Formula1 | F1 News 2006

Michael Schumacher - A Champion who divides opinion

2006-09-15T11:31:00.000-07:00

The best ever in Formula One?
Michael Schumacher will retire as a multiple drivers' world champion, a man of achievements and unequalled statistical records, but dogged by controversy fuelled by his most unforgiving critics.

At 37, he has raced in 247 Formula One Grand Prix, 178 of them for Ferrari, won 90 races, 71 for Ferrari, taken 68 pole positions, 58 for Ferrari, and set 75 fastest laps on his way to seven drivers' world titles, including five for the Scuderia.

By the end of the season, he will have taken part, all being well, in 250 races, six short of the record set by Italy's Riccardo Patrese.

It is the only significant record in the sport that he will not hold when he departs. But many critics believe, as the 1997 Champion Jacques Jacques Villeneuve said in vehement fashion recently, that he is a flawed champion, a man whose records do not just a reputation that claims he is the greatest of all time.

Too many controversial incidents have punctuated his time at the top, too many accidents, incidents and allegations of wrong-doing, including rumours that in 1994 and 1995 when he won his first titles with Benetton, that the team had an unfair advantage.

All of this has thrown shadows, but none of it should go anywhere near reducing the brilliant light created by his talent and his ability to win Formula One races in a style that he has stamped on the imagination of a wide sporting public.

No wonder thousands of the Ferrari team's red-bedecked tifosi stood on the asphalt of the Autodromo Nazionale to cheer him to the end after his 90th victory and his fifth at Monza.

It will be his last victory on European soil as he embarks on the scrap for an eighth title in the final three races of the year in China, Japan and Brazil.

But as the Italians celebrated his victory and his career, others scoffed. It has been this way since the early days due to his reputation for defending with aggression, sometimes forcing other drivers off the circuit and leaving no room for error.

His critics talk of his questionable racing ethics, but his admirers talk only of his virtuoso racing. As a result, he is a question of magnificent achievements but with a reputation that has divided the paddock.

Purists argue that he should not be included in the pantheon of greatest racing drivers alongside Juan Manuel Fangio, Jim Clark or Stirling Moss, widely described as the greatest driver never to win the championship.

But the records speak for themselves and Schumacher will be remembered for his competitive instincts, his professionalism, his fitness and his relentless run of successes in the era that followed the 1994 death of Ayrton Senna who was, arguably, the man who introduced bruising and aggressive tactics to the tracks of Formula One.

Schumacher's catalogue of alleged misdemeanours included a collision in Adelaide at the 1994 Australian Grand Prix where Briton Hill was forced to retire and so Schumacher lifted his first title, another in 1997 when he collided deliberately with Jacques Villeneuve, but lost out and not only failed to win the title, but was punished for it too by the sport's ruling body.

He was also accused of cheating earlier this year when he left his car on the fast line ahead of Fernando Alonso's Renault in qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix.

In short, Schumacher, though gifted with speed and other sporting attributes, is a bad loser who has mellowed as he has grown older.

And the reason he has chosen to retire at the end of the current season is as much because he is in danger of being beaten for sheer speed by younger rivals as it is any other.

Notably, this son of a bricklayer from Kerpen, near Cologne, has become the first German winner and champion in the history of Formula One. A family man, he has had little to do with the so-called glamour of the sport apart from being one of the drivers' leading spokesmen on safety and playing for their football team.

He has little idea of what he will do when he retires - but it is certain that he will play some role as an ambassador for Ferrari. It was with a sense of theatre and perfect timing that he announced his retirement at Monza for it was here in 1991 that he was revealed as a Benetton driver after a secret overnight 'transfer' from Jordan on the eve of the Italian Grand Prix.

An eighth title to add to the previous seven now beckons. It would be a sixth for Ferrari. But not even that will overshadow the fact that in Michael Schumacher, Formula One had not only a great driver and a great race winner, but also the most complete competitor in the sport's history.

Thursday FIA press conference, part II -Indianapolis

2006-06-30T07:52:00.000-07:00

From Indianapolis
Second and final part of this Thursday’s FIA press conference with Fernando Alonso (Renault), Tiago Monteiro (MF1), Juan Pablo Montoya (Mclaren), Michael Schumacher (Ferrari) and Scott Speed (Toro Rosso)
(Dan Knutson – National Speedsport News ) Juan Pablo, in Canada you went out early but in that first half, Kimi was very close to Alonso. How competitive do you think McLaren will be here?
JPM: We should be very competitive. My car in race trim was very good in Canada. And it was a bit annoying not to be able to show the pace. I think Kimi had a better qualifying car. and I thought I could have had a better race car so it was a bit frustrating from that point of view but, you know, that's the way racing goes. And I think here it should be a strong race for us. Kimi was quick last year, but we were quick everywhere last year, so we'll see. I think the trend is that we're getting better and better and better. It's a matter of trying to get a good qualifying lap.

(Bob Constanduros) Kimi said that the car seemed to be slower in the second stint, the speed seemed to go away. Why should that be? Tyres or what?
JPM: No, I think his balance was quite oversteery from qualifying. He worked the tyres harder trying to keep up the pace in the second stint which probably just killed him. I don't know.

(Derek Daly – Speed Channel) Scott, is Formula One as difficult or a lot more difficult than you anticipated?
SS: I'd say it's, for sure, more difficult because the Formula One races are very long and there's a lot of different things that happen, with the fuel loads and the tyres. To always be at 100 percent of what the car can do is very difficult, for sure.

(Derek Daly – Speed Channel) When you talk about being 100 percent, I would single out Michael here, many people do it, but the ability to run almost every lap, every race, like a qualifying lap, do you think you do that?
SS: I certainly try. I can say it's very difficult because, like I said, there's a lot of different things that go on with cold tyres, safety car periods. To always have the car on the limit, in the tricky circumstances, like cold tyres, high fuel, really worn tyres, it's a bit more difficult. But in normal race trim, yes, I think I do.

(Michael Brudenell – Detroit Free Press) Scott, what do you need to become a winner in F1? Obviously, you had tremendous success in some of the junior formulas but how do you step up and become a winner in this series?

SS: You know, I think that compared to the American forms of motorsports, Formula One is very much more of a team sport. You have to think that these teams make their own cars, their own engines, their own electronic systems that control the cars. I think that Red Bull and Toro Rosso is on the right way. But it's certainly not something that's going to happen this year - maybe next year, if things go very well and we develop at very good rate, maybe a podium could be possible. But this is also being a bit optimistic. I think it's more of a three year programme.

(Adam Hay-Nicholls - Two Paws Agency) Tiago and Juan Pablo, you both raced in Champ Cars. Do you think F1 pays enough attention to drivers racing in the US?
TM: Who in F1? The teams? Don't know if they pay enough attention, but they definitely should. I think there's talent over here, like anywhere else in the world. There's some great drivers in Champ Car, there's some great drivers in IRL. They should have a look, but then again there's also a lot of talent in Europe. So I think the level of the top guys at the front is for sure very similar, still as good. They should have a look. But, again, we race a lot more in Europe so I think they're a bit more concentrated in drivers around there.

JPM: Same.

(Dan Knutson – National Speedsport News) Scott, you sort of had a non-stop couple days here of radio interviews, TV interviews, newspaper interviews. How hectic has it been? How have you found the reception from the media here in Indianapolis?
SS: It's been fantastic. Now when I go back and everyone asks me how Formula One is starting to shape up in America, I can tell them it's going really great. It's the first time I sort of have been able to experience the media in America. It's been a very, very warm homecoming for me, for sure.

(Todd Golden – Ontario Tribune Star) Michael, American racing fans take their four-time winners at Indianapolis pretty seriously: Al Unser, A.J. Foyt, Rick Mears among them. Do you consider yourself, even though you're in a different racing discipline, part of that Indianapolis fraternity of four-time winners? Do you consider yourself part of that Indianapolis greatness?
MS: I'm not exactly sure of the history of Indianapolis, when it started, how long it is. But Formula One is there just for the years we are here, and I'm not sure if you should really put yourself into that history that much. I'm not considering it too much, no.

(Livio Orricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Alonso, considering what happened last year here, are you worried about the fact that Michelin could be so worried with safety and it could interfere in the performance of the tyre?
FA: No, no. No problems. Hundred percent sure we will not have the same problem. We cannot be conservative in this part of the championship. The teams will not allow Michelin to be conservative. We all want to win. Michelin brought here a winning tyre, for sure.

(Jim Peltz – Los Angeles Times) Michael, the number of times that you're finishing second being so uncommon given your career, does that frustrate you or give you even more drive to get back to where you were?
MS: No, neither/nor, honestly. It's just part of the game. It's natural that you simply can't win every race, although you wish. No, but last year was occasionally frustrating. But to be second, like the race in Canada actually in the final stages to get second position is some excitement.
(Derek Daly – Speed Channel) Michael, of the panel, you would be the most experienced. With the success that you've had, have you peaked or are you still potentially getting better or are you still learning or do you think you've peaked as a driver?
MS: You never stop learning, absolutely. There is a point where you stop, obviously, gaining speed, natural speed. But that starts very early. After that, it's just experience you take on. It'll never stop, honestly, because Formula One just develops all the time, and you just have to keep track of the development and just be on top of it, and that makes you develop at the same time.

(Derek Daly - Speed Channel) So would a driver with a technical feel, would he potentially have an advantage in Formula One as it is today or is it the instinct-reflex driver? Do you know what I mean by that?
MS: I don't think the reflexes - I mean, I haven't measured it. There is obviously a trade-over when maybe your reflexes slow down and experience comes in. But I only can compare myself against my team mates and I haven't looked to that so far, so...

(Tim May – Columbus Dispatch) Scott, what is the secret for an American to get to Formula One, for a lot of these guys that want to end up over there?
SS: To have the opportunity to go to Europe where you have to go through the proper ladder series. For me, I think that the European racing is much more competitive and if you stand a chance in Formula One and you don't want to step in and look silly, you have to go over there and compete and do well against the Europeans.

(Felipe Motta – Radio Panamericana) Michael, tomorrow Germany will play against Argentina. What do you expect of this match? You think it will be possible to watch the match here in the USA during the practice? I don't know if it's before or after.
MS: I don't know what time it is but if I have time, I will certainly watch it, absolutely. I think if we go through that one, then we have done already 50 percent or maybe more than 50 percent because Argentina is one of the top teams. Being able to beat them, we're looking good.

(Carlo Gomez – Diario AS) Fernando, is this your worst circuit of the year? The second question is about the match of Spain in the world soccer.
FA: Indianapolis, for sure, will be the most difficult race in all the championship for us. The car was never competitive here. We don't know why. But we hope that this year change that. The (RS) 26 has been competitive everywhere so we expect a good performance here but we have some doubts, for sure. I hope to have a good car.

Now, the soccer: nothing to say. We are always the same, we are a good team in the group and then come the important matches, and we go home. It's OK. Like this we don't have any more worries. We don't fight with the team, with the French mechanics or the English. We are not any more there, so we are happy, we concentrate only Formula One.

Source FIA

Thursday FIA press conference, part I -Indianapolis

2006-06-30T07:50:00.000-07:00

From Indianapolis
First part of this Thursday’s FIA press conference with Fernando Alonso (Renault), Tiago Monteiro (MF1), Juan Pablo Montoya (Mclaren), Michael Schumacher (Ferrari) and Scott Speed (Toro Rosso)

Tiago, you must have special memories here getting on the podium last year.
Tiago MONTEIRO: Yeah, well, obviously very special moment for us. We all know the circumstances. But we were there, we took it, we took this opportunity. We enjoyed it as much as we could, and we took advantage of it. It was great, definitely. I had a lot of fun. My team had a lot of fun. I can't thank Bridgestone, Toyota and the team for all that, can't thank them enough.

Tiago, 26 finishes out of 28 races? That’s a remarkable finishing record.
Tiago MONTEIRO: Yeah, it’s good. It’s very good reliability. We would like to have a little bit more pace as well but it’s getting a lot better. We definitely improved since… at Barcelona, the car made a real step forward and we’re getting closer and closer. We’re averaging 1.8s behind pole position at the moment, so it’s definitely quicker and if we can keep this reliability and getting quicker and quicker, that’s what we’re looking for, you know?
To be fighting with some guys up there, we really need between three and five tenths and we should be there soon.

Any animosity last weekend when the two of you came together, you and your team mate?
TM: No, no. I went there and I apologised. I made a mistake, I locked my rear wheels. I went straight to him and apologised, no problems. We talked and everything was clear.

And then you got your football team to knock out his football team!
TM: Well, he’s not happy about that, that’s for sure. I think he took that part worse than the crash on track. He’s a big football fan. Now we’ve got the English soon, so I’m looking forward to that as well. I will have the whole team on top of me!

Scott, obviously the first half of the Grand Prix season is over and here you are at your home race. Just give us an assessment of your season so far.
Scott SPEED: For it’s been fantastic. When you first get into Formula One, there’s always a question: do I belong here? Am I good enough to stay? I’ve got a lot of confidence now with that and my team has been really supportive of me, and it just feels great to be back here at home, I’ve got to tell you.

The good parts? The bad parts?
SS: Ah, well, those come in the same weekend. The good part was briefly having a point in Australia. The bad part was having it taken away.

What have been the major surprises for you?
SS: I think after the first race there hasn’t been so many surprises but you always have to do your first Grand Prix some time and it’s an experience that you have to go through and there’s a steep learning curve at the beginning. Now, we’re just all trying to improve as much as we can. It’s a bit difficult for us, because of our engine situation, to keep up, but having a tenth place last weekend was a great result for us this late in the game, and the team is doing some big steps forward.

You have got the V10 Cosworth engine as opposed to everybody else’s V8s; is that an advantage or a disadvantage?
SS: Oh, I think certainly at a track like Canada and here it’s going to hurt us because we don’t have the top horsepower but surprisingly we were still pretty competitive in Canada, so I’m still optimistic for this weekend.

Michael, you’ve always managed to be fairly anonymous in the USA; is that still the situation over the last few days?
Michael SCHUMACHER: Yeah, even after racing in the States, it’s still the same, basically. It depends where you go, honestly. There are some places which are a bit different, but generally that’s the case.

So you’ve managed to enjoy yourself over the last couple of days then?
MS: Yeah.

Can we ask what you’ve been up to?
MS: I’ve had a nice ride with some bikes.

We’ve recently heard great optimism, from the team, that we can at some stage beat Renault and yet it hasn’t happened; you haven’t actually led a lap since Spain. Is that optimism well-founded or not, do you feel?
MS: Yup, it is. There is clearly progress happening. If you go back to the races before England, we looked pretty strong and if you see the development we have done it looked optimistic for us, but then obviously the other guys don’t stand still either.

And are you expecting more development in France? Is that going to happen?
MS: We keep on developing. There’s nothing else for us to do. We keep on fighting and see what happens.

You said at the start of the season that it’s all about the rate of development. Have you been surprised at the rate of Renault’s development?
MS: In a way, yes. You should think that we should have more resources available, but then there are two areas of development. You have the tyre development and you have the car development and it depends on what area you compare and you look at.

It was interesting last weekend in that two Bridgestone runners obviously made a mistake in their tyre choice, including your brother. There seemed to be a huge difference in performance just from making that wrong tyre choice.
MS: Well, I’m not involved in what they did and so on. We look at our own situation and we clearly weren’t strong enough, that’s what came out of that.

But here, no one’s got a better record than you or the team: four wins, Ferrari have won five out of the six races, you personally have led every one of those six races, you’ve never finished lower than second. Does that mean anything?
MS: I still have a great record in Canada as well but it doesn’t really mean anything. At the end of the day, you have to look at the now situation and we have to find out whether our package suits the circuit.

Whereas Fernando, you’ve never finished here, you’ve nine laps since 2003, I think. Again, does that mean anything?
Fernando ALONSO: It’s been quite bad for me, this Grand Prix, always. Quite unlucky. I never finished this race, I’ve never crossed the line, so hopefully this time is the good one, and if I can be on the podium, even better.

You’ve’ been doing some promotional work for Michelin, what’s the mood amongst the fans here?
FA: I think the fans are really enthusiastic about this year’s race. After what happened last year, I think everyone is expecting a good show on Sunday. We will put on a good show for them and I think that after what happened last year, we all want to go on the track tomorrow and to enjoy the weekend.

Talking about Michael being fairly anonymous here; what about yourself, now you’re a World Champion? Do people come up and recognise you?
FA: No, no, not at all. Only the Spanish people.

There’s a few of them, though.
FA: Too many!

And of course, Juan Pablo, I’m sure they recognise you more than your two neighbours there.
Juan Pablo MONTOYA: Yeah, I raced here before. Here at Indianapolis I get recognised quite a lot. It’s OK. I spend a lot of time in Miami and there’s a lot of Latins there. It’s OK.

Of course, you won Indianapolis 2000 but since then, you’ve just had incidents and all sorts of things have happened to you.
JPM: Oh yes, we’ve done pretty good. I crashed with Ralf here, we’ve had all kinds of things. But it’s exciting, it’s a bit of a tricky track, it’s quite slow and it has a very long straight, so it’s an interesting balance between how much downforce you want on the car for the corners and sacrifice on the straight. I think most of the time simulations show very similar lap times whatever you do.

But how are you going to stay out trouble?
JPM: I don’t know. You know in the last race it was a bit of a shame. We had a quick car and I collided with Rosberg and it was one of those racing things that happens. I had a quick car and I needed to make sure that before Fernando went into the distance that I moved forward and I was trying to do that.

What about your future? Where do you see your future? People have talked about Williams, they even talk about you coming back here to the States.
JPM: I don’t know yet. I’m looking at it and when I make a decision you will find out. I think the difference between myself and a lot of guys is that I don’t make my decisions public. I don't talk through the press. I talk through the teams, and that's it. You guys don't hear anything, but I know what's happening.

Are you happy with what's happening?
JPM: Yeah, yeah, very. I'm very comfortable, and we'll see.

Source FIA

FIA to address BMW wing issue before Indy

2006-06-26T09:55:00.000-07:00

The 'flexi-wing' saga continues
Honda, or any other team for that matter, did not protest BMW-Sauber's results in Montreal as the 'flexi-wing' saga continues to bubble.

This is despite the fact that Nick Heidfeld finished in the points, thus preventing Honda's Jenson Button from taking the final point.

However, boss Nick Fry held talks with the FIA's Charlie Whiting before the race and was apparently convinced to drop his protest threat.

Fry said : ''(Whiting) made it clear that all he could do was apply a normal test to their car.''

However, it is understood that Whiting will continue to investigate the matter and is likely to have further talks in Indianapolis later this week.

Fry said : ''It's not fair and it's somewhat amazing that what they are doing is not denied.''

He point-blank refused BMW's argument that the rear wing in question is legal. ''It's ludicrous. It is very clear to the rest of us - it is illegal pure and simple,'' said Fry, ''and the FIA do need to look into it.''

Schu's hopes fading says Italian press

2006-06-26T09:52:00.000-07:00

Alonso on his way to win another title
With every passing race, Michael Schumacher's hopes of an eighth world championship in 2006 sink ever further, according to Italy's press.

''All the time, Fernando Alonso resembles 'Schumi' of the golden period,'' said La Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper.

La Repubblica added: ''In the next weeks he will surely celebrate his second championship triumph.''

Tuttosport referred to the fact that, with his second place at Montreal, Ferrari's Schumacher passed the 1000-point mark with his Maranello based team.

But the Italian publication also noted: ''However he must be content without the dream of another title.''

La Stampa said: ''Alonso is cold-blooded; aggressive. If he has not locked up the championship yet, it is only because Grandpa Schumacher is persistent and achieved in Canada an unexpected result.''

Renault celebrates a century of GP success

2006-06-26T09:49:00.000-07:00

From 1906 to 2006!
26 June 2006 marks the centenary of the first ever Grand Prix - won by a Michelin-shod Renault!
The morning of 26 June 1906 dawned still and warm in the French city of Le Mans. The Sarthe region was basking in a heatwave, and temperatures would exceed 30°C in the mid-day heat. Yet at 06:00 AM, in the early morning light, the flag fell to begin the first ever Grand Prix: the 1906 Grand Prix de France, organised by the Automobile Club de France.

The Grand Prix was organised on a circuit of 103.18 km laid out on the roads east of Le Mans. The distance was a world apart from current Grand Prix racing: not two hours, but two whole days of racing, with the competitors having to complete six laps on each day. Overnight, the cars were held under strict guard, with no changes permitted to them: the very first parc fermé in Grand Prix history! The total race distance was just under 1240 km, a true test of the speed and reliability of the fastest automobiles of the time.

Third away on the morning of 26 June was the Renault of 32 year-old Ferenc Szisz, car number 3A. Hungarian-born Szisz had begun his career as riding mechanic to Louis Renault in the great city-to-city races of the early 1900s. These competitions, held over open roads, ceased in 1903 following fatalities in the Paris-Madrid event – including that of Marcel Renault. His brother's death led Louis Renault to retire from driving, so when Renault returned to competition in 1905, Ferenc Szisz took became the firm's lead driver.

The AK-type Renault was built to a maximum weight formula of 1000 kg, with engine capacity unrestricted.
The Renaults featured a 13 litre engine developing 105 bhp, while the field saw engines of up to 18.3 litres (Panhard) and power outputs hitting a maximum of 130 bhp. The lightweight construction of the Renaults, though, allowed them to fit a last-minute innovation that would prove decisive.

Michelin's jante amovible (detachable rim) allowed a new wheel rim and pre-inflated tyre to be fitted in under two minutes, against the five to fifteen minutes required to replace and inflate pneumatic tyres on the solid artillery wheels that were standard at the time. The penalty was extra weight, but the Renaults – and FIATs too – were able to fit the new technology.

Crowds of 180,000 flocked to the event, including high society that made the journey from Paris. The cars were started at 90 second intervals, and by lap 3, Szisz's Renault had seized a lead it would never surrender. The Renault was clocked at a top speed of 148 kph as it passed the start and finish line, and after two gruelling days of racing, it completed the distance at an impressive average speed of 101.20 kph. Following him home in second was the FIAT of Felice Nazzaro after a race-long battle with the Clément-Brasier of Albert Clément – which did not use Michelin's new rims. A distraught Clément lost out on second place by a mere matter of minutes after two days of racing.

Indy wants new US GP contract

2006-06-26T09:45:00.000-07:00

"We want the event to continue"
Even despite Bernie Ecclestone's apparent indifference to renewing the US Grand Prix contract, Indianapolis officials have indicated that they would like a new deal.
The president of the fabled Motor Speedway, scene of Sunday's race, indicated that he thought the F1 Supremo's media frostiness was mere 'positioning' ahead of upcoming contract negotiations.

''We'll sit down and talk in the next few weeks,'' said Joie Chitwood, ''and see what we come up with.

''We've said on many occasions that we want the event to continue.''

In the Canadian press last weekend, former triple World Champion Sir Jackie Stewart scolded 75-year-old Ecclestone for showing such disregard towards the American market.

The Scot said: ''If the manufacturers did not have (the US market), they might be out of business. I disagree with Bernie completely.''

Interview with Jacques Villeneuve

2006-06-14T11:05:00.000-07:00

A decade in Formula One
Ten years ago Jacques Villeneuve raced a Formula One car in front of his home crowd for the first time. Now the 1997 Formula One World Champion goes back to Montréal as a newly married man. Here the BMW Sauber F1 Team driver reflects on his life and racing career.
It is ten years since your first Canadian Grand Prix. Have things change changed a lot for you both personally and in terms of motor racing?
"Personally it has changed a lot. Obviously because I am now married and expecting a kid, so that is a big difference. On the racing side the answer is also yes. Back then I was going to every race knowing we could fight for the win and now we go to the race thinking we can fight for the points. The really good thing is we are working in the right direction to get closer to the winning circle."

You still say racing is fun for you, which is not something you often hear from racing drivers driver’s. What is the fun aspect of your sport?
"I am in racing and Formula 1 purely because of the driving. This is why it is fun. If you are in it for a different reason then things may be different. Some people I know are in it for the glamour or for being a star and that is what Formula One represents. I think they probably have a lot less fun."

Montréal is where you come from but not now where you live.
What are your feelings for the City and Country?
"That is where my roots are so it always has a special importance."

This year you go there with your new wife. Has she been there before?
"No, Johanna has never been to Quebec or Canada, so this will be an interesting trip. We will have very little time to have a look around. During the racing season it is very hard to try and find the time to appreciate a place. I think we have one day off before the race weekend and that is it."

You are a racing driver, but probably you could easily have been a downhill skier?
"I knew since I was five years old I would race cars, so I never did anything else seriously enough to be able to bring it to a professional level."

You have expressed an interest in ice hockey, so is this another sport you could have done done?
"Yes it is a sport I love, but it is not something that I did as a youngster. I only started playing it lately."

You are a keen music fan and everyone is talking about your CD that is coming out soon. Tell us about it.
"It has a folk feel to it, folk rock. I don’t know how to describe it as it is really hard to give the direction it is, but it is not heavy metal and it is not R&B. A little bit more soft music with acoustic guitars. I wrote half of the songs and do some singing. I don’t play much because we have professionals who sounded a lot better than me. It was all done in France with French people. I don’t know anything about the music business so I am learning everything. I am definitely not wanting to have another career in music as my job and my career are racing. There is no time to do anything else. I have been away from home for 17 years now so I don’t want to add to that. I am going to build a family and all that so I want to be at home."

How do you feel currently with the BMW Sauber F1 Team?
"I love the team. We work well together and the team is going in the right direction as it is progressing well. It is not a dying team. It is the other way round as it is one on the way up."

Do you feel the way they are getting the two teams together is positive?
"It has worked very well. It does not feel like two teams despite part of the team being in Munich and part in Hinwil. It is great as it is just one team with everyone working well together."

Formula 1 is often critic criticised because the fans can’t get to the drivers driver’s. What is your opinion and do you think this is fair?
"In the old days there were less fans so there was time and room. These days we spend the whole day in meetings, etc. There is just no time. When you get to the track on Thursday and start working at mid-day and get home at eight at night you have not actually sat down and just drank coffee. It is not a question of not wanting to take care of the fans there is no time and that is just the way that is. Do football fans get more autographs? I think not. In fact every sport has evolved like that and it is not just F1."

What do you think about the BMW Sauber F1 Team Pit Lane Park in Montreal?
"I think that is great. It gives a little touch of racing to the fans. However, in Montréal it is always good for the fans as the spectator areas are not a long way from the track so they are able to be very close to the action."

The BMW Sauber F1.06 car suites your driving style. What do you put this down to?
"I quite like the V8 engines. I enjoy driving them. I can set the car up in a more natural way to drive. It is a much more precise car to drive than the one we had last year which is good."

If you had to send a message to your fans in Montreal what would it be be?
"I am still working hard and racing strong. Hopefully it will stay that way."

