racing is pretty good there. Qualifying was good there last year. We only did a few laps in practice, but still got a good result in the end. So last year was probably my best year yet.

"I still remember the first time I drove out on the circuit in 2000, I was behind Michael, driving out of the pits. It was pretty weird. I had only just turned 20 and there I was at my first Formula One race, driving out on the track behind Michael with all the leaves falling off the trees. It was just really cool. So that was my best feeling there. It will be pretty exciting to see what happens this year."

Takuma Sato on the Australian Grand Prix
"I am visiting Japan on the way to Australia and will be training hard before the first race. I have raced at Melbourne once before - it was my debut race - but I had a technical problem in qualifying. It was a great place to do my first Grand Prix though and is the perfect race to start the season with. We have been working very hard over the winter and have achieved some good testing results and so I am really looking forward to racing the new car for the first time.

"So many things can happen in Melbourne, and everyone has a chance. Hopefully we will be strong straight away - I am certainly confident and optimistic. Looking at the testing results and progress we have made I am sure we are in a much better position than before, and I am really excited about the first race of the new season."

David Richards, Team Principal
"I'm sure a lot of people believe the busiest time of year is over the summer months when they see us racing. However, the reality is that an enormous amount of hard work goes on at the factory and on test tracks during the winter months. We have tested our new car, the BAR Honda 006, extensively, and will see it race for the first time next weekend in Melbourne.

"Clearly the last race of the 2003 season was one of the highlights of our year and a great performance from the entire team. Seeing the way that Jenson and Takuma have continued to work together so well since then, and their testing times, I have little doubt that they will make a very strong combination. If we can deliver against our testing performance, which has been very encouraging, both drivers have a realistic chance of appearing on the podium at Albert Park."

Geoffrey Willis, Technical Director
"Melbourne is a great place to start the 2004 season, after the cold and damp of winter testing. The Albert park track is not particularly challenging for driver or car although brake wear is high and there have been cooling problems with the radiator ducts ingesting the autumn leaves. After a huge amount of pre-season testing we are confident in the level of performance of the new car as well as the reliability. We certainly have the potential to do very well here, the task of the team is to realise that potential and get both cars to the finish in the points.

"This is the first race with the new single-engine regulation so reliability will be at the top of everyone's attention and for most of the teams running on Friday will be quite limited. BAR has the advantage of running a third car on Friday with Anthony Davidson driving and the engineer and race drivers will need to maximise the benefit of this extra information for the race-tyre choice."

Shuhei Nakamoto, Engineering Director, Honda Racing Development
"We have all put a huge amount of effort into design, development, dyno and circuit testing of the new engine, and into the joint chassis development work with BAR. Now we are looking forward to seeing exactly how we will perform against the other teams when it counts. The excitement of the season opener is a very special feeling, and I can't wait for the race weekend to start."

Naja - die Testfahrten sind immer ziemlich nichtssagend. Ich kann mich jetzt nicht daran erinnern, daß Kimi irgendwann mal 2 sec schneller war. Ich weiß nur, daß Jenson einige Streckenrekorde gebrochen hat im Laufe der Testfahrten. Ich bin also nach wie vor positive gestimmt, daß das was vernünftiges wird dieses Saison - wo man zumindest auf manchen strecken die McLaren-Pace halten kann.

Gruß
Frank

LOL - da hat die Bild ja dann wohl wieder ganze Arbeit geleistet. Und was wäre es für ein Skandal, wenn die Bild einen sogenannten "Button" lobpreisen würde ... :-D

Gruß
Frank

ps.: bin auch heiß aufs nächste WE!

Stimmt schon, der Takuma hatte manchmal so seine Probleme die Streckenbegrenzung zu respektieren - hoffen wir mal, daß es am leicht demolierten Auto lag, und sich das noch bessert! ;o)

Dann poste ich der Vollständigkeit halber auch noch den Race-Report:

Lucky Strike B.A.R Honda's Jenson Button got his 2004 season off to an encouraging start, crossing the line sixth at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, scoring three championship points for himself and the team. Team-mate Takuma Sato just missed out on a points finish as he brought his B.A.R Honda home in ninth place.

