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DRIVERS: Sébastien BUEMI
(Toro Rosso), Romain GROSJEAN (Renault), Heikki KOVALAINEN (McLaren
Mercedes), Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull)
Q Sebastian, what are your feelings about last weekend? You had new bits on
the car.
Sébastien BUEMI: I would say that it was a difficult weekend in the end but
we could improve our performance. We see that if we put everything together
we can be in the top 10 which is quite positive. We just need to keep
pushing hard. We will have another small step on the car for this weekend,
so hopefully we will be able to have a clean weekend without any mistakes or
whatever. I am sure if we can put everything together we can finish around
P10 or P8.
Q: You have got a new team-mate. Has that affected your decisions as
obviously Sébastien Bourdais had more experience than Jaime Alguersuari?
SB: I would say not really. I am not looking too much at him. I can look at
the testing he is doing and if I can improve myself I always take it but in
the end I really try to keep all the focus on myself with my engineer. It is
important to see what your team-mate is doing but in the end it doesn’t make
you faster. For sure it changes a little bit because Bourdais had quite a
bit more experience than me and now maybe I am a little bit more leading
with decisions in the testing, so for sure it is a bit different but I would
say that it doesn’t change so much.
Q: What about this circuit? You have been here in GP2 but it is the first
time here in a Formula One car. Talk about the commitment to this circuit
with the fast curves compared to say Valencia last weekend.
SB: It is going to be quite a big difference I think. If you look at the lap
time it is nearly 10 seconds, so it is quite big. Now it is nearly 11 races
I have done in F1, so I am getting used to it. We will see what we can do.
The circuit should be good for our car as we saw Red Bull performed really
well in Silverstone. It was a fast circuit and it is again the case here, so
we should be quite confident at the moment.
Q: How are your thoughts about coming here and the commitment around these
fast corners in only your second Formula One race?
Romain GROSJEAN: Well, it is going to be interesting to see the difference
between the Formula One car and the GP2 car. For me the aim is still to
learn. I think there are still many things to learn. Having Fernando
(Alonso) is a great help for me. I try to improve and see what he is doing
to improve myself.
Q: What about your feelings after your first grand prix? Were there any
surprises for you?
RG: Very hot. No, it was a nice grand prix. The aim was to finish the race,
trying to get as much experience as possible. In this particular case it was
very good. I could notice some things on the car which I didn’t notice
before the race, so we know a little bit more where we can work here. It was
very interesting for me, the start and all the procedures, the pit stop
procedure, the length of the race. All this was quite new and there is still
a lot to do about it but it was good to finish the race and get some
experience.
Q: And since then working up to this race? How much more homework have you
done for this race?
RG: Well, not much difference. I think the team helped me a lot before
Valencia trying to send me as much information as possible and here I think
they are doing the same. We have to take the weekend in the same way that we
did Valencia, trying to improve session by session and to see what we can
achieve by the end of the weekend.
Q: Just a little personal question. Is it true you still work in your
father’s bank?
RG: Well, it is not my father’s bank. But, yes, I am still working in Geneva
in the bank and I went on Tuesday morning, the only day I had in Geneva, and
it was very good to stay with my previous life and get back to the bank.
Everybody was very happy to see me there and it was a great moment.
Q: Heikki is just considering whether to move his account to your bank?
RG: Very nice.
Heikki KOVALAINEN: I think what Romain did was to go on Tuesday to check his
bank account to see if Flavio (Briatore) had already paid it for him.
Q: Heikki, it is interesting to read that the team is not very confident
about this race. Why is that?
HK: Well, I think the characteristics of the circuit previously this year
have not favoured our car. But, obviously, the last two races have been
exceptionally good and if we could repeat that it would be fantastic. But
like you said, expectations of the team are not quite as high because of the
nature of the circuit but, who knows, we must not give up at this point. We
will have to see how practice goes. I am quite confident that we have
improved the high-speed performance of the car significantly since
Silverstone time. I think it will be interesting to see where we end up.
Q: Just tell us about the commitment for this circuit.
