F1: British GP Tyrrell preview

• mitchmcc@ultranet.com (Mitchell McCann)
• UltraNet Communications, Inc.
• Fri Jul 12 10:03:00 EDT 1996

TYRRELL'S COMING HOME!

Racing in England has always been special to Tyrrell Yamaha and
this year's British Grand Prix will again be a seasonal highlight
for the Surrey-based organisation. In preparation for its home
Grand Prix, the team tested at Silverstone this week with two cars,
race drivers Ukyo Katayama and Mika Salo and test driver Emmanuel
Collard.

On Wednesday (July 3), in wet conditions, Mika drove 36 laps and
set a best time of 1 min 52.0 sec. Emmanuel drove 32 laps with a
best time of 1 min 51.5 sec. On Thursday (July 4), in changeable
weather conditions, Ukyo drove 40 laps and set a best lap of 1 min
29.64 sec; Mika drove 30 laps with a best time of 1 min 31.1 sec.

Harvey Postlethwaite, Managing Director - Engineering, said: "In
the past few weeks, our performance has been spoilt by reliability
problems. We have been working hard at home and with Yamaha and I
am confident that we will see an improvement.

"This week's test was the last one before the race weekend and we
concentrated on set-up work. Despite difficult weather conditions,
rain on Wednesday and high winds on Thursday, we made good
progress. Mika tested a different front suspension geometry and
Ukyo tried several small set-up changes and a new rear wing which
improved the balance of the car. On Wednesday, Emmanuel drove well
in the wet and it was nice to see that he was not put off by the
rain. He set competitive times and it's a pity we could not run him
in the dry."

After the test, Mika Salo said: "We had two good days of work and
improved the balance of the car, especially in the wet. I'd like to
perform well next weekend because it's the team's home Grand Prix
and it would be a good reward for the boys. The lay-out of the
circuit is better but it is not as good as it used to be when I was
racing there in Formula 3. The British Grand Prix will be very hard
for me because you have to wake up very early to avoid all the
traffic jams, and I am not very good at that!"

Ukyo Katayama commented: "We had a good test on Thursday and made
significant progress with the set-up. The British Grand Prix is
better than any other race because we can test before the weekend
so we should have an advantage over the teams based on the
continent. We should perform well here and I would love to score
points for the team's home Grand Prix..."

Mike Gascoyne, Deputy Technical Director commented: "Silverstone
has been modified and improved over recent years and is now one of
the safest circuits on the calendar with some very good facilities.
It has a good mixture of challenging high speed corners and slower
sections. The track is fairly bumpy. It's essential to get a good
car balance which allows you to run less wing to ensure good
straight line speed. We have done quite a lot of testing here so
the cars should go well."

The British Grand Prix will be held on the 5.072 kms/3.152 miles
Silverstone circuit near Northampton in the north of England. The
61 lap, 309.392 kms/192.288 miles race will start at 14:00 hours
local time on Sunday 14 July and is expected to last around one
hour thirty five minutes.


Chassis numbers:  Car 18, Ukyo Katayama:   05
                  Car 19, Mika Salo:       04
                  Spare car, Salo:         02
                  Spare chassis:           03



--
     The F1 FAQ on the Web
http://www.ultranet.com/~mitchmcc