China: Rubens Barrichello in the Fastest Three

By Phil Huff
October 1 2006

Rubens Barrichello's third place on the grid meant the Honda Racing F1 driver had to take to the press conference. Alongside Fernando Alonso and Giancarlo Fisichella, here's what he had to say.

Rubens, welcome back, first time in the top three since Imola; you love these conditions, equalling your team mate's lap time to a thousandth of a second.

Well, that's very impressive. When I saw that the time was exactly the same as my team mate's, what can the team expect? We took the maximum out of the car and obviously it's a little bit down to luck but after I had my spin in Q2 and I recovered from that, I think that pumped me up so much. As Fernando and Giancarlo were saying, turn one was so difficult, so difficult, that it was impossible to actually push at some points, and when I spun, I completely lost the car but the gravel stopped me at a point when I was on the grass and still with the engine running, so I went into Q3… it was all pluses from there on and the car was working fine, so hopefully we have a good strategy for tomorrow and it puts the Honda onto the podium.

I guess there's no reason to ask you what conditions you are hoping for tomorrow.

Well, it looks like we're competitive in the wet. Following some of the other cars, I could see that we were faster than some of the guys, so it was quite good. But as Fernando said, it's up and down if it's wet. I love the wet, everybody knows that, it has worked my way so many times. I've won races in the wet, I love that, but if it's a dry race it's probably safer and better for the public.

What are your feelings about the session?

It went very well obviously and I think since I joined the team it has been an improvement all the time. I know people seem to think there was a dip through the last two or three races, but it is quite different for me, it is not harder or easier. Every time I hit a new track with this car, it is catching up and improving all the time and for instance, since yesterday, I was a bit lost and the team did a great job to change the car around and the car performed a lot better this morning. So, there is a little bit of catching up all the time and you can see that I progressed quite well throughout the qualifying and it was difficult today. There were a lot of cars and sometimes you get out of the pits and you don't see a blue flag anywhere in front of somebody and the same happened to me so many times and there were people getting out and there was traffic all the time. The team was good and we were lucky to get the times at the right time and in qually three I was able to set a quick time straightaway and that put me into the first two rows.

Obviously you are looking to win the race and, in spite of the margin, can you challenge the Renaults tomorrow?

Well, they look very fast. They look too fast for us at this moment, but the thing we have improved a lot since the beginning of the year is that our car performs well at the race. So it is getting better all the time and I think we can see it in the rear tyres quite a lot so there is always a good chance to challenge everyone and I hope I can definitely get to the podium tomorrow. That is the most important thing for me.

Third on the grid here, points in last three races, things are going well, but I want to go back earlier in the year when after so many years with a different team, how long did it take you to become really in tune with a new team?

Well, I am still learning in a way. It's not easy to change schools and get new friends all at once. There are some times when you have to back off in decisions and some times when you have to pressure -- so some people like and dislike, but you get on with life. And, sometimes, you think it was easier at Ferrari because I knew all of them and I am still learning and learning a lot, not talking about the car, but the people and the engineers and everything. I mean obviously, right now, Jock can look at me and know what I want from the car, but to get them believing in you it can take some time so I'm still learning and they are still teaching me and most important is that it is a pleasure.