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AT&T Williams
driver Rubens Barrichello spoke to the media in the build-up to the
Australian Grand Prix. Rubens spoke of his views of the problems that have
become of concern after the first race in Bahrain. He also gave his thoughts
on Williams' start to the season.
 Q.
In Bahrain everyone was expecting a lot of tyre degradation that didn't
appear to happen. How do you see that here?
Rubens Barrichello: I think we're going to have to wait and see. We had a
situation where I had the choice to start on the prime tyre in Bahrain,
predicting that I would have to stay quite a long time on the tyre, to then
go the option when the track had a little more rubber. But it was completely
different, the tyres were fine for the race and what we thought would
happen, never happened. I think everyone had an easy time on their second
tyre, whether it was the soft or the hard.
Q. Can you explain the difficult with overtaking? Why is it so hard to
get past?
RB: Sometimes I am a bit critical of things, but when I heard they will make
the front tyres smaller, I just didn't understand it. The fact that we had
better racing last year was because we dropped the ugly grooved tyres, to
slicks. That's what we need, more mechanical grip, to be able to lose the
aerodynamics.
We are losing aerodynamics all the time, but you follow another car and you
just understeer off the track. Unless you have at least a second on board,
which is not the normal thing - I overtook Buemi but I was doing 2m01s, he
was doing 2m04s and it wasn't an easy overtake. You cannot follow, the front
of the car washes out. When you grab the throttle back on with lots of lock,
you lose the back end so the car in front just goes away. Then you're into
saving fuel and the race becomes a bit hard.
Q. Is there anything that can be changed, realistically, this year to
make things better? Or are we stuck with these rules for the rest of the
year?
RB: I hope there is something. First of all we need to wait four or five
races before we take a conclusion on how it is, because Bahrain was one way
but maybe it will get better. But then I am prepared to drive whatever car
you give me. Unfortunately I'm not prepared to think of something that would
revolutionise Formula 1 to make it better.
There was a fan outside and he asked me if we could have refuelling back. I
told him it's not a possibility, it take a huge effort and lots of cost to
reduce the size of the tanks, so I don't think that's possible at all.
Q. What is the bigger problem? The aero that you can't follow, or the
weakness of the tyre that you don't have the mechanical grip?
RB: It's not the weakness of the tyre, it's the weakness of the rule, in my
opinion. Bridgestone has proved already that it has tyres capable of doing
things. The front tyre is weaker than last year and the rear tyres are of
course better.
You need more mechanical grip, for me it's the only solution. They're going
to argue that the car will go two seconds faster. But then you drop the
performance on the aerodynamics again.
Q. What would happen if you had two tyre compounds, one a very short life
and one a very long life?
RB: In theory that's what they're planning to have, that's why they bring
tyres that are not close together. But the performance of the car, the
engineers are so clever that we're still going round within three or four
tenths. If you're talking about two seconds from one tyre to the other, then
you have overtaking. A minimum of laps on each tyre might be one thing.
It is a difficult task, because if we make a tyre that's two seconds slower,
but then we get to a place that's 10 degrees cooler, we'd never get the
temperature and it's dangerous to go out. I can only say from what I saw
inside, which is that it's very dodgy to follow a car because you don't have
front tyres capable of maintaining the car on the road. Then the
aerodynamics, we're taking that away, we're inviting the teams to improve
the aerodynamics but it's a very difficult task because the noses are higher
and things like this.
Q. Does the adjustable front wing make a difference?
RB: Not when you're following, no. You could think yes I'm going to be
following so let's try to do that, but Formula 1 is very sensitive to that.
You do it and you lose traction as well. As a matter of fact it's not easy
to follow a car, whatever the situation of the front wing. The front wing is
not supposed to do the job that we're requesting it to do.
Q. In that case, is it a mistake to take away KERS?
RB: KERS, for the future of the planet, is a great thing. But KERS last year
didn't help the overtaking. It helped the overtaking, to protect your
position. It came with a penalty because if the car in front was slower you
could never overtake. It was a nightmare to get behind [Heikki] Kovalainen
with the McLaren last year, you would never overtake if he hand his hand on
that button. So, I don't think it did what it was supposed to do.
Q. In Bahrain you said the car was not as good as in testing. Did you
find out what happened?
RB: We had some parts on it and we were hotter than we thought we would have
been, so aerodynamically we were not as strong as in testing. We're much
better here, we're much better for Malaysia already. There wasn't everything
working, the team was in a bit of a rush, the mechanics were only sleeping a
couple of hours per night. So it was everything for the first race,
unfortunately. I think the car is capable of doing better and I hope we
start this weekend well.
Q. There are quite a lot of rookie drivers this year. Are you happy with
the way they've adapted, or are they presenting any problems?
RB: The problem is that a very difficult situation was presented to them.
You're young and you have a car that is five seconds off the pace. I think
Nico [Hulkenberg] has done quite well where he could, and the ones I met
during the race they were fantastic. They got out of the way.
But we have a Formula 1 and we have a GP2. The thinking was to have the
fastest car and win the race. But I was young when I went to Rio and got
there at 6:30am because I didn't have a pass, and I met everyone from
pre-qualifying at 6:30am, trying to get everything ready with 30 cars. That
was magic because the real fan, such as I was, went there to see something.
Now we have four cars more than last year, but they're not in the same
league. Sometimes in pre-qualifying you had a time that was good enough to
be in the top 10 all weekend. I'm not saying that's the fault of Lotus or
anyone, but from the fans side and for the drivers themselves it would be
better.
Q. What are your thoughts on Michael? He's used to being out front
winning, but now he's going to be driving round behind the top four or six,
having to work really hard...
RB: I have to be careful whatever I say there because it always sounds very
dodgy coming out of my mouth. In true honesty, I think he can do well this
year, but when he left he was winning all the time. For me he has more to
lose than gain. If he doesn't care about that and he's doing it for pure
pleasure, he's doing fine.
We should do things in life for pure pleasure. If Formula 1 wasn't watched
on TV or by journalists or anything, and you had just the pleasure of
yourself, looking in the mirror. And that's how I took 2007 and '08 because
I had a terrible car but I drove races where I finished 13th better than I'd
won races in better cars. So I had to look at myself and be happy with what
I was doing. Unfortunately Michael is too much more to the outside, of
course you guys are following him all the time. I've always thought he has
more to lose than to gain, hopefully he is doing for his own pleasure and
that's fine.
Q. Is the tyre generation good enough for his driving style?
RB: A good driver adapts to anything. We could in a way say it's not helping
your style, but you get used to it. For me it was very difficult when I
drove the Michelins. People knew how to keep the temperature. If I had a
safety car, my temperatures would go down and I just lost everything. It
took me a good six or seven races to learn everything. |