A new logo for Ferrari's F1 racer

2006-06-14T11:01:00.000-07:00

At the United States Grand Prix
Eagle eyed Ferrari fanatics should spot an extra logo on the F1 team's single seater at Indianapolis next month.
At the city's fabled Motor Speedway for the 2006 US Grand Prix, the Italian squad led by Jean Todt is tipped to wear decals bearing the 'Case IH' name, according to Auto Express.

The predominantly American brand, whose corporate colours are grey and red, is Ferrari parent Fiat's tractor-making subsidiary.

Meanwhile, it is expected that Fiat, the Turin-based Italian carmaker, will buy back a considerable stake in Ferrari from Mediobanca in September of this year.

Fiat sold the 34 per cent stake to the investment bank in 2002, but Mediobanco then sold 5 per cent to Abu Dhabi's state-controlled 'Mubadala' company.

But Fiat president Luca di Montezemolo said: ''We want to recover the entire stake (but) we are still looking at how we're going to do it.''

The carmaker owns 56 per cent of Ferrari.

Montreal's track is tough on the brakes

2006-06-14T10:57:00.000-07:00

Brake data from Brembo

The Gilles Villeneuve circuit in Montreal is very demanding on the brakes, the F1 cars going through successive acceleration – braking zones.
Brake system specialist Brembo gave us interesting data on the track which will be used for the Canadian Grand Prix next week.

Brembo is currently the official supplier of BMW Sauber, Ferrari, Honda, MF1, Red Bull, Toro Rosso and Toyota.

Click on the picture to see all the details related to the braking performance of the cars on the Gilles Villeneuve circuit.

Button not for sale for any price

2006-06-10T09:45:00.000-07:00

Fry emphasises long-term commitment
Even for a staggering wad of cash, Honda says it would not sell Jenson Button to a rival squad.
“Not for 100 million (Pounds Sterling),” Team Principal Nick Fry, faced with speculation that the Englishman is growing weary of Honda's lagging speed, told the Mirror.

He added: “Not for 150 million.”

At Silverstone on Saturday, Button embarrassingly slumped out of qualifying in the opening fifteen minutes, with Fry blaming Stewards' decision to call him into the weigh bridge at an inopportune moment.

But earlier this weekend, the 26-year-old racer suggested to the press that he might be ruthless in his quest to win the F1 title.

“Jenson's absolutely not for sale,” Fry continued, hinting at a long-term contract signed by Button last year. “We got married last year ... and divorce is not on the horizon. I'd be amazed if Jenson is looking around.”

Fernando Alonso snatches the Pole on England

2006-06-10T09:22:00.000-07:00

British GP - Qualifying
It all came down to a final sequence of hot laps right at the very end of an eventful three-phase qualifying session. Michael Schumacher crossed the line to take the Provisional Pole only for Alonso to flash across the line to take the Pole Position moments later. To make matters worse for Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen crossed the line seconds later and demoted the Ferrari driver to the second row of the grid.

With a 21 point lead in the Championship, Fernando Alonso does not need to win the British Grand Prix, but he has the Pole at a venue he has yet to win. Kimi Raikkonen’s last lap dash gives him an impressive front row start in his McLaren Mercedes while Schumacher has it all to do starting from third position.

Felipe Massa was a solid fourth fastest in the second Ferrari with no sign of any errors that blighted his Monaco qualifying session. Giancarlo Fisichella starts from fifth position in the second Renault, just over six-tenths off the pace of team-mate Alonso.

Rubens Barrichello continued his recent trend of showing the way to Jenson Button as he qualified a fine sixth in his Honda. For Button, the session was nothing but a disaster as he failed to make it through the first phase of qualifying. In a case of bad timing and bad planning Button completed just one run and starts a dismal 19th for his home Grand Prix.

Toyota also had a case of fixed fortunes as Ralf Schumacher qualified his TF106B in seventh position while Jarno Trulli’s bad luck continued as he suffered an engine failure even before he set a time. He therefore starts 22nd and last.

Juan Pablo Montoya qualified the second McLaren Mercedes in eighth position unable to match the pace of team-mate Raikkonen. More seriously for the Columbian is allegations of blocking in the second phase of qualifying from David Coulthard. It remains to be seen if he will be placed under investigation or not by the race Stewards.

For the first time this year, BMW Sauber qualified with both Nick Heidfeld and Jacques Villeneuve in the top ten underlining the impressive pace they have shown all weekend long.

David Coulthard starts a disgruntled 11th in his Red Bull Ferrari but at least he will have the advantage of adjusting his strategy to whatever he likes being outside the top ten. Team-mate Christian Klien starts 14th.

Nico Rosberg did what he could in the Williams Cosworth but the team is struggling this weekend. Rosberg starts a solid 12th while Mark Webber, like Button, only completed one run and starts just 17th.
Toro Rosso Cosworth ran well with Tonio Liuzzi qualifying 13th and Scott Speed in 15th. Tiago Monteiro did a solid job to make it through to the second phase of qualifying in his MF1 Toyota and starts 16th ahead of Webber and team-mate Christijan Albers.

With Button just 19th, Takuma Sato and Franck Montagny made it three Honda powered machines in the final four positions on the grid. For Montagny, he was using the older and heavier SA05 chassis once again, giving away an estimated 15 kilos to team-mate Sato.

The race is all set. It is Alonso Vs Raikkonen Vs Schumacher. A three-way fight for the race win.

Ferrari deny Silverstone weakness

2006-06-09T04:09:00.000-07:00

Expect to be right on Renault's pace
Speculation that Ferrari arrive at Silverstone with a clear disadvantage has been dismissed on all sides. It is suggested that, because the Maranello based team has not tested so far at the British venue - unlike nearly every other team, including pacesetter Renault - Ferrari could struggle to keep up.

"After two or three runs I think we will all be at the same level," championship leader Fernando Alonso said.

Ferrari's Schumacher, likely to be the Spaniard's main rival on Sunday, agrees. Actually, the fact that weather forecasters did not spot Thursday's beautiful weather could put everyone on the back foot.

Team-mate Felipe Massa continued: "Our car goes well at this type of circuit. I am not at all worried."

McLaren has also been singled out as a team to watch on the old Northamptonshire airfield, but Alonso is of the belief that the cars in red will pose a bigger danger.

He said: "They were very, very quick in Barcelona last week so they arrive as favourites. It should also be good for us."

No snap decisions from Michael Schumacher

2006-06-09T04:07:00.000-07:00

Jackie Stewart calls on Schumacher to quit
Michael Schumacher has rejected suggestions that the venom of criticism following his Monaco slip might cause him to quit F1.

The German, who is reportedly yet to sign Ferrari's offer of a new two-year contract beyond 2006, said it would be a mistake to base such an all-encompassing decision on a single event.

"If I thought like that, then you could call me short-sighted," Schumacher said at Silverstone. "But I am not short-sighted."

Former triple World Champion Sir Jackie Stewart, however, has said for a long time now that the Ferrari veteran should call it a day. "If (Schumacher) wins the world title this year, fantastic. Then: out," he told New York Times. "If he doesn't win the title again: out."

Like him or not, though, Schumacher is synonymous with F1.
To the sid agency, Bernie Ecclestone, perhaps concerned that the Rascasse saga is still raging, urged the British public not to put any more pressure on 'Schummel Schumi'.

The 75-year-old said: "He did something wrong and he served his punishment."

Ralf Schumacher also stepped in to defend his big brother. "If Michael says he didn't do it intentionally then I believe him," he said.

The German also urged the drivers' union to think carefully about kicking Schumacher out. Ralf said: "Without Michael, there would not be a GPDA."

Thursday FIA press conference, part II

2006-06-09T04:01:00.000-07:00

With Button, Coulthard and Webber
Second and final part of this Thursday’s press conference with Jenson Button (Honda), David Coulthard (Red Bull) and Mark Webber (Williams).
(Heinz Pruller - ORF) To follow this up, Mark, we had Jack Brabham in Vienna for three days recently and he told me that you are the most unlucky driver of the year. Would you agree, and what exactly happened in Monaco?
MW: Well, I think I’m probably up there with Kimi Raikkonen. I think Kimi’s had a bit of bad luck but a couple of pretty straightward podiums, I would say, a fourth place not really a threat in a few races. It’s never nice to lose points like that. Monaco? Exhaust, exhaust exploded basically. It’s all pretty tight there in terms of installation so burnt it instantaneously.

(James Allen - ITV) Mark, you’ve just said that you reckon you’ve thrown away 20 points this season. How many of those were Monaco, then? Was that ten or eight or six?
MW: Aaah. Well, Kimi was the quickest guy for sure. Fernando was controlling us. I don’t think we could have won the race. I think that Kimi’s retirement probably came because of my safety car anyway, so I think there was a minimum six, of course, but I think there was obviously another six in Melbourne, but then Kimi had a nose… you can ifs and buts, but no one’s interested in those. The results have gone, mate. No one’s interested in a shopping list of excuses why it didn’t happen. We’ve missed some solid points.
But Monaco, to the second stops, Fernando Alonso wasn’t that strong before his stop. He was controlling the middle part of the stints, and I had a bit of graining and stuff but Kimi was the strongest out of the three, I think. He was the fastest car and driver to get to the flag.

(Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport): Jenson, how frustrating is it for you to start every season as a professional driver who has not yet been able to win a race. Is that something you keep in your mind?
JB: Yes, of course its frustrating because as racing drivers we’re all here to do one job and that’s to win and it is frustrating, especially this year, because this was the year when we came into the season with everything very good. The winter testing was very positive, the car was very reliable and we were setting some very good lap times – not just over one lap but over long runs as well – we showed a lot of consistency throughout the run. The first couple of races were pretty much where we thought we were – things were going pretty well and in Bahrain we were very fast but we made a mistake, sorry, we had a problem with the clutch and the second race we finished on the podium.
We weren’t quite on the pace of the Renaults but it was pretty good – we were quite a long way ahead of the rest of the field, so it was, those two races were very good and then it started to go downhill after Australia, or during it and I think the reason is Renault and Ferrari especially have made really big improvements in every race – they just seem to have had new bits on the car and they’ve really stepped up their game. With us, we have made improvements but nowhere near as much and that’s an area we really do need to work on as a team, because we can produce very good cars at the start of the year; it’s staying competitive for the whole season that’s where were losing out a little bit.

(Juha Paatalo – Financial Times Deutschland): Jenson, continuing that, you’ve had 108 Grand Prix. How big is the pressure? I know you’re waiting desperately for your first win out there. How do you cope with that and what keeps you thinking you can be a candidate for world titles?
JB: Numbers mean nothing if you haven’t got a car that can win races. What does a number mean? Nothing at all. It might happen this race – it’s very unlikely given the speed of the Renaults, it might happen in four races time, it might not happen until next year or even the year after. Nothing changes, you still give 100 per cent and you give everything you can to achieve your goal, but like I said, it is a team effort and it’s not just down to one individual.

(Ian Parkes – Press Association): Jenson, the weight of expectation’s probably far greater when you drive here, but given that the nation’s eyes are on the World Cup, is that less pressure this weekend? Less pressure world cup?
JB: It’s great to be here – it’s gonna be a fantastic atmosphere this weekend for a British driver, but for any driver on the grid. It doesn’t make me feel like I’m under more pressure at all because I know exactly how quick the car can go and I will do everything I can to get the best performance out of it, and I can’t do any more than that so there is no outside pressure because that’s it and I can achieve that.

David, are you pleased with the progress of the RB2 this season and what are your objectives for the remainder of the season?
DC: Well, it’s only in the last few tests we’ve done where we’ve been able to rack up some serious mileage. In all of the previous testing we’ve done this season it’s been troubled. If you look at the amount of races we’ve actually finished, it’s not been much because obviously our goal is to finish them all, so only time will tell when we look back on the season to see whether we improved progress throughout the season. It’s a little bit early to say, but I’ll echo what Jenson just said in that the goal is to keep on improving as a team and we’ll look back at the end of the season and see how much we got out of it.

(Serhan Acar – CNN TV Turkey): Question for Jenson, the World Cup is starting tomorrow so do you think it will affect the interest of British spectators on Sunday? Will the Grandstands be full of people to support you and DC?
JB: It depends how well we do on Saturday in the World Cup I suppose, we’ll see if they’re still capable of coming along tomorrow, sorry, on Sunday. For me, we should have a full house because apart from being in Germany and watching it there, here is the absolute best place to be watching it, definitely. We’ll have a massive crowd with the big screens and we should have a great atmosphere. Sunday, we’re not playing in the World Cup so it should be busy, especially if the weather’s like this.
Question for all three of you. Tomorrow there is a meeting of the GPDA. Are you going to talk about Monaco and what happened with Michael, and are there going to be any consequences?
DC: Yeah, I believe it will be on the agenda. But, it’s an issue between drivers that’s how I feel it should be handled. Inevitably there’ll be someone who has to say their two pence worth, but they probably won’t say it in front of each other in the meeting. What I hope we can achieve is that all those who were quick to give their opinions to the masses, but won’t look Michael in the eye, I think that’s a lack of a man, and I think we’ll find out tomorrow just who’s prepared to say what around the table.

(Kevin Garside – Daily Telegraph) David, some of your colleagues say Michael Schumacher’s position as president of the GPDA may be under consideration after Monaco. Is that something you think is appropriate?
DC: Personally speaking, I don’t, but as a group of drivers though, we have an opportunity to take a vote. Personally were are stronger in our opinions and can influence more the sport today and the future if we are united. Drivers don’t always see eye to eye of course, but the Monaco events should just be taken as they were. Michael got his punishment, and anyone who wants to discuss it can, and then we should get on with the business of driver and track safety.

(Kevin Garside – Daily Telegraph): Same question to Jenson and Mark.
MW: I’m totally in agreement with David and Jenson on this one. We, the drivers, can sit down with him face to face and all of our opinions can come out. He was punished for what he did and it was correct and, onwards and upwards really. I don’t think the GPDA will be affected too heavily.

(Ian Parkes – Press Association): David, again, just to clarify, if there is a vote taken do you need a majority, or for it to be unanimous? How does it work?
DC: Yes, we need a majority, but I don’t believe that will be the case. I understand the question, but the outcome I don’t believe will be anything different to what we have today, so there’s no point running with it.

Jenson, are Honda capable of winning before the end of the year and do you think you have a chance of podiums?
JB: That’s a difficult one – we don’t know that yet. We don’t know when we’re getting a new aerodynamic package, whether it’s gonna be exactly what we need and whether it’s gonna be good enough to challenge the top teams or not. All I know is that we’re working very hard on improving the car in many areas and we’ll see. I hope we have a chance of getting more podiums this season and obviously I hope we can win a race, but that doesn’t make the car go quicker.
(James Allen – ITV): Can you take us through the first series of corners based on the tests you’ve done. Am I right in thinking you don’t really use the brakes until the other side of Stowe?
DC: I think in my case, I use the brakes for the last part of Becketts, but I believe some people were flat in the test here, but that depends on what fuel level you’re running. I think if the conditions are right, in qualifying through turn one, you can go flat through Becketts, maybe lifting for the middle part then down a gear for the last part. It’s fairly impressive now because this V8 formula arrived at a slightly lower top speed along with the development in tyres has seen much less difference between straights and corner speed. It’s quite impressive even somewhere like the swimming pool in Monaco. I was over 20 kph quicker over the chicane than the previous year because you don’t have to take so much speed off and the balance of the car is therefore less effected because of the pitch, so it’s definitely an impressive place to go and watch cars go quickly.

JB: We were dabbing brakes off the maggots chicane – the left-hander there we were tapping the brakes, but even Stowe you’re not tapping the brakes so hard because you’d scrub off too much speed. The first place you really hit the brakes is into Club.

MW: I think they’re all pretty similar really. It’s always been quick at Silverstone, but now it’s really fast, and as DC said, you have to be pretty accurate as well. It’s a good challenge.

(Ukkola Sanna – Ilta-Sanomat) Mark, how has it been driving with Nico Rosberg and does he have a big future as a driver?
MW: I’ve enjoyed driving with Nico actually – he’s been a very good team-mate. I’ve had some team-mates in the past who’ve not backed up their testing pace in races, but Nico’s shown he can do the business on race weekends which is important to the team. He deserves his chance in Formula One having come from GP2 and showing he can perform well there. He tested a lot with us last year. I think it was a nice time for him to slot in to Formula One with the V8s and the new tyre rules – that was good for him, and I think he’d have done a great job with V10s anyway. Clearly he’s a talented guy and he does have a very big future in Formula One, so he’s done a good job, yeah.

Source FIA

Thursday FIA press conference, part I - Silverstone

2006-06-09T03:55:00.000-07:00

With Button, Coulthard and Webber
The British Grand Prix’s Thursday press conference with Jenson Button (Honda)), David Coulthard (Red Bull), Mark Webber (Williams).

David, you suggested that Monaco was a one-off in terms of result. Is that the way you judged it?
David COULTHARD: It’s a bit premature to say. There’s still a lot of races to go, but clearly, there were a number of things that played in our favour during the race. People dropped out, people got penalties, that can happen at other circuits as well but I think that all weekend, in all the sessions, we were always in the top six throughout most of the sessions, so that’s why I was disappointed with the eventual qualifying position, because I didn’t actually get a run at it - we chose to do one lap which in hindsight was a mistake, and we got traffic. At that type of track, mechanically the car obviously worked well. The engine, we know, has won Grand Prix already with Ferrari. It’s on the more open circuits that we don’t have quite as an efficient package so in contrast, this track will probably be a lot more difficult for us. That’s the challenge. You’ve got to react to it.

Some of the English press coverage suggested that that was going to help you keep your seat for next year.
Do you feel you’re fighting for your seat for next year?
DC: I think it’s a bit silly to suggest that one result is what people decide on why they are going to put someone in a car. I’ve got a history of consistency, scoring points, obviously won a few Grand Prix and the team know very well what I do on track, with engineers and back at the factory, so I don’t believe there’s any fight or struggle. It’s quite clear that I want to drive the car next year with all of the people that have been brought together. This is the year that hopefully they gel and I see no reason why that car, next season, can’t be competing for serious points, podiums and victories and I know that I can deliver those.

An interesting story today in Autosport suggesting that you’re in contact, in discussion with Ferrari. What have you got to say about that?
DC: Well, it’s inevitable that everyone has to know what the market-place offers. If you look at Ferrari from the outside, they’ve got one driver scoring serious points and the other one not. Any team needs to have two drivers in a position to capitalise and as I say, I didn’t score over 500 points by accident.
So you have been in contact with them.
DC: That’s none of your business. As I said, everyone talks to everyone at this stage of the season so I’m sure that even Jenson, although we believe he’s contracted to Honda, I’m sure he’s probably talking to someone as well.

Jenson, you seem to be very much aiming for third or fourth team here. Is that the position of the team at the moment?
Jenson BUTTON: We’re not going to suddenly jump forward compared to Monaco and the previous few races. Renault and Ferrari are very strong at the moment and I think McLaren are also, so it’s very difficult. It’s so competitive out there at the moment. But for us to say where we are going to finish is a silly thing to do. I think we need to just try to get the best out of the package we have and that is our aim at the moment, and then we will see where we end up. We don’t know where we will be.

Can you envisage fighting with Renault and Ferrari?
JB: No, not this weekend.

But in the future?
JB: Yeah, definitely. I think every team would hope that they can challenge Renault and Ferrari in the future, and that’s the reason why we are here, to hopefully be the best, but it’s not going to happen overnight. We are improving things, the new full-size wind tunnel coming on line, it’s going to make a big difference to us, so for the future, I’m very positive that we will be challenging at the front. But this weekend is really a weekend that we are all looking forward to, it’s a very special weekend, especially for us two (indicates Coulthard), it’s our home Grand Prix and we’re hoping for a good result and that good result is us getting the best out of the package we have at the moment and then, on Monday, we talk about where we go from there.

Just tell us about racing here at Silverstone, for you, your home Grand Prix?
JB: It is a great feeling, especially when the weather’s like this. The Australian weather was pretty poor when we were there… But this is great to see: the sun’s out and it’s going to stay out for the whole weekend which is great and it’s going to be pretty special for the fans, I think, especially the English fans, having the footy on Saturday and being able to watch it on the big screens.

Mark, Bridgestone seem to have had a good test at Barcelona but you were actually playing it down a bit, that it wasn’t so good for Williams.
Mark WEBBER: Well, I wasn’t at Barcelona, I did all the work before Monaco, and I was at the Silverstone test, so it was my test off. But in the Barcelona race, Michael was fighting with Fernando but not that hard, obviously, so that’s really the last test we’ve had on a high speed circuit like Barcelona and Silverstone. The tyre testing obviously allowed Michelin… they do their work for those sort of venues to test the tyres for this race. I think that it will all come into play actually, in terms of the track temperatures which will be pretty similar which is good, but it’s the same for both companies. But I wouldn’t say the Bridgestones can’t do the job. I think that at Williams, we need to probably get a little bit more complete on the higher speed sort of circuits. We are looking to do a really really good job here of course, in terms of pace, but so are the other guys. There’s a big group after the gap to Renault and McLaren.

Where do you feel you’re really lacking, in terms of pace, is there one particular area?
MW: Normally, in Formula One, aerodynamics play a huge role and I think it’s less of a role in Monte Carlo and more down to mechanical grip, and the tyres need to work well as well. Barcelona and Silverstone – there’s nowhere to hide. We need to work on the efficiency and work on having the car behave itself through all types of high speed corners and finishing the lap in the Complex, so that’s probably the main area we are focusing on as heavily as we can like most of the other teams, to close the gap to Renault because they are probably the best team aerodynamically at the moment.

It’s said that the deal is done between Toyota and Williams. What are your feelings about a possible change of power for next year?
MW: Well, there’s loads of speculation but as usual, until it’s all done, you never never know. But first of all Cosworth have not let us down anywhere this season in terms of… we had the one rear of the field at the start of the race in Nurburgring, but the pace of the engine has been absolutely phenomenal for us all year. It’s one of the best V8s if not the best V8 ever. It’s an incredible engine and there are some very good guys there. So if we do change, there’s a big set of shoes to fill, to fill Cosworth’s role that they’ve done for us this year.

So a question for all three of you: your feelings about the World Cup, who’s going to win, who will you be supporting?
MW: I’ve lived in England for ten years and I’ve loved the English people and the comedy and all that sort of stuff. But when it comes to sport, I hope they get absolutely battered in the World Cup, so I’m going for Australia.

Do you know where you’re going to watch Australia’s opening match?
MW: Australia? I don’t even know when they are playing first.

That’s how much you follow them!
MW: Err. Well I’ll take some interest when… like all the other Aussies, only when they’re doing well.

Jenson?
JB: It’s quite an obvious one: England, I think, have got a fantastic team. Hopefully they can work well together and yeah, I think this could be a very good year for English football.

Do you know where you are going to watch the opening match?
JB: My debrief room, after qualifying, I think.

David, you’ll be supporting England of course…
DC: Yeah. Honestly, I haven’t really got a big interest in football but as the British flag, British passport holder… the St George’s cross lies below the St Andrews flag, I guess England.

But you won’t necessarily be watching the match…
DC: It’s not my passion. I can understand the excitement of everyone here wanting to know what’s going on, but I take it as it comes. I guess everyone else is going to be watching it, so it’s going to be difficult to escape it.

(Dan Knutson - National Speed Sport News) Question for DC and Jenson; I have a newspaper article here in which David is quoted as saying that basically Jenson should be ruthless. If he believes Honda can win he should stay, if not, he should get out of there now. Could I ask both of you for your comments on that?
DC: I think it’s quite a good quote isn’t it?
JB: Yeah. That’s always going to be the way. If things are going good, you want to be there. If not, you don’t. It’s a difficult one. I think it’s a good quote as well. But it’s not all down to just the one race, and maybe not even one season. Looking back from experience, you cannot keep just chopping and changing teams season to season because things do change and I think you need to understand where the team is and where they are weak and where they are moving forward and at what stage they are. For me, where I am at the moment is the best thing for me for the future. The way things are happening with the wind tunnel, and many other things within the team, I’m very positive that this is the correct place for me.

(Adam Hay-Nicholls - Two Paws Agency) Mark, after the frustrations of Monaco, where you were clearly very upset, you probably had another podium robbed from you due to mechanical failure. Are you considering moving to another team for next year?
MW: Well, I would pretty much echo what Jenson said: you always think it’s greener somewhere else. Williams have so far been so close and yet so far. We’ve probably thrown away a good part of 20 points in terms of mechanical failures but there could be a mistake around the corner which could cost us some points, but we are all suffering together with those failures and next year, it could look very, very different. We’ve got a year’s knowledge with the Bridgestone tyres, including myself as a driver but also as a team, and they are not as simple as just bolting them on the car, so that is a huge positive for Williams next year, so of course, I have to weigh things up but there’s a lot of potential for Williams to come out of this rough storm that we’re in at the moment which is not where we want to be. I think we’ve got ten points in the Constructors’ which after seven races is clearly not where we want to be. We’ve got to get our socks lifted and get on with the job.

Source FIA

Red Bull adopt 'Superman' theme

2006-05-24T13:57:00.000-07:00

Monaco GP - Red Bull - Preview
Red Bull is hoping that a red cape and Kryptonite can help its F1 team find form in Monaco this weekend. The energy drink-owned squad, formerly racing in the Jaguar/Ford guise, will continue the recent tradition of promoting a new movie in the famous Principality.
Last year, a Star Wars theme was adopted, which saw mechanics dressed as Storm Troopers while the car was dressed in a special livery.

In 2006, new Hollywood blockbuster 'Superman Returns' will get the Red Bull treatment, with the team currently putting the final touches on a spectacular adaptation to its huge motor home, which is floating in the Monte Carlo harbour.

The Energy Station's front entrance now resembles the headquarters of Clark Kent's 'Daily Planet' building.

Red Bull and Jaguar also promoted the 'Terminator 3' and 'Ocean's Twelve' movies.

Kevin Spacey, who acts in the Superman remake, is tipped to attend the race as a Red Bull guest.

Back on track, the team is chasing its first point since round three in Australia. Last time out in Spain, Christian Klien finished 13th with David Coulthard 15th. Tonio Liuzzi is the sister Toro Rosso camp finished in 14th splitting the two Red Bull regulars.

Wednesday FIA press conference, part I

2006-05-24T13:52:00.000-07:00

Five drivers meet the press
First part of today’s FIA press conference ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix with Rubens Barrichello (Honda), David Coulthard (Red Bull), Juan Pablo Montoya (McLaren), Jarno Trulli (Toyota), Alexander Wurz (Williams).
Alex, this is very much your home race; what’s it like for you and your family when the race comes to town?
Alexander WURZ: I’ve been here for nine years, I live here now with my family. My kid is going to school above us here. I brought him there this morning, then went down to the race team. It’s kind of a bit strange. I remember four years ago picking him up from hospital when he was born on race day so I have quite some memories. But at the end of the day, when you live here and the race is coming here, it’s actually a pain in the butt because you have no more parking because the guardrails are being built up, it confuses the traffic, everyone gets a bit more stressed, hectic, the prices go up in the restaurants so I prefer the calmer time of December and January.