HK: Well, it has got quite a few high-speed corners, many corners that are
almost flat out, but not quite, so you need to get a good balance with the
car. I think the corners because they are not quite flat out, maybe apart
from Eau Rouge which is not as exciting as it might look. The challenge is
to nail those high-speed corners and get the car balance right, so you need
to work hard on Friday and Saturday morning.
Q: Tell us about the effect of having the short wheel base car.
HK: I think first of all this weekend we are not going to be running the
short wheel base car on both sides. I think there was some uncertainty about
it in Valencia, so the team’s decided not to run the spec that Lewis
(Hamilton) had in Valencia. I was happy with the long wheel base car and all
the preparations have been with the long wheel base. It would not have been
a big advantage for me as I am lighter and I can set up the car and move the
weight around easier than Lewis, so they are the facts why we are not
running them. I don’t think we even have it here with us this weekend, so I
don’t even think we will be testing it.
Q: Are you a bit disappointed with the final result having started second on
the grid?
HK: Maybe a little bit. You would rather go one step forward from the second
place but overall I think it was my best race of the season and the second
race with the upgraded package, so I was quite happy about that. I was on
the front row and I could have been on pole. I think in the race, without
wrong tyres that were fitted on the last stint, I think the result could
have been even better, so I am actually quite pleased about the result and
coming here to Spa, one of my favourite circuits, I feel actually very
positive and I look forward to driving tomorrow.
Q: Sebastian, last weekend was obviously not a very good weekend for you.
First of all, two engines failures which means you have got two less for the
rest of the season. What are the repercussions you expect from that?
HK: I have got three left if you fancy a Mercedes.
Sebastian VETTEL: Well, we need to see. Obviously it is not a good thing as
you said. Last weekend having two failures within two days was not a good
thing. Surely it affects the programme for the rest of the season. The last
thing we want is to take a penalty, so the question now is what can we do.
We are considering now all our options and possibly this means less running
for myself on a Friday, so less practice which for sure is not an advantage.
But in the end of the day do you want to take a grid penalty, yes or no, and
I think you know maybe it is better to have a bit of time off and take some
coffee in the break rather than starting 10 places back at some race, so we
will see but for sure from now onwards we cannot have any mistakes or
failures again. That’s for sure.
Q: And how do you feel about your championship chances still?
SV: I think it is still possible. I am not giving up, definitely not. For
sure 25 points is not easy but we have seen how quickly things can change.
Also I think one thing that extremely helps is that Jenson has not been very
consistent the last races. He hasn’t scored a lot of points. I don’t know
what was wrong but in the end it helps us. We should have been scoring some
points the last few races, we did not, so that doesn’t help but for the
future it still remains open. We will push and we will fight. We are in the
hunting position, so we will have to score big points.
Q: Sebastian was just talking about how the car was well suited at
Silverstone. Are you feeling the same about this race as well?
SV: I think it should suit our car more than Valencia but in the end of the
day we have to find out. Just by the layout, the speed of the corners, I
think it favours our car, but we still need to see how quick we are. I hope
we are extremely quick. I hope the weather will be according to what we need
and according to our liking. If that means rain, then it is rain. If it is
dry, then it is dry. We will see. But, for sure, looking at the championship
we are in the hunting position, so we have to win races and score big
points, so our target for this weekend is to win and I think it looks good
so far. We haven’t done a single lap, so we need to find out.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Frédéric Ferret – L’Equipe) Romain and Sébastien, what do you expect
from the corners here? Are there some which you are looking out for, some
where you will be cautious in a Formula One car?
SB: I think that for sure, on the first lap I will be a bit cautious through
Eau Rouge, so maybe I will be looking out for that. I’m just looking forward
to driving the circuit because it’s a beautiful circuit, it’s one of my
favourites. Yeah, I’m happy when this day will be over and it will soon be
tomorrow and we will see what we can do.
RG: As Sébastien said, we have to go gradually during the session. Basically
there is much more testing than in GP2, so we will have the time to go step
by step and see where the biggest differences are and what we can do.
