By Phil Huff
April 4 2003

Interlagos poses an interesting set of challenges. There is a special combination of two lengthy straights and the infield complex which places different demands on car set-up, according to Sauber Petronas Technical Director, Willy Rampf. "The straights obviously require low downforce to minimise drag, whereas on the infield you want high downforce to generate maximum grip, so there is a definite compromise to be struck. You also need to do your homework on the mechanical set-up, with the springs and rollbars, to find the most suitable means of dealing with the circuit's numerous bumps. This year it will be even more difficult to achieve this compromise because of the reduced time in practice and qualifying. Normally you would need very different set-ups for qualifying and for the race. For qualifying you needed high downforce, but for the race you would tend to go for high straightline speed so the drivers had a chance of overtaking. Now you have to run in the race the way that you qualified, so I think we could see an interesting grid."

Nick Heidfeld (52 GPs, 1 point 2003) added "Interlagos is a good circuit. It's quite bumpy and it´s a tough race because the track runs anti-clockwise whereas our neck muscles tend to be conditioned to clockwise circuits, and there are some long corners. It's challenging, especially Turn Six which is quite quick and quite blind."

Heinz-Harald Frentzen (143 GPs, 3 points 2003) finished with "I've always liked Interlagos. It´s a very challenging circuit and you have to work hard to get the car set-up just right. It´s a hard race because of the nature of the circuit, but it flows well and it is very enjoyable to drive on. I´m looking forward to scoring more points.