It’s going to get more hectic over the next few days; what’s it going to be like for the third drivers tomorrow?
AW: Well, the track usually starts off very slippery here in Monaco so actually we are just vacuum-cleaners for the other guys here, so they have fun on the rubbered-in circuit whereas we are sliding around a lot.
I remember from last year the first session is really slow and you have to be very aware of this. One is always really tempted to push but the circuit is getting so much quicker. Every time you come into the pits and you wait five minutes the other guys go one or two seconds quicker in the first session so that makes it a bit tricky because all the time you want to go out and be quickest, of course. But you have to be aware that the moment to set the best lap time is always at the end of the Thursday, and then it’s going be really hectic out there. I believe everyone is aware that many drivers are a bit afraid of qualifying but in my situation I don’t have that problem. I’m afraid of not having enough free track on Thursday afternoon.

What’s qualifying going to be like with the slower drivers?
AW: I’m sure all the other four guys here will tell you more about it. I wish I had the problem to have traffic in qualifying but it’s not my business at the moment. If I could sit here on Saturday and complain about traffic I would race and that would be fine for me.
Rubens, another year older, 34 yesterday, it’s always Monaco Grand Prix time…
Rubens BARRICHELLO: Yeah, it’s become a habit! You know when you get older, you don’t have to party any more. It’s just one more year. But I enjoyed my birthday very much, yesterday. I wasn’t working actually so it was nice to be with the family. For the first time, we made a cake. It was OK.

Qualifying seems to be going a lot better now; what about the racing?
RB: Well, in all honesty, I think Barcelona would have been a lot better. Although I saw a lot of people talking about Jenson being held up by me, I don’t think there was much truth in that. We had our pace there. He might have gone a little bit faster but it wouldn’t have changed his race. I lost five to six seconds on the way to the pits because of the (fuel) pressure, the fuel wasn’t picking up and so when I came into the pits, I still had some fuel left and I stopped, and because they didn’t know what the problem was, they kept on putting a lot of fuel in the car, and so I finished with a little bit more than what we thought and the car became heavier. The pace wasn’t there because of that. Otherwise, I think the two cars would have been close to Raikkonen’s but there was no way to finish in front of him and that’s the story. But I think Barcelona was a step forward in terms of overall pace.

What about here, with a good qualifying position?
RB: Well, qualifying is definitely good and I think the car could actually work quite well here. The problem is going to be just being on the track at the right time. Honestly, I think we should have a different qualifying (system) for here because probably five percent of us won’t say anything about qualifying, that we had a free lap, and the rest will all be (talking about) traffic, even in the last session. Probably not as much in qualifying three, but first qualifying is going to be like hell, really. You really need to give a lot of space to people on Thursday and see if they remember that on Saturday and let it go, because if somebody goes out of the pits, just thinking about life, it’s going to be quite dangerous in a way. If you’re going to go flat out up through Casino Square, from there on you can give some space.

Now the rest of you in the front row have all won this race before and I know that all of you have said afterwards what a very special victory it is. Can you just talk through how special it is to win here, and why?
David COULTHARD: I think it’s obvious to everyone who is here that this is a more challenging track because you have less room of a margin for error, and depending on the pace of your car in any particularly Grand Prix, depends on just how hard you have had to push for the entire race. I think, looking at last year’s race, Kimi was able to quite comfortable do the last stint, so he probably wasn’t under a great deal of pressure, but if you’re having to push the whole time, then you get into a sort of trance when you’re driving around here, sometimes being a little bit confused as to whether you’re driving through the barriers or round them. That’s the sort of zone you’re getting into; certainly I was! So when you come out the other side, it is such a tremendous feeling of achievement. I think every driver would, if he could pick a Grand Prix to win, he would want to win in Monaco.

Jarno TRULLI: I agree with David. This is the Grand Prix of the season: the atmosphere is nice - there are so many things. It’s got history and as David says, it’s not easy to win. It’s probably much easier to lose than win and anything can happen. Qualifying is very important, to start in front of the grid, but we’ve also seen in the past that sometimes it doesn’t help. At the end of the day, you really need to make everything work properly during the race, and try to do your best, and eventually you might win the race if you do it properly, because during the race, you can never give up, you can never slow down, you always have to be concentrated and it’s quite a long Grand Prix as well. It’s not easy because you’re not actually on a circuit, you’re on a street circuit and you don’t have any margin for mistakes, nothing, so you’re really tied up with what you’re doing and you have to make sure you do it right, all the way through the weekend. It’s nice because of the atmosphere, so many people. As an Italian as well. Italy’s just next (door), there are always a lot of supporters for Ferrari and the Italian drivers.

Juan Pablo MONTOYA: I think it’s a little bit of everything. It’s a great circuit and it’s got history. It’s Monaco, the atmosphere and it’s a challenge. What Jarno said is very true: the build-up throughout the weekend is very important and if you have the pace, it’s easier to lose the race than win it. For tradition, it’s probably the nicest race you can win.

Now Juan Pablo, you’ve been involved in some charity work today; can you tell us a bit about it?
JPM: It’s been going on for the last couple of years to be honest. We look after 2000 children already and it’s going really well. We’re promoting sports through it and today was really good news because we got $75,000 from the Steinmetz diamond helmet from last year so it’s great, it’s a really big boost for the foundation and we get a lot of support for it in Colombia too. Quite a few drivers went for the go-kart race last year and we raised quite good money from it, so it’s been going really well. My wife works a lot on it and it’s great, it’s great to give something back and for me something back to Colombia, my country, makes it very special.

The situation within the team is somewhat complex as we go through the….
JPM: Not really. I think the situation in the team is really quite good at the moment. We are all focused on doing the job we have to do, trying to make the car better. What’s happening next year? I don’t know, probably Kimi doesn’t know, probably nobody knows at the moment and I think the situation that the press is trying to create… it’s, you know, oh this and that and who is staying? Within the team it’s very good, you know. I’m focusing and I’ve been doing a lot of work the last few weeks with the test in Paul Ricard which went really well and I think we’re finding our feet a little bit. Yes, we know we need to improve in a lot of areas still but the direction is good and the spirit is good. That is the most important thing.

Money no problem for Renault

2006-05-15T05:36:00.000-07:00

Seeking a star to replace Alonso
Renault want a top-line replacement for world champion Fernando Alonso, and are prepared to pay whatever it takes to get one, team President Alain Dassas said today in Spain.
Alonso, who won his home Spanish Grand Prix, will join rivals McLaren Mercedesnext year, leaving Renault without an established number one driver for 2007. And Dassas made it clear that the French manufacturer will stop at nothing to continue
their run of success, after earlier confirming the team's commitment to Formula One until at least 2012.

"Flavio will make proposals and selections but we are ready as Renault to do what is necessary to have a good driver," said Dassas. "We are committed for a long period of time. We have stated clearly that next year we want to have a driver who is able to give a top performance."

With only three truly front-line drivers on the Formula One grid, and one of those leaving the team at the end of the year, Renault appear to have narrowed their focus to Kimi Raikkonen and Michael Schumacher.
Both are out of contract at the end of the year, as is Renault's current Italian driver Giancarlo Fisichella, who has been told that a decision on his future will be made before the end of June.

Renault earlier confirmed that they would remain in Formula 1 until at least 2012 after signing a contract with Formula One's commercial rights holders CVC to continue in Formula One.

Speculation had mounted over the past months that Renault would leave Formula One at the end of 2007, which Dassas believed may have been a factor in Alonso's decision to leave. "I was not there half a year ago but I guess Alonso has left the team for several reasons," said Dassas.

Spanish Grand Prix press conference

2006-05-15T05:35:00.000-07:00

With Alonso, Schumacher and Fisichella
A flawless race from Fernando Alonso saw him take his first home Grand Prix triumph in Spain while Michael Schumacher had to be satisfied with the runner-up spot ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella.

Q: Fernando, that looked like 66 perfect laps.
Fernando ALONSO: Yeah, I think we did our maximum race performance today. The tyres performed really well throughout the race. We had some doubts before the start
and everything went perfectly. As we planned, we pushed in the first stint, we were lighter than the Ferraris so we needed a gap. We found the gap quite quickly and then it could have been a defensive race from there on, but it was not the case. This time Ferrari was not coming really strongly so I was just maintaining the gap and especially in the last stint, controlling the revs and trying to finish a race that was obviously very long for me today.

Q: It certainly looked as if you were enjoying the closing laps of the race. Can you just describe to us your emotions as you took the chequered flag?
FA: During the last five or six laps, I saw that Michael was slowing down as well, not pushing any more so it was just four or five laps just cruising to the end and for sure the chequered flag finished the race and I finished everything in front of everybody here, in front of my people, my supporters. I think it was the best feeling so far in Formula One, equal to the Grand Prix of Brazil, when I won the championship.
I finished third in that race with a lot of problems, defending the third place and I didn’t enjoy it so much as I did today, when I was alone, leading the race.

Q: Michael, a very strong second place for you, splitting the Renaults. How much was it defined for you having to sit behind Giancarlo Fisichella?
Michael SCHUMACHER: The race result didn’t really have anything to do with that, because Giancarlo was going at a certain pace, which at certain moments I couldn’t match and clearly, as the weekend developed, it started very well for us and then it sort of went away from us over the weekend which we obviously have to understand and look into. But we were simply not quick enough today.

Q: Obviously he won the drag race into the first corner but you obviously carried a lot more fuel into the race, a lot more than the Renaults.
MS: Yeah, I mean if you consider the amount of fuel we carried, it would have been easy to achieve pole position yesterday but our strategy was obviously different. It worked out at the Nurburgring. Here, it would have worked out had we been quick enough, but because the speed wasn’t there it didn’t work out.
Q: Your thoughts on that second place and a good solid eight points.
MS: Yeah, absolutely, it’s eight points. You have to understand at certain moments what is possible and what is not possible. You can only try so much yourself. You have to rely on your package, and again, it didn’t work out today but there’s a long way to go until the end of the season, so as we have seen, I was probably not so happy just to gain two points in the last two races. Now I’m reasonably happy to lose only two points. It’s the way it’s going to go and we’ll have to see what happens through the year.

Q: Giancarlo, P3 for you, a very strong start to the race, leading Michael, obviously very important from a team point of view, the position you took.
Giancarlo FISICHELLA: Yes, of course. We did a great start, even better than Fernando and after the first corner, we were able to hold first and second places. We set a good pace and for the first part of the race we were a bit lighter than Ferrari but the pace was quite good. In the second stint, just after the first stint, Michael came across the circuit and just passed me at the pit stop. After that, when I was in turn three, my engineers called me to say something and I was in the middle of turn three, and I lost control of the car and I went onto the gravel and maybe I damaged the car. It wasn’t bad, the car balance was OK but the grip wasn’t great, but apart from that it’s a great result for us and as we expected, it was a tough race between us and Ferrari.

Q: Fernando, returning to you, you said yesterday that you didn’t think 66 laps were going to be enough for you to enjoy but you have conceded that it seemed like a long race towards the end. Again, just talk us through those few emotional moments for you.
FA: It’s true that to race here and to race in front of an all blue grandstand is a different feeling compared to all the other races and it’s true that 66 laps is not enough probably to enjoy all the race but when you are leading with ten seconds or whatever I think you want to finish the race, already, and celebrate victory if you can. It was a fantastic day, difficult to forget for me.

Q: Fernando, does it get any better than winning at home and being greeted on the podium by your King?
FA: No, so far it’s the best thing that has probably happened to me in Formula One, apart from Brazil where I won the championship, this one was maybe a better feeling because I crossed the line winning the race. In Brazil it was a dramatic race because I had to defend third position to be champion mathematically and it’s a different feeling. Here, with no thoughts in my mind, just free to drive, to win the race, the happiness is better.

Q: Tell us about the start, Giancarlo nearly got you there.
FA: Yeah, Giancarlo had a better start. Probably the reaction time was not great for me and for sure, Giancarlo started better this time and I was lucky to defend the position from the inside line and to get first position thanks to Giancarlo, also in the first corner. It’s always better to fight with your team-mate than with any other driver.

Q: Then you did a short first stint but quite a long final stint.
FA: Yeah, the strategy played well today. It was a little different to Ferrari this time. I think it worked OK because we had pole position, we had a gap after the first stint when we were lighter and then we controlled the gap, more or less, so I’m quite happy.

Q: What animal were you copying on your car at the end?
FA: It’s a secret. It’s not an animal, either.

Q: Michael, you’ve been quite confident this weekend, so when did you realise you didn’t have the necessary pace?
MS: Basically when I had free air and couldn’t really make up enough ground.

Q: That was after Giancarlo’s pit stop?
MS: Yeah, although I wasn’t that close behind him before the first pit stop, so already there it seemed very difficult. But then we obviously knew that maybe later in the race, with a better set of tyres, it may work out differently. But I still had the option and possibility to close down but as we couldn’t do it in the second stint, we couldn’t really make any real impression and win any ground in terms of lap time, so it was clear it would be difficult.

Q: But you had at least overtaken Giancarlo?
MS: Sure. Knowing that I was so close behind him and saw him going in reasonably early, compared to what we could do, it was sort of clear although I almost lost it because I had a little moment in one of the corners, in those important laps, had a bit of traffic, so there were a couple of factors that didn’t really help, but I still made it.

Q: So it was a little bit tight to come out ahead of him.
MS: Yeah, because of the issues I just mentioned; normally it would have been a bit more clear.

Q: Obviously second place was not where you hoped to be, but only losing two points is not so bad.
MS: Yeah, that’s the way you have to see it. You have to understand that you can’t win every race. At certain moments those guys are better than us and maybe at other moments it will be the other way around. It’s a long year to go. We will keep on fighting.

Q: Giancarlo, How close were you to overtaking Fernando at the first corner?
GF: It was close, but it was just the first corner so…It was important to get through the first corner and carry on in the first two positions for us and that as done. I got a good reaction time, better than Fernando, but its okay. I’m happy. Q: What prevented you from staying ahead of Michael at the first stop?
GF: Obviously I was pushing and we were able to be a little bit quicker than him. Obviously I was a little bit lighter then the Ferraris. I think the car balance was little difficult in the rear end and a bit unstable in high-speed corners and the grip wasn’t great to push very hard. Apart from that it was a good race and just after the first pit-stop, when I was behind Michael and my engineers called me in turn three and I lost control of the car and went into the gravel. That was a critical part of the race.

Q: You were talking about the car not having fantastic grip or whatever. Was that in the first stint or did it change after you went off in the gravel?
GF: No, no. Already in the beginning of the race I was pushing, but not 100 per cent because it wasn’t comfortable enough to do that. Maybe after the exit I lost some piece but not sure.

Q: It didn’t change that much?
GF: No, not that much.

Q: (Salvatore Zanca – Associated Press) Fernando, what’s the one thing you remember about today and what did the King say to you when he handed you the trophy?
FA: The thing to remember today is a little bit of everything. The lap I did with the king in the car this morning with all the people enjoying seeing us together, and then the start, the first lap, then Michael coming out of the pits behind me. I think the people realised I was still leading the race so the next two laps were everything blue in the grandstand moving, jumping and for sure the last two laps, the emotion I have in the car. And finishing the race, so a little bit of all. With the King, nothing really, just a little bit of congratulations, a nice race and normal things in the podium

Q: (Fritz-Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) Michael, the incident where you say you nearly lost it. Was that at turn seven or was it somewhere else?
MS: Turn seven.

Q: (Mathias Brunner – Motorsport Aktuell) Michael, you were so confident yesterday of the race pace – it’s hard to believe where the pace went. Are we talking about a tyre problem here because the car apparently worked fine?
MS: I don’t believe it’s fair to blame anything on one area without studying, because, as you quite rightly say, in qualifying, if you put a bit of maths in, I would have been two or three tenths quicker than the pole position time, so it would have been reasonably possible to achieve that, but, all the long runs we did on Friday and Saturday were very quick and quite good. In the race we just weren’t able to quite match it in this situation for whatever reason. We have been here for testing in the winter, it’s sometimes a wind direction change, a temperature change or whatever, could just trigger things to shift one or the other way. We’ve seen it in the past and we’ve seen it in the last test we did here and maybe that’s what happened today. Obviously I’ve just been in the car and not been able to analyse what’s happened. I don’t know exactly what’s going on, I just know that its not what happened before.

Q: (Juha Paatalo – Financial Times Deutschland) Fernando and Michael, normally this track shows the real performance of the cars. If you look at all the other cars, they are a whole way behind you. Are you surprised at that?
FA: I am a little bit surprised, yes, because the last two races was only a fight between Ferrari and Renault and no-one has come in really strongly. Sometimes they show potential in the tests, sometimes on Fridays, sometimes in qualifying, but in the races the fight has been, at least in the last two races, between Ferrari and Renault. I think though that they can come back, especially McLaren and I’m pretty sure before later they will fight with Ferrari and Renault too.

Q: (Mike Doodson) To Michael & Fernando, the two of you have dominated this season and given us lots of pleasure. But both of your successes have been the results of team-work. Do you ever think of the prospect of having a straight race between you? Does that prospect appeal to you?
MS: So you want us to go back to go-karts? I think in any kind of motor racing, you have to rely on the team. It’s the nature of our sport – that team element and it’s a very interesting one, to me at least. Even in go-karts, you have to have a package. It’s not like playing tennis or soccer, no, even in soccer, you have to have the team.

FA: I agree.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Michael, when Alonso made his first pit stop, the gap was about 12 seconds and when you came out, the gap was similar. At that point, did you still have hopes to win the race?
MS: For me, I only start to give up when I see no sense. Most of the time that is on the last lap. Knowing the nature of the circuit where you have basically no chance to overtake, in particular if you are not quick enough. I had to give up after the last pit-stop. I drove home from then.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Giancarlo, yesterday you were saying you want to go for victory. After this race, what is your feeling for the rest of the season?
GF: It’s a good feeling. I have a great team and a great car and the potential of the car to improve and today I was slightly slower than Fernando and Michael maybe, but apart from that I proved I had a chance to win again like in Malaysia. I’m confident for that.

Q: (Juha Paatalo – Financial Times Deutschland) Giancarlo, how do you explain the almost half a minute difference between you and Fernando today?
GF: Just at the beginning, Fernando was able to go a bit quicker than me. And was just more comfortable, I was struggling a little bit with the grip and was not confident to push 100 percent. That’s all.

And Now – Michael Schumacher, Disney Actor

2006-05-12T12:14:00.000-07:00

Schumacher set for the silver screen with Disney
Almost 15 years after his Formula One debut, seven-times world champion Michael Schumacher will be making a debut of a different kind on the same weekend as the Monaco Grand Prix.

The 37-year-old’s voice will be heard in a new animation movie from Disney titled 'Cars', in which he plays a cameo role as himself. Schumacher joins other legends of the silver screen and world of motorsport like Paul Newman, Richard Petty, Mario Andretti, Darrell Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt Jr in the cast of 'Cars'.

Schumacher found his first acting experience behind a microphone quite a challenge.

"When I first heard about this project, I was obviously hesitating as I am not at all good in acting or pretending I am somebody else, and as I have never done anything like this before,” he told Racing-Live.com. “But on the other side, the story was so nice and the whole setting seemed so appealing."

“So we thought: okay, why not try, let’s just go and try it. It was quite difficult doing this, but at the same time it was a lot of fun as it was a totally new experience. And trying new things is always worth it.
"

“We had to stop several times, especially when I did the languages other than German and English, but in the end I hope it will come across well and the people will like it. For sure, it was a very interesting and funny thing to do."

'Cars' will stage its World Premiere at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte, North Carolina on May 26th.

Directed by award-winner John Lasseter (“Toy Story,” “Toy Story 2,” “A Bug’s Life”) with animation by Pixar Animation Studios (“The Incredibles,” “Finding Nemo,” “Monsters, Inc.”), the movie tells the story of Lightning McQueen (voice of Owen Wilson).

He is 'a hotshot rookie race car driven to succeed,' according to the official website, 'who discovers that life is about the journey, not the finish line, when he finds himself unexpectedly detoured in the sleepy Route 66 town of Radiator Springs...'

Thursday press conference from Barcelona – Second Part

2006-05-12T12:07:00.000-07:00

Alonso, de la Rosa, Montagny and Rosberg take questions
Ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix local hero Fernando Alonso is joined by Pedro de la Rosa, Franck Montagny and Nico Rosberg in the Thursday press conference.

Q: (Salvatore Zanca – Associated Press) Fernando, what’s the biggest difference here compared to last year. The media, the fans? FA: There are not many to be honest. Last year the attention was quite high already from the people and from the media. I came here last year leading the championship with 20 points higher than Kimi (Raikkonen) and (Jarno) Trulli, so already the pressure was quite big and the people were interested. Now I arrive leading the championship again. I won last year but already this is in the past. I think people are concentrating on this year’s championship –it’s getting very interesting in the last two races and obviously people are looking on Sunday for me to do a good show.

Q: (Tom Clarkson – Tom Clarkson & Associates) Fernando, do you get more excitement out of beating Michael Schumacher than with other drivers? FA: Yes, normally yes. Many times I think that to beat the big names and big drivers and big cars normally gives you more motivation and more excitement. I think that Michael – as a seven-times world champion – it is always nice to fight with him and there is more pressure than to beat any other one. Always winning races and overtaking people is always exciting even if it is anyone.

Q: (Juha Paatalo – Financial Times Deutschland) Fernando, if you compare the development work of Renault and Ferrari in the last two races, how do you see it? FA: We saw that in the last two races Ferrari was coming very strong and won the last two races but I think it is difficult to see how the development is compared with them because we have Michelin tyres. I think compared to McLaren we’ve gone up and then, as well as improving the car race by race, we are beating them normally in the races. And with Ferrari, we don’t know because the tyres look to be more important than anything else. The Bridgestone tyres were working very well in the last two races and hopefully here we will come back fighting and McLaren also.

Q: (Kevin Garside – The Daily Telegraph) – Fernando, Bernie Ecclestone said that drivers do not in general do enough to promote Formula One and in you, we have a champion who doesn’t do much. What are your thoughts? FA: I don’t know what Bernie means with that. I have a team that pay me to do my job. I go testing, I go to promotional events and I have my sponsors, I go to my obligations, I race and this is my job in Formula One. I don’t know what more I have to do. I do everything that is in my contract that I have to.

Q: (Dan Knutson – National Speed Sport News) Felipe when you race in Brazil, what are the good things and the bad things about racing in front of your home crowd? FMa: When I race in Brazil, what are the good things and bad things? It’s great to be in front of your home people with the flags and really enjoying motor racing. That’s really fantastic for me. You can feel a really great feeling to see that from your people. I think the best thing a driver can have in Formula One is to race in front of your home people.

Q: (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) Fernando, we asked about the possibility of Michael Schumacher going to Renault next year and you laughed at that. Now it seems you and Kimi (Raikkonen) could swap places. What’s your view on that? FA: I don’t know anything. I have decided after I fight for the championship this year, my future for next year and it doesn’t matter what the others are doing, It’s always interesting to see what the other drivers are doing, but that is just for fun rather than anything else. Whether the guy who replaces me is a name we all know or a new driver in the championship is not important.

Q: (Dominic Fugere – Le Journal de Montreal) Fernando, when I got here I was greeted by a cardboard cut-out of you at a petrol station. How do you feel about things like that? FA: Strange, for sure, because in the last two years everything grown up in Formula One. Three years ago we had half a million people watching F1 and now there are 10 million people watching the race. It has been a big change because now Formula One is a sport about which everybody is talking in the streets and for sure my image or my face is in some more places now, but for me it’s very strange.

Q: (Thierry Wilmotte - Le Soir) Fernando, is it realistic to think that who wins the championship is dependent on the tyre manufacturers? FA: No, I think for sure it will be a very important factor. If Michelin or Bridgestone is in a very dominant position from now on then yes. Maybe Ferrari or the first Michelin team will win the championship more easily. The way were now we are quite close, we are fighting every race and there’s McLaren and Honda who are also in the fight but they have not had a successful weekend so far. Now it think it is close enough and we are racing still with four teams and anything can happen so It is more reliant on small factors and the guy who finishes on the podium the most and is the most reliable and makes no mistakes will win.

Q: (Dan Knutson – National Speed Sport News) Nico, there’s been a lot of potential with the car this season but a lot of frustration with reliability problems. What’s the atmosphere like in the team now? NR: Williams is known for their determination of course. Because of the recent problems we’ve had, we could have done a lot better then we have up until now. The main thing again is that Williams are always pushing ahead and trying to get solutions to the problems and so the main thing I think in the team is flat-out determination.

Q: (Tom Clarkson – F1 Racing) Fernando, how much contact have you had with McLaren recently with a view towards 2007? Have you been to the factory? FA: Nothing. Nothing at all

Q: (Carlos Miquel – Diario As) Fernando, would you like to have Pedro as a team-mate or test driver at McLaren next year? FA: For sure, Pedro knows the team very well and has lots of experience working with the team. For sure, it’s great to have another Spanish driver in the team and he can help me a lot for sure, and I hope Pedro stays next year.

Q: (Mike Doodson) Fernando, I saw a TV advert with you making some nifty dance steps. Was it really you with the dance steps? FA: Of course. Two months preparation for this. No it was not me. A joke.

Q: (Dan Knutson – National Speed Sport News) Franck, I believe you have a two race deal with the team. Is that correct? What are your prospects for staying with the team beyond that? FMo: I will do the best as I can for sure. Certainly when we get to Monaco it will be tough. To be honest, I don’t really know the car so we cannot expect to be mid-grid, so I’ll fight as much as I can to do a good job and try to do my best.

Q: Is there a chance of you continuing with the team for the rest of the season? FM: I am not the right person to ask.

Q: Would they prefer an all Japanese team? Is that the case? FM: If you look on the sidepod of the car, there is badge that says ‘born in Japan’ so for sure it would be more interesting to have another Japanese driver in the car. While I’m in the car, I will try to do a very good job.

Q: (Heinz Pruller - ORF) Gentlemen, with the World Cup coming up, who do you think will be world champions, and who is your favourite player? FA: Brazil I think. My favourite player is Zidane.

FMa: We are quite strong for the world cup and definitely Ronaldinho

NR: I think Brazil is probably the favourite and Ronaldinho

FMo: Same as my friend over there: Brazil and Ronaldinho

PDR: Spain obviously, and Casillas. We have to give a little bit to ourselves.

Thursday press conference from Barcelona - Firts Part

2006-05-12T12:06:00.000-07:00

With Alonso, de la Rosa, Montagny and Rosberg
Ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix local hero Fernando Alonso is joined by Pedro de la Rosa, Franck Montagny and Nico Rosberg in the Thursday press conference.

Q: Franck, life must have changed for you quite a lot… Franck MONTAGNY: Yeah, just a little bit: from my living room to a race track. Yeah, quite a lot.

