Giancarlo Fisichella faces the press

By Phil Huff
June 11 2004

The Thursday Drivers press conference has taken place at Montreal, and Sauber Petronas star Giancarlo Fisichella was there. Here's what he had to say...

Giancarlo, you weren’t at Silverstone but you were at Monza.

Monza, yes. It was a good test for us, I did more than 160 laps in two days. We had a problem on the second day with a puncture but it was an encouraging test. We did tyre development and we tried different brakes for this race and for Monza, some set-up work and the lap time was quite competitive, especially on the first day. So, we are a bit more optimistic because the car is getting better and better and they are doing a very good job in the wind tunnel. In the race we have a good pace, we just need to improve our performance in the qualifying session.

You said about developments to the car and improvements from the wind tunnel. Is that coming on a race-by-race basis now?

Yes, exactly. From Imola they started to work very well in the wind tunnel and each race we had a few components in the car and the car is getting better, I have more feeling, it is easier to drive it so I feel more comfortable and more confident.

Do you get developments from Ferrari on the engine as well?

Honestly, no, we still have the same engine from the beginning of the year. Maybe in a couple of races or whatever we will have a small step but the engine is very strong, it is reliable and easy to drive.

You mentioned the brakes. This is a crucial race for brakes and the fact that you are now doing lap times at many circuits two or three seconds faster than last year makes it even more crucial doesn’t it?

Yeah, exactly, it is very critical this year for the brakes, especially because we run with very high temperatures front and rear and it is quite difficult to find good brake ducts for the cooling. Maybe, I think, the lap times are very quick, they did big improvements on the tyre development and I think that Formula One is now maybe a bit too quick.

Overall, looking at your own career, obviously you wanted to attract the attention of Ferrari and you are obviously going in the right direction with the team regularly in the points now.

Yeah, we are going in the right direction. We need to improve a little bit more and it is not easy but we will see.

There are reports that Jacques Villeneuve may be back in Formula One next season or whenever. How do you feel about that and do you feel the sport is missing him?

Jacques is a nice guy, he is a friend of mine and he did very well in the past. He has been a world champion, I think we miss him and if he has a possibility to be back it would be nice for Formula One.

I think you have a two-year contract with Sauber. Could you say at the moment that for sure you will stay at Sauber next year?

Well, as you know, I have a contract even for next year but obviously my dream is to race with one of the top teams. I don’t know if there is any possibility, I don’t have any contact still, but anything can happen. Even Peter Sauber said, as he did a few years ago with Kimi Raikkonen, even with me there is a possibility to more to a different team but if you want to know that it is better that you ask him.