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1. Fernando ALONSO (Ferrari),
1m21.962s
2. Jenson BUTTON (McLaren), 1m22.084s
3. Felipe MASSA (Ferrari), 1m22.293s
Q: Fernando, your first Italian Grand Prix as a Ferrari driver. Pole
position. Describe the emotion.
Fernando ALONSO: Well, it was a nice surprise. When I stopped in parc ferme
and by radio they told me that we were keeping the first position but still
cars on their laps and Jenson was pink in the second sector, so I thought
now at the end as sometimes already happened this year someone will arrive
at the last lap and we will be second or third by hundredths of seconds. In
the end, today was different. We remain on pole position until the last
minute, the chequered flag, so that was a little surprise and for sure a
much better feeling and fantastic taste this pole position here in Italy for
Ferrari.
Q: You did all the work in the first run. But just take us through it. Tell
us about the braking points and how they affected you.
FA: Well, you know we had two new set of tyres for Q3. We divided Q3 into
two runs. The first run was just to put a god lap on the table and then in
the second attempt to try to risk a little bit more. Sometimes here in Monza
this is what happened. When you try to do a normal lap sometimes is better
than when you try to risk too much. In these tricky chicanes and these fast
corners with this low downforce it is very easy to over-drive a little bit,
so the first lap at the end was the best one as maybe you do it in a calmer
way.
Q: Jenson, it has been very close all weekend between you and Ferrari. What
made the difference this afternoon?
Jenson BUTTON: Well, first of all I want to say a big thank you to the team.
We came here not quite sure which approach to take in terms of downforce and
efficiency but I think our side definitely made the right decision to run
the high downforce level with, as everyone calls it, the F-duct. I want to
say a big thank you to them. It was a great decision. Qualifying was pretty
good for me. I was close to the front in every session. In Q3 you know you
have just got to push that little bit more but it is very, very tricky as
Fernando said around here. You push a little bit and sometimes you go
slower. You go over the astroturf on the exit or hit a kerb too hard, so it
is very, very tricky and out of Ascari I got a little bit of oversteer and
ran wide off the circuit. But still I am very happy to be second. This is
the first time I have been on the front row of the grid this season, so it
is a step forward. I have been very happy with the car’s performance and the
approach we have had this weekend, so a good start and hopefully a
competitive race tomorrow.
Q: As you say, you are running a different set-up on the rear wing from
Lewis Hamilton, your team-mate. Can you just explain how that feels
different in the cockpit?
JB: You have got more downforce, so you can brake later. You can carry more
speed through corners. You have to push very hard. It is different to
running low downforce. You have got to make the time up in the corners
whereas with low downforce most of the time comes in the straight and you
obviously have to tip-toe through the corners. But when you have high
downforce you have got to be aggressive and you have really got to push the
car. I feel it worked in qualifying. We were not 100 per cent sure it was
going to, but for the race I think we are looking good.
Q: Felipe, you were fastest in Q1. Do you feel you peaked a little early?
Felipe MASSA: I tried a different strategy on Q3 as I was not so sure about
the tyres. When I put the soft tyres on in Q2 I could not do the best lap on
the first lap straight away. It was getting better and better all the laps.
I did three timed laps and the best was the last, so I said let’s risk it,
let’s try to do three laps and we see maybe it is getting better and maybe
the best lap will be the last one. But then in Q3 it was a little bit the
opposite, so I tried that and it didn’t work as well as I expected with the
grip on the tyres. I was able to go again, to do a one timed lap on the
tyres, but it was not enough to fight for pole. But I think we have a good
car. I am happy with the car for the race. Yesterday we did a very good job
finding a good direction for the race and I think we improved the car
massively like we expected and I think we should be very strong tomorrow and
looking forward.
Q: How do you see the race unfolding? What is going to be the key for you?
FM: Tomorrow? I mean the race is always the race. You never know what is
going to happen. The start is always important. Looking at the first corner
here nobody knows what is going to happen as it is very tight but then the
race pace, the strategy, is always the key to gain position or maybe even to
lose. The race is always the race, so let’s try to do the best to be in
front.