Q: Tell us how it all came about? FMo: Quite quickly and I am quite happy to be here, for sure. Thanks to Super Aguri for giving me this opportunity first. They called me a week before the race at Nurburgring and they asked me to come to be third driver, to do the testing on the Friday, because they could do it with a third car, and when I arrived, they asked me to do the race, because they had a problem with the second driver. I was just glad to do it.

Q: How can you see yourself improving the team, with your experience from Renault? FMo: Well, I don’t think we can improve this car, for sure, but the more we work on this car and all the things we can see from this car, we can maybe make a better car in the future. We all know that SA06 is coming soon so we can still work on new stuff, what I have learned in the past, what Takuma has learned in the past and maybe it’s going to be better.

Q: And this race is a bit of a home race for you, isn’t it? FMo: Yeah, kind of, yeah. I used to live for four years here in Spain, in Barcelona, particularly. I really love this city. It’s a very beautiful city, nice people, open minds.
I have a lot of good things to say about here.

Q: And you still have a business here? Your hairdressing business? FMo: Yeah, but I don’t cut hair, don’t get me wrong! I haven’t been there this week; no time!

Q: Nico, tremendous race at the Nurburgring. The first time you went out on the track it was as though you had huge confidence, because you instantly set fastest time. Does knowing the circuit give you that much confidence? Nico ROSBERG: Yeah, the Nurburgring is one of the tracks that I know best throughout the year, coming into F1, because I’ve done a lot of races there, and I’ve had some great success there too. So I did feel confident going onto the track. Obviously it’s always quite different when you tackle the track with a Formula One car, because the way you take the corners and everything is quite different. But I found that in especially in the beginning there, it was actually quite similar to all the other cars (I’ve driven) so it worked out quite well initially and, yeah, the whole weekend worked out quite well. It was quite a good result in the end, I think.

Q: Will you have similar confidence at all the circuits you know? NR: Yes, of course. It’s always a help when you come to a circuit and you know where you’re going to be going, also for your confidence and everything. It is a slight help, yeah, every time.

Q: What’s the pace of development like at Williams? NR: I think it’s probably very similar to all the other teams. They’re pushing like hell in the factory, that I know, and I think development has been going very well. We’ve had some steps nearly every weekend so I think we will be keeping up, for sure, and maybe coming a bit closer too, sometimes.

Q: Have you been pretty pleased with your own performance, basically? NR: Yeah, I’ve been pleased. It has been a bit up and down all the way to here, from my side and from the team’s side, but I think that could have been expected. As a whole, I have to say that I think it’s gone quite well, but I hope to progress and do even better in the future.

Q: Felipe, your first podium at the Nurburgring. What does that do for a driver, for his morale? Felipe MASSA: I think it gives you happiness, first of all, and a lot more motivation to keep doing the same job. It was very very important for me, it was a great result, it’s fantastic to be on the podium.

Q: How much of a difference did your new engineer make? FMa: For sure. If you have an engineer at Ferrari, he should be a good engineer. My ex-engineer was definitely a very very good engineer. The biggest problem was a little bit on the organisation and on the radio, so I was quite confident in my new engineer, who did a great job, talking about everything, not just the set-up, but everything that’s going on and what’s happening in the race weekend.

Q: From a Ferrari point of view, is the team going to be at a little bit at a disadvantage here in comparison to Renault who have perhaps done more testing than Ferrari have? FMa: I don’t think so. We also tested at this track and we understood many important things, many good things. We improved the car a lot, especially in the last two races, so I think we can probably be very very competitive, as we were at the Nurburgring and also at Imola.

Q: Pedro, what’s your role this weekend with McLaren Mercedes? Pedro de la ROSA: Well, my role is the same as in the past, for the past races. Firstly, it is to act as a reserve driver; if anything happens, I have to be ready. And then just keep in touch with the engineers, the team, the drivers, Michelin, you know, just being involved, as much as I can, if I can help, with the tyre selection, everything. We’ve done all the tyre testing here, prior to this Grand Prix so I’m quite aware of which tyres are here and why and help, help if I can. Nothing else.

Q: What are the particular characteristics of this circuit, what do you have to look out for? PDR: I think that the biggest problems everyone will face here is front tyre graining and blistering. Those are the two major factors that are always the limiting factor. Choosing a soft compound here you have to be careful about graining. The front left tyre has a very hard time on this track because all the corners are very long, you’re putting load on that tyre for a long time, and you stay on the throttle for a long time as well. And then you have the blistering factor which happened last year to Fernando and other Michelin runners. That’s always a risk here.

Q: Fernando, your home circuit, is it something to be looked forward to or does it make it a little bit more complicated for you? Fernando ALONSO: No, it’s the same. It’s a normal race for me but obviously with much more support from the grandstands, so for me it is extra motivation for sure, to race here at home, and hopefully to get a good result here on Sunday.

Q: We heard from Pedro about tyre choice, and there was some doubt about the tyre choice at Nurburgring. How difficult is it to make that tyre choice? FA: It’s very difficult. As Pedro said, we normally test here at Barcelona before the Grand Prix in order to chose the tyres. Sometimes we test in Paul Ricard or another circuit, to chose the tyres for a completely different circuit, and you have to guess, a little bit, to believe what the Michelin… things which will be working on that type of asphalt, temperature, conditions etc, and I think particularly here in Barcelona, because we test all winter with five or six degrees temperature. We came here in May with 25. Normally, it’s a little bit different. But normally we have been really good, in the last two years, here with the tyres so I have full confidence in the right choice for this weekend.

Q: Should you be scared or worried about Ferrari’s form at the moment? How worried are you? FA: Not much, same worry as I have from McLaren and Honda. I think we’re still the four teams which should fight for victory in all Grands Prix. In the first five races, everything worked perfectly for Renault and Ferrari and we won all five races but I think McLaren and Honda have the pace as well and they normally qualify really well, especially Honda. McLaren normally do something more in the race, always close to the podium and I’m sure that if one weekend goes right for them, it will also be a close fight and I think what we have to do is work on our car, on our programme, our strategy, do as good a weekend as we can, as we did in the first five races and the result will be good in the end.

Q: Presumably for every team it’s a matter of getting a whole number of factors absolutely right. FA: Many factors: tyre choice, how the tyres work on the car – last weekend was not perfect for the Michelin runners, I think – strategy, fuel load in qualifying, the single lap qualifying: when you put on the new set of tyres at the end of Q3 (third qualifying) has to be your best lap of the weekend if you want to be at the front. There are many things that have to be perfect all weekend, and that’s what we’re looking for this weekend.

Delight for Schumacher and Massa at Nurburgring

2006-05-07T10:41:00.000-07:00

European GP - Race
Passing Fernando Alonso to take the lead during the second round of pit stops, Michael Schumacher controlled the remainder of the race to take his second race win of the season and 86th of his career.

While Schumacher celebrated his back-to-back win, Felipe Massa drove a strong race in the sister 248 F1 and recorded his first career podium position.

Michael Schumacher
“A great race, great strategy and SPONSORED LINKS
a great performance from the whole team. I am happy for all of them and I think the result shows we are back, with car, engine, tyres and fuel all working superbly. At the start, I was in Alonso’s slipstream and I thought I was safe in second place as I could not see anything in my mirrors, but then luckily, I realised that Felipe was coming alongside me very quickly, but I managed to stay ahead. Apart from that, my only moment was when I ran a bit wide in turn 6, before the first pit stop. I pushed too hard as I thought I could catch Fernando there. It’s a very nice feeling winning my home Grand Prix. Unfortunately though, we have only made up two points on Fernando, but every point counts. I am also pleased for Felipe, getting his first F1 podium today and now I am looking forward to another good fight in Barcelona.”

Felipe Massa
“I am very happy. Today, I stood on the podium for the first time and it was a really great feeling. I am also happy that this coincided with a win for Michael, as it shows the team is really in the fight for the title.
We have to give it our all, race after race. I made a great start to such an extent that I found myself alongside Michael, but as he had the inside line at turn one, he was able to stay ahead. The strategy worked very well and the Bridgestone tyre performance was fantastic. Only in the final stages, when I had taken on a used set, was I unable to push to the maximum. I got close to Alonso, but I had Kimi closing on me quickly. There were a few difficult moments, but I managed to keep third place, while also trying to get by Fernando. Now, I am tempted to keep my race suit on: the champagne smells nice!”

Ross Brawn
“We are very very happy. It was a challenging race, although we knew we had the pace to win if we made the correct decisions at some keys stages of the race. The team and the drivers did a perfect job. The Bridgestone tyres were very strong throughout the race and we got good performance from the whole package. Shell has done a great job with all the fluids in the car and that all came together and helped our performance today. It’s clear we are going to face a tough challenge for the rest of the season, but this is a great way to start it.”
Jean Todt
“A great result after a very close fight. The sixteen points we got today are no miracle, but come from a perfect combination of many elements: two drivers of the calibre of Michael and Felipe, the team, the chassis, the engine, the high-performing Bridgestone tyres and the fundamental support from Shell, in terms of fuel and lubricants. This success, following on from the win in Imola, is further encouragement to give our all, already starting next weekend in Barcelona, as we try and reach the goals we set ourselves at the start of the season. There is still a very long way to go, but we intend doing all we can to be in the running right to the end of the Championship.”

European Grand Prix press conference

2006-05-07T10:39:00.000-07:00

With Schumacher, Alonso and Massa
Michael Schumacher took his second straight win today at the European Grand Prix with Fernando Alonso again finishing in second position. Felipe Massa joined the two Champions on the podium for the first time. Here’s what the top three finishers had to say.

Q: Michael, congratulations. Just talk us through those early stages when you were trailing Fernando as you were.
Michael SCHUMACHER: It was no surprise that it was difficult because we were driving pretty competitively and as quick as we could. It’s a bit more difficult behind when you’re driving in the slipstream and the wind conditions today made it a bit tricky in certain areas. But at the end of the day, on the tyre side, the car side, the engine side and fuel and everything was just superb.

Q: You did two superb in-laps, the fastest lap of the race and a great out-lap as well.
MS: Yeah, well the out-lap was not that important – it was just getting out of the pit-lane in front. I always thought we could do it at the first pit-stop, but then I pushed a bit too high at turn six and almost lost it and that was probably the reason that I had to spend more time behind until the last pit-stop, which was interesting because it was varying quite a bit in certain parts of the race where Fernando sometimes seemed a bit slower and then sometimes I seemed to be a bit slower and then I was picking it up again and he had a pit-stop where he was pushing very hard, but we could match his sort of pace.

Q: And perfect strategy. You didn’t seem too happy after qualifying yesterday, but it’s all panned out perfectly as it’s turned out.

MS: We obviously chose to stay out extra lap, which honestly doesn’t give you two tenths. The reason Fernando gained the two tenths was because I didn’t get a perfect lap and he obviously did and that’s where it went. Because I felt we had a good strategy and I felt good about it, and I knew we had a good race pace because on new tyres I knew we could push and it all worked out.

Q: Fernando, a great second place and eight valuable points. Talk us through the race from your point of view.
Fernando ALONSO: It was a quite interesting race. I started from pole position and I was controlling the race with the pace. I knew there was an area for Michael, so we had new tyres at the first pit-stop. It was okay and I came in-front of Michael at the end. In the second pit-stop it was not so good because we stopped maybe three of four laps too early and that was too much. I think sometimes in a race you have traffic, but sometimes nothing helps when you are leading the race and second place is a fantastic result considering we were a little bit down from Ferrari’s performance this weekend. Also, I think the tyres were not perfectly okay for this weekend, so even with everything, to get the eight points means that we have everything okay and we should win again.
Q: Third stint for you, once Michael had got the lead, how hard was that and how hard did you try to push it for a couple of laps?
FA: I tried for two or three laps and we had similar lap times, but from then we just turned the revs down and this engine has to race next week in Barcelona and we need to always get on the podium.

Q: So you had Felipe under control?
FA: More or less yes. Maybe it was a bit close at the end, but clearly it was controlled.

Q: Felipe, a great drive from you. A lot of pressure on Fernando in the closing stages and equally on you from Kimi Räikkönen.
Felipe MASSA: I’m really happy – it was a great result for us and especially with my first podium. The whole car was quite strong, especially at the beginning when I and Michael were both pushing Fernando and then suddenly they got the pace. My car was quite consistent all race and the tyres were working well. Only in the last stint – where I had scrubbed tyres – it was not working so well. It was a great result, it helps the team out for the championship and especially me and Michael for the fight. In the first three races we were not on the pace, so hopefully now there is a chance for us to fight with Renault for the races.

Q: You made a great start too from P3 on the grid. Michael was alongside you in the first corner.
FM: Sure, I had a very good start and I could manage to put my car side-by-side with Michael but he was on the inside so he was able to go ahead. Really, it was a great start and I think the whole thing was perfect with the strategy too. The management of the race was very good.

Q: Michael, a great result, two wins in a row. Next race next week is the Spanish Grand Prix. Fernando usually goes pretty well there.
MS: Yeah. It’s no surprise to expect Renault up at the front, and also they shouldn’t be surprised to see us at the front either. We will battle to win.

Q: Michael, that seemed a pretty perfect race.
MS: Yeah. If you finish first, what can you say? That’s the way it makes everybody happy who wants to see us winning, obviously. It was a great race, great strategy, great performance all the way through.

Q: Did the strategy basically come from Ross?
MS: Obviously Ross is the man who finally decides, but we’re a team and there are several people involved in working out our strategies and preparing everything so it’s a team effort.

Q: It was quite close between yourself and Felipe at the start of the race.
MS: I was just saying to Felipe that I started off and tried to see where he was, somewhere on my left but I couldn’t see him in the mirrors, neither could I see him looking over (the side of the car), so I was trying to get into Fernando’s slipstream thinking that there wasn’t anybody nearby but then suddenly he pulled alongside, so I was a little bit surprised for a moment, but I hope… I guess I didn’t cause any fuss for Felipe.

Q: There was one point, lap 24, when you suddenly lost a couple of seconds. You were saying that the gap between yourself and Fernando seemed to go up and down a fair amount, but you seemed to lose a couple of seconds on one lap.
MS: I had two occasions, honestly. One was when Fernando went into the pits and I pushed, naturally, pretty hard and I got a bad tail wind in one corner which almost took me off the circuit and then during the race, probably lap 24, I went wide in turn 11, I think, which was quite tricky, and I lost quite a bit of ground. But then, at that stage, Fernando was strong in the middle sector of the second stint, I was pretty strong and then we were pretty equal before the pit stops.

Q: And that was the only problem during the race?
MS: Yeah. When you’re up here, you can’t have had too many problems!

Q: Fernando, how much pressure was Michael giving you in the early stages and at the end of the second stint?
FA: It was not too much to be honest. It’s difficult to follow people here and also the gap was 0.6s, 0.8s and it’s difficult to get much closer than that. It was not really an opportunity to overtake, so I was quite relaxed, controlling the engine a little bit and I pushed when I thought it was time to push right before the second stop and on the first pit-stop. I kept the lead in the first one, but in the second one, it was, of course, not possible any more.

Q: So are you disappointed with second?
FA: No, not at all. I think we came here with some questions as to how Ferrari will perform here, McLaren, us, and I think Honda was not too competitive this weekend, to be honest. With their grip problems - they were dealing with that so it was difficult to understand how. I think today we saw the normal picture again that we now need something more to win. At Imola we were ready to fight – I think we were quicker than Ferrari during the race but I think here it was a question of time: when do they overtake us? At the first stop, second stop but it was nearly impossible to keep them behind for sixty laps.

Q: Looking back, would you have changed your tyre choice if you had the opportunity?
FA: No, I think we did the right thing. I think we need to improve a little bit in all areas in the car and I think Barcelona will be a good point, because we have always been quick there in testing. Michelin has been in a dominant position in Barcelona over the last two years, so I’m really looking forward to winning that one.

Q: Felipe, you were very close at the end to Fernando, but you also had Kimi right up behind you as well.
FM: Yeah, the last five laps were not so easy because I was getting closer and closer to Fernando and Kimi was getting closer and closer to me, because I was getting very close to Fernando and I lost performance, for sure. But anyway, I think it was a great result, I’m really happy, first podium and everything worked fantastically for us this weekend. We brought the right tyres, for sure. The car was working perfectly and the race was very good.

Q: And a demon start as well.
FM: Yeah, I had a very good start. I was side by side with Michael into the braking area but he was inside and so he stayed in front but I think my car was very competitive and it was very consistent during the whole race. Sometimes the wind was changing, the situation was a little bit tricky over a couple of corners, and then the wind changed a little bit and it was a little bit tricky in other corners, but anyway, I could handle it to do a good race without mistakes and that’s very important for me and the team.

Q: It’s been a good weekend for Todts!
FM: Definitely. They won both races in GP2 and finishing third for Nicolas is really good and for Jean, it’s definitely a fantastic job. We’re now getting closer to Renault in every race and fighting every race is very important for us. Hopefully now we will get the right direction to fight every race.

Q: (Sal Zanca – AP) Michael, after three races, it didn’t look so good for Ferrari. What has made the difference in the last two races? The car? The driver? The team? The strategy? One thing please!
MS: I thought we looked good already at the first race honestly, so it’s not a surprise. We are good now because with the exception of Malaysia where we probably weren’t that competitive, in the rest of the races we had the package available. We didn’t make use of it all the time like in Australia and now it’s just normal development, where you go through the bits and pieces that are coming, aerodynamic, engine and so on where you make little steps. As I said at the beginning, the important thing from now on is who has the quicker rate of development. We have been good, traditionally, in the past, not very good last year but sometimes everybody needs a break.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Michael, at the beginning of the second stint, you lost a little bit of performance in comparison to Alonso, more than two seconds. Did you think that your chances could be over at that time?
MS: Naturally when you have a period where it’s a bit more difficult you start to think but then we always have something in hand to react and it worked out pretty well. I think he was going quickly and I was just struggling a little bit more and made this mistake in turn 11 which almost caused me to go off and I had to be quiet for two or three laps and then I could go again.

Q: (Juha Päätalo – Financial Times Germany) Michael, are these two consecutive victories the final confirmation that you will be able to fight for the championship this year, or did you have that feeling already?
MS: I had no doubt, honestly, that we would be in that position.

Q: (Juha Päätalo – Financial Times Germany) Fernando, how do you see the development pace of Ferrari now? Are you getting worried about the championship?
FA: No, not at all. I think it’s not a surprise that Ferrari is fighting. I expect McLaren will arrive also. Honda are really strong in some races, so nothing changes from the beginning of the championship. There are four teams, sometimes one is quicker, sometimes another one is slower, but all four teams are strong and ready to fight. We also had to be careful about tyres. I think in the next two races Michelin may be stronger than Bridgestone, we will probably see different races, so it’s difficult to say which one will be quicker.

Q: (Fulvio Solms – Corriere dello Sport) Question for Michael and Fernando: do you like this points system which doesn’t help the show, with only two points difference between victory and second position?
MS: I think you will get pretty logical answers: no for me and probably yes from him! FA: The same thing happened last year as well. I was winning seven races and the gap was always not enough.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Fernando, are you satisfied with the development programme of your team?
FA: I’m not an engineer, so I don’t know what we can do. I think it’s all about money, about lots of things, how you develop the car more. We’re happy, we were World Champions last year, we are leading both World Championships this year, so the team should be quite good, I think.

Q: (Anthony Rowlinson – Autosport) Fernando, are you worried that having a second race on the engine next week might affect your chances of winning your home race?
FA: No, not really. I think the difference we saw between the first race and the second race of the engine is less than one tenth, probably. We’re talking half a tenth. So I hope that if I have the chance to win in Barcelona, this half a tenth won’t be necessary.

Thursday FIA press conference

2006-05-05T04:37:00.000-07:00

Ahead of the European GP
This Thursday’s FIA press conference with the following drivers: Christijan Albers (MF1), Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber), Christian Klien (Red Bull Racing), Michael Schumacher (Ferrari), Ralf Schumacher (Toyota).

Christian, you missed this race last year; is it one that’s difficult to learn or one you know quite well?
Christian Klien: Actually, I know it quite well. I think I did the most races here in all the lower categories and in all the lower categories that I raced here, I won the race, so I quite like the circuit and I hope that that helps me this weekend.

What are your feelings about Red Bull at the moment; do you think they are where they should be?
CK: Yeah, for sure we should be further up. We had so many troubles in the last couple of months. We’re still running about a month behind schedule because we had these cooling problems at the beginning of the season and we had a lot of reliability problems in the races. I think the car has the pace and if everything works well – like in Bahrain and Malaysia, we had the pace, we were there, but we just couldn’t finish the races. We had some good tests in Barcelona and also last week in Silverstone, so we hope that we can get back on the road and get good results again.

Your team mate says that good testing doesn’t necessarily mean good races.
CK: Yeah, but it’s important to have good tests as well.
We’ve sorted out a few reliability problems and for sure that will help us in the races as well.

So you feel this one should be better.
CK: I feel it should be better. We’ve had a lot of bad luck in the last couple of races, so all the bad luck is gone now and we should get some (good) luck back.

Nick, you had problems with your back at Silverstone; is that all cleared up?
Nick Heidfeld: Yes, all cleared up.

What did it feel like? How bad was it?
NH: I had muscle cramp while driving so I went home, saw a doctor, he found that I had a mobility problem with my hip, it was blocked so I had a bit of treatment and now it’s fine.

Tell us about the Nürburgring: do you regard it as your local circuit? You were on pole last year, raced to second but you’ve also been disqualified twice, in Formula One and F3000. You’ve had your ups and downs.
NH: Yeah, for me it’s more the ups, really. If I look at the results I achieved here and the mistakes I made here, it was quite good. Of course, being disqualified here in F3000 was bad but at the same time I was on pole position, so I’ve always gone quite well here.

So what are the chances this time? BMW looked very good in the first two or three races but it seems to have dropped off since.
NH: Imola was quite difficult for us. I struggled quite badly there, not getting the grip I thought I would get with new tyres. But I think the last couple of races have also shown how close together the field is. If you are just a few tenths quicker, you’re up there. If you miss a few tenths you’re out of the points so you have to get everything together perfectly and then you should fight for points.

Christijan, any side effects from landing on your head a couple of weeks ago?
Christijan Albers: No, I’m still crazy. I’m still the same. No, I had no problems. Everything went quite well. We have a new chassis so we’re going for it again this weekend, maximum attack. I feel good, no problems.

Do you regard this as your home race?
CA: Yeah, for sure. Spa-Francorchamps fell away but it was quite good for the Dutch fans because it’s quite close to Holland, of course. And Nürburgring is the second closest so I think I’m expecting a lot of Dutch fans which will be nice.

Now there was a suggestion that there was a Dutch consortium, possibly of your sponsors, bidding to take over Midland. Can you tell us anything about that?
CA: I have no clue. I’m just a racing driver.

Ralf, I believe you’ve been testing a new car at the Circuit Paul Ricard: how eager are you to get hold of that car as soon as possible?
Ralf Schumacher: I’m not. It’s another little step but we knew that it would be a few tests before we launch it for its first race. That’s the plan. Certainly as a race driver you always tend to want to have the newest machinery as quickly as possible but it’s not possible and I must say that there are some steps, some improvements have been made with the new car but still, for this circuit, I don’t see any problem at all. We will continue with the package we achieved a few good positions on and so I think we’re on for another good one.

You won here in 2003, but haven’t finished the last couple of races. What are your feelings about this circuit?
RS: They did a lot of changes to the good, it’s very safe, it’s a nice circuit, especially for us. I’ve known it since my first steps in motor sport, so it’s also great to be here.

One or two changes in the team; how have they affected you?
RS: Not really. The structure has been very good, it has been developed with Mike as well anyway. It’s a very strong team and there are good people in there, so it hasn’t affected the team in any way.

I believe you’re on the 150th Grand Prix mark…
RS: Don’t remind me!

Is there a certain amount of frustration there?
RS: Well, certainly, it’s pretty clear that I’ve not achieved what I was targeting when I started in Formula One. Still, it’s amazing how quickly time goes by. At the same time, I hope I still have a few to go to put it right.

Michael, four wins here at the Nürburgring in Formula One: what are the chances of repeating the Imola success?
Michael Schumacher: I believe that we are in position to fight for it. As we’ve seen, and mentioned several times, the competition is very close between at least three, if not more teams who certainly can win the race and it’s only up to who can get the maximum out of the package. If we can do so, we have a chance; if we don’t we don’t.

Michelin have suggested that this is a Michelin circuit. What do you have to say about that?
MS: We’ll see.

There were concerns about tyre temperatures going to Imola, more after Imola because it was perhaps warmer than expected. Similarly, it looks as if this weekend could be warmer than expected. Is the working range of the tyres, now it’s so competitive that it has to be narrow, is that a concern of yours?
MS: We have had concerns. We have learned how to handle the tyres because it’s certainly different this year to what we experienced in the past, but we believe we’re on top of the situation and how to handle it.

There is yet more speculation about your future; what’s the situation?
MS: No change.

A question for you all: Yuji Ide has been replaced by Franck Montagny following recommendations from the FIA that Ide should get more mileage in testing. What are your feelings about a new driver entering Formula One and then being stood down?
CA: I have to say it’s quite difficult. One thing, for sure, is that’s always easy to say that a new driver needs more mileage, but how does he get that mileage? That’s also quite a big problem. We have quite a lot of top teams and it’s quite difficult for young drivers to get to the top. Some of them stay quite long. I think everybody needs to have a chance. He needs to get some experience so he needs to go racing to get that experience and before that, you need to get some mileage. With all respect, last year I didn’t do much mileage with Minardi. I did a lot of racing. It’s up to the FIA to decide. I think sometimes we give it too much attention. All young drivers want to have a chance in a top team and it’s not easy to get all the way up there.

NH: Without judging Ide’s driving, I don’t think it will change a lot if does more testing.

CK: Yes, a couple of times I was behind him. I didn’t judge it. But it’s interesting sometimes to see his lines. Sometimes he had really different lines to us. It’s a problem if you’re in a team with a lower budget. Obviously they don’t do as much testing as the bigger teams and then you don’t get the mileage in the car. That was difficult for him as well.

MS: No comment.

RS: No comment.

(Dan Knutson – National Speedsport News) Question for all five of you: you’re race drivers who like to go fast. This year the cornering speeds are higher than ever. Are the cars more fun to drive than last year, and the second part of the question is, are we getting to the point now where the cornering speeds in some corners with limited run-off areas might be too high?

MS: In a way, you could argue that, that the run-off areas… One of the reasons to go to V8 engines was to reduce lap times and speeds and to make things safer, because Max’s argument was to reduce speeds because the run-offs were made only for a certain speed. But with the development of Formula One, ten engineers make the rules and then there are hundreds of them working against them, so the nature is pretty clear. You always lose the game although the achievement is big. Imagine if we had V10s, how quick we would go. In this respect, I think a lot has been achieved. You’re right in mid-cornering speed but then you have to think about the arrival speed because now, instead of doing 320, we’re maybe doing 300, so there is significantly less speed down the straight, but then maybe higher cornering speed. All in all, I think the direction of Formula One is clear. From the future on, I think that’s what is really needed to be able to make a big step. They’re still fun to drive, they’re just different.

