Ferrari Byrne-s midnight oil on qualifying problem

Ferrari chief designer Rory Byrne has been asked to focus on trying to improve the first lap performance of the F2005 in an attempt to give the teams' drivers a better chance in qualifying.

The South African took his first step towards retirement last winter, allowing this year's car to be overseen by understudy Aldo Costa, but the more liberated Byrne was still retained to tackle special projects - and his current work load includes the qualifying issue.

The team has struggled all year to find grip from its Bridgestones in the single-lap qualifying format, with Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello all to often gridding down the order simply because temperatures could not be generated quickly enough. The German admittedly qualified second at Montreal, but only because he was way lighter than anyone else in the field, including pole man Jenson Button.

"In testing, we're trying things to see if we can get a quicker lap from the tyres," technical director Ross Brawn revealed, "I wouldn't say we've made any great progress, but that's something we're having to deal with with Bridgestone, and something which will take a little bit of time to reach fruition. It's the preparation of the tyre, the set-up of the car to use them on that first lap, and so on and so on. We've not made huge progress, but there's a lot of work going on.

"It's the kind of project that Rory is involved in. Aldo is responsible for this car, and that's given us Rory's capacity to use on other projects. Rory crosses a lot of disciplines, from his huge experience as a race engineer, as a designer, and on the technical side.

"So this is one of the projects that Rory is involved in, to identify and develop first lap performance, and try and overcome our weakness. It's just his experience and racing mentality. Rory is a real racer. He'll do anything that's legal to find an advantage. He's a great lateral thinking mind."