Q: Fernando, you are behind in the championship at the moment. How badly do
you need a victory here at Monza?
FA: I think tomorrow we need a podium minimum to remain in the fight. There
is not a big pressure, a big stress about winning the race or winning the
next races but at the same time we know we cannot afford another DNF or
another bad result. We must try to be consistent and try to be on the podium
minimum. Then if we can win the race it would be great. But what we need is
consistency, something that we didn’t have so far in the championship and
for that reason we are not fighting now for the first position, so tomorrow
we have a great chance to get a strong result and we will see where our
opponents finish at the end.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Fernando, yesterday you spoke a little about what it is like to be a
Ferrari driver here at Monza. Now you are a Ferrari driver on pole at Monza.
Tell us about the last couple of days and how it has affected you with the
fans.
FA: Well, it has been a little surprise, to be honest. I have had a
fantastic welcome here by the fans and great support for the team, for
myself and it was a very nice feeling from Wednesday when I arrived here. It
is a perfect place. This is a perfect place to be on pole position, here in
Monza. To give them a good Saturday and hopefully a good Sunday afternoon as
well.
Q: Tell us about the technical direction over the last couple of days. Has
it been fairly simple and straightforward?
FA: No, I think it was not easy, especially after Spa, there has been a lot
of work in the factory. A lot of analysis and trying to understand why we
didn’t perform as expected in Spa. We think we went through the problem and
everything should be clear now for us in terms of the direction to go. Then
here on the track, especially yesterday, we arrived like a test day, nothing
really. A weekend race. Just many new parts to try on the car, so at night
we evaluated everything and we put on the car what we think was the best and
today was the real first day of our maximum performance with it. The car
responded well. Easy to drive. No big problems. No big set-up changes on the
car as we were happy straight away, so it was very good news from today’s
practice and qualifying.
Q: And race performance, similarly encouraging?
FA: Yeah, I think so. I think normally in the season one of our strongest
points has been the race pace, not so much the qualifying, so I don’t have
too many worries about the pace tomorrow. We just need to do a good start, a
consistent pace in the first sting and also when we fit the prime tyres try
to be also on a good pace. We know Monza how demanding it is on the
mechanical side of the car. We saw some problems on the car yesterday for
many teams. We saw another problem this morning for two or three teams, so
it is not an easy race to finish in terms of the mechanical side, so let’s
try to have everything under control if we can and try to finish the race
with the maximum points possible.
Q: Jenson, you have been competitive all weekend. It is your best grid
position of the year. What has changed? Is it a little bit the car? Is it a
little bit yourself or both?
JB: I was very happy with the car in Spa. I just did not get quite the right
lap in qualifying but the pace during the weekend was very good. But
arriving here, running with the high downforce setting that we had, I felt
very happy with the car. I did hundreds of miles in the simulator with it
and driving here in reality the car felt very good. I am confident in the
rear of the car and over one lap the pace is good but for me the real
benefit of our car at the moment is the long run pace, so it is good to be
on the front row. It is going to be an interesting race with cars running
such different downforce levels but it adds something to the spectacle I
suppose and it is a very special race for everyone. The fans here are very
passionate and it is nice to be at the front fighting it out with the
Ferraris but I need to say a big thank you to the whole team. The Vodafone
McLaren Mercedes team have done a great job this weekend of giving us some
great packages. The car is moving forward all the time and it is great to
see. It is very exciting for tomorrow. Our main aim is to win the race
tomorrow but it is very difficult at the front at the moment. It is very
competitive but that has to be the aim. A podium would be great but we have
to go for the victory.
Q: A good result might bring you back up into the championship contention
again. How important is that?
JB: It is very important. I have got the trophy at home and I want it to
stay there. Tomorrow’s race is very important, but it is just like any other
race of the season. It turned around very quickly in Spa for Fernando and
myself and Sebastian (Vettel). We were title contenders in a lot of
journalists’ eyes and then after one race we are suddenly not. I think it
can all turn around very quickly. There are five or six guys fighting for
this world championship and I don’t think it is slipping away from anyone at
the moment. That’s great for Formula One. I think it is a very exciting year
and I think we are going to put on a great show here as well.