Q: (Joris Fioriti – AFP) Sébastien, you used to be the youngest driver on
the grid, you’re not any more. Do you have less pressure because of that and
then to Romain, do you take Sébastien as an example right from his first
race at the beginning of the season he has scored some points and did a
pretty good job?
SB: I think that when you are driving the car you are not really thinking
about being the youngest or the oldest. So it’s not making any changes to my
driving and doesn’t change the pressure or whatever. I don’t feel much
pressure. I feel the pressure that I put on myself and OK, maybe my
team-mate is younger but it doesn’t change anything.
RG: I think that for myself it’s difficult to compare to anybody else. Every
situation is different; I had no testing, I had just one race last week and
we are here in Spa which is a monument in racing, a fantastic circuit but
very difficult, I think. I will see. I will do my best and try to still
learn a lot and at the end we will see.
Q: (Will Buxton – Australasian Motor Sport News) Heikki, it’s getting to
that point of the year when everyone is talking about driver contracts for
next year. As far as we are aware McLaren haven’t taken up their option on
you yet, so what are you looking at for next year? Are you talking with
other teams? How are things looking?
HK: Well, first of all I will not talk about the contractual situation here
in public. I did once this year which I regret. But I think that apart from
that, the most important thing now is to focus on performance and that’s
what I’m here to do. I had a great weekend last weekend with the updated
car. I was on the front row, as I said, and could have been on pole and the
race could have been better without the last stint troubles, so I’m quite
looking forward to building on that and I feel I’m in great form. Here we
are at Spa, a fantastic circuit, so that’s what I’m focussing on at the
moment.
Q: (Bob McKenzie – The Daily Express) Sebastian, at the end of the race in
Valencia, Jenson (Button) wasn’t very happy. He said that you cut him up at
the first corner, he dropped back to ninth; there’s aggression and there’s
over-aggression, he said. I wonder if he’d spoken to you about it and if you
felt you had been over-aggressive?
SV: I haven’t heard about it. I think we are here to race, so I don’t know.
Maybe I have to talk to him later if it was a problem for him. As I said, we
try to race, we try to defend our position, so there’s not much more to say.
Q: (Bob McKenzie – The Daily Express) Does the title aspect of it come in?
You know you’re up against him for the title?
SV: Well, I think you know, you’re not sitting in the car and voluntarily
giving a place to the guy who is starting behind you. For sure, in that
moment it doesn’t really matter how many points you have, you try to defend
your position and try to get as far in front as you can. Obviously, looking
back at Valencia, I had no chance to stay in front of Kimi (Räikkönen) at
the start, he had some button to press and easily got me round the outside.
I started on the dirty side and I knew that at the first and especially
second corner it would be crucial to be on the inside and on the clean side,
so I tried to get to the inside as early as possible. I think it was fine,
so for me I don’t think there was any problem, but maybe I have to talk to
Jenson later, I don’t know.
Q: (Luis Fernando Ramos – Racing Magazine) A question for all drivers: as
young drivers in your first seasons, even racers in Formula One, how do you
see Barrichello’s motivation to keep racing and also winning, and do you see
yourself in 15 years also motivated to be in Formula One?
SV: As far as I’m concerned, I enjoy driving the car, so I can see the
pleasure he feels every time he jumps into the car. But obviously ten years,
15 years is a long, long time. I don’t know. I think you have to do it
step-by-step. If someone would have stepped up to Rubens’s car at his first
or second Grand Prix and would have said ‘you will race more than 260 Grands
Prix in Formula One’ it’s difficult to realise what it means or how long it
is. I think you have to do it step-by-step and as long as you feel happy, as
Sebastien said before, you don’t think about how young or how old you are. I
think, as David (Coulthard) said last year or two years ago, as long as you
are quick enough you are not too old and as soon as you are quick enough you
are not too young any more. I don’t think age matters. At some point yes,
probably, when you get grey and fat but he’s still in good shape.
HK: Rubens is clearly doing a fantastic job. I think it’s difficult to
predict, in the future, what I will be doing when I’m 37 or 38. I would like
to think I would still obviously be in good shape and good form but I think
that when the day comes when I don’t give a hundred percent any more that
then will be the time to stop but I don’t see it happening very soon yet.
