Jos: “tough weekend ahead of us”

Published on 26 July 2001 by John ter Meer

We spoke to Jos this morning by mobile phone as he was on his way to the Hockenheim circuit. His manager Raymond Vermeulen who was driving the car, was fined twenty German Marks by the German police because of a road offence. “A half an hour delay”, grumbled Jos. “Next time I’ll take my scooter, I’m sure that’s faster.”

Time for some serious stuff; what does Jos expect of the race at Hockenheim? “It will be a tough weekend for us. We didn’t test at Monza, which is an ideal circuit to prepare yourself for a low downforce circuit like Hockenheim. So we won’t know exactly where we stand until we start our free practice sessions on Friday. We will have to work very hard on Friday and Saturday, that’s for sure. We’ll be short on topspeed and on acceleration as well, so it will also take a while to reach that topspeed.”

Any modifications to the car, so far? “Yes, but not for this circuit”, Jos says. We’ve made some changes to the front wing and the front suspension, but we will not have any advantages of these changes until the race in Hungary.”

And, Jos, how is Raymond doing? Smiling again? “Yes, he's laughing on the wrong side of his face.”