RS: In general he’s right. There might be a certain stage where a certain speed is not safe due to run-off areas or whatever. The FIA has gone in the right direction and there’s more to come but this year, you can feel that in some places we are quicker and the cars, due to the new tyres, different tyres compared to last year, they are more fun to drive.

NH: Well, from a drivers’ point of view I enjoy going quicker in the corners, definitely, but as Michael said, you have to look at safety at the same time, and probably we are a bit quicker in some apexes but there’s not a huge difference, it’s not like we are 15/20kph quicker, so you don’t feel a huge difference. I have enjoyed driving both types of car, probably the V10 was a bit nicer out of slow speed corners, simply feeling more power, but on the other hand, unfortunately, we still have traction control, so you can’t do so much as a driver, so hopefully we can abandon traction control.

CK: We were testing last week at Silverstone and the speed in the corners was quite a bit higher, and for sure, that’s fun but then you have to think about the run-off areas as well. For example, Liuzzi had a big shunt in a high speed corner last week. It’s nice for drivers to be quick there through the high speed corners, but then safety has to be a higher priority.

CA: I have to say that I think we’re going in the right direction. The V10 was nicer for the drivers to drive but you have to get some speed out of the car somewhere.

Michael Schumacher to consult family

2006-05-04T10:54:00.000-07:00

Regharding his future in Formula One
Michael Schumacher will consider his young family in the decision about whether or not to sign another Ferrari contract.
That is the revelation of the 37-year-old German's personal manager, Willi Weber, who added that any agreement to race beyond 2006 will be for two years.
But he told dpa: "Naturally there are always exit clauses in today's contracts; no team can force a driver to drive if he doesn't want to."

Also playing down considerations of salary, Weber said Schumacher would be consulting his wife and two children about whether more 300kph soaring around the Grand Prix circuits of the world is a good idea.

"There are not only sporting considerations," he insisted, "but also private ones. Michael's family plays a significant role."

Ralf Schumacher frustrated by lack of success

2006-05-04T10:52:00.000-07:00

''I haven't achieved what I was targeting''
Ralf Schumacher said here Thursday that he was frustrated at his lack of achievement in Formula One on the eve of his 150th Formula One start in the European Grand Prix.

Schumacher, the younger brother of seven-times drivers' world champion Michael Schumacher, has won six Grand Prix to his brother's 85, and admitted that he is not happy about living in Michael's shadow. But the Toyota driver has not yet given up hope of claiming the drivers' crown.

Schumacher, 30, said: "Certainly, it's pretty clear that I haven't achieved what I was targeting when I started in Formula One. Still, it's amazing how quickly time goes by. At the same time, I hope I still have a few to go to put it right.
"

The Nurburgring has seen some great races for Schumacher in the past. He won in 2003 at the wheel of a Williams-BMW to move into title contention. But he will want to forget the 1997 race in which he took brother Michael's Ferrari out at the first corner, and last year he was penalised 25 seconds for blocking Williams' Nick Heidfeld while exiting the pits after a fuel stop.

The safety car in F1

2006-04-30T08:29:00.000-07:00

Allianz examine the past, present and future
If there is a dangerous situation in Formula One, the Race Director sends the safety car onto the track. Especially after an accident or during heavy rain showers, the safety car drives to the front of the field and leads it around the track at reduced speed until the danger has passed. During this phase, there is an absolute ban on overtaking.

For a racing driver, there is usually nothing worse than sitting in his car with his helmet and overalls on, having to watch helplessly as the field cruises round the track. But Bernd Mayländer; driver of the safety car again at the European Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, is always pleased when his services are not needed. “The best moments are the ones when I have nothing to do,” says the 34-year-old German.

The safety car is an important safety factor in Formula One. The FIA Race Director, Charlie Whiting, decides when it should be used, which is 'whenever there is an immediate hazard but the conditions do not require the race to be interrupted,' as it says in the regulations. Once the safety car is on the track, all the cars beginning with the race leader have to drive in formation behind it.

During a safety-car phase, the cars may drive into the pits and return to the track at any time. However, they then have to continue driving at reduced speed until they have reached the end of the queue behind the safety car.

Once the dangerous situation has passed, the safety car switches off its warning lights and drives one more full lap on the track before turning off into the pit lane. However, the drivers can only overtake after the cars have passed the start/finish line. The laps in a safety car phase count as normal race laps.

There is no safety car for emergencies in everyday traffic. However, the display bridges on motorways have a similar function, as they can display warnings or speed limits adjusted to the present needs in the case of accidents, difficult weather conditions or congestion.

For the future, additional electronic aids are being developed. The electronic systems and sensors in modern passenger cars will exchange more and more data with external communication networks. “This networking has great potential, for instance, in the case of accidents, where it could make the deployment of the emergency services more efficient, safer and, above all, faster,” says Dr. Christoph Lauterwasser from the Allianz Centre for Technology. “For example, an electronic alarm could warn other car drivers about upcoming accidents and signal the arrival of emergency vehicles.”

Whenever the safety car comes into play during a grand prix, it means more safety, but not necessarily less excitement. If a team manages to bring its driver into the pits at the right time, it can gain a crucial advantage – the cars on the track are moving slowly and so this stop involves a far smaller loss of time. That causes excitement, just like the end of a safety-car phase: when the tightly packed field is given the all-clear again, there are often breathtaking overtaking manoeuvres. As a rule, the safety-car phase is a disadvantage for the race leader, because he loses the lead that he had painstakingly built up.

But the benefit in terms of safety for everyone involved compensates for this disadvantage. “Of course, it is sometimes quite frustrating to drive for several laps behind the safety car,” says WilliamsF1 driver Mark Webber, “but we don't complain because it improves safety for all of us.”

The first safety car was used in 1911 at the Indianapolis 500 race. However, it didn't pull the field together because there was danger ahead, but simply so that the spectators could fill up their soft drink cups and popcorn buckets without missing too much of the race. Since the FIA set up clear guidelines for the use of the safety car in Formula 1 in 1992, the sporting competition and, above all, safety have taken priority over the spectacle.

Mayländer has been the driver of the safety car since 2000. His busiest year was in 2003. During that season, he and his co-driver Peter Tibbets were called upon 13 times – including five times at the waterlogged Brazilian Grand Prix.

Source Allianz

F1 fans vote for Schumacher & Raikkonen

2006-04-30T08:27:00.000-07:00

What the papers say in Germany and Italy
The fans have voted - Michael Schumacher can become World Champion again, but his team-mate Felipe Massa should move over so that Kimi Raikkonen can drive a red car in 2007.
Germany's Bild newspaper this week published the results of a poll showing that 70 per cent of readers think Schumacher is capable of winning an eighth title.

'Yes, Schumi, your fans believe in you again!' the article read.
In a separate vote, this time conducted by the Italian La Gazzetta dello Sport publication, readers indicated that Ferrari's ideal driver pairing should be Schumacher with Raikkonen; the 'iceman' Finn.

46.
3 per cent voted to that effect, while just 3.7 per cent think that Massa should keep his ride. 16 per cent, meanwhile, said 'yes' to Valentino Rossi.

Odd names on the F1 grid

2006-04-30T08:26:00.000-07:00

Birth certificate names
As is Spanish custom, there is a second surname on World Champion Fernando Alonso's birth certificate. It is 'Diaz' - his mother's maiden name.
McLaren Mercedes charger Kimi Raikkonen, meanwhile, has a second first name; separated with a hyphen, the 26-year-old Finn was actually born 'Kimi-Matias Raikkonen'.

But he's not the only famous Raikkonen in Finland. In 1998, a biathlete scored a bronze medal at the Winter Olympics, and his name was Ville Raikkonen.

Bet you didn't know that MF1's Portuguese racer is actually called 'Tiago Vagaroso da Costa Monteiro'. Or that the feisty Colombian in the McLaren cockpit is officially Juan Pablo Montoya-Roldan.

Similarly, you won't find too many men called 'Jarno' in Italy. The Toyota racer's parents named him after Jarno Saarinen - a Finnish motorcycle racer who died at Monza the year before baby Trulli was born.

Ralf Schumacher named his son 'David', but - laughing - has denied that a veteran Scot in a Red Bull car had anything to do with it.

More conventionally, Mark Webber and Scott Speed boast simple middle names; respectively Alan (after the Australian ace's father), and Andrew.

David Coulthard's middle name is the slightly odd 'Marshall', while fellow Brit Jenson Button has two - 'Alexander' and 'Lyons'. 'Goncalves' is Brazilian Rubens Barrichello's middle name.

Fly to Japan, however, and you won't find a single middle name. Also, Takuma Sato would be referred to as 'Sato Takuma', as family names precede given names.

Sato, too, is the most popular surname in the Land of the Rising Sun, loosely meaning 'assistance'.

Ron Dennis on British 'rich list'

2006-04-29T04:21:00.000-07:00

McLaren boss takes position 648
It is no surprise to learn that a notable businessman in the English town of Woking has appeared in the Sunday Times' annual 2006 'Rich List'.

The local Woking News & Mail reports that Ron Dennis, boss of the McLaren team which is based in the region about a half-hour drive from London, is listed as the 648th richest man in Britain, with a fortune of about $160 million (£88m).

According to the newspaper, 58-year-old Dennis is now $14 million (£7.7m) richer than he was a year ago.

But he has a long way to go if he one day wants to beat Lakshmi Mittal to the Times' coveted number one position. The steel baron is worth an estimated $26.
7 billion (£14.8b).

F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, meanwhile, has about $4bn (£2.2b) stuffed under his mattress in London, but he is only one of no fewer than fifty four billionaires who also call Britain home.

Rossi ponders his possible F1 team-mates

2006-04-29T04:19:00.000-07:00

Congratulates Ferrari on Imola victory
By musing about the men who could sit in the other Ferrari, Valentino Rossi is threatening to reignite speculation about his possible F1 switch.
The MotoGP sensation told La Gazzetta dello Sport: "I do not know ... Kimi, even if I think he could be a good team-mate. Schumacher, I know well. We have a good relationship."
The Italian rider steered clear of saying much else, but he did suggest that there is 'still time' before he plans to make a definitive decision about his sensational move to four wheels 'in June'.
And Rossi, 27, commented about Schumacher's Imola win: "Bravo; they deserved it."

Imola qualifying press conference

2006-04-22T10:00:00.000-07:00

With Schumacher, Button and Barrichello
Michael Schumacher claimed the Pole Position for the San Marino Grand Prix in his Ferrari from the Honda duo of Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello. Here’s what the fastest three had to say.

Q: I guess you know the statistic, you’ve just broken Ayrton Senna’s record for career pole positions.
Michael SCHUMACHER: Yeah. With the car we had, getting a pole position in Bahrain, it was sort of obvious at one stage that we should be in a position to do so. We worked very hard, naturally - because of our misfortune and the mistakes we made in the last weeks – to make up ground and here we are, and we’ve made up significant ground. Obviously the race is important – this is one step towards it – but seeing where Fernando, in particular, is it’s great for us in terms of first strategy and hopefully result as well by the end of the race.

Q: Can you just describe your feelings, right now, here at Imola on this beautiful day, to achieve that record and to be back in front of your home crowd on the pole, what it means to you?
MS: Well, the record is less important in a way. You look at it once you finish your racing and you may think about it, but not now. It was a little bit mixed feelings because I came in and I didn’t know (whether I was on pole), because I saw one Renault still out on the circuit and I wasn’t sure whether there could have been a change in position or not, so it was a little bit of mixed feelings.
But being here as an ambassador of San Marino, and getting pole position for all our tifosi after all the pain they’ve had to go through in the last weeks, I’m obviously very glad and very excited.

Q: It looks to have been a very troublfree weekend so far; a little bit of incident there with your team-mate at the top chicane, he went off just in front of you, but otherwise a great qualifying.
MS: Yeah, it wasn’t really an incident, he was just trying to find his way and nevertheless, we performed very well. We kept mentioning and talking about it. This weekend I sort of stopped talking about it and rather thought I should show (our performance) and here we are.

Q: Jenson, a great performance. Not particularly happy with the car yesterday but a great recovery today.
Jenson BUTTON: Yeah, you know we’ve done a lot of work overnight and also during the day and we’ve really improved it. We needed to because we were quite a long way off yesterday, not just on one lap but also the long run pace. I’m much happier with the car now. We did a reasonably good run in practice also so not a bad position to be in.

Q: And a strong position relative to the Renaults and the McLarens.
JB: Yeah, it’s quite interesting. We’ll have to see how the race pans out but yeah, they must be stopping very very late or they made mistakes, I don’t know. I’m happy with my qualifying and it’s great to have Rubens up here as well, for us both to be up here so it’s a good start for tomorrow and hopefully we can make good use of it.

Q: Rubens, great to see you up here next to your old team-mate Michael Schumacher.
Rubens BARRICHELLO: It’s nice, very nice and I want to thank the whole team. The team has done a great job and in testing they were able to improve the car to my liking and the braking seems to be a lot better so I want to thank the whole team, the mechanics, the engineers, everyone for their effort. They know that I’m pushing very hard. I don’t want to be playing second fiddle. There were some problems for me adapting to the car. Obviously I’m a little bit happier. Imola is quite a good place for an improvement and I think most of it, after the problems that we had in Australia, we had to improve the car on race pace, so tomorrow is a good test and we’re going into it with a lot more optimism, so I’m really looking forward to it.

Q: Michael, your final thoughts on the race tomorrow?
MS: Yeah, it’s interesting to study this weekend. Up to a point, Renault were miles ahead of every other Michelin runner and then suddenly it seems to have turned around a bit but nevertheless the race pace seemed very competitive from them. So is ours, honestly. We don’t have anything that is only good for one lap. We have worked very hard together with Bridgestone to have the optimum first lap but also have a very strong race pace and here, I think, we can certainly show this and at the end of the day we hope it’s good enough to beat the rest. That’s what it comes to and what counts.

Q: Michael, you’ve been quick all weekend, so I don’t suppose this was too much of a surprise.
MS: No, it’s not too much of a surprise. Not only have we been quick here, we have been quick in testing in Barcelona. We were quick in Australia as well but we couldn’t really do it all the time and now we worked very hard with Bridgestone to have a tyre which, quite frankly, we already had available in Australia but due to testing, bad weather conditions, we couldn’t test it and we didn’t want to risk it. Now, nevertheless, we know what we have to use and obviously it works very well.

Q: How much of a gamble is the tyre choice this weekend?
MS: No big gamble. We’re probably clear on what we brought here, what we wanted to have and Bridgestone is very well in this respect, in particular this year where we have made huge progress.

Q: It looked pretty fraught with the two of you coming in for your tyre stops at the same time.
MS: We planned to be out very early which meant that we were together and as you go together, we have the same strategy in terms of trying to achieve the number of laps and in this respect, it was normal that we would stay together for almost all the time.

Q: So it wasn’t too fraught.
MS: No, no, no. Not at all, not at all. My first stop took a bit longer because of the front tyre but then there is always some margin in time, it’s not a race pit stop, so it worked out well.

Q: Jenson, you have been on pole here before, so it must be becoming your favourite circuit.

JB: It’s a circuit I enjoy very much. It’s a beautiful setting, it’s very narrow and you have to bounce the car off the kerbs quite a bit. I enjoy it – it’s a circuit I’ve always gone very well at. Yeah, it’s always gone well for me here.

Q: Rubens was talking about race pace. We’ve seen you qualifying very well but not being so good on race pace. How confident are you for tomorrow?
JB: It just shows what we’ve been doing in testing. We had some good runs today and we just have to see tomorrow, but we’re reasonably happy that we’ve solved some of our issues and whether we have completely solved them – we’ll just have to wait and see.

Q: Are we going to see a vast improvement for the rest of the season?
JB: I’m hoping, yeah. I know I’m smiling, but it is only qualifying. Tomorrow’s the important day and hopefully we have quite a good car for the race and I’m sure we’ve made enough improvements.

Q: People were complaining about a lack of grip yesterday. How much better was it today?
JB: It was a bit better today with the grip level – maybe it was because of higher temperatures. I’ve struggled to get a set-up with the car, I struggled especially yesterday, and today also it’s been tough, but we found a set-up that works and I’m positive for tomorrow, but it hasn’t been an easy day for myself.

Q: High hopes then?
JB: Today’s been going well, so hopefully we’ll continue tomorrow.

Q: Rubens, well done. Are you surprised to be up here?
RB: Not really. Obviously it looks like chaos from the outside with the car, but it’s been hard to drive going to circuits with a new team and a new car. Still, our pace has been good. In Australia I should have been in the top ten but I got traffic on my quick lap and was knocked out. With these new rules, that can happen to the top guys as well. But like I said, I’ve been working very hard with the team. The team has been listening to my requests and this is the proof of it, that’s why I want to thank them so much, because they put a lot of effort last week into improving the car. Jock (Clear) has been quite good engineering and putting the car right for me. It’s still not 100 percent but I’m enjoying it much more. Imola is not actually a place where I go that well and so I’m quite happy.

Q: But how marginal is race strategy here?
RB: We’re only going to learn that tomorrow, but the most important thing is that we have to rely on ourselves. We understood a lot of the problems that we had in the races, since the beginning, not just in Melbourne. We made the car faster, there’s no doubt that the car is faster on race pace. Ferrari, with Michael, seems to be on another level in a way, but we’re here to win the race and we’re going to give it everything and see if our work from last week paid off and I think it will.

Q: (Livio Oricchio - O Estado do Sao Paolo) Michael, you are now first in the ranking of pole positions. Is there any special meaning for you?
MS: Yeah, obviously it has a special meaning for me but then, as I mentioned before, those sorts of statistics and records and so on, they will mean much more when you’re over it and look back to it. Right now, you’re so much focused on what comes next that it’s a nice achievement but you don’t pay too much attention to it.

Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Michael, can you explain your voice. Do you have flu?
MS: I just have an allergy.

Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) To the Honda drivers, the key question seems to be tyre temperatures. Do you think that you found the solutions in the long runs that you did yesterday and this morning?
JB: The issues we had in Melbourne with the tyre temperatures and the tyre grip, I think we’ve solved a lot of the issues and I don’t think we’re going to have a problem here. The temperatures seem to be very good all weekend so I don’t think we’ll have an issue but you never know. We’ve got to wait and see. It’s difficult. We hadn’t driven in such cold conditions like Melbourne so it’s difficult to see if we have solved the problems completely.

Q: Is it a problem that there seems to be a very narrow temperature range with the tyres this year, and this is perhaps hotter than you thought it was going to be?
JB: No, I think this is good for us. The hotter temperatures seem to work for us as a team and also for Michelin so I’m happy that the temperature has been good here, it’s been the best for quite a few years here in Imola, I think, so it’s positive for us and also for Michelin, so we’re very happy.

Q: Michael, is that a problem for you, the fact that it’s warmer?
MS: No.

Q: (Dario Torromeo – Corriere dello Sport) Rubens, with Alonso having such a bad position in the order, do you think the World Championship is still open for Honda and you in particular?
RB: No, listen, I was much more optimistic when I went to the first race and obviously what happened put us down a little bit, even though Jenson has being doing a superb job to be qualifying up there. In the first two races, he showed the pace of the car and he was on the podium once. We’re going to have to work really hard to get the car to where we want. It is a good car, there’s no doubt of that. We need to improve small areas to make it a real contender for race wins but the championship is still too open. You can see that from Ferrari’s pace. It’s a kind of a McLaren situation from last year; they start late… they start here in Imola actually, where they were faster than the Renaults. If that’s a bluff, just because of the track, we don’t know but the championship will be very open until very late, I guess.

Kimi signed Ferrari deal long ago

2006-04-12T13:27:00.000-07:00

Kimi signed Ferrari deal long ago
Raikkonen reportedly under Ferrari contract
For more than a year now, Kimi Raikkonen's signature has appeared on a long-term Ferrari contract for 2007 and beyond.
That is the claim of a Ferrari 'source', who told Switzerland's Blick publication that the information is common wisdom up and down the corridors of Maranello.

“I am surprised that the (news) was not made official a long time ago,” the newspaper quoted the source as saying.
The red-coloured destination of McLaren's 26-year-old Finn has been spoken about at Ferrari 'for months', the source added.
Source GMM CAPSIS International

McLaren set for 'quantum leap'

2006-04-07T05:25:00.000-07:00

McLaren Mercedes will make a 'quantum leap' up the F1 grid this year, according to Ron Dennis.

The Mercedes-powered team's principal is quoted on the sport1.de website as enthusing about upcoming improvements to the MP4-21 car, which has so far failed to live up to the promise of its ten-race winning 2005 predecessor.

And test driver Pedro de la Rosa warned: “If what I am experiencing on the test track is confirmed (in races), we are to make a big step.”

Colombian racer Juan Pablo Montoya is also bullish.
“We keep bringing our aerodynamic packages forward and the (V8) engine keeps improving,” he commented.

McLaren are second in the standings but already trail the dominant Renault team by 19 points.

New Super Aguri Honda delayed

2006-04-07T05:23:00.000-07:00

New Japanese F1 team Super Aguri has demonstrated its commitment to the sport by signing a lease for Arrows' old Leafield HQ that runs to the end of 2008.
But the German sport1.de publication also reported information that the Aguri Suzuki-owned team's new 2006 car – the SA06 - has been delayed. “The new chassis will be used at Silverstone at the earliest,” it wrote.

Honda-powered Super Aguri is presently propping up the rear of the grid with the SA05, which is based on Arrows' four-year-old A23.

Meanwhile,Autosport magazine claims that Super Aguri was hoping to purchase the 2005/2006 interim 078 Honda chassis but is now pushing on with its own design.

High expectations from Luca di Montezemolo

2006-04-07T05:21:00.000-07:00

High expectations from Luca di Montezemolo
Ferrari and Michael Schumacher's 2006 troubles persisted whilst testing at Vallelunga on Thursday, the German suffering a V8 engine failure on track.
But the 37-year-old downplayed the dramatic Italian press' crisis-like headlines, insisting that the current red car is 'strong'.

A spokesman also downplayed the V8 blow-up. "It was an old motor," the press office told Gazzetta dello Sport.

Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo, like Schumacher, is hoping for a impressive return to form next time out, following a lack of pace in Malaysia and Melbourne.

"We must win in Imola," said the Italian, referring to Ferrari's first home race of the 2006 season.

Schumacher commented at Vallelunga: "The car is good, but we have to demonstrate this full power. Imola? I don't like to make promises, but I am sure that we will deliver an improved performance. I repeat - the car is strong."

Melbourne post race press conference

2006-04-02T09:37:00.000-07:00

With Alonso, Raikkonen and Ralf Schumacher
Fernando made it three wins from three for the Renault team today in Australia from Kimi Raikkonen and Ralf Schumacher.

Q: Fernando, I guess Giancarlo’s problem before the start opened up the first corner for you…
Fernando ALONSO: In a way, yes... It was a little bit difficult with Jenson because he did a good start, so I guess if Giancarlo had been there on the inside it would have been a little bit more difficult. I don’t know what happened to him exactly. We will have to see and check that it doesn’t happen any more, to him or even to me. Apart from this, I think the race was a little bit crazy. I didn’t understand some moments of the race, when I was maybe 20 seconds ahead and the gap disappeared after three or four safety cars in ten laps. But I think the car was perfect, there wasn’t any risk of losing victory at any time so I was quite confident.

Q: There seemed to be a lot of problems for others getting temperature into the tyres, but at every re-start, you got a fantastic lead.
FA: Yes, it seems that our car was warming the tyres better ready for the first lap.
It happened on the first lap, when Jenson was leading the race, I overtook him quite easily on the straight on the restart and then in the other ones, I was pulling away in the first two laps like six seconds, but that was enough to maintain the gap and so it was a little advantage for me today.

Q: Just talking about Jenson - it was very close with him on the opening lap of the race.
FA: Very close, especially at the start. I locked up the tyres and nearly hit him in the first corner. Then we fought really closely for turn three, but as always when I fight with Jenson I had no problems at all. We have a lot of respect for each other and we didn’t have any problem. I think after that he dropped back and disappeared from the leading places and it was a little bit easier for me.

Q: Then you had late race pressure from Kimi…
FA: Yes, as I said before, I was about 20 seconds ahead and then that was gone because of the safety car. After the re-start, I also had quite a good car, no problems at all with the balance, so it was not too difficult to pull away today.

Q: Kimi, an interesting and spectacular race for you, perhaps talk us through it… You obviously had a problem with your nose section at one point, and perhaps a vibration too.

Kimi RAIKKONEN: Yeah, at one of the restarts, I overtook Jenson and I locked up the inside wheel at turn one. I still managed to stay ahead of him through corners one and three, but fortunately, even with the vibration and a front tyre the car was still quite quick and I was able to keep up with Fernando, but then suddenly I think we lost part of the endplate because of the vibration. I was quite slow at that point, but luckily during the safety car period we had enough time to change the nose. After that, I think the speed was there, in the car, to really fight for victory, but my little mistake cost quite a lot in the end and also there were some lapped people always between me and Fernando, but the car is quick. If we get a proper race without any problems I think we should be able to fight for wins and then we will see what happens.

Q: The car must have been really good at the end; but I believe you were on slightly different tyres to Renault. Do you think that was a factor?
KR: Yes, I think we have different tyres, but I think they were good for us. But with all the problems with the car, with the nose really, I was not able to push. The car was quick all the time but of course he slowed down in the end, so it wasn’t really realistic but you can see that the speed is there so that’s positive. As long as we get a good race without any problems we should be OK.

Q: Ralf, with a stop-go and where you came from in Bahrain and Malaysia, this almost feels like a win for you…
Ralf SCHUMACHER: Oh yes, yeah. You can imagine, we are all very happy with what we achieved today. As you said, the drive-through was because of my mistake because I didn’t hit the limiter button. But I was lucky that due to the safety car I think we achieved a lot more than we ever thought before this weekend.

Q: The safety car allowed you to regain some time after that stop-go and you also picked up some places in the final safety car period just before the yellows came out…
RS: I thought we only had the (tyre) warm-up problems this weekend, but it looked like some Michelin runners had the same problem. Jenson struggled and Nick as well. So Nick went off and I was able to get by and that obviously gave me another position. With all the backmarkers in between us, it was a bit of a fight really, but yeah, we went through and finished third. It was great.

Q: Looked like you had a very spectacular phase on those opening laps…
RS: Similar thing you know: we were all sliding so I just saw a lot of locking wheels and stuff like that. It was very interesting, very difficult for me today because the car grip was never really there to fight the whole race, to keep it there but it worked out.

