| |
2004
WILLIAMS BMW, 2004 FERRARI, 2004 JAGUAR, 2004 TOYOTA, 2004 BAR HONDA:
- M SCHUMACHER
(FERRARI): "This car gives us a realistic chance of
fighting for the title .."
Driving
the new 2004 Ferrari, Schumacher set a record time of 56.279s (vs
previous record of 56.338s) at Fiorano track.
2004
WILLIAMS BMW (FW26) photo
2004 Williams
BMW car (FW26) was unveiled in January 2004. It has new BMW P84 engine,
new gearbox, differential and a unique twin keel front end based on
aerodynamic testing.
- WILLIAMS
(P HEAD): "... This has been the longest period in
Williams' history without a championship (last time was 1997) and
everybody is determined to correct that ... our target is quite
clearly both championships ... If the latest car you produce is
not the best one you have quite serious problems, but we have got
to be careful about coming out with too many superlatives until
we run the car ....
we have been around long enough to know we have to wait until we
see how it runs around the track .."
DRIVER
IMPRESSION:
- MONTOYA:
".... My first impression of the FW26 is very good.
The car doesn’t feel a lot different from last year’s,
which is a very good start and I think we have an excellent potential
car. I felt comfortable straight away and could push the car from
the outset .... in spite of the restrictions imposed by the new
rules, which give you less drag and make the car more difficult
under braking, everything feels just right ... we only completed
six hard laps, so I don’t want to sound too optimistic, but
there isn’t a single area that doesn’t work. I am very,
very pleased, I think this car has got a good future ..."
- R SCHUMACHER:
".... the car feels good, perhaps similar to the FW25.
I really have high expectations of the radical approach taken to
this new car. Of course the roll out on launch day does not tell
us much about the true performance of a new car and I only completed
three laps ..."
SPECIFICATION:
- ENGINE: BMW
P84
Non turbo 3L V10 ; 90 degrees
4 cylinders, 4 valves per cylinder
Aluminium engine block and cylinder head
Steel crankshaft:
Dry sump lubrication
- Transmission:
Williams semi-auto
- Clutch: AP
- Chassis: carbon
aramid epoxy composite
- Suspension:
Williams
- Steering: Williams
- Cooling: Water
and oil radiators
- Brakes: carbon
discs and pads; AP calipers
- Wheels: OZ:
13 x 12 F, 13 x 13.7 R
- Tyres: Michelin
- Seat: carbon
epoxy composite with alcantara covering
- Weight: 605
kg (including driver and camera)
2004
FERRARI (F2004) photo
2004 Ferrari car
(F2004) was unveiled on January 26, 2004.
- Rory
Byrne (Chief Designer):
"... Although the fundamental design philosophy of the F2004
is the same as its predecessors, in terms of optimising aerodynamic
efficiency, lowering of centre of gravity height and maximising
performance available from the Bridgestone tyres and 053 engine,
every area of the car has been revised in order to make a further
step forward on performance, so almost every component has been
redesigned. In addition all the systems have been reviewed to maximise
performance and service ability with the new race week-end timetable
and procedures. To summarise, there have been less fundamental but
more detailed changes made ..."
- Paolo
Martinelli (Engine director):
"... The majority of engine components have been revised or
designed from scratch: the engine can be adapted, or in technical-speak,
be 'mapped' to suit the requirements of the championship ... We
will not disclose a horsepower figure, but, at the risk of repeating
myself, rest assured that once again this year all the Ferrari engine
specialists have worked with diligence and determination in order
to produce 'enough' power, delivered in a useable and reliable fashion
in order to reach our objectives in the 2004 F1 championship..."
- M Schumacher:
"...I know that people were expecting the new car to look different,
but what matters is the result on the stopwatch. It does look similar
to last year’s car, which if I remember correctly was quite
good and won both championships! Now we must wait and see how the
winter testing goes, when we will have a better indication of its
potential"
- SCHUMACHER
SETS NEW RECORD AT FIORANO
Driving the new 2004 Ferrari, Schumacher set a record time
of 56.279s (vs previous record of 56.338s) at Fiorano track.
AFTER FIORANO TEST, 30 JAN 2004: "...I am quite happy with
the first test of our new car. I immediately had a feeling for it
... The F2004 was handling very well straight out of the box and
we achieved good and consistent lap times .."
