24.09.2004 Ferrari, along with the rest of the Formula One teams, hit the brand new Shanghai circuit for the first time this morning, as practicing for Sunday's inaugural Chinese Grand Prix got underway

The first day of Shanghai has shown that this new track is a real challenge for both drivers and engineers. Its complex mix of slow and fast, short and long corners has produced an interesting set of variables to complicate the job of finding the right balance on the cars and evaluating tyres.

BAR-Honda’s third driver Anthony Davidson had been quickest in the morning and he repeated that performance in the afternoon, with a lap time of 1’33”289.

His team-mate Jenson Button, third in the championship behind the two Ferrari men, was second (1’34”174). Next came the two McLaren-Mercedes, with Kimi Raikkonen (1’34”289) ahead of David Coulthard (1’34”362).

Rubens Barrichello was the quickest of the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro drivers in fifth place (1’34”448) with Giancarlo Fisichella completing the top six for Sauber (1’34”680). Michael Schumacher set the eighth quickest time in 1’34”776. He completed 25 laps, four more than his team-mate.

Although both men enjoyed the experience of driving this new track, they feel there is still some work to do to find the best balance for the F2004, which is currently suffering with a bit of understeer. Engineers will now study all this brand new data acquired in order to formulate a plan for moving forward tomorrow.

Jean Todt: 'This has been an historic day for Formula 1, making its first appearance in China, the most heavily populated country in the world, which, for the past few years has been experiencing a period of amazing economic growth.

'As we were able to ascertain back in June, at its official opening, the Shanghai International Circuit is a grandiose facility, with some amazing avant-garde buildings.

'As for the track, the day was spent learning it, paying particular attention to finding the best set-up and evaluating the two types of Bridgestone tyre. Obviously, there is still much work to be done.

'However, I am confident that, after analysing the data we acquired, we will know how to find the right solutions in order to be competitive for the rest of the weekend.'

Rubens Barrichello: 'We had a pretty good day. I like the track very much and think it’s amazing. The number of corners and different lines into the corners make it interesting. It will be tough physically and I think there should be some good overtaking opportunities.

'This place is superb, but I don’t understand why there are not yet any Chinese F1 drivers, because on the roads it is mad. They say Brazilians make good racing drivers because of our traffic, but here they should have much better ones than us!'

Michael Schumacher: 'This has been an interesting Friday for us, mainly because it is a new circuit.

'We only saw it for the first time yesterday and today we tackled it for the first time in the car, when I got a slightly different impression. Several corners have a blind apex and, generally, it is a very challenging circuit.

'We still have to adapt our car to the demands of the track and it is not yet perfect. So there is still some work to be done. This morning, I had a small problem with software at the end of the session, but I am confident we can have a good weekend.'

Ross Brawn: 'We have not yet found a very good balance for the cars and we have a bit too much understeer. So we have some work to do overnight, even though we made some improvements in between today’s two sessions. But we are not where we want to be.

'The track is changing quite a lot at the moment, which does not help as it means we are trying to hit a moving target. Even without this minor difficulty, tyre choice would always have been a bit of an educated guess as this is a new track.'

Free practice - First session, Rubens Barrichello: 7th 1.36.660 14 laps chassis 240, Michael Schumacher: 15th 1.37.300 11 laps chassis 239, Temperatures: air 27/26°C, track 37/35°C

Free practice – Second session, Rubens Barrichello: 5th 1.34.448 21 laps chassis 240, Michael Schumacher: 8th 1.34.776 25 laps chassis 239, Temperatures: air 26°C, track 35/34°C