Q: Where do you think Toyota are? Do you think you are back to where you were in 2005?
RS: I think we had a good result today, but we were far away from the top teams, I guess. I have seen the lap times and we have to work, but I have no doubt at all that our crew is able to do that. We’re strong people and they are really pushing hard so I’m looking forward to the next few races.

Q: Fernando, a nice early lead to the World Championship, Renault very strong too. It’s all looking great…
FA: Yeah, I won the first one and this third one. Fisi did the previous race and I was second so 28 points out of 30 is a dream come true again, this start of the season, so let’s hope it finishes like last year.

Q: Fernando, how difficult was it for you to keep abreast with what was going on?
FA: Well, not too difficult because I was always leading. All the strategies worked OK and the safety car was not too difficult to know if it was the time to come in or not. It was quite clear. Thanks to that, and thanks to the nice gap I had, we pitted both times with a safe gap and no worries. The race was difficult in terms of keeping up the concentration and the motivation, because I pushed hard all the way through the first part of the race, I was 20 seconds ahead in spite of one safety car period – if not, maybe more – and I was ready to turn down everything at the end, in a nice way, and then the gap disappeared every time so I needed to push a little bit more again. But it was a safe race and the important thing was to save the engine, to keep it fresh for the Imola race, to try to do a good result there again, and we did it, so it was quite nice.

Q: Did you have problems getting the tyres up to temperature after the safety car periods?
FA: Yes, a lot, but I warmed the tyres very, very aggressively in this race. On the first lap, when I overtook Jenson, I think one of the reasons was that. I saw Jenson in front of me not warming the tyres too much and I was much more ready for the re-start. And the same happened in the next two restarts.

Q: Tell us about that overtaking manoeuvre with Jenson.
FA: Well, he had very cold tyres in the last corner so he went off the line and I was much quicker, but I didn’t overtake him before the line, so I was on half-throttle on the straight in order to be side-by-side and then when we crossed the line I was on full throttle.

Q: Then you were pushing hard until lap 51 and then you eased off?
FA: Yeah, we turned down the revs, but even with that the car was extremely competitive and we were maintaining the gap to Kimi. So, I pushed one lap just to check how quick the car was – a 26.2s or whatever – and from there the gap was nine seconds with five laps to go, so I was just cruising.

Q: And the team told you to relax; what was the reply you made?
FA: No, they were telling me the gap. Every time we crossed the line they told me ‘five laps to go, seven seconds’, ‘four laps to go, six seconds’ and I said ‘don’t worry, I’m relaxed. I’m not pushing.’

Q: Finally, I have been asked to ask you about the rabbit gesture – and what else do you have in your repertoire for the rest of the season?
FA: I don’t know. Every race, hopefully, if I win more races I will do something different. This was something like a kangaroo for Australia, for the fans.

Q: Kimi, I noticed on lap 12, the lead went up from 1.9s to 4.1s. Was that the nose section problem you talked about just now?
KR: Yes. Even with the flat-spotted tyre, the car was quite quick and I was able to keep the distance and then suddenly I lost the front end completely. We had some vibration and we lost some part of the front wing and the car started to understeer very badly and it wasn’t very quick any more. Really, at that point of the race, we had lost it.

Q: So did you wait until your scheduled stop on lap 21 to have it changed?
KR: We changed it under the safety car. We kept the same front wing on the first stop, otherwise it would take too late. The car was not quick because I was understeering all the time and then at the safety car, we had enough time to change the front wing. We really didn’t know what was the problem before. We were expecting to have a small problem, maybe with the front wing, but it would have taken too long so we needed to wait. That’s why we were so slow for half of the race.

Q: What about the early part of the race; you were right behind Jenson for two or three laps?
KR: Yeah. I overtook him when I had that flat spot. I almost went off, but I was able to keep him behind. I think we touched a little bit in corner three, he touched my rear tyre or something, we were so close to each other, but apart from that it was OK, fair play, a bit tight, but it was good.

Q: And it was pretty exciting with Juan Pablo, the two of you side-by-side.
KR: Yeah, on the first lap, but I was able to keep him behind so it was OK, but unfortunately with the problem that I had with the front tyre we were not able to really use our speed and try to challenge Fernando; but I think the car is still quick and without any problems, we should be able to fight.

Q: And you had the Midlands as well…
KR: Yeah, it never helps, but what can you do? It’s part of the whole thing and it’s easy to lose so much time, even when it’s one or two cars. You can’t push 100 percent. With them in between two fast cars, and when you’re trying to warm up your tyres, it’s not the easiest thing. I think the race result is still good, looking at what was going on at the beginning of the race. I was not really expecting to be able to keep second place but luckily we were able to change the front wing, so that car was back to normal.

Q: Ralf, it is mike Gascoyne’s birthday today and I am sure he is very happy to see you on the podium. It is a great birthday present for him and for you after the disappointments of the first couple of races…
RS: I am sure he will have a long night ahead of him on the plane and he will use that opportunity! It has been great for us and we had a particularly difficult start to the season, but we are still fighting to get our performance back and today we were a bit lucky at the same time. We had a decent pace but still too far away from where we should have been and that is clear. Nevertheless, I am pretty happy with what I achieved and for the guys. I mean they worked very hard over the winter and we were disappointed at the first race and second so this is quite good for them.

Q: You lost a couple of places after the first safety car. Is that the incident you were describing just now?
RS: The tyre warm-up was particularly difficult today. I had the pleasure of seeing a car spinning twice in front of me while he was trying to warm up his tyres. I took it easy, maybe too easy, and that is why I lost a lot at the first one, but I got it back at the third safety car, which then really helped.

Q: Do you think you can repeat this in the forthcoming races?
RS: Imola is going to be coldish temperatures again and so it is going to be difficult to judge for the moment with the problems we have. I mean on Friday we struggled a bit and worked overnight on set up and got it right on Saturday so it could happen at Imola. There are two tests before then, so we have time to work on it and we try to stay where we are.

Q: (Mark Fogarty, Auto Action) Ralf, you know Michael better than anyone. What do you think? Do you think Michael is getting very frustrated?
RS: Maybe you ask him. We have other things to worry about to be honest.

Q: (Livio Orrichio – O Estado do Sao Paulo) Ralf, as far as you know one of the problems you had at the beginning of the season was the tyre temperature and here where everyone suffered from this problem, it seems that you had less problem than the others. Is that true?

RS: Well, yes, less than the other Bridgestone runners, but there were reasons for that. I was still surprised watching all the other drivers today. Everyone had problems with warming up the tyres. It is not only us, suffering. In the first race, we definitely suffered, but we are still learning with the new tyres and we are on top of the game now.

Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Second place is your best result at this place. Was this your best result and race here?
KR: Not really. I think I’ve never had a proper race here. Something always happens. It has never been a perfect race here for me. It looks like something always happens here, but we have had a good result and I think we are getting back in the championship now. Maybe it is not ideal, but if you look at last year we are in a stronger position now than we were then and it is still only the beginning of the championship. So we will just see what we can do.

Q: Do you think that basically you were lacking mileage during practice, particularly yesterday morning when that turned out to be wet? Is that a part of the problem?
KR: It doesn’t help, but it is the same for everybody and we know that at some places the tyres are not so easy to warm up. We had a similar thing in the winter when it was very cold and maybe here it was an issue, but it could have been at any other place also.

Q: I was just thinking that not many people did much running on Friday and maybe that would have solved the problem?
RS: I don’t think that is a big issue. I think a lot of us, we had a particularly strong winter back in Europe and a lot of people thought just ok it is extremely cold so it will get better and don’t worry about the warm-up problems. And, I think, we were caught out by that, a little bit.

Q: (Tony Dodgins - Autosport) Fernando, when it comes to that warming-up process, obviously everybody is changing direction, but you seem to be almost locking the wheels and then starting again by spinning wheels. Is there a special technique there?
FA: No, I think we do always a different warm up for the tyres in the Renault team, especially for the out laps and going to the grid. When I see another driver in front of me, they spin the tyres in a different way and maybe they are using different traction controls or whatever and we have to really move the car a lot to get the spin and I think this extra work we were doing today was help enough to warm all four tyres in one way.

Q: (James Stanford - Herald Sun) Fernando, how much quicker do you think the Renault is compared to your main rivals?
FA: I don’t know. I felt quicker than the rivals probably yesterday and today. Yesterday I had a little bit of traffic and not a perfect qualifying, but today I had a normal race and felt quicker in all the stages of the race. But, also, Kimi had some problems with the wings so we don’t know in equal conditions how we are… But I think we are again one of the top teams and in some races we are fighting with the BAR (Honda), like we did in Malaysia, and some races with Ferrari, like we did in Bahrain, here with the McLarens. The important thing is to be always there.

Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat ) Fernando, last year you had 36 points after four races. Are you able to beat that record this time?
FA: Well I am 28 and so I need to win in Imola and I think that will be extremely difficult, but if I repeat the same number I will be extremely happy if I finish in the first two in Imola. The important thing is to be constant in the championship, try to be on the podium – as I was last year 15 times, I think – and concentrate and try not to do any mistakes and just to do good weekends in a professional way and finish the races and score points. It doesn’t matter if it is 10, eight or four – any points are important.

Q: (Anthony Rowlinson - Autosport) Fernando, you had a similar start to the season last year, but McLaren came on very strong throughout the year. Do you fear something similar this year?
FA: Yes, I am pretty sure that the little advantage that we saw at the beginning of the championship last year and this year will disappear sooner or later and the only thing we have to do is to take the opportunities as we are now and to win these race sand then when the other teams improve and are similar to us or quicker than us we just have to finish the races, to be 100 per cent from the drive-ability point of view, and push the other teams to the limit.

Domination from Fernando Alonso

2006-04-02T01:57:00.000-08:00

Domination from Fernando Alonso
Australian GP - Race
The 57-lap Australian Grand Prix had it all. Incident, accident and drama and through it all came Fernando Alonso who dominated the third round of the championship to take his second win of the season and the tenth of his career. Kim Raikkonen chased Alonso hard to finish in second position in his McLaren Mercedes, but the Finn had no answer to the consistent and relentless pace from his championship rival. "The car was perfect," said Alonso. "At no time did I think I would lose the victory, I was very confident. The important thing was to save the engine to keep it fresh for the next race to do a good result there again, and we did it..."While the story of the Australian Grand Prix was the pace of Alonso, behind there was plenty of action in a race that saw just nine cars complete the full race distance and no less than four safety car periods. Starting from the third Pole Position of his career Jenson Button actually maintained the lead of the race from the traditionally fast-starting Alonso heading into the first turn. Behind chaos ensued as Felipe Massa clipped the back of Christian Klien into the first turn. The 248 F1 veered sharply to his right following the impact and wiped off the rear wing from the back of Rosberg’s Williams Cosworth. The safety car was deployed and Massa and Rosberg were both out of the race, while Klien survived the incident.

The restart on lap four saw Button passed with relative ease – a trend that would continue on cold tyres for much of the race. The Honda driver fought hard but was soon passed by Kimi Raikkonen and the race was on at the front. Alonso then put in a sequence of stunning laps and pulled clear of Raikkonen. The secret of his Australian victory was not his absolute speed over a single lap, but his ability to lap quicker on cold tyres than any of his rivals. Alonso dominated the event, pulling out over 25 seconds before the final safety car period and then taking the victory by two seconds from the hard charging Raikkonen who closed the gap dramatically in the final stages with a string of hot laps, the final of which was the fastest lap of the race. Raikkonen will be relatively happy with his runner up position after the failure to finish in Malaysia, but Alonso has pulled another two points out on the McLaren driver and enjoys a 14 point advantage after just three rounds. It was not such a good day for Giancarlo Fisichella and Juan Pablo Montoya in the second Renault and McLaren. Both had their own drama even before the race had got underway

Montoya, who qualified in fifth position, was busy warming up his brakes and tyres as he exited the final turn to approach the starting grid. The Colombian lost control of his MP4-21 and it seemed initially that he was in for a long day from the back of the pack. Fortunately for him Giancarlo Fisichella’s R26 stalled on the front row of the grid forcing another formation lap. Montoya was able to regain his position and Fisichella started the race from the pit lane.

Honda fails at the final turnMontoya would eventually retire from the race when looking all set to take the lower step of the podium. Exiting the final turn – again – he ran wide and on to the grass. As the McLaren bounced over the concrete rumble strip the car simply shut down – a safety feature - and Montoya was forced to pull to a halt. Fisichella’s race brought him a fifth position after he worked his way up through the field but he was unable to get close to the lap times set by team-mate and race winner Alonso. Ralf Schumacher drove a great race in his Toyota record the team’s first podium position of the season. The German fought back from a drive through penalty after speeding in the pits and while he undoubtedly gained position through attrition, the podium result was very much deserved. Team-mate Jarno Trulli was eliminated on lap one following contact with David Coulthard. Nick Heidfeld was another to put in a tremendous performance. The BMW Sauber driver ran as high as second on merit in the race and was unfortunate to lose position late in the race in the traffic. With Jacques Villeneuve also driving a strong race from the back of the field to finish in sixth, the team will leave Australia very happy with by far their strongest showing yet. Jenson Button’s day started brightly but ended in a huge cloud of smoke. The Honda racer simply could not lap as fast as his rivals on cold tyres and was unable to challenge either Alonso or Raikkonen for race pace. Button would look all set to finish in fifth position but as he exited the final turn his Honda V8 failed in dramatic style. They say life is cruel, but Button pulled the billowing RA106 to a halt just shy of the chequered flag and his fifth position turned into a tenth place classification. Rubens Barrichello showed little pace spending a good third of the race behind Takuma Sato in the Super Aguri Honda. Seventh place for Barrichello was fortunate as were the two points that go with it although he did manage to pick up his pace as the race progressed

Taking of speed, Scott Speed scored the first point for Scuderia Toro Rosso with a fine drive to eighth position. The American was able to hold off David Coulthard in the Red Bull Ferrari by the narrowest of margins to claim the valuable championship point and deny Coulthard his 500th. Christian Klien had a dramatic race in his RB2, surviving a first lap assault from Felipe Massa before crashing hard on lap seven and bringing out the safety car. With Coulthard ninth and out of the points and Button classified tenth a lap down, Christian Albers brought his MF1 Toyota home 11th ahead of the Super Aguri Hondas of Takuma Sato who finished two laps down and Yuji Ide who finished three laps down. For Sato, holding back both Barrichello and Coulthard until the first round of pits stops, it must have been especially sweet. It was another dismal day for Ferrari as Massa’s lap one exit left Michael Schumacher to carry the expectations of the team. Shadowing Button and looking set to pounce, Schumacher ran wide exiting the final turn and the Ferrari snapped to left into the unforgiving concrete retaining wall. A double non-finish for Ferrari as their bright start to the season begins to fade away. Mark Webber could well have finished on the podium in his Williams Cosworth had the FW28 gone the distance. Running fourth at mid-distance Webber pulled the Williams off track with either a hydraulics or gearbox failure. With Rosberg taken out by Massa on lap one, Williams has just five points from six starts. With three races complete, Fernando Alonso is stamping his authority on this championship season. The field packs up and heads off to test around Europe before reconvening at Imola, home of the San Marino Grand Prix.

First Bridgestone-Toyota podium

2006-04-02T01:56:00.000-08:00

First Bridgestone-Toyota podium
Australian GP - Bridgestone - Race
Ralf Schumacher took the Australian Grand Prix chequered flag in third place this afternoon, claiming Toyota Racing's first podium since switching to Bridgestone tyres.Ralf Schumacher started the race from sixth place on the grid but it was by no means an easy Grand Prix after an aborted race start and four safety car periods resulted in an incident filled 57-lap race. Of the ten Bridgestone runners only four finished with MF1 Racing's Christijan Albers crossing the line in 11th place and the Super Aguri F1 team cars finishing in 12th and 13th place positions. For the remainder of the Bridgestone runners it was a frustrating day of unfulfilled potential. Local hero Mark Webber had qualified in seventh place and like Ralf Schumacher, was using the new Bridgestone compound developed in recent testing. His race was curtailed on lap 23 with a transmission problem after leading the race for the previous two laps. His team-mate Nico Rosberg was caught up in an opening lap incident and retired. Toyota's Jarno Trulli also went out of the race on lap one, as did Ferrari's Felipe Massa. Michael Schumacher, who was working his way up through the field and was lying in sixth place on lap 32, crashed out after running wide and getting caught on the uneven grass verges.

Ralf Schumacher, who takes six points from today's result, lies in seventh place in the drivers' standings. The Bridgestone teams now have three weeks before the first European event of the season, the San Marino Grand Prix.Hisao Suganuma, Technical Manager "Congratulations to Ralf and Toyota on their first podium finish this season. It was a fantastic result for both the team and Bridgestone's personnel and this will spur us on to aim for greater achievements.""Unfortunately today was not a good day for the majority of the Bridgestone shod cars. Three of them retired without completing a lap. Webber stopped with a mechanical problem and Michael Schumacher crashed out, which was frustrating as they would both have been strong finishers and Webber's lap times were competitive. We had done a lot of testing prior to the event to improve our tyre performance and we have seen some good results this weekend. We are confident that we have gone in the right development direction with our new compound range and will keep working to improve it further."

Mike Gascoyne, Toyota Technical Director"Obviously this was a fantastic result for us after a difficult start to the season. Thank you to Bridgestone for bringing the latest development compound. While all the teams seemed to struggle keeping the heat in their tyres in the restarts I think comparatively we suffered less. This was partially due to the new compound and partially down to the work we have been doing with Bridgestone."

Schumacher confident in upturn of fortune

2006-04-02T01:54:00.000-08:00

Schumacher confident in upturn of fortune
'I crashed because I was having a go’
Michael Schumacher has described his race-ending shunt at Albert Park as a 'stupid mistake'. The Ferrari driver was not going to trouble the leaders in the Australian Grand Prix, but dismissed any suggestion that this year could turn out like 2005. “We were having major troubles with understeer,” Germany's Schumacher explained, “as we could not keep temperature in the tyres.” “I crashed because I was having a go. If you don't try, you don't get anywhere, and I was trying to pass Button but I ran out of road.

” Schumacher baulked at claims Ferrari is heading into another period of uncompetitive crisis, but admitted that 'a lot of hard work' lies ahead for the team. “We have got to improve,” Schumacher urged, “so that we are fast in all conditions, not only in certain conditions. We will prepare very carefully for Imola.” Source GMMCAPSIS International

A comfortable victory for Alonso at Melbourne

2006-04-02T01:53:00.000-08:00

A comfortable victory for Alonso
Australian GP - Renault - Race
Fernando Alonso took his tenth career victory after starting from third position on the grid in an action-packed Australian Grand Prix which featured no fewer than four safety car periods.The Spaniard took the lead on lap four at the end of the first safety car period, in a perfectly-judged manoeuvre on Jenson Button’s Honda, and only relinquished it during the first round of pit-stops. Giancarlo Fisichella was forced to start from the pit-lane after his R26 stalled on the grid, but he worked his way back up the order to claim fifth position right on the line, overtaking Button’s stricken Honda on the finishing straight.The result leaves the team with a 19 point championship lead over its nearest rival, and Fernando Alonso and Giancarlo Fisichella lie first and second in the championship.Fernando Alonso"This was a very different race to the other two so far this season. In Bahrain, I was fighting with Michael all the way; in Malaysia, it was Jenson I was battling for second place. But today, it was quite comfortable. There were no fights, and I was very relaxed for a lot of the race. I had a good lead after the first pit-stops, but I lost it during the second safety car. However, I managed to get a good gap on each re-start, and that made life quite easy for me.""I was very happy with the balance all the way through the race, so I just needed to make sure I didn’t take any unnecessary risks and I am pleased we were able to save the engine performance for the next race.

So far, we have shown we are strong in all conditions on all tracks. But Imola is a very different challenge, and we must have a calm approach, because we know it will be more difficult than ever."Giancarlo Fisichella"After a race like that, I have really mixed feelings. You know, it’s great to go from the pit-lane and to finish fifth, especially in such an exciting way. But also, we saw today that I had the car to fight for the win with Fernando, so I am disappointed I couldn’t make use of it.""At the start, the engine stalled and I had to start from the pit-lane, then during most of the first stint I had no telemetry – so I was giving the engineers updates on my fuel load all the time, and telling them about the car while overtaking the people in front of me. That problem fixed itself, but the second stint was really hard because the car was understeering so much during that part of the race. The team were calling me to push harder, but I was on the limit all the way. Then after the final stop, the clutch failed, and we only managed to fix it a few laps from the end. As soon as we did, I set my fastest lap, showed what I could do and started to put pressure on Jenson."

"I could see his engine was failing in the final corners, then I was blinded by the oil and smoke during the final corner with big oversteer, and I got him as he moved over the track. It was an exciting afternoon, and it’s good to still score points after starting so far back. I am second in the championship going to Imola, and that’s a great feeling because I should have a new specification engine there as well."Flavio Briatore, Managing Director"This was a fantastic win for Fernando. He had a great car this afternoon, and he controlled the race from start to finish. There were a lot of complicated situations to deal with, and he did it brilliantly. I am sorry for Fisi, because he suffered with more problems. We only solved it right towards the end of the race, and then it was too late for him to get close to the podium. But he showed he had the performance at the end, and we still scored a lot more points than our rivals today. We are in a strong position, but we will keep on pushing."Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering"This was a really hard weekend. We had rain, unusually cold temperatures, and a punctuated race. But the car showed great performance, so we are very, very pleased with our result. Fernando put in a faultless drive, and he was able to run at whatever pace was needed with ease. The safety car periods denied him the luxury of a big lead, but he was able to maximise his performance in the laps immediately afterwards, as his early overtaking manoeuvre on Jenson showed. He then built good leads after every other safety car period, and controlled the race.""Giancarlo was unfortunate at the start, when his anti-stall system triggered several times. He was unable to catch the last one, and this meant the safety systems shut the engine down. After starting from the pit-lane, he benefited from the first safety car to catch the field, and then drove very well. He had a lot of understeer during the middle part of the race, when we were encouraging him to push hard over the radio, and then the clutch failed after the final stop. That gave us some worries for a few laps, but once the problem had been solved, he started pushing Jenson very hard. This paid off handsomely to give Fisi a well-deserved fifth place after a fantastic race.""The team is in a very strong position now after three races, but there are still fifteen to go. We have some important test sessions coming up in the next fortnight, and we are still working hard to improve the performance of the car."E.A.Source Renault

Brusque Schumacher rues 'slow' Ferrari

2006-04-01T09:57:00.000-08:00

'I am definitely not pleased, no'

A brusque Michael Schumacher neither minced his words nor masked his malcontent after qualifying out of the top ten in Australia. “We were just too slow,” the Ferrari driver told a squad of reporters in the paddock. “We had two attempts (at a quick lap) and on both we were not fast enough. I am definitely not pleased, no.” Asked what the problem was, the ace German ruffled his brow and said: “If we knew, we would do something about it. Things did not unfold for us perfectly, but basically we were not fast.” It was a bad day all round for the Italian team. Team-mate Felipe Massa put his 248 F1 into the tyre barriers, while Schumacher threw debris down pitlane after mechanics forgot to remove a big cooling fan from his brake ducts.

Michael explained: “You have to realise how hectic it is in a garage - particularly with situations like the red flags. So, it can happen.” Schumacher baulked when he was asked what could be done about his poor starting position in terms of race strategy. “No idea,” the German said. “At the moment we are not fast enough, so - first - we have to look into why.”

Melbourne Pole for Button and Honda

2006-04-01T09:51:00.000-08:00

Melbourne Pole for Button and Honda
Australian GP - Qualifying

It was certainly a case of mixed fortunes for Honda today as Jenson Button secured his first Pole Position since Montreal last year, while team-mate Rubens Barrichello found himself eliminated form the first phase of qualifying after setting the 17th best time. "It's a very special feeling," said the delighted Button. "I've already seen a few of the guys from Honda and they seem pretty ecstatic, but more important for them will be to have a win tomorrow..."The three-phase qualifying session certainly brought a few surprises this afternoon in Australia. While Button took a superb Pole with a best lap of 1:25.229s, Giancarlo Fisichella was 'pretty happy' as he continued the momentum from Sepang, recording the second best time in his Renault to start along the British racer. Fernando Alonso showed stunning ‘race fuel’ pace early in the final phase of qualifying, but found himself a tenth off Fisichella’s best as the fuel load lightened in those critical final few laps. However, starting third, Alonso is by no means out of contention for the race win tomorrow afternoon. "I'm confident I can drive for the win here...

"Kimi Raikkonen starts fourth in his McLaren Mercedes while team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya spun away his chance of going for Pole Position and starts fifth in the sister MP4-21. Montoya looked to have the pace to challenge Button’s pole time in the final minutes of the session, but a poor final sector on his very final lap put paid to his chances. Toyota has a great deal to smile about today as not only did Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli qualify sixth and ninth respectively, but the team also took the honour of being the fastest Bridgestone entry on a day when Ferrari firmly shot itself in the proverbial foot. Mark Webber had a solid qualifying session in his Williams Cosworth and starts the race from seventh position. The FW28 package does not look as driveable in Melbourne as it did in Malaysia two weeks ago. Webber survived one lurid off track moment while team-mate Nico Rosberg has not looked comfortable with his setup and starts the race from 14th position. Nick Heidfeld qualified his BMW Sauber in a fine eighth position while team-mate Jacques Villeneuve set the ninth best time but drops to 19th position due to his engine change penalty.

It was a nightmare of a day for Ferrari. Both Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa made it through the first phase of qualifying but in the second 15 minute session, Massa hooked his left wheels over the kerbing and seconds later found his tail-happy 248 F1 travelling rapidly backwards into the tyre wall. Massa was unhurt but his Ferrari was badly damaged. Massa starts 15th. Michael Schumacher meanwhile rushed out of the Ferrari pit following the red flags to sweep away Massa’s Ferrari. Unbeknown to the former Champion, a brake cooling device was still attached to the car snd whilst exiting the pits the device flew off and shattered into small pieces. It mattered little as the car was not on the pace of the front-runners and as the briefest of rain showers right at the close of the second phase of qualifying, Schumacher had set just the 11th best time.

Tonio Liuzzi did a good job for Toro Rosso as he split the Red Bull Ferrari pair of David Coulthard and Christian Klien. Felipe Massa starts the race back in 15th position behind Rosberg. While Button enjoys his Pole, Rubens Barrichello must be wondering quite why it is all going wrong, so fast, for him at Honda. The Brazilian was eliminated from the first phase of qualifying and starts 16th. Barrichello was however badly held up by the erratic and not so rapid Yuji Ide, but that is perhaps the risk you take if you bank on one lap to see you through the first phase of qualifying. Barrichello’s body language as he stepped out of the car summed it up... He is certainly not having fun. Christijan Albers and Tiago Monteiro start 17th and 20th for MF1 Toyota with Scott Speed and the unfortunate Villeneuve separating the two while Takuma Sato starts 21st in his Super Aguri Honda. Yuji Ide spun once, went off track twice, baulked Barrichello and was nearly four seconds a lap off the pace of his team-mate. Unsurprisingly he starts last. The top Michelin teams have dominated qualifying in Melbourne and now it seems the battle for the win will be between those in the top five.

