June 19, 2004
For the first race since the Phoenix F1 teams inception, Antonio Irisarri is absent from the Driver line-up at a Grand Prix weekend!

Of course, Antonio is having a well deserved two race break (he's actually in the USA and going to see the real US GP - he may even bump into Ryan McConkey, who knows!).

All this leads to the Phoenix F1 team having perhaps their strongest driver line-ups for Canada (Joe Consiglio and Daniel Wilkinson) and the USA (Kieran Ryan and Daniel Wilkinson) back to back events.

The Phoenix F1 team boss was very excited about his teams prospects at both these events.

Andy Graydon

"Daniel has turned out twice so far this season for us - qualifying 11th but racing to 2nd and 5th. Yet again we have Daniel in 11th on the grid for Canada, and we know his race pace will provide us with a strong result. As for Joe, it's actually only the 2nd time he's driven the car (he turned up for a private test pre-2004 season) and to put it 3rd on the grid was an amazing achievement - he's bound to be a bit rusty with his last F1VWC race being Monza 2003!

All in all, we have two cars who will be super competitive in the race and with strategies which should cover all the options - in many ways we are 'edging our bets' to ensure we have the best opportunity to score well here in Canada".

Consiglio drives to 3rd on the grid at Montreal.

Clearly he has lost none of his pace!

Wilkinson in Canada - 11th in every qualifying session in 2004 so far

Should we expect him to be running heavy with fuel again?

Although Daniel Wilkinson was not available for comment following his Qualifying effort (he was locked in his motor-home with his race engineer apparently trying to find ways of going quicker in race trim), we managed to catch up with Joe Consiglio - who was quite pleased with the progress he has made so early into his return to racing:-

Joe Consiglio

"Yeah i'm quite happy with 3rd place. It's nice to be back in such a great league with such a great team! After being with Stealth GP for so long I was a little concerned about being in a new team - but we've all gelled really well, seems like I've been here for years!

My lap was okay, I think with a bit more running time Pole may have been possible but 3rd is a good place to start from. I have a sensible strategy and I'm really looking forward to race.

I know the team are desperate for their first victory, I will drive at 110% to try and give it to them. Unfortunately guys like Cotter, Whiteman, Jakonen and Elencevski will be hard to beat! Also don't underestimate Daniel starting from 11th place, he is always fast in race trim!"

So, with a dry track forecast for race day in Canada, the Phoenix F1 team are looking strong for a big points haul towards their Constructors Championship quest, and perhaps that elusive first win.

"Yes, its possible we could challenge for victory here in Montreal" commented Andy "but it will be tough with the level of competition both in front AND behind us. But we will be trying our best. If we can't win here then I'm sure we'll have a strong chance again at Indianapolis with Daniel and Kieran Ryan (making his debut for the team)".