Conditions remained fine and dry at Albert Park (air 18, track 24) as the 58 lap race got underway to signal the start of the 2004 season. Jenson Button held fourth place off the grid but Fernando Alonso (Renault) managed to tuck in ahead of him during the first corner jostle. The Briton came in for his first pit stop for fuel and tyres on lap 11 and was back up into fourth place by lap 15 once the first round of pit stops was completed.

Button moved up into third position when Alonso pitted on lap 24 but three laps later the Honda-powered driver came in for his own second stop and by lap 32 was running in fifth place. Sixth placed Juan Pablo Montoya began to catch Button and on lap 38 the Williams driver managed to dive past, forcing the Briton onto the grass and into sixth position. The B.A.R Honda driver continued unscathed and came in for his third and final pit stop on lap 42. Despite setting consistently quick lap times, Button could not catch the Columbian and went on to cross the line sixth, scoring three championship points for himself and B.A.R Honda.

Takuma Sato fell back two places to ninth at the start of the race due to first corner traffic and touching the Renault of Jarno Trulli. The Japanese driver held ninth position until lap 12 when he came in for his first of three scheduled pit stops. The team was able to inspect the B.A.R Honda 006 for damage sustained in Sato's first lap incident, as well as change tyres and refuel. Sato rejoined in 10th place and held position despite a brief detour over the grass at the end of start finish straight on lap 17. On lap 28 he pitted for fuel, tyres and a new nosecone, and four laps later Honda-powered Sato was back in 10th place, moving up to ninth position on lap 40 when Felipe Massa ran wide. Late in the race Sato was on a charge to catch McLaren's David Coulthard but had to leave the track on lap 46 for his final pit stop. The B.A.R Honda driver rejoined in ninth place and went on to finish the race just shy of a points finish.

Ferrari's Michael Schumacher dominated the Australian Grand Prix and took the chequered flag for the fourth time in the last five years. He was joined on the podium by team-mate Rubens Barrichello and Renault's Fernando Alonso. Fourth and fifth place were taken by the Williams duo of Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya while B.A.R Honda's Jenson Button finished sixth. Jarno Trulli (Renault) and McLaren's David Coulthard took the final two point scoring positions.

Shuhei Nakamoto - Engineering Director, Honda Racing Development:
"Overall this weekend was an encouraging start to the season. We're satisfied because both engines ran smoothly and the pit stop work was also very good. We need to keep pushing on with the development to further improve our performance throughout the year."

Jenson Button Position: 6th
"It's good to finish in the points in the first race and have three points under my belt already. It's the first time I've finished with points in Australia. My start wasn't particularly great and it was very slippery out there, but I managed to hold on to fourth for some time. Ralf was able to get past me in the pitstop when we had a delay with the refuelling nozzle. Then Montoya got by on the circuit. I think we need a little more in the way of race pace but it's a solid start to the season. We had good reliability but then so did everyone else, which was quite surprising given the predictions. It's tough but at least we were up there with the competition throughout. We need to keep the momentum going now and hopefully we can look forward to better things in Malaysia in a couple of weeks."

Takuma Sato Position: 9th
"It was quite a busy race. The start was good but then I was squeezed into the first corner and made contact with the Renault, damaging my nosecone. The team asked me if there was any problem but as it was the first lap and I had no reference for commenting on the car balance. At the first pitstop though, we found some damage to the nose and we changed it at the second stop. Immediately the car felt much better and I was able to consistently lap a second quicker than in the first stint, so it had clearly upset the car. The car felt good throughout the second and third stints but then after the third stop, the gurney started to lift from the rear wing and it was flapping around for the last few laps, upsetting the airflow quite a bit. I'm a little bit disappointed with ninth to be honest, but I'm pleased we got both cars to the finish in the first race. The reliability of all the teams has been quite surprising but everyone has done a lot of work in testing over the winter. Generally, a good start to the year for the team but I'm sure we can do better in Malaysia."

Press Release
Honda

Nix copy&paste - alles in Mühevoller kleinarbeit abgetippt!

Gruß
Frank

ps.: in dem ein oder anderen Beitrag sind sicherlich Infos daraus eingeflossen!