"In qualifying, we made it into the top ten 17 times, and on one occasion even got onto the second row of the grid. In the 17 races so far, we have made it into the points 15 times and even taken two podium places thanks to Nick in Budapest and Robert in Monza. The bottom line is that we are ahead of schedule but, even more important than that, is the fact that we have made steady progress during the course of the season. We are on a good path."
Spyker MF1 Racing – Tiago Monteiro (#18), Christijan Albers (#19):
With new owners and the season drawing to a close, Spyker MF1 continues to ring the changes at Interlagos with its fourth different reserve driver in as many events. This time, GP2 Series frontrunner Ernesto Viso takes over from
Adrian Sutil to make his F1 debut.
While Friday's two practice sessions will provide a platform for the Venezuelan to stake his claim to the one remaining race seat in the team for next year, the race line-up is unchanged for Brazil, with Christijan Albers - already signed up for 2007 - and Tiago Monteiro seeking to break Spyker's points duck. Even though the team has shown more promise than the Midland/Jordan team it replaced, it remains scoreless.
"It’s the last race, and it's amazing how quickly it goes," Monteiro admits, "Our goal is still to try and get a point. It’s going to be difficult, but we’re here to fight until the last minute of the last lap.
"We didn’t have so many opportunities this time, so we don’t have any points yet, but we’ve been a lot more competitive. It’s a bit of a mixed feeling - it was good to be closer in qualifying, being able to go into the second group sometimes, fighting for positions on track with other drivers, which didn’t happen last year much, but, on the other side, there’s been a lot of reliability from the other teams, not many people going off, not many people stopping on the track, and therefore not many chances to score points for us!"
