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DRIVERS: Rubens BARRICHELLO
(Honda), PEDRO DE LA ROSA (McLaren Mercedes), Fernando ALONSO (Renault),
Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN (Ferrari)
Q: Pedro, how much has your role changed this year? Are you still doing
pretty much what you have always been doing?
Pedro de la ROSA: My role is pretty much unchanged. Obviously, we are very
limited on mileage during the testing season and we have to maximise every
mile we do and every set of tyres. From that point of view it hasn’t changed
at all.
Q: So perhaps you can describe what that is.
PdlR: It is the normal work that a test driver needs to do. First of all you
have to be at every grand prix as a reserve driver and that’s why I am here.
Secondly at the test sessions I am testing anything that is required by the
team, backing all that work up in the simulation facilities at Woking and
being of any help for the team. It is very similar to before but basically
doing less kilometres at the track and spending more time in the simulator,
so it is great fun.
Q: You are not frustrated at not racing?
PdlR: Yes, of course it is frustrating not racing. I have to be realistic as
I am at that point of my career where I don’t have many more years left. Not
because of me but because of the other people’s perception unfortunately.
Every year that goes by it is just getting closer to a point where I won’t
be able to race again. I am aware of that. I am a realistic person and I am
just hoping that something happens for me.
Q: Lewis had a little blip at the last race. How were you able to help him
during that weekend and how have you been able to help him since?
PdlR: A blip? What do you mean? A blip could mean also to go up. We hope
that the blip comes here. Yes, he had a bad weekend but all we can do from
the team’s point of view is to make sure that we make it as simple as
possible for him not to make any mistakes. That’s what we have been
focussing on for the past few weeks, to make sure that this won’t happen
again. Not that he has to change anything, but from our point of view we
make sure that is simpler for him to activate everything he has to from the
cockpit.
Q: Does your role include driver coach, giving advice to drivers or anything
like that?
PdlR: That’s not a part which is included in my contract but obviously I am
just trying to be helpful for everyone. I am just trying to listen as much
as I can and know what the biggest problems are. For example this afternoon
I will walk around the track and see if there is anything I can see. During
test sessions I am driving around the corners on the side-road just to see
with my eyes if I can help. If I see anything I don’t like I go to the guys
and I just tell them. I am very open and they can rely on me fully. They
know I will always help, that’s my role.
Q: Rubens, I think in Turkey it will be 257 times you have turned up to a
race. Looking back at the last race you didn’t look like a driver about to
retire, giving Fernando quite a hard time. What was that like?
Rubens BARRICHELLO: It was bad. We were fighting for 10th place. I wish it
were first and second. That would have been a lot better. He was having
plenty of problems with his rear wing and I was having a lot of understeer
on the car. Unfortunately in Formula One nowadays it is still very
impossible to overtake. Hopefully in the future, if slicks really come into
play, that will be the way to go. To play with a lot less aerodynamic
devices and with a lot more grip from the ground and from the tyre that will
give us the chance to follow other cars. As soon as I caught him I turned
the revs down because there was nothing I could do. I was five kph slower on
the straight. I feel very motivated. You talk to the young guys and they are
all sort of fed up with F1, too much to do, PR. My life has kept on getting
better and better. The first year with Honda I really did a lot of PR. But
they put things in place and I am focussing and putting my energy on the
car. I have been working quite hard. Last week I did 140 laps around
Barcelona which I thought was phenomenal. I still feel young on that side. I
am just going to prove Pedro wrong. I think I have many more years left.
Q: Going back to the car. Do you think you are close to scoring points?
RB: We had a god improvement last week and obviously the first race was what
it was and we would have finished in the points already with the car. But
the first race is always a bit crazy anyway. In Malaysia we were far out and
in Bahrain we had the pace but we did not have the straight line speed to
overtake. But I think we are very close to the points. I think Barcelona is
open on that. The car is a good time better. I don’t know how much
improvement the others made because last week was very difficult to read. It
was slicks on the car, people with less fuel and more fuel, so it was really
difficult to see. But the car is better – definitely better. We have made an
improvement and hopefully that is going to put us on Q3 all the time and
that will lead us to points and more.