Q: Yesterday, you talked about how things didn’t go so well towards the end
of the day, so how much did you change overnight?
JB: Not a lot actually. It’s one of those days where you end up looking for
things to change, and then having to take a step back and think ‘well, do we
actually need to change the car that much?’ We did make small tweaks and
that was the benefit, I think. Our biggest issue was running the soft tyre,
wondering if we could get it to work in qualifying. But we made some tweaks
to the car and it’s improved the car a lot. The guys did a great job of
really streamlining our efforts this weekend and it’s great to be on the
front row. It was a fun lap for me. You’ve got to push so hard in the
corners, obviously when you’re running more downforce and it was a little
bit ragged towards the end of the lap but it was a fun lap and nice to be up
here on the front row.
Q: Felipe, you said yesterday you were constantly improving the car; did
that continue this morning?
FM: Yeah, definitely. Yesterday, I think, as Fernando said, we had a very
testing day, to try the parts and to see which one was actually the best for
this track, but then we had exactly the same feeling, both drivers. We tried
different things, different wings and then we chose the same because it was
the one which made the car stronger. Since we changed that, we were much
more competitive. I think today we were competitive this morning, during the
qualifying as well, so I think we should be very strong in the race and
looking forward to having a strong race and also looking for a great
position in front of the Italian tifosi.
Q: It was quite a rush for you to get out at the end, you only just made it,
but are you happy with third place on the grid?
FM: No, no, because I think the possibility of pole position was there. I
had a little bit of trouble to make the tyres work straight away on the
first lap which was the case for Fernando and then when I tried the soft
tyres in Q2, the last lap was the best. I tried to take a little risk in Q3
by putting on a set and doing three laps on these tyres, but then it didn’t
work as I expected. I came in, I changed the tyres, everything was rushed,
so the lap wasn’t great, so there was a little bit of a strategy change from
Q2 to Q3 but it was still a good qualifying.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Carlos Miquel – Grand Prix Actual) Fernando, what’s your main worry in
the race and you must now be very happy after the bad day in Belgium?
FA: The main worry for tomorrow… not only one, I think. As I said before,
this is a difficult race to finish. We know Monza is not the easiest place
for engine, gearbox, brakes etc, so we need to be very careful about that
and have everything under control. There is the first corner… obviously in
turns one and two we see some small action there. Obviously we’re in the
best position possible to avoid any risk at the start which is pole position
but you never know. We will then see the race pace. Yesterday I think the
maximum number of laps everybody did was around eight or nine, so after nine
laps nobody knows how the tyres will behave or how the case will be for
anyone, so we just need to remain calm and do our race and we will see what
happens in the end.
Yeah, I’m happy, obviously after Spa which was a disappointment. We were not
too quick there, so a part of the disappointment of the bad result in Spa
were some concerns about our pace, about our level of competitiveness, so
now I think we are much more focused and much more confident of our latest
developments in the car.
Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) Jenson, you have chosen a
completely different package to Lewis; what was the idea behind that? Did
you ever consider trying the other one yesterday?
JB: In P1 we both ran with the higher downforce package, because it’s a
package that we thought would be quicker. You’ve obviously got the worry of
the straightline speed. I think we were both reasonably happy with the
package in P1 but Lewis decided he wanted to try the lower downforce and
that’s the package he preferred. We ended up running today with very
different cars which is quite surprising to have such a difference but
that’s just the way we like the car, I suppose. For me, this was the best
option. I don’t know what Lewis thinks about the lower downforce now but
before qualifying he was happy with it.
Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere della Sera) Fernando, you told us about the
little surprise but how much beyond expectation was this pole?
FA: More than a surprise, it was the worry of losing pole position as has
happened this year at least three times. We were leading the times and in
the last thirty seconds someone arrived and they were two milli-seconds,
five tenths, one tenth, half a tenth and they were quicker than us and we
always finished second or third in the last ten seconds of qualifying. So
there was always that worry in my mind in the last thirty seconds of
qualifying but this time it was different, so it was a great result for the
team. Expectations? Every qualifying we go, every race we go, we try to be
on pole position and we focus all weekend and our approach is to be on pole
position and to win the race, but sometimes… or most of the times this
season we never achieved that, so this was a great achievement by the team.