22 teams enter F1 for 2008

2006-04-01T09:50:00.000-08:00

22 teams enter F1 for 2008
Applicants to meet with the FIA
No fewer than 22 potential F1 teams met the FIA's Friday deadline to enter the 2008 World Championship. With the current eleven outfits certain to be among them, the official news means that eleven others - including Paul Stoddart's Minardi and David Richards' Prodrive - will duke it out for just one available slot. Ten, therefore, will miss out. “All applicants have been invited to a meeting in London on April 10, 2006,” the FIA said in a statement. Also among the additional eleven teams is almost certainly Craig Pollock, Jacques Villeneuve's manager and a founder of the BAR (now Honda) operation.
“If something will come out, something will come out,” the coy Scot told Speed TV. Another prospective entry is probably McLaren's 'Direxiv'-funded b-team; likely to be a front-runner in the FIA's selection process as it would be based at the refurbished Woking factory. The FIA will publish the 2008 field on April 28

Theissen impressed with Robert Kubica

2006-04-01T09:47:00.000-08:00

Theissen impressed with Robert Kubica
BMW Sauber test driver being groomed for 2007

Robert Kubica is emerging as a potential star of the future. The young Pole is BMW Sauber's full time Friday test driver; and paddock speculation suggests that he is simply getting up to speed ahead of his 2007 debut. “He does not make mistakes,” lauded BMW chief Mario Theissen in Melbourne, “even though these have all been new tracks for him. I think for a young driver, and Robert is only twenty one, it is very valuable to test for a whole year in order to establish yourself.” “F1 is not just about driving, but about a total understanding of the sport - and it's not a simple thing to grasp.

Robert has the opportunity to be calm and to get himself ready -- and I assume he will be (ready) by the end of this season.” Kubica was third fastest in Friday practice. E.A.Source GMM

Melbourne qualifying press conference

2006-04-01T09:41:00.000-08:00

Melbourne Australia qualifying press conference
With Jenson Button, Fisichella and Alonso

Jenson Button secured the third Pole Position of his career and the first of the season today in Melbourne ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella and Fernando Alonso. Q: Jenson, your third pole, tell us about that last 20 minutes? Jenson BUTTON: Manic. The whole day’s been pretty manic with the weather but we were a little bit off the pace when qualifying started. We were really struggling for grip so to finally get this pole position is fantastic and it shows how keeping relaxed – the whole team – and very very focused that we were able to get the pole position. So it’s fantastic and it’s great for the team. Honda have done a fantastic job over the last few weeks and it’s good to repay (them) with a pole position. I know it’s not the end result but it’s a good start. Q: You can’t do a lot to the car once the qualifying session begins, so how did you work on that problem? JB: Well, it was working with the diff (differential), the TC (traction control), the tyre pressures, the front wing. There are so many little things that you can change that do help and it was really just playing around with that because we haven’t had any practice in the dry, really, over the last couple of days. So it worked and I’ve got to thank the team for that. They did a great job. Q: Giancarlo, keeping the momentum going after a great Malaysian Grand Prix.

You set the lap time right at the end there, but you looked competitive throughout the one hour session? Giancarlo FISICHELLA: Yeah. Unfortunately yesterday I had a problem with the engine and we lost good time to improve the set-up and overnight we made some changes. Yes, the car was better but it would have been good to run a little bit more yesterday. Anyway, at the end of the qualifying session the car balance was quite good. On the second lap we were quicker because there was better grip from the tyres but unfortunately I made a couple of mistakes in the first part of the circuit but apart from that I’m really happy and I’m looking forward to tomorrow. We’ve got great pace for the race. Q: Very close race between you and Jenson into the first corner in Malaysia, could be the same story tomorrow? GF: Yeah, it could be the same story. I’m second, he is the leader at the moment, but I think if we start as usual, we can do a great start and the target is to be first into the first corner. It’s not easy but I will do my best.

Q: Fernando, you said yesterday how important it was to be on the first two rows of the grid here in Australia, and there you are on the second row? Fernando ALONSO: Yeah, it’s OK, maybe a little bit frustrating because I didn’t manage to complete the lap. I think a Sauber, Heidfeld, was in front of me. Unfortunately he made a mistake in turn 13 and then I caught him very quickly for the last two corners and I lost half a second, I think, in the last sector. But even with that, I think the car performed very well. I’m really happy with the balance so for the race we should be extremely competitive so let’s wait and see. Q: The guy on your right looks very fast; what are your thoughts on strategy tomorrow in terms of where you are and indeed where Honda may be on fuel load? FA: I think we should be similar. We will see tomorrow but in the last couple of races we are not much different and without this traffic problem, we should have set quite similar lap times so I guess the strategies will not be too different. Q: Jenson, turning back to you, you’ve always said how much you enjoy this new qualifying system in 2006 and this one had it all: rain, traffic, accidents? JB: Yes, it did. It was a very hectic session and I’m sure that the fans really enjoyed it. It was mad for us. Trying to get a lap time in was very difficult but we did it in the end and as I said, it’s a special feeling being on pole here. Q: Jenson, your feelings after that and looking forward to the race tomorrow? JB: I’m still shaking with the excitement. It was a manic session: the first one with a red flag and the second one with a red flag, it was really difficult to stay calm. But to get the lap in at the end was a great feeling. The car felt very good, very good actually, on the new tyres. It was a little bit unexpected after the first two runs in qualifying one and qualifying two, but it’s good, and I am very happy with it. I still don’t know about the race. I haven’t really done that much long race pace but I’m sure it will be good. Q: You had a brief off in Q1 as well. JB: Yeah. I’ve been going off a lot this weekend. I went off twice yesterday as well. It’s bit unusual but the conditions have just been so tricky out there: it’s very very windy, it’s very very low grip so to make a mistake is very easy. It’s bumpy as well so it’s tough.

Q: Your teammate had some sort of a problem, I don’t know what it was. Did you have any idea what was happening with him and did you have any similar problem? JB: I think his problem was just no tyre temperature - I think, but I will have to wait to get back and find out but I think that was the issue. Q: And you had a bit of a problem with that in the first two parts? JB: Yeah, I did a little bit but we were making sure that we were keeping the blankets on for a long time because it’s really tough to keep the heat in the tyres. I don’t know if you’ve seen but a lot of the cars, on the straight, are weaving around to get tyre temperature. It’s because it’s different conditions here than what we expected, I think. Q: You had a problem with your start in Bahrain and you’ve got two of the fastest cars off the line around you, is that something you’re concerned with? JB: It’s better to be in front now than it is to be behind, so we’re in the best position we possibly can be. Our start wasn’t too bad in Malaysia; it wasn’t as good as the Renaults’ but it wasn’t too bad either. We’ve just got to hope that we get a relatively good start. We’re on the clean side and it’s the right line for turn one so it’s not so bad.

Confident he go for his second win of the seasonQ: Giancarlo, it’s been a fairly difficult weekend so far; have you felt short of time in terms of set-up and adjusting the car? GF: Honestly, yes. I did just two runs with a problem on the engine yesterday and then I couldn’t run any more because there was a big problem, but then they fixed it and overnight we made some changes on the car which was better this morning but it was better to have run a little more yesterday. So apart from that I am pretty happy: second on the grid today and looking forward to tomorrow. I’ve got a great opportunity to do well again, we’ve got a good race pace and if we can start as usual, we can already do well in the first corner. Q: You’re fairly confident of that, are you? GF: Yes, I am. Q: Generally, your feelings coming into this race after the win in Malaysia? GF: I already have a good feeling myself, but the start of the season wasn’t great because I had a problem… not a problem, we made a mistake. That was a bad start but then I was really confident because the car package and the potential is good and straight away, when I put the car on the ground in Malaysia there was a great feeling and it was a great weekend. Even today, we are there so I am really happy about that.

Q: Fernando, third on the grid, you sounded a little bit frustrated when you were talking to Peter Windsor. Were you? FA: Well, no, I am happy because in the last race I was seventh, so this is my best qualifying of the year. I won the first race and I was second in Malaysia, so now is my best qualifying. Hopefully, I can fight for the win, but it is true that I lost nearly half a second in the last sector because of traffic and, you know, I can wish (for something) a little bit better, but these things happen to everybody and so it is better to be third than further back. Q: Jenson said he found qualifying was fairly manic, or crazy. What about you? FA: Yes, I feel the same, but not only this one! I think that all three races were a little bit crazy especially with the red flags we had. There was just a complete panic in the garage so, you know, maybe outside it is nice and interesting to see, but inside the teams, for sure, it is quite complex. Q: (James Stanford - Herald Sun) Jenson I was wondering, as you said you did not have too many laps at race pace, is that a concern for you – and do you think the Honda is as quick as the Renaults? JB: It is very difficult to know, but personally I haven’t done a lot of laps over the last few days in the dry, but the thing is that we have the third car, which is great and Anthony is a very good driver and I believe in everything he says. He did his normal running on Friday and went quickest in both sessions and did some reasonably long runs as well. It is not too worrying. I just meant personally I have not done so many laps around here, but that doesn’t seem to be a problem. Q: (Andrea Cremonesi - La Gazetta dello Sport) Jenson, did you realise that you have made an important event in the history of Honda after 37 years since their only pole position at Monza? JB: I didn’t know that before today but it’s a very special feeling and I have already seen a few of the guys from Honda and they seem pretty ecstatic, but I am sure that more important for them is to have a win tomorrow. This is a great feeling to be on pole position, but we know how competitive the Renaults are and we know we have to have a faultless race tomorrow and I know we can do that. In the team, we are very confident and calm and we know exactly what we have to do. So, tomorrow is the important day for us.
to do battle with the mighty R26Q: (Andrea Cremonesi - La Gazetta dello Sport) To Jenson again, in Malaysia you said ‘we are the second team in the championship, but we have to work a lot’ because in the first lap Giancarlo was able to put a very good gap in just one lap… Do you think that you have closed that gap?

JB: Well, I think that over one lap the car seems to be very quick and so it just depends whether we have (done that) in a race situation. We have worked on a few areas in Vallelunga – or the team did – that are an improvement. I think they are the sort of things that improve you in a race, but not qualification so much. So, they should help us, but still we have to wait until tomorrow to see how competitive we are. We know we’ve not won a race yet and it is our aim to do that, but it is never easy when you have such competition from Renault. Q: (Andrea Cremonesi - La Gazetta dello Sport) Fernando, we saw that you put your hand out of the steering wheel when Giancarlo was in front of you. Was there a misunderstanding with him at the beginning of the third sector? FA: No, I was talking with the team on the radio because I had the new tyres at the beginning, just to get the maximum from the new tyres, and I told them, but there was no answer for one lap. So…

Sepang Friday press conference – Part III

2006-03-17T07:12:00.000-08:00

Following the first day of practice at the Malaysian Grand Prix, Patrick Head (Williams), John Howett (Toyota), Mario Theissen (BMW Sauber), and Geoff Willis are the guests at the FIA Friday press conference. Q: (Anthony Rowlinson - Autosport) Patrick, how long can an independent team continue to be competitive against a manufacturer in the current era of Formula One? PH: I suppose it depends on how good they are at generating their funding and whether they spend their money wisely. I think if you looked at the Renault budget for last year, both engine and car, you’d find it probably only the fourth, fifth or sixth biggest budget out there, so efficiency is a very important part and equally, it’s fairly well known, the sort of magnitude of money that we’re paying Cosworth for the engine this year, it’s certainly very much less than 20 million Euro, and I mean by a long way, and I would have to say that I’m very happy to be running a Cosworth engine. I think it’s fully competitive and relative to some, a more than competitive engine and Cosworth are not making a loss on that engine. But as testing gets limited more, which inevitably it will, it will put more emphasis onto the simulation tools, both virtual and physical that you have within your facility, and some of those simulation tools are pretty expensive and I mentioned beforehand – I’m not complaining about it but we had to de-bug our gearbox out on the track.
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It would have been much more efficient and much more clinical if we could have de-bugged it on a more sophisticated transmission dyno than we have available to us. These sort of facilities will certainly, in the longer term, be very useful, but to be precise in terms of saying how long, I suppose it depends if Max (Mosley, FIA President) is successful on what he has been talking about which is to try and reduce the slope of spend against performance. Q: (Niki Takeda - Formula PA) Question for all of you: honest and frank thoughts on a standard ECU, please? JH: It’s a difficult one. I think in principal, most of the manufacturers would prefer freedom with the ECU, at least the actual cost of the ECU itself is not of an extreme magnitude. OK, one would probably need to be more draconian in restricting electronic capacity to significantly reduce the cost area. I think there is an issue of actually ensuring that there is no artificial aids which are intended to be eliminated, such as traction control in the future, and therefore by having a standard ECU it may make it very easy to police and avoid any rumours of a certain team having this capability or not and I believe that’s one of the reasons that the FIA wishes to integrate the actual standard ECU, but I think as a preference we would prefer to keep freedom.

GW: Not really my area to comment that much apart from the fact that in both road car engine design and in race car engine design the engine hardware and the controller is very much thought of as a complete package, so it’s a thing where an engine manufacturer, a car manufacturer would always normally want to be developing engine and ECU together so in that sense, it’s something we would rather keep and not go to an independent third party. The other issue from the team side is that changing ECUs and changing all the integrated code with it and the software the team uses is a very big challenge and there’s not a lot of time between now and the beginning of 2008 and none of us would want to be starting on January 1, 2008 with a new system. We want to be trying to test it earlier so I think there’s a pretty tight timescale. PH: I’m not convinced that it automatically follows that if you have a standard ECU that there’s no more possibility of some sort of power modulation but if we all get put to a standard ECU then those of us, few of us, with devious minds will turn their attention to other means. I did actually…Niki, I lost the ‘and’ between your first two words. I thought you said ‘honest Frank’ and I thought, who’s this? (Laughter) But you said ‘honest and frank.’ But it’s a change and I can understand that a lot of people like BMW, building their own ECUs, it’s an interesting challenge for them which I’m sure has some relevance and some knock-on to their road car development and it must feel very uncomfortable for engineers to be told ‘no, you can’t do this, no you can’t do a job in that area’ and be given what will probably be a fairly middle-of-the-road type piece of hardware, it doesn’t feel very Formula One-ish but anyway, that’s what we’re told we’re getting and it seems it’s still Max and Bernie’s game so that’s what we’ve got to play. MT: As we understand, the original aim was to rule out artificial driver aids and we fully support that, even if road cars have it, we want to see the best drivers out here and want them to cope with the car at the limit and that is certainly more exciting without driver aids. We have had talks between the manufacturers and some teams, I think it was a year ago – at least a year ago – about how to achieve that, and we came to the conclusion that it should be possible to do that with a controlled section, accessible to the FIA, to make sure that there are not artificial driver aids. We would prefer to go along this route because, as Geoff said, today there is not the mechanical parts, components, development on one hand and the electronics components on the other hand. Virtually everything comes with its electronics and virtually every functionality is controlled electronically. So in order to have the possibility to test new functionalities, we would need to have access to the electronics and then you are immediately down to the question: what is standardised? Is it a certain area of the hardware, is it the basic software as well, even, as the application software? It’s quite a difficult and tricky area, so, as I said, we would prefer to have a common standard which ensures that there is no driver aids and it cannot even be perceived to be there but then to do our own stuff in order to use the same stuff for testing and racing. Q: (Niki Takeda - Formula PA) Mario, can I follow up on that? What is currently the definition of a standard ECU then? MT: There is no precise definition, especially not when it comes to software.

Sepang Friday press conference – Part II

2006-03-17T07:10:00.000-08:00

Following the first day of practice at the Malaysian Grand Prix, Patrick Head (Williams), John Howett (Toyota), Mario Theissen (BMW Sauber), and Geoff Willis are the guests at the FIA Friday press conference. Q: (Anne Giuntini – L’Equipe) I would like from all of you to know what is your opinion about the new qualifying format? MT: I think it is exciting, I love it, I think the spectators will love it. It is one hour full of action, three runs, and I think it is the best way we ever had. You can always talk about refining it, question of going with or without fuel, how to deal with that, but altogether I really like it. PH: I think Mario is right. It is certainly exciting and quite tense in the garage and of course with Kimi’s accident and the big rush then going out it was certainly quite tricky and I think it particularly did not work out in Ralf’s favour. Basically you got one lap and if you happen to have a slow car in front of you when you go out, your are in big trouble. The only bit that is a bit dubious and I think the crowd will find rather difficult to understand is this business of having fuel in for the last practice and then while the cars are going round seemingly not doing quick laps and obviously the influence of the weight of the fuel is huge. When this qualifying format was first proposed it was on the basis of not carrying fuel in any of the three qualifying sessions and that probably would have caused a problem at the time had the tyre situation stayed the same.
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But with us being able to change tyres at the pit stop as I understand it being proposed at the same time, personally I would be happy to have all three sessions on low fuel, but as Mario says there is room to trim as the basic format is pretty good but I think the FIA are not really willing to trim race to race. If they are going to make a change it will be at least mid season, I think, and obviously after some discussions with the teams. GW: Well I think it was great fun, something we had studied in a lot of details and rehearsed a lot and made the specific preparations for handling the cars, particularly in the last session, trying to get the cars with their tyres changed simultaneously. Having said that, having practiced everything and rehearsed everything, I think the first session showed that you could revert on the edge of getting it wrong badly, so there is a lot of learning during the first weekend. It will be interesting to see what the qualifying brings up this weekend. I am sure everybody will learn again for a couple of more races and it will settle down. But it is very busy and there is no room for error and that certainly is a challenge, a challenge we will enjoy.

JH: I think the qualifying we have to look at it from a consumer’s point of view, the public. From inside the team it is a pretty exciting format. It is very busy but we have all the times so we can see. I think the key point really is to see what television viewers also think about the format and whether they can really follow it. And I think there seems to be some mixed reactions. So for the end consumer we have perhaps to wait a bit longer but from within the teams and probably for track action it is a very positive move. Q: (James Roberts – Motorsport News) Patrick, what did you think when you saw Villeneuve’s BMW retire in Bahrain? PH: A loaded question. That was quite interesting really, because I was called up on Wednesday to be asked whether I’d come here and I said to Silvia, who rang me up, Mario Theissen being asked as well? I’m not sure if I got a reply there, but I thought ‘this is a set-up’. You’re so busy during a race that you’re not really looking too often at what’s going on on other cars but I don’t think tears welled up in my eyes. Q: (Tetsuo Tsugawa - Tetsu Enterprise) After last Bahrain race, what did you think about Scuderia Toro Rosso’s V10 engine? Do you think we need more restrictions or to change the rules, or just keep going? PH: Mario’s really the one to talk about it, but I think from what I’ve seen of power curves, run at its maximum, it’s certainly below the V8 from Cosworth. The thing about it is that it’s so under-stressed, in effect, that it can be run at its maximum every lap of the race, every lap of qualifying, every lap of practice. That gives a certain advantage. The other thing is that it would have been a much bigger problem, I think, if one of the manufacturer teams had decided to go that route because the Cosworth V10 engine never had variable trumpets and as I understand it, it has not been optimum-tuned for the lower revs, for the restricted intake, and I’m sure that for any of the manufacturers - because you are allowed to run with those engines in exactly 2005 specification, so with variable trumpets, if you’d re-done the camshafts and the ports and all the rest of it, to optimise it for those rules - I’m sure there would be a few people howling like hell now. Providing it’s only the Cosworth V10 and it doesn’t get developed to be optimised for that, then it brings another team out there which wouldn’t otherwise be out there but I’m not sure that Colin Kolles from Midland feels the same way, but I don’t have a problem with it. But Mario’s opinion, I think, is probably more significant. MT: I see three advantages of a restricted V10. One is peak power, even if you apply the restrictions in a very rude way by putting in a plate into the air trumpet, I would expect it to have a higher peak power – maybe not too much. Second one is higher torque, which should put you in a position at the start to overtake maybe one or two cars, and at the exit of a corner, to accelerate much quicker. That’s what we saw in Bahrain. And the third advantage is, as Patrick said, that this engine is good for several thousand kilometres and you can basically go at qualifying pace throughout the race. Those are the major differences from a technical perspective. JH: I think that the only thing you have to recognise is that the FIA have indicated that they will change the restriction or the peak power of the engine if they determine it is necessary, and therefore it would be very difficult for any of the main manufacturer teams or main teams to really consider that, because you don’t really know what could happen between one race and the other, and I think that should be considered as another element.

Q: (Niki Takeda - Formula PA) The third car facility has been questioned recently; would you like to see that reviewed? PH: I would have to say that we are very happy with the third car facility and I think last year I’m sure Ron Dennis was very happy with the third car facility. It was actually proposed, I think, for some of the teams nearer the back of the grid to be able to have paying drivers on a Friday and it certainly isn’t being used in that way. But on the other hand, it is a bit of an advantage to the lower teams and therefore, as a corollary disadvantage for the upper teams. I would have to say that they are probably happy about it this year and I hope to be in a position where we are unhappy about it next year. MT: Similar view. It certainly is an advantage especially now, in the early phase of the season because, as we discussed before, everybody is concerned about reliability and keeps engine or car mileage low. We are happy to benefit from that. Maybe we can change it after every team benefited from it for one year – don’t know if that works out. On the other hand, you have to see what would happen without the third cars on Friday. Certainly the teams who have a third car, their race drivers would maybe do a few laps more but not too many, and now at least, we have some cars going around on a full programme. Robert Kubica did 49 laps today and together with the third drivers that was quite interesting to watch. JH: Clearly it’s an advantage, but as we don’t have it, it sounds sour grapes to say you can’t. I think you just have to live with the rules as they are, but clearly we did gain advantage from it from the last two years with Ricardo driving on the Friday, no question. GW: Yes, I agree with everything that’s been said. It’s clearly an advantage for us but maybe it’s just a way of helping to mix up the grid to try and give a little bit of a penalty to the top four teams and a little bit of a bonus to the following teams to maybe avoid teams just running away. It keeps you having to work hard.

Sepang Friday press conference - Part I

2006-03-17T07:08:00.000-08:00

With Head, Howett, Theissen & WillisFollowing the first day of practice at the Malaysian Grand Prix, Patrick Head (Williams), John Howett (Toyota), Mario Theissen (BMW Sauber), and Geoff Willis are the guests at the FIA Friday press conference.
Q: Geoff, you have a new driver this year in Rubens Barrichello. What has he brought to the team? Geoff WILLIS: I think he brings a lot of experience of how to win. He’s won nine races, I think. He’s been with a championship-winning team for many years. Certainly, he strengthens our driver line-up hugely, and he brings that experience, that knowledge of what it feels like to win and makes us a stronger team, so it’s been good working with him. Let’s see how we do this weekend.
Q: Does he tell you much about Ferrari? GW: Certainly, he’s used to working in a slightly different environment, how they operate certain technical aspects of the car. The driver can often explain what the car feels like, the way he thinks it operates and other bits about the car, but generally the teams don’t tell the drivers an awful lot about the cars that other teams might be interested in, so it’s really just his experience, how he feels the car and how he wants to work on the car.
Q: You have a third driver again, having not had one last year but having had one the year before that. Is it more of a benefit now than it was two years ago? GW: It’s certainly very useful this year because, unlike in 2004, when we had just one engine to last just one race weekend, we have an engine to last two race weekends, so even more we are biasing the running on a Friday to the third driver. Anthony’s been with the team for a long time, he’s very quick, very consistent and our race drivers have got a lot of confidence in reading what he says about the car. So it’s certainly very useful for us.
Q: You certainly did a job with him today, getting him back out again at the end. GW: I’m not quite sure how the car came back so quickly, but we got a call from Charlie Whiting to say we would get it back so we were well prepared.
Q: Was there any damage to it? GW: Only after I think the marshals got to it and they pushed it into the gravel, and we had quite a lot of gravel to take out of it which wasn’t there when Anthony left it.
Q: We’re seeing fewer and fewer laps from the drivers on the Fridays; do you think there is a case for making Friday an unlimited test day?

GW: I think it would be very difficult to make it a useable test day. Typically, on a test day, we are getting quite a lot of cars going round, we’re running six or seven hours. We can probably achieve 500+ kilometres. It is also difficult coming to a race track, where usually there hasn’t been anything on the circuit for at least a week, if not longer than that, so the circuit conditions are fairly poor on the first day. So I think there is not an awful lot that we would learn and part of the reason why a lot of the race drivers don’t go out in the first session on Friday is just because the circuit conditions are not really very useful. Q: John, today Jarno Trulli was eleventh. Was this a little bit of relief after last weekend? John HOWETT: Well, yes, I suppose you can say a slight relief but obviously a very disappointing start to the season, and not really where we expect to be or want to be. So we have to work a lot harder. We are getting a bit more temperature into the tyres here so it’s helping, but still we have to work hard. It’s clear that we’re not where we need to be and how competitive we should be. Q: Was it tyre choice or a little bit of how the chassis used the tyres? JH: I think it’s the way the chassis is utilising the tyre. We can’t condemn the tyre because we clearly had very similar rubber to both Williams and McLaren in Bahrain and it’s the way we are actually utilising the rubber. Q: We talked about the third driver; you don’t have one this year. Are you missing him? JH: Yes, clearly. It did help a lot last year (having one) but I think it’s part of the route to the top and you just have to learn to cope without that. As you notice, we did a lot of laps today with both race drivers. Q: Have you had to build that factor into the race engines this year? JH: Well, I think we have a strong engine but obviously we hadn’t planned that sort of mileage on a Friday, so we have to see how the engine stands up to the pressure it’s had today in a fairly hot environment. Q: Now Mike Gascoyne is still back in Germany, I believe. Was that a knee-jerk reaction from last weekend? JH: Not knee-jerk. He’s here tomorrow but he’s obviously stayed in the factory an extra two days just to keep the pressure on and look for further improvements. Q: You’ve got a massive build programme as well, haven’t you? JH: Yes, that’s correct. That’s part of it. Q: Mario, your third driver, Robert Kubica has been impressive this year; what are your thoughts on him? Mario THEISSEN: Yes, absolutely. Obviously we watched him last year and on that basis we contracted him, but we didn’t know too much about him. He’s only 21-years old, he hadn’t seen these overseas tracks before: Bahrain and Sepang were both new to him, and we couldn’t expect him to be so quick on pace. He didn’t make any mistakes. Over the two days he has accumulated a lot of mileage, always did his programme perfectly and he’s even quite good at reporting to the engineers, so very useful data. I think he’s a very promising guy. Q: After Jacques Villeneuve’s engine failure in Bahrain, are you worried about the same thing happening to Nick Heidfeld here? MT: It’s true that Nick’s engine is built to the same specification as Jacques’. On the other hand, the failure had never happened before, this type of failure. So far, we can only assume it was one faulty part in the engine, and so we don’t feel a reason to change Nick’s engine, we will see. Every engine manufacturer is concerned about engine life here, especially in Sepang, where a V8 goes into the second weekend. It’s a hot race and I think we will see something over the weekend.