Q: It would be a nice way to celebrate your record. Apparently the
celebrations are going to last several races?
RB: There is a little bit of confusion. You ask everyone and the numbers
seem to go up and down, so we decided to take Turkey because that is the
races I have taken part in. The ones that are not happy with that, because
it seems too early, then we have three races to celebrate – the Brazilian
way.
Q: Fernando, the car has been modified quite a lot. Outward particularly –
things that we can see – but obviously inwardly as well. How are you feeling
about the modifications since Bahrain?
Fernando ALONSO: I think we made a step forward in terms of competitiveness
of the car and we will see this weekend what the result is. I think as
Rubens said last week it was difficult to read times as it was a mix of
slick tyre and more or less fuel between the teams, so you know we tried to
concentrate on our performance and our car and I think we gained a couple of
tenths in the car. We will see if it is able or not to make us easy in Q3
and not have the problems we had in the first few races and hopefully
regularly get in the points. Obviously we were in Australia, we just had one
point in Sepang and were not in the points in Bahrain. This is not possible
for us, so we need to raise our level and hopefully here is the starting
point.
Q: You have been in the top four here for the last five years including a
win from pole position. What are the chances of maintaining that record?
FA: Very difficult this year. It is true that every time I come here to my
home grand prix I had always the possibility to fight for the pole position
and fight for the victory. If not, the podium was a real possibility always.
This year I don’t think it is a real possibility, just a dream as it was in
the first few races. Something strange needs to happen during the race if we
want to reach the podium now. Hopefully this will be the first step we need
to do during this season to be close to the podium. Sooner or later we need
to start improving the car and I think this race will be the first
opportunity to see if we are going in the right direction.
Q: The President of Ferrari had some interesting comments to make about your
chances of joining Ferrari in the near future it would seem. Did they come
as a surprise to you?
FA: No. I have nothing to say. People talk about me, normally very often,
which is good. It seems I am quite famous here. Part of that I respect
everybody.
Q: A lot of the press thought that you would be going to Ferrari next year.
But you weren’t expecting to?
FA: I don’t expect anything. This is only the fourth race of the
championship. I try to be better and better every year – a better driver.
This year will be a tough season for me. It seems I will race in the middle
of the group always, so at the end of the year I will be a better driver and
for next year we will see.
Q: Kimi, what does it mean for you to be leading the championship at this
time of the year, coming here for the start of the European season?
KIMI RÄIKKÖNEN: Of course it’s nice but the season is only a few races old.
It is a long way to go and it doesn’t help if you are leading now and you
can’t keep it up and lead when it really matters. But so far it has been
pretty okay. It could have been better at the start of the season but we are
leading in the points, so I need to be happy.
Q: You won here in 2005 but it hasn’t been a fantastic circuit for you this
one, has it?
KR: No, last year we didn’t finish. I think we only did nine laps in the
race. I can’t remember all the things that have happened here but usually
they are not very good results. It can turn around. Hopefully this year we
can be strong and finish the race at least. We will see how it goes
tomorrow.
Q: How do you feel about the modifications made to your car since Bahrain?
KR: I don’t really have a clear picture about it. I did four or five laps in
the dry and it was a bit damp. The team is happy how we improved the car and
we brought some new parts and they seem to work. It should be better. I
tried the new front on a few laps on intermediates, so we will see how it
goes over the weekend, how the car goes. It should be better than it was in
previous races.
Q: So tomorrow will be a real discovery for you in comparison?
KR: I have been here before in dry conditions and every time you improve the
car it should make it better. We have some work to do but I think for sure
we can be fast here.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) To Alonso, can you confirm you
are using the mass damper here? If you are, is it a new motivation for you
and your team to improve in the championship?
FA: No, we are not using the mass damper. We are using a different concept
of suspension but most of the teams are using it already, so we just will be
similar to everybody from this race.
Q: (Dan Knutson – National Speed Sport News) Kimi, how do you see the
hierarchy between Ferrari, McLaren and BMW? Is the fight between the two of
you or is BMW also a threat now?
