Japan: Jenson speaks in the Podium Press Call

By Phil Huff (10/10/2004)
October 10 2004

Jenson's tenth podium of the season saw him sit in on the Podium Press Conference yet again. It was all going so well until somebody brought up his move to Williams...

Jenson, an interesting race for you too, you held off Taku for the first six laps. We didn’t actually see what happened there – did you let him past or did he squeeze past on the lighter fuel load?

He was probably slowing me down actually because I was really struggling with rear grip on the first five or six laps, big oversteer on pretty much every corner I came to until the graining started. So he came past through the quick left-hander, Dunlop, and there was no use trying to fight him at all or anything because I knew I was on a different strategy.

As it turned out your two-stop beat his three-stop.

Yeah, the strategies were very, very similar in race time but I went for the two-stop because it worked for me very well at the last race and I am used to driving the car when it is pretty heavy. It worked pretty well but compared to these two we were quite a way off today.

Where do you think the difference was with Ralf today? Do you think it was in that early stage?

In the first stint, definitely, I mean, he pulled out a huge gap in that first stint. Ralf stopped, I think, six laps before me, but even so his pace was just, erm, the difference was huge. What did you think of having all this action on one day?

It is not really much different, is it? I had a little sleep in between so it felt like two days for me. But it's been a good day for us. It's BAR's hundredth race and to get on the podium is a great result, I think and with Taku in fourth we have got some fantastic points and pulled away from Renault, which is good.

Tell us about that start?

It was quite tight. Mark got a pretty poor start and it was good to see that we've sorted out our little problems and I was able to come from fifth to third. It was very tight but a lot of fun.

Have you heard Taku's reaction?

No, I haven't. Why?

I just wondered how tight he thought it was?

He's used to that, he's used to close racing, isn't he? (Laughter)

So do you feel the car was handling as well as it could be?

The car was very difficult to drive on the first six laps of the race and I was really really worried, about the balance. I had a lot of oversteer, very very unusual, big snaps. When I started to grain the front tyres, the balance came back slightly then when the fuel started coming out of the car the balance felt very good. I think it was just the dirty track at the start of the race that hampered me a little bit. After that the car was reasonably good, consistent, just not on the pace of these two.

BAR have now gone 16 points clear of Renault with just one race to go. Is that battle for second now effectively over and how proud will that make you feel, how much of an achievement is that if that comes off?

It is still not impossible, but it is pretty much, looking at the pace of the Ferraris. It's great to have 16 points if that is the case and the last few races, I think we have shown a very good team effort, where we've had both cars well up in the points and that's really made a difference for us.

It is also your 10th podium of the season with just one race to go, what's your assessment of the season? It's been pretty spectacular compared to previous ones, hasn't it?

Yeah, you are not far from that. It has definitely been a big step forward, for more than one reason, there's been lots of reasons for that. I have been on the podium 10 times which is great but I still haven't had my first win. It's probably not the best season to have a quick car really, because the Ferrari seems to be outstandingly quick, so it is a little bit disappointing that we haven't got that win yet but maybe in two weeks. We are obviously going to try for that.

You said you are absolutely confident that you will be going to Williams next year. Are you still 100 per cent confident and if so, do you have any regrets about leaving BAR now that they are almost certain to clinch second in the championship?

I don't really see there is any need to comment on this when we know that it's not up to me at the moment. The CRB hearing's next weekend, so I think we can wait for another six days before we get an answer on that.

You're less confident now than you were then?

Did I say that? I didn't say that at all.