Q: You’re building up a new team from the basis of Sauber; what still has to be done? Is there a huge amount still? MT: Yes, of course. I can say that I’m proud of what the team has done over the past eight months, but that was only the start to a programme of several years. We have decided to take on more than 100 additional people. The team is really small compared to our competitors. We started last summer with 275 people in Switzerland. Now we have 320, still one to two hundred fewer than our competitors. We have decided to expand the factory, which will only start this summer, so I’m happy if we have everything in place by the end of ’07. Q: Patrick, a lot of people see you as an independent team again, therefore they see your performance in Bahrain as very praiseworthy. What were your impressions? Patrick HEAD: Obviously it was encouraging to get two cars in the points, and both cars ran reliably through the weekend. In developing our transmission, a lot of it had to be done at the track because we didn’t have the facilities to do it on the dyno. So we spent rather a lot of time in the garage looking shrapnel round the back of the car over the winter, so that rather interrupted our winter testing which wasn’t ideal, but I was happy. I don’t think we’re ever going to get too excited about a sixth and a seventh but it was very pleasing to see Nico’s charge having made a mistake at the beginning of the race and unfortunately to Nick Heidfeld’s detriment but it was very encouraging. Q: Last year, we saw you doing few laps in practice, thinking it was conserving the BMW engine but it seems that that continues with Cosworth. What is the thinking behind that? PH: Particularly with a new engine, obviously we’ve done a number of double race distances or double race simulations and things over the winter, but I doubt that anybody has really done enough to say 100 percent that they know exactly where they are in their engine life. I think Honda, as you will have seen from the testing mileage, have done easily the most and even they have probably not been absolutely 100 percent. So the best thing, particularly with the opportunity to run a third car on the Friday, the best thing is to limit the amount of running and get the best out of it in qualifying the race. Q: But how much does Nico suffer from that, particularly on the circuits he doesn’t know? PH: He was due to do a few more laps this afternoon but we had a small fuel system problem that shouldn’t have happened but it did. He seems quite happy with the track and knowing the track. He doesn’t think he’s at a disadvantage. Q: A general question for you all on the testing agreement; could someone clarify 1) if it’s been signed and 2) what is consists of? GW: I’m not sure I can clarify how many have signed it, whether it’s completely signed. PH: It’s signed by everybody now. GW: It’s very similar to the testing agreement that was agreed by nine teams last year. The number of days is slightly more and there’s a little bit of detail tidy-up about how you use… you can nominate your home circuit and on those conditions you can count for a half car day rather than if you use a single car on that track. So certain teams have circuits which they can only use one car on and so we’ve agreed that we can all nominate one circuit that allows you to count – if you only run one car on it – half a day. So in general I think it’s pretty consistent. It gives a realistic target cap on distance per day, the number of days per year, so I think it’s fairly well understood that it will keep us in a sensible position on testing.

PH: Yes, I think it’s an outer perimeter on testing but I think the most significant thing is that we’ve at least got back to a common agreement between all teams, so it’s a good platform to work on. Q: This is a question I’ve been asked to ask about the measurement of rear wings: is there another way of measuring rear wings, the flex that might appear, that you would want to see, that you would be happy with? GW: I’ll have another go at it. The issue about the flexibility of rear wings is a difficult one because clearly all engineering structures do deflect. The question is whether you are allowed to make performance benefit from that, and the FIA – Charlie Whiting – has clarified on several occasions that you are not. The difficulty is what sort of test you come up with that is safe to perform in parc ferme conditions because the rear wings do have very significant loads on them that you probably wouldn’t want to place on the car in parc ferme in case they fell off and hurt somebody. The designs of the wings that people have used in the past and certainly have either allowed what we call the slot gap – the gap between the first element and the second element of the wing to either close up or to open up and by doing so change the drag and the lift on the car, and you can see that in the past a number of teams have gained extra top speed from that - that’s been tightened up a certain amount by regulation changes in the last year or so or more stringent application of certain stiffness tests. I think we probably still need to see a change in the regulation there to see that that geometry has to remain constant all the way across the speed, and one way to do that is to make sure that the physical arrangement of what the rear wing is like is consistent with not being able to change that gap.

Malaysia F1 like sex in a sauna

2006-03-16T10:57:00.000-08:00

According to David Coulthard

David Coulthard lived up to his reputation as one of a dying breed of playboy racing drivers in Malaysia today when he compared driving in the sultry heat of Malaysia to having sex in a sauna. Asked during a routine pre-race news conference at the Sepang circuit about how it felt to drive a Formula One car in high humidity and temperatures of more than 33 degrees Celsius, the Scot gave a typically succinct reply. "It's like having to do some physical exercise in a sauna, effectively, and unless it was having sex, I cannot imagine why anyone would want to do anything in a sauna," said Coulthard.When the conference moderator interjected, saying that he always "brought it down to that" Coulthard, who has had a series of model girlfriends. "We're all here because of that aren't we - so I think it is a natural action between, normally a man and a lady, but sometimes."As laughter spread, the moderator interjected again. "Stop there". Are there any other analogies that anyone else can give us?" he said, and the interview swerved off course into more traditional and serious motor racing territory. The Malaysian Grand Prix, the hottest venue and most humid on the annual calendar of 19 races, drains drivers, spectators and all involved of energy.

"It is very tough because, even on the straights, it is difficult to breathe and because it is so humid here," said Jenson Button who has also had a playboy reputation during the earlier stages of his career. He is now concentrating on winning his first Grand Prix. "When you are trying to get some proper air into your lungs," he added, "it is difficult. It is really, really hot air."Ralf Schumacher was more interested in responding by talking about his car's performance. "It really depends. There are years when I have had a difficult car to race here and it was tough," the Toyota driver said. "There were other years when it was totally easy and so it depends on the whole package. If you have a nice running car then it is not a real problem. But if you have a lot of work to do in the car, then it is a problem usually."Jacques Villeneuve raised the debate to a higher level by warning of the dire consequences for drivers if, or when, they dehydrated in the stifling and debilitating conditions. "The thing is that you sweat a lot here which means that you get dehydrated so, in the second half of the race, you start losing a lot of your capacities because of that," he explained. He said he carried half a litre of fluid in the car for the race and the drivers all agreed that it was essential.

When it was mentioned that Fernando Alonso won last year's Malaysian Grand Prix despite the failure of his drinks supply, Button responded. "I know he won the race, but he didn't look too good did he after the race? You definitely need liquids in the race and before the race, too," he said. "I normally drink about five litres in the morning before the race. It makes a massive difference. I didn't have a drink here a couple of years ago and I was so dehydrated that I was shivering and getting cold in the car and then you start to lose your eyesight. It is much better to be hydrated."The last word on the subject, like the first, went to Coulthard. "Any of the physios should be able to give you figures on what the percentage drop-off in a human is once you start to lose a certain amount of body fluid," he explained. "You definitely lose performance. You are not going to be as sharp in your reactions, your mental capabilities drop off as your body dehydrates. And you just cannot battle against that.""You just get on with it because you are focussed, but in any circumstance in normal life you would be admitted to hospital with severe dehydration. And you know we just get a cold towel and a glass of water and you guys think 'ah, you don't do anything for your money!' No-one argued. Coulthard had enjoyed having the first laugh and the last on the subject.

Post race press conference from Bahrain

2006-03-12T13:53:00.000-08:00

A close race between Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher saw the Renault driver take top honours today in Bahrain while Kimi Raikkonen battled his way from last on the grid to finish third. Here’s what the top three had to say after the first race of the season.

Q: Fernando, it was close all the way, but a great start, you got up to second place on the first lap.
Fernando ALONSO: Yes, the start was good and from there it was a little bit easy to think about the race but about the start maybe was two down on the first lap and then impossible to recover. In the first stint, Michael was too quick, nothing to do. We thought that we had more fuel than the others, especially yesterday in qualifying, up until lap 20 and then from there the car was performing well. We were on a similar pace to Michael and in the second stop, thanks to luck, thanks to the mechanics who did a perfect stop again, I was very close but in front of Michael and from there, I think we had a similar pace again but with me just in front.
Q: It looked to be a bit of a tense time for you going into that second stop when you knew you had to make up time and you were in traffic there. FA: Yeah, a lot of traffic and I think all the guys were OK to let me past but there were no blue flags at all, so the marshals were not in the race at that moment, but I was lucky enough to be in front of Michael and it was good, it was really nice and a really fun race for me.

Q: How did you drive that last stint with Michael behind you?
FA: At the beginning quite slowly, quite conservatively, because I knew that at the beginning maybe the Michelin tyres were a little bit better and at the end maybe the Bridgestone tyres would be better. So I knew that at the end, the last four or five laps, we would have some problems with Michael, for sure, so I was a little bit conservative and I really conserved the tyres to the end, but at the end, I also had quite a nice gap – one second, one second and a half – and all the last stint was quite relaxed.
Q: Michael, for a while Felipe was second on that first lap but by the end it was Fernando in your mirrors. Michael SCHUMACHER: Yes, but quite honestly if you think where we were last year, if you see what has happened over the winter time, if somebody would have told us we would finish second in this race we would have been absolutely happy about it and we are honestly happy. It’s eight points, just two down (from the maximum). Victory is certainly always nicer, no doubt. We got pole position yesterday, unfortunately I lost one lap in qualifying where, for traffic reasons I had to back off and I didn’t get the fuel, and if you look at it now, it’s the one lap that I was missing, in a way. Nevertheless, good result, good work from the team, reliable car, fast car, very promising for the rest of the season and good fighting and good racing.

Q: Brilliant second stint from you, a lot of fuel in the car, a long run there and Fernando behind you the whole way. MS: Yeah. Obviously he was a bit quicker in certain moments. Then I seemed to be able to just open up a little bit and got traffic, close to my pit stop, but nevertheless, you shouldn’t complain. It just goes around one or the other way and it was a good race at the end of the day. I feel a bit sorry for Felipe that he couldn’t take the result of his race but there are many races to go for him.

Q: And how was that phase for you, following Fernando?
MS: You know what it is in Formula One, sitting behind a car, you need to be a lot quicker. When you have equal cars, it’s almost impossible to pass. Once there was a moment with a backmarker, I got a bit closer, I was having a look whether there was an opportunity but then finally it wasn’t close enough to seriously try.

Q: Kimi, from the back of the grid, what a sensational drive from you on a one stop strategy. Talk us through the early phase; you picked up a lot of places very quickly. Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: Yeah, I think it was a bit disappointing what happened yesterday because the car has been pretty good all weekend and we got a good set-up, especially yesterday morning so starting from the last place, we knew that we had a good chance to score some points, but it really depends on the first few laps and whatever happens during the race but I got quite a few places in the first corner and I was able to follow and overtake people who were lighter, so I got past them during the first stint. We ran quite a bit longer than anyone else so we were able to gain some places and in the end, the Honda came behind me, Jenson, and it was a little bit difficult because I had quite old tyres already which had done many laps, and he was behind me with brand new tyres, so I needed to look out for him and I was able to keep him behind for five laps and then I knew that his new tyres weren’t going to be as good any more so I was able to take it easy and then come home in third place.

Q: But you must feel encouraged by the tremendous speed from you and the car.
KR: Yeah, because we didn’t really know where we were after testing and people said we weren’t very good, but during the last month we really improved our position and when we came here the car was pretty good so it wasn’t surprising, but we didn’t really know where we were. So it was nice to see that we were strong in the race and we could have been very strong in qualifying also.

Q: It looks like it’s going to be a very very close season, Fernando.
FA: Yeah, it will be very interesting. There are four teams fighting for victories at any circuit at the moment: Honda, McLaren, Ferrari and Renault, and I think any of them can win races, and this would make the start of the season, especially, very very interesting.

Q: Fernando, how did you get past Felipe?
FA: Felipe went a little bit long into turn one at the start of the race. I tried to overtake him at turn four, on the next straight but it wasn’t possible, but he braked on the inside line where it was dirty and he missed turn four, so it was there that I overtook him. On the fifth or sixth lap, he overtook me but only for a tenth of a second, because he passed really quickly and dangerously and at that moment I was lucky enough not to touch.

Q: Did you see him coming, sideways or backwards?
FA: Yes, but there was nothing I could do, the speed was too quick and you have no reaction time, basically. I was lucky.

Q: Then it was absolutely vital for you to get out the pits ahead of Michael at that last stop.
FA: Yeah, it was the only opportunity to win the race and I was going for it. I really knew that the car was tougher than Michael’s, especially the first ten laps on the tyres. So it was my moment, I knew that if I was in front of him at the exit of the pits, the race was for me. I really pushed with a good in lap and a perfect pit stop from the mechanics and thanks to this I was in front of him, very close, but in front.

Q: Were you getting a lot of instructions on the radio?
FA: No, I was pushing them more for the blue flags, so they had more radio than me, probably.

Q: How much were you surprised by Michael five laps from the end?
FA: No, we had some people in front, and sometimes they slowed me down, and Michael was close to me, and sometimes it was the opposite. They were nice with me and not so nice with Michael and the gap would open again. I was quite sure that the victory was in my hands.

Q: Were you a bit worried during the opening stages when he was pulling away a bit?
FA: No, not really. We thought that the fuel load was significantly different, and it was not the time to push at that stage.

Q: And what’s the new swagger on the podium?
FA: It’s a secret, I’ll tell you later in the season.

Q: Michael, the end of the pit stop was the crucial point, wasn’t it?
MS: Yep. Probably the pictures show how close I was. I was on the outside, I tried, but there was no opportunity.

Q: And obviously later on as well.
MS: Yeah, once you’re behind, you have to wait for a mistake or a bad situation with a backmarker. It didn’t really occur, so I just sat and waited and watched.

Q: But you’re really happy with what was obviously a very close second place.
MS: Yeah, you know in 19 or 18 races, however many it’s going to be, all points are very important and if you lose or gain two points it’s not really so important at this stage. It would have liked to win but then there is only so much you can do for it and this time it was Fernando. As you see, we have four very competitive teams on the grid and it’s a long year.

Q: Did the opening laps go as planned? MS: Basically, yes, it worked out well.
Q: No more or less than the time you would have hoped to have made up?
MS: No, actually, I was quite happy to see a gap opening up and if you consider that we lost a lap of fuel returned in qualifying due to being just a bit above 110 percent anyway, so it shows where we are and how good we probably can be for the rest of the year.

Q: Kimi, you made up eight places on the first lap; do you remember any of them?
KR: Yes, in the first corner I got quite a few around the outside, and then people were really going too quickly into turn four, and they were sliding around and I got a few places there but the car was good, even though we were much heavier than the guys in front of us. The biggest problem was Villeneuve, he was the most difficult guy to overtake because I was hitting the rev limiter in seventh gear in a straight line so whenever I got close I was not able to pass him. But then finally I got close enough and got him under braking so that was very good. But the car has been good all weekend really so it was a bit disappointing what happened yesterday. But at least we got six points, so we didn’t drop too many points behind the two guys in front of me. There are many races to go and we seem to have good speed and the car is working, so maybe we can see what we can do.

Q: Much pressure from Jenson Button in the closing stages?
KR: Yeah, when he came behind me he was on new tyres and my tyres were a bit old already, so I knew that he could try to overtake me at that point, but I was pushing hard and then after about five laps he started to slow down so I knew then it should be OK barring a mistake, but at that moment when he just had new tyres it was quite close.

2006-03-12T06:18:00.000-08:00

1. Fernando Alonso - Renault
2. Michael Schumacher- Ferrari
3. Kimi Raikkonen - Mclaren Mercedes
4. Jenson Button - BAR Honda
5. Juan Pablo Montoya - Mclaren Mercedes
6. Mark Webber - Williams Cosworth
7. Nico Rosberg - Williams Cosworth
8. Cristian Klien -RedBull Ferrari

Bahrain qualifying press conference – Part II

2006-03-11T11:28:00.000-08:00

Michael Schumacher starts from Pole Position ahead of new team-mate Felipe Massa while Jenson Button starts third for Honda. The fastest three qualifiers take questions from the media in Bahrain.
Q: (Mathias Brunner - Motorsport Aktuell) Michael, last year you were very critical of qualifying - saying we changed the system far too many times. Would you say this is the right system to keep?

MS: I don’t think it matters what I think in this respect because it matters what the fans think and you write about it. It looks like after all the changes we have made we have something which is exciting and I hope everybody likes it. For us, we can deal with it and it makes it even exciting for us and gives you more opportunities and is very fair if you have changing weather conditions and so on. In a way I think it’s pretty good...
More Formula 1 Online News

Bahrain qualifying press conference - Part I

2006-03-11T11:22:00.000-08:00

With Schumacher, Massa and Button It’s an all Ferrari front row for the first race of the season in Bahrain with Michael Schumacher taking his first Pole since Hungary last year and in the process equalling Ayrton Senna’s record of 65 Pole Positions. Felipe Massa starts a fine second in his first race for Ferrari while Jenson Button starts third for Honda. Here’s what the fastest three qualifiers had to say.

Q: Welcome back Michael, your first pole since Hungary ’05.
Michael SCHUMACHER: Yeah, I’ve had to wait a long time to get back up here. Hard work in the meantime, an amazing result. All winter we knew that we seemed to have a good package but then you wait, very strongly for the final confirmation and here and now we have the confirmation for all the hard work. Every engineer, every mechanic has been giving everything to put us back up here and it’s the best way to pay back all our guys. There’s such a great feeling and emotion. It’s been too long ago, too long time ago.

Q: And a bit of a race there with your team mate, 31.5s and then a 31.4s for the pole. MS: Yeah, absolutely. It was very obvious right from the beginning and even before: Ferrari - not without reason - took the decision to take Felipe on board. We knew about his qualities and today he has proven them. It’s a great combination. We’re getting on very well, very focused and I hope the success story will continue after a year’s break.

Q: There was non-stop action from the outside; what was it like from your point of view? Sixth in the first two periods and then pole in the third. MS: Yeah, it has been very exciting, particularly in the first session as we wanted to leave it towards the end, then we had the red flag and we just got in the one lap in which it would have been very easy to make a mistake. From hero to zero wasn’t very much at that moment. The second session was a little bit more straightforward: just be safe and play to stay in the top ten and then we had a good concept and a way to arrange ourselves to go for pole position. The team has worked very well. We have had some struggles over the winter, we couldn’t do the whole programme that we sometimes wanted to do, but nevertheless we came here very focused, very concentrated and very organised.

Q: Felipe, turning to you, not only on the front row but the first time that you’ve ever qualified in the top three as well. Felipe MASSA: Yeah, I’m really happy for that. I would say I’m very happy to be with the Ferrari team and feel comfortable here. It’s amazing how the team works and I knew from the first test I did that it was going to be a much more competitive year for me, to show what I can do and it was definitely a great start. I was really happy to be in the top two in the first race of the season. As for my lap, I’m really happy to be second, but honestly, I have to thank Giancarlo (Fisichella) because he took away my pole position, because I was going to improve my lap time on the last run and I hit traffic, but anyway, great start. Hopefully we can always do this kind of qualifying and I think it’s a great start for me, for everybody in the team.

Q: Jenson, you’ve been looking strong all winter and strong now: P3. Jenson BUTTON: Yeah, it’s quite interesting, the new qualifying system. I’m sure for the spectators and it is for us. It’s always go, you’re always doing something and it turned out reasonably well for us. It’s quite difficult to get clean runs, especially in the last session which I think we all struggled to do a little bit, but I think that our strategy was very good in doing two sets of new tyres and yeah, it’s good to be in the top three and hopefully we can improve on this tomorrow.

Q: What were the conditions actually like in that traffic period at the end, and also given the wind conditions today? JB: It was pretty difficult out there today with the wind. It’s coming from a completely different direction from yesterday. There’s a lot of sand on the circuit, so it’s very difficult to be consistent and when you’re trying to do a fast lap on the edge, it’s tough. But that’s what it’s all about, and it’s great to be third. It’s been a tough winter, very very long but very good for us and I think we will show that tomorrow.

Q: Michael, obviously a different format for the race tomorrow, tyre changing coming back into Formula One. Your thoughts on that? MS: I think it makes racing a little bit more interesting. You drive more on the edge, you push harder, you fight, you overtake, you take a little bit more risk so it’s a good thing.

Q: Michael, a busy hour - or just over - did the strategies work out pretty much as you expected? MS: Obviously nobody could have expected the red flag in the first session and the session to be stopped. Except for that, I guess it was pretty normal. Q: Nothing’s normal at the moment, it’s all pretty much up in the air, isn’t it? MS: I’m pretty sure that the guys on TV who have to commentate on all this and explain it to the fans have had a hard job.

Q: Do you think we are going to see you do two stops for tyres in every race?
MS: We will certainly stop more than we have been doing last year, no doubt! (Laughter)

Q: I meant in qualifying…MS: That depends very much on the strategy you think you need to apply to your own needs, honestly. We chose that strategy.
Q: Of course, the question is how many sets of tyres have you got left now?
MS: Enough!

Q: Your pole position total is now equal to the record. Do you have a comment to make on that? MS: It makes me proud, that’s probably all I should and can say about it.

Q: Felipe was very very close in that qualifying…

MS: Yep, I think that’s the reason why Ferrari took him because we knew he’s performing very very well and he will give fresh air to the team. As I’ve mentioned several times, I never expected him to be anywhere else than where he has shown himself to be. As I’ve said before, he had the possibility to go quicker but for traffic, and it’s always a question of who can do what or whatever. Nevertheless, it’s going to be a tight and nice race between us and pushing each other to good results.

Q: You weren’t allowed to change the car very much, only the front wing and tyre pressures. Would you have liked to have made changes?
MS: Being here, we knew pretty much what to expect and what to do so it certainly helped in this respect to know exactly what to do and not to move around other bits and pieces.

Q: Felipe, well done, it must be a really nice feeling…
FM: It’s a great feeling, fantastic feeling, fantastic opportunity to go to Ferrari and I think the team did a fantastic job in the winter tests to develop the car. We’ve had some issues with the car, but we saw straight away that the car was good and was quick and was performing a lot better than they were used to last year. So for me, it was a great opportunity. I think it is the best way to start the championship, not just starting in second place but also fighting. The pole position thing was really really good for me, and I have to say that I’m really happy and hopefully we can see each other many times.

Q: And so close to Michael as well.
FM: Yeah, it was a great fight, I have to say, and on the last run, I had a little bit of traffic from Giancarlo and anyway it was a great fight and hopefully we can have this fight all the time. Q: What about the track conditions, the wind as well? FM: Well, the track conditions were not easy, there was a really strong wind and it was not so easy to find the right balance so it was very very difficult and in a couple of corners you had understeer, and in other corners you had a lot of oversteer so it was very difficult to drive, but fortunately we didn’t make a mistake and we just made a good lap.

Q: Jenson, obviously happy to be in the top three, but disappointed not to be on the front row? JB: Yeah, I think that’s the same for everyone who isn’t on the front row. We all want to be on the front row and spearheading the grid tomorrow afternoon. But third place was good. I’m reasonably happy with that and it was good, I thought it was very exciting. I’m sure it was the same for all the fans out there watching, because it was non-stop for me. I was in and out of the garage, especially with Räikkönen’s problem in the first session. It made it a very busy session, but it was good fun and it’s nice to be up here in third position and it’s just the normal thing which is the same for everyone: if the traffic is an issue, and it always has been with this sort of system but that’s something we’ve got to sort out ourselves.

Q: But it’s good to have the traffic back again!
JB: Yeah, I think so. It’s great having runs and having to do them at certain times during the hour. I think that does make it extra exciting and we have to be out on the circuit to do the times and I think that’s great, it’s good for the fans and I’m sure it’s going to make for some upsets this season and for some very different grids, I think.

Q: Interesting to see that amongst the three of you, you’re from two teams that tested here before. Do you think that was significant?
JB: It might be. We have the experience on the tyres here and all the other teams don’t. I think these two (Schumacher and Massa) probably had the best experience; they were here for nine days but also the weather was very up and down while we were here and it seems to be very different here for the race. It’s very windy and there was a lot of sand on the circuit which makes it difficult to drive and I think that adds a little bit of excitement to it as well, trying to keep the car in a straight line on the straight. But yes, it’s great that we’ve got a good position here for tomorrow and hopefully we can gain those two positions tomorrow.

Q: Would you like to have changed more in qualifying?
JB: No, not really. I think we had a good balance and in these conditions it’s difficult because in some places, you’ve got quite a bit of understeer, in some places you’ve got quite a bit of oversteer. It matters which direction the wind is. I think we pretty much got the maximum out of the car, it was just getting the maximum out of the circuit, more than anything else.

Formula1 | F1 News 2006

2006-03-09T12:19:00.000-08:00

Formula1 F1 News 2006

2006-03-09T12:06:00.000-08:00

Ferrari examine the 2006 rules
'New rules will improve the show'The 2006 Formula One World Championship gets underway this weekend in Bahrain, with the Sakhir circuit having the honour of hosting the opening round, as the city of Melbourne is busy with the Commonwealth Games. This is the third year that Bahrain has hosted a Grand Prix, so the track itself should hold few surprises for the teams, especially as Scuderia Ferrari conducted a long test session here in February.However,
the Prancing Horse and the ten other teams will all be facing the challenges of changes to the technical and sporting regulations. As usual, these have been introduced by the FIA with the aim of reducing costs, reducing speeds on safety grounds and improving the show for the public.

2006-03-09T12:05:00.000-08:00

Button buys Bahrain abode

A new home in the Durrat Al Bahrain developmentEnglish F1 driver Jenson Button has reportedly bought a plush property in Bahrain.Ahead of Sunday's grand prix on the Gulf island, the Honda star visited the $3bn 'Durrat Al Bahrain' development on Wednesday, according to Gulf Daily News newspaper.Located on the south eastern coast of the island, ...

2006-03-09T12:03:00.000-08:00

Schumacher predicts end of Alonso and Raikkonen dominance

More than three championship favourites Ferrari star Michael Schumacher predicted Thursday that Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen would not repeat last year's dominance in the fight for the drivers' title.The seven-time World Champion, 37, instead insisted that he would figure in the final reckoning and said he also thought at least three other drivers could challenge for honours...

2006-03-09T12:00:00.000-08:00

Vodafone's F1 bigwig fired

A marketing review at VodafoneVodafone has fired the man responsible for Formula One sponsorship at Ferrari (2006) and McLaren (2007). According to the Guardian newspaper, Marketing Director Peter Bamford was ousted in the midst of a power struggle between the company's Chief Executive and Chairman.

2006-03-09T10:12:00.000-08:00

Sunday, March 12 2006, Formula 1 season will be opened on Bahrain, at Sakhir GP circuit.
Until then I invite you to see some pictures from tests and preparations.

You can also obtain official informations from Formula1.com website.