KR: I mean they were second best in the last race, so for sure they are
there. I think it all depends from race to race. If you look at the last
couple of races they are very similar and we are a little bit ahead of them.
I don’t know how it is going to be here. We need to wait and see really but
it is going to be close between all the three teams.
Q: (Anne Giuntini – L’Equipe) Pedro, has your role this season with two
quite young drivers become even more major than it was last season with
Fernando in the team?
PdlR: No, it is exactly the same really. The only thing for me that changes,
that is more demanding every year for a test driver, is that you have very
little kilometres available to you and whenever you are sat behind the wheel
driving you have to be fully prepared. There is no room to have a run to
feel warm and feel the car again. You have to prepare very well physically
outside of the car because you are not that often in the car. That for me is
the biggest challenge and maximising every kilometre you have. Every
kilometre is a jewel you have and you have to use it. That’s why I think my
experience is important. But from a driving point of view, the fact that
they are young and Heikki being new to the team, it hasn’t changed much
really. Fernando was new to the team last year, so it was a little bit the
same.
Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Fernando, were you expecting
some bigger improvements from the test?
FA: No not really. We had what we were expecting and we are quite happy with
the car and the improvement we did. But, as I said, maybe we will not be
happy anymore tomorrow when we see the others and they are quick as well. I
think we did a god job and probably the others teams did a good job as well.
It is just a matter of which team took the biggest step and we are
optimistic we can improve, but we must improve what we did in the first few
races. So let’s start from this race.
Q: (Toni Lopez – La Vanguardia) Question for Pedro and Fernando, today, the
FIA has launched a campaign against racism. Do you agree that it starts here
and now in Barcelona?
PdlR: He’s a two-time World Champion, he should take…
FA: He’s from Barcelona, so…
PdlR: I don’t really know what to say. I was not aware of that and all I can
say is that the Spanish people will show to the world how good they are this
weekend, and how good historically they’ve been. We’ve never had any
problems here before and we will never have (them again). Wait and see. But
I was not aware of this campaign or anything to be honest.
FA: Same. I was not aware but this weekend it will be OK and it will always
be OK here. Everybody will be able to see that.
Q: (Jerome Bourret – L’Equipe) To Kimi and Fernando, can you imagine, during
your career, racing two hundred and sixty GPs or will you be fed up with the
PR etc before that point?
KR: What, whether I will do two hundred and sixty something races? I don’t
even know how many I have now but probably not.
FA: I don’t know, I don’t know. I don’t think so either. I don’t know how
many I have at the moment either, but 260 seems too many years.
RB: By the time that I finish I will have three hundred anyway, so…
FA: The problem is Rubens. Without Rubens you can go for the record but with
him it will be tough.
Q: (Dan Knutson – National Speed Sport News) After the test here there was a
lot of discussion about the coming ban of tyre warming blankets. A lot of
series don’t have tyre-warming blankets and have pit stops. Is that going to
be a problem for F1, to have this ban?
PdlR: My personal point of view is that obviously it’s a matter of safety.
Running without tyre warmers, tyre blankets, obviously increases the
chances… or makes the speed difference between the car that comes out of the
pit lane and the car that is on a flying lap much greater, so the
possibility of an accident is higher. We have seen the bigger accidents over
the past few years happen when one car is slower than another, not
necessarily a car is stopped on the track. The speed difference is a safety
issue for me, that’s my point of view, so that’s what I am saying. I’ve
raced all my career without tyre warmers but it’s quite different in Formula
One, mainly because the compounds or the compound-operating window is very
narrow in Formula One. So until they are at a very high temperature, they do
not work at all. In other categories you have a much more progressive
build-up of temperature and grip, so it’s easier. I find it more difficult
here.
RB: Well, I think there are good and bad points to be honest. On the one
hand people want to see some overtaking which is fair. We all want to see
that, but the problem is that I think Formula One could become quite boring.