We proved that we were quick. Felipe was doing a fantastic lap also in
qualifying, being third and very quick in Q1 straight away, so the car is
there. In the end, we chose different strategies in Q3: one car did a long
run with one set of tyres, the other car did two runs with two new sets of
tyres and that was the only difference. The car is there and that is the
best news.
Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Jenson, how surprised are you that Lewis
is not here with you in the top three because this was supposed to be
McLaren’s track?
JB: Yeah, I think it is, it’s a good circuit for us. I personally didn’t
expect the Ferraris to be as quick as they are. They’ve obviously come with
a very good package and these two have done a good job. Lewis and myself
have both been quick all weekend. We’ve been running very different cars but
still the lap times have been very similar and strangely enough, even though
there is a difference in downforce levels and a difference in the set-up of
the car, our sectors have been very similar: first, second and third. So I
suppose I’m a little bit surprised that his lap time was that far behind
because he’s been very competitive all weekend.
Q: (Jaime Rodriguez – El Mundo) Felipe and Fernando, this morning, Luca
Cordero di Montezemolo has been with you in the motor home; did you tell him
something special, something different?
FA: Well, president Montezemolo is always supporting us. We talk with him on
the phone every day when we have finished practice or qualifying etc. Today
he is here, trying to support the team as well, because we need some good
results now, some strong results and Monza we know is a special race for the
team, a very special atmosphere in the garage and in the grandstands due to
Ferrari passion, so it’s good to have him here and to give him this
possibility of seeing two Ferraris in the top three.
FM: I think this is a place where we need everybody from the team. It’s the
Italian Grand Prix and we know how important it is for the whole team, for
the people outside who really live Ferrari every day. He’s also a great
image in this company and it’s always very nice to have him with us, pushing
us and talking to us, to be there and try to do our best, and I think it was
a good qualifying, so it was very nice to have everybody together, pushing
the cars forward.
Q: (Paulo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Jenson, of all the teams who
have the F-duct, Lewis is the only one who is not using it here. Do you
think that’s a mistake?
JB: I don’t think it’s just a case of using the F-duct or not using the
F-duct. It’s aerodynamic level or downforce level that differs from the
others. These guys have got very good straightline speed just like Lewis
has. He didn’t find the effect of an F-duct big enough with low downforce
wing to actually warrant running with it this weekend, so for us, having the
weight lower, not having the F-duct system on the car was the better option
and I think for the low downforce package that we have, it was correct.
Obviously I’m running a different setting, as you can tell from the rear
wing, and the F-duct has a lot more effect with a heavier drag wing.
Q: (Marco Evangelisti – Corriere dello Sport) Fernando, while driving for
Ferrari, Michael Schumacher at least twice reversed a world championship
that seemed to be lost. Do you think you can do the same tomorrow?
FA: Well, I think trying to do what Michael did for Ferrari would be a
mistake, so I try to do my best in this championship and hopefully here is a
good point of changing the way the championship goes, changing luck as well,
and hopefully this pole position is a new championship for us. But we know
this is a very unique layout and Red Bull is fourth and sixth and we don’t
expect to see Red Bull fourth and sixth in Singapore for example. Let’s try
to take our opportunities this weekend and I’m sure that the championship
will be very close and we will fight until the end.
Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Fernando, you just said the
performance of the car so far has been very often dictated by the nature of
the circuit. Do you think that what you have learned from Spa is
transferable also to other circuits now?
FA: Yeah, I think so. I think we have one car, one package that should suit
more or less all types of circuits. I think our main rivals have very
specific characteristics in their cars and we are somewhere in the middle. I
see quite a good package for the last part of the season, but as I said, we
understand and we respect and we know that there will be some circuits where
it will be very difficult to fight for pole positions or for wins. We need
to have the best result possible every weekend and maybe here in Monza, the
result is to win the podium or to win the race, so we have to take this
opportunity, so hopefully tomorrow we don’t miss this one. |