AFTER FIORANO TEST, 31 JAN 2004: ".. This car gives
us a realistic chance of fighting for the title ... "
2004
JAGUAR (R5) photo
2004 Jaguar car
(R5) was unveiled on January 18, 2004.
- JAGUAR
(D PITCHFORTH): "... The Jaguar R5 is the first car
that we have been able to design completely from scratch with our
new management structure in place ... With our new philosophy
we are building on what we learnt from last season .."
- JAGUAR
COSWORTH (N HAYES):"... The CR6 V10 engine is a development
of last year's engine. So it remains a 90° V10, but we have
new longer-life requirements in 2004 thanks to the rule that means
we can only use one engine over a whole Grand Prix weekend. Previously
an engine would last for 450 - 500km but now we expect engines to
have to survive for around 800km so we've been doing a lot of work
on the CR6 to extract the best performance but at the right life
.... A lot of the components in a 2003 engine wouldn't last for
much more than a race, let alone a whole weekend, so much of our
recent work was seeing how we can extend the lifespan without hurting
performance .."
- KLIEN:
"... I cannot wait to get into the new car and begin what will
be a very intense few weeks of testing. With only six weeks until
the season's opening race, the workload will be very heavy but this
is what I have always dreamed of doing. There is a big difference
between everything in Formula One and where I came from in Formula
Three .."
2004
TOYOTA (TF104) photo
2004 Jaguar car
(R5) was unveiled on January 17, 2004.
- TOYOTA
(Chief Designer Gustav Brunner):"
...... We have adopted similar principles for the TF104 race car
to the ones we followed when producing the TF103. Using Toyota's
philosophy of continuous improvement, the fundamental concept was
again that of evolution not a revolution. The TF103 and TF104 may
appear visually similar, but we have looked at every single part
of the car, studied it, redesigned it and improved it. There is
no carry over from last year's car, but we have worked on every
single part to make it lighter, stiffer, more reliable and with
better overall performance .."
- TOYOTA
(L MARMORINI, Engine): "... With the new rules, we
have had to look at doubling the engine's life expectancy from 400km
to around 800km. Our guiding principles when designing the RVX-04
have been to increase the durability, whilst simultaneously maintaining
the driveability and the performance from 2003. I honestly do not
think that there will be such a drop in horsepower with the new
engines, but we have had to work a lot on the lifing. The RVX-04
was fired up on the dyno in October and was run for the first time
at a test on 25 November in the TF103B interim car...."
- TOYOTA
(M GASCOYNE, Chassis): "... The entire design team
has done a very good job on the TF104. It appears to be a solid
car, but we will have to wait for testing to see precisely how good
it is. 90% of chassis performance is in the car's aerodynamics,
and that has been the priority on the TF104. We now need to look
at ensuring short-term consistency to get the best from the car,
the drivers and the team in 2004, whilst concurrently adopting a
longer-term approach to get Toyota to the front of the grid in the
future."
2004
BAR HONDA (006) photo
2004 BAR Honda
car was unveiled on January 31, 2004.
- Geoffrey
Willis (Technical Director): ".... I am very confident that
we have made another big step forwards with the BAR Honda 006. It
has been a big challenge, particularly with the tough new engine
regulations, but has been ten months in design and represents another
milestone in our long-term strategy. Our main objective in 2003
was to establish a credible engineering base, and 2004 provides
us with the opportunity to use that credibility and be innovative
in design. We now have the extra resource of Honda engineers recruited
into the BAR design team, and we are beginning to see the benefits
of an integrated, stable engineering base. In addition, testing
with Michelin has given us the confidence that we have made good
progress this winter. By the time the first race comes around, we
will have completed almost three times as much testing as in the
same period last year, and that extra effort is already visible
in our greatly improved reliability. It is always difficult to predict
performance against other teams before the first race, but we are
certainly looking forward to getting the 006 on track .."
- Takeo
Kiuchi (Honda F1): "... We are very pleased with the
RA004E (engine) because, although we have doubled the engine life,
we have been able to make it lighter and smaller, with a lower centre
of gravity. As for the power output, it is already more powerful
than last year's final Suzuka engine and we plan further increases
before Australia. We have achieved this by improving the quality
of the parts and the precision of the structure, as well as reducing
vibrations further. We are confident that it will be a top class
engine .."
- Jenson
Button: "... The car is a major step forward. I think
the year will bring us podium finishes and, who knows, perhaps my
first win ...I feel very confident we are not overstating our aims
when we can say we can fight with the top three."
|
|