People will invent a car that has a big tank again and whoever stays on the
track gains the advantage of that one pit stop. I think at the end of the
day it will become a little bit too much like IndyCars or something like
that which is fine, but I think Formula One is about the competitiveness of
what’s going on on the track. To add to that, I’ve also raced throughout my
whole career before Formula One without tyre blankets but I never saw
something like this. You go out of the pits and you already have a chance to
spin out of the garage, and when you get to the first corner, it’s like an
ice rink and so with that, if you get conditions like we’ve had at
Nürburgring in the past or any race that is very cold and we take the wrong
tyres, then it’s going to be very, very dangerous.
FA: Yes, same thing. I think it’s dangerous. As Pedro says, the speed
difference between the cars and as Rubens said, the races will become boring
because you need to stay on the track. When you pit, over the next two laps
you will be eight seconds slower, so you cannot be creative with the
strategy or anything like that, so it will become more boring. I know that
in some other categories they don’t have tyre blankets like IndyCars, but
they don’t have any corners either, they go around. I think Formula One is
different, the compounds are different and as Rubens said, we should look
for the maximum performance in the car. We are in Formula One, so it needs
to be the peak of motor sports. And (the notion of) saving costs is a little
bit ridiculous.
KR: I haven’t run the tyres at all, so I don’t really have any idea how it
will be but I heard that, as Rubens and everybody else said, it’s going to
be very difficult, so I’m not really in the right place to say. But if it’s
purely for saving money, it’s the wrong place to save money. It’s not much
and they are going to spend the same money somewhere else anyhow, so…
Q: So Pedro, is the GPDA planning to do anything about this?
PdlR: Well, first of all we are going to talk between ourselves to see what
is the majority agreement of the GPDA and then we will act accordingly. We
are very relaxed about it, we are not in a hurry. We were waiting until this
week, because I tested the tyres at Jerez back in early December, I think,
and it was extremely dangerous. It was very cold and I nearly put the car
into the pit wall, just coming out of the garage. The car didn’t turn and I
nearly hit the wall, so it would have been quite embarrassing if I had done
so, but I just avoided a stupid accident. And then, when we came here,
Bridgestone has made some further steps and now the tyres are easier to warm
up, so they are working at a lower temperature range. They are still
difficult; we were waiting for these tests to happen, so that we could have
a meeting between the drivers who had done the tests with the tyres and then
decide accordingly. We are pretty relaxed, we just know that the FIA will
listen to us and we just have to be sure that we all have the same criteria,
that’s all.
Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) To all of you, considering the
information about the 2009 aerodynamic package that you have, do you think
it’s a good direction for Formula One? Will it be easier to drive, easier to
overtake?
RB: I think it follows the rule that I think all drivers want which is less
aero and better mechanical grip, but whether it will be good or not is a bit
too far ahead to know. But I think it is, it’s a step that… Honestly, I
don’t know how we got into the grooves. We raced go-karts, formula cars and
everything on slick tyres and all of sudden, for a boy who dreamed of racing
in Formula One, they have this tyre that is just ugly. Of course,
Bridgestone has done a super job with the tyres because we are going faster
and faster, but you saw last week that when we put slick tyres back on the
cars, even though it was a hard compound, we went 2.5s faster. That’s the
way it should be: slick tyres.
PdlR: I would add that where we are, or where we think that the regulations
should be for next year, or what I am aware of, is that it’s definitely in
the right direction. These new regulations come from a thorough study by the
technical working group and everyone involved in the FIA and there’s some
scientific proof that less downforce and more mechanical grip will improve
overtaking opportunities. Still, Formula One will always be Formula One,
it’s going to be more difficult than motorbikes – here in Spain there’s
always this tendency of comparing both – and we just have to be aware of
that. It’s definitely in the right direction. I am very comfortable with
that.
RB: Back in ’98, when I first tested the tyre, I had a crash that I really
thought I was going to stop, but because of the lack of mechanical grip
caused by the tyre, I kept on spinning and crashed. So I think we depend a
lot on the grip level of the tyre. If we have the whole tyre on the ground,
it’s going to help a lot on the safety side as well.
Q: (Carlos Miquel – Diario AS) Kimi, do you agree with Montezemolo when he
says it might not be good for Ferrari to have Fernando Alonso as your
team-mate?
KR: (Laughs) It’s better that I don’t say anything. |
