Q: Both of you took part in the London demonstration earlier this week; can we have your impressions of it?
David Coulthard: Well, I think first of all you've got to be clear that that was the Grand Prix demonstration and not the Gay Rights demonstration, just for anyone who might be in any doubt as to what we were doing – not that I don't think that Gays have rights but… (JB: Keep digging!) ( Laughter) Anyway, I think it's shame that we didn't have a bit more of an open track to drive the cars on. I think that everybody was pleasantly surprised how many people turned up. You hear anything from a couple of hundred thousand to significantly more than that. It was quite scary actually, seeing people hanging off buildings and all the rest of it. But pretty impressive that Formula One, with a relatively small amount of promotion, can attract that many people.
Jenson Button: I think it was a fantastic event, even though the circuit wasn't very wide so we couldn't really play too much, but it was a fantastic turn-out. Hearing the sounds of the engines within the buildings was fantastic. The crowd seemed to be really into it as well which is great. It's good that we've got a lot of fans down there in London, and probably a lot of people that won't be coming to the race this weekend, because it's sold-out or they've got other things on – like the Party in the Park. But as I said, I think it was a great show, the logistics of it were obviously very difficult, putting eight Formula One cars on the road in rush-hour but they did a great job.
Q: And the atmosphere?
JB: The atmosphere was pretty special; it really was, especially when we were doing the doughnuts at the end. There was a big cheer from the crowd and they seemed to be really getting into it which was fantastic. It would be great to see a race there in the future.
Q: David, can you envisage a London Grand Prix?
DC: Well, I think in many ways you would have more scope to produce a good street circuit than you have in Monaco and if you can do it in Monaco every year, then there's absolutely no reason why you can't do it in London. It would just be a question of getting everyone to agree. I guess in Monaco it's just the Prince says this will happen. But in terms of having the space, you can imagine something round about Hyde Park, that would be the pit area and you could have a very wide street circuit which would create overtaking which would be fantastic. But it just might be a dream, but nonetheless if they can actually get the cars out there doing a demo then why not?
Q: David, the new car last weekend seemed to be good, but perhaps a bit disappointing in the race. What are your own feelings about?
DC: Well, we take the positive that the car was significantly better in the race than we've seen. We were a good 20 odd seconds further down the road and closer to the winning car than we have been in any other Grand Prix this year, so we are a step forward, the race first stop showed that we were in a similar area to others and the amount of fuel that we had in qualifying and the weight effect is less here than we had in Magny Cours so I expect the grid to be even closer and it shows that we can be anywhere from the front row to whatever if you don't get it quite right.
Q: I guess the only problem is that you haven't got long to test now, in that the test ban is coming up?
DC: I think that the reality of testing is that if you have development parts then that's what will give you a potential step forward in performance. In terms of just driving round in circles to do set-up is very much ‘on that day in history,' what you learn from doing set-up. Everyone tested here a couple of weeks ago; well, I'm sure they'll still be changing their car when they run tomorrow and through the weekend, so not having the testing ban is only a problem if we've got a number of new parts that can be fitted to the car, whether they be aerodynamic or mechanical, that we think can take us forward. And then of course horsepower, you gain that on the dyno before you put it on the track anyway so I expect that even without doing the testing, we will take a step forward at Hockenheim because some of the changes that we have we will be testing next week at this test at Silverstone and that should hopefully give us a wee bit more.
Q: Can you envisage a development programme with the new car?
DC: Yup. I think it's unlikely that McLaren are going to try and build another new car before the end of the season, so they are going to develop this car as much as they can. They are already working on next year's car as you would expect, but it's important that we continue to go forward in the remaining races so I believe that they will do as much as they possibly can to get the most out of this 19B.
Q: And were you pretty happy with the engine as well; that's been a bit of a problem so far this year?
DC: I think the step forward we've had since Melbourne to where we were at the last Grand Prix is significant. I would be surprised if anyone's gained as much power and performance as we have in that period of time. You know I would rather not have started where we did, to have made that step forward, but nonetheless, we're into a good area now and we can start building from there. Everything just needs to be tweaked now, a wee bit more from the car, a wee bit more from the engine, drivers hopefully will continue to build in confidence and the performance will grow from there.
Q: What about your own future? When are we going to hear something from that?
DC: When there's something to say and that's always going to be decided by more than just myself. It will depend on the other party as well so I don't suppose you're all holding your breath but there will be an announcement in the future.
Q: But there is another party is there?
DC: I hope so. What have you heard? There's always a party to go to.