RG: It’s impossible to say what you are going to do in 15 years. For sure,
Formula One is the best thing in the world for every driver who is here. We
don’t want to leave and I think the best thing Rubens could do is win the
race last week and this shows that he’s still fast enough and there is no
age problem.
SB: I think the other drivers have summed it up quite well, so as long as
he’s enjoying it I think it’s the most important thing and then you’ve got
to be fast and that’s what he is. He won the race and you can see that it’s
possible to be fast even if you’re a bit older than the other guys. I don’t,
for the moment, imagine myself in 15 years but why not?
Q: (Joonas Partanen – Iltalehti) Heikki, there has been some criticism about
your race pace., Do you personally think that criticism has been justified
and if so, what is the biggest problem?
HK: Well, first of all, I haven’t had any criticism about my race pace from
anyone in the team. I myself have talked to many people in the team and said
that I can do much better, and last weekend in Valencia, particularly, was
quite a lot better. I think it’s quite a lot down to driving style, how you
manage these tyres. One weekend you have softer tyres, one weekend you’ve
got harder tyres and how you manage them throughout the race is quite
crucial, so that’s what I’ve been working on very hard in these last few
weeks, especially this last week and a half, since we’ve been back at work.
That’s all I can say, really.
Q: (Balazs Vajta – Autosport Es Formula) Heikki, as we all know, Spa is a
race where it can rain, and my question is actually a double question: first
of all, do you expect your car to be better in the rain than in the dry, and
my second question is, do you expect any difference from the short wheel
base car in the rain compared to the dry?
HK: Well, I think it’s difficult to say whether the car will be better or
worse in the dry than in the rain. I think I would expect the performance of
the cars, relatively, around our car will be similar in any kind of
conditions. I think that if you have the grip, if you’ve got the downforce,
you’re going to go quickly in the rain and you are going to go quickly in
the dry. If you haven’t got it, you’re going to be in trouble. I think it’s
more down to how much water there is on the track and which tyres you’re on,
whether you’re on the intermediate tyres or on the full wet tyres that can
then play a part in the result of the Grand Prix. Apart from that, I think
it’s difficult to predict what’s going to happen if it rains.
Q: (Panagiotis Seitanidis – Antenna TV) Sebastian, you said you would
welcome any weather we might have on Sunday but since this circuit suits
your car, would you prefer an eventful dry race than your favourite rain?
SV: In the end, our target here, as I said, is to get the maximum points, so
our target is to win, so I would like to have winning conditions on Sunday.
I don’t care if it’s wet or dry or both. In the end, you have to be quick,
no matter what the conditions.
Q: (Will Buxton – Australasian Motor Sport News) Romain, it was your Grand
Prix debut last weekend but you were involved in a bit of weird situation in
the pits when Luca Badoer moved out of your way. You guys were fighting for
position on track. Have you ever experienced anything like that before, how
did it compute in your head when that happened?
RG: It’s still competition in the pits. I gained a place which was quite
good. It was a bit of a moment but nothing different to what I was used to
in GP2. I think we were fighting and it was the way to gain a position and
at the end, it helped my race quite a lot.
Q: (MC) Can I ask a question to Romain to compare GP2 and F1 because
sometimes we watch GP2 races and they seem to be pretty chaotic, whereas F1
seems to be relatively, can I say, sensible. What are your feelings about
it?
RG: Well, to be honest I was quite surprised how difficult it is to follow a
car in Formula One. I don’t know from where it came but for sure I was
behind Luca Badoer for quite a long time in the first stint and I couldn’t
get closer than 0.8s because you lose most of the downforce and the car goes
much faster and this makes your life quite hard when you follow another car.
I think there’s a different spirit of building the car. In GP2 all the cars
are the same and the ground effect is quite big compared to the aero and in
Formula One we are using more aerodynamic downforce than ground effect, so
in the end it makes the race much harder to fight and to get close